Australian Freedom Ride confronts racism

by Long versions - Green Left Weekly, Australia's leading independent newspaper Mon Feb 21, 2005 06:14 GLW at greenleft dot org dot au AUSTRALIA +61 2 9690 1220

Green Left Weekly, issue #616, February 23, 2005, with:

- Rallies demand truth about TJ Hickey's death
- Freedom Ride confronts racism
- Armidale celebrates Freedom Ride
- Palm Island community boycotts Qld premier
- More brutality uncovered in Douglas Scott death
- Youths driven 1000km in police cage
- Indigenous Australians big losers with global warming


Rallies demand truth about TJ Hickey's death
(see article's long version below)


Freedom Ride confronts racism

Sydney University student and Socialist Alliance activist Bronwyn Powell spoke to Green Left Weekly’s Kerryn Williams about the Freedom Ride’s first week travelling by bus through northern and north-western NSW.


Armidale celebrates Freedom Ride
(see below)


Palm Island community boycotts Qld premier

by Jim McIlroy, Brisbane
The Aboriginal community of Palm Island, north of Townsville, staged a boycott of the visit by Queensland Premier Peter Beattie on February 17, in protest at the “lack of respect” shown by the premier in opening a Police Citizens Youth Centre on the island while the Doomadgee family and the community were still in mourning. [..]


More brutality uncovered in Douglas Scott death

by Kathy Newnam, Darwin
In her quest to expose the truth about the death of Douglas Scott in Berrimah Jail on July 5, 1985, Letty Scott has uncovered more evidence of prison guards’ brutality against her husband. [..]


Youths driven 1000km in police cage

by Jon Lamb, Darwin
Civil rights and legal advocates have been angered by the cruel treatment of four Aboriginal teenagers, who were driven 1000 kilometres in the rear steel cage of a police wagon at high speed without breaks.


Indigenous Australians big losers with global warming

by Ilana Eldridge
As the 1997 Kyoto Protocol took effect on February 16, despite the Australian government’s refusal to sign on, experts pointed out that global warming will have a devastating effect on the country’s Indigenous communities. [..]


Armidale celebrates Freedom Ride

by Bea Bleile

ARMIDALE - More than 70 people attended a barbecue organised by Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation at the Aboriginal Cultural Centre and Keeping Place on February 12, to celebrate the Freedom Ride.

The Aboriginal elders present shared their memories from the time of the original freedom ride in 1965, of segregation at the cinema, not being allowed into the pubs and having to buy clothes without being allowed to try them on in the shop.


All from Green Left Weekly, February 23, 2005 @ http://www.GreenLeft.org.au/back/2005/616/

Visit the Green Left Weekly home page @ http://www.GreenLeft.org.au/

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Rallies demand truth about TJ Hickey's death

[ Print version @ http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2005/616/
by Tamara Pearson & Norman Brewer, Sydney ]

"We will have no peace until the truth comes out", Thomas James "TJ" Hickey's Aunt Gail told the media and supporters. 250 people rallied in Redfern on a Sunday morning, February 13, to mark the death of TJ Hickey who died at the hands of police. They demanded the re-opening of the Coronial Inquest into his death. The rally was part of a National Day of Action called by the Indigenous Social Justice Association (ISJA) that has seen solidarity rallies around Australia.

Police harassed rally supporters, especially key organiser and ISJA president, Ray Jackson, almost every day in the lead up to the protest, but then were hard pressed to stay away on the day, and even clear the street in front of the Redfern Police station.

The protest started in the park behind the Waterloo Towers where TJ was fatally injured. Chanting ‘Too many police, not enough justice’, it marched to the Redfern police station, to finish on The Block.

Ray Jackson recounted for the crowd how police pulled TJ off the fence against common first aid knowledge, and despite TJ bleeding profusely, they sent away the Police Emergency Service to wait for the ambulance. Why? What did they do in the meantime? Allegations are, that they strip-searched him.

Jackson claimed that people who went to the police station afterwards had alleged that the back wheel of TJ’s bike was clearly not the original one, which is believed to have been buckled when a pursuing police car rammed TJ on his bike into the fence.

"It will never be out of the minds of the grieving family and community, who will keep fighting until we get a proper result: a re-opening of the inquiry and presentation of the evidence not allowed the first time round," he said. Jackson harshly criticised the mainstream media, who coagulated in abundance around the grieving family, for being police and government mouthpieces.

The University of Technology Students’ Association donated a plaque, which read “On the 14th February, 2004, TJ Hickey, Aged 17, Was Impaled Upon The Metal Fence Above, Arising From A Police Pursuit. The Young Man Died As A Result Of His Wounds The Next Day. In Our Hearts You Will Stay TJ” and it had his portrait engraved. The intention was to fix the plaque on the wall below the fence that killed TJ, but police, the government, and the Department of Housing, which is the owner of the place, refused to give permission unless the words “police pursuit” were changed to “tragic accident”.

To avoid confrontation, the plaque was presented to TJ’s mother Gail Hickey, and two minutes silence was held at 11.21, the time of that deadly end of the police chase, as she stood with the plaque and family in front of the fence. Gail Hickey told the media and supporters, then Constable Michael “Hollingsworth is a coward for not taking a stand and I hope when he celebrates his anniversary, TJ will be sitting beside him. I ain’t going to change no words for no one,” she reinforced.

Raul Bassi from the Socialist Alliance – co-sponsor of the campaign until now – told the crowd that until all charges are dropped against the Redfern and Palm Island mobs, there will be no justice. On the impending redevelopment and privatisation of Redfern, Bassi said, “Redfern is black land” to thunderous clapping.

A member of the crowd who yelled out “Our flag is red, black and yellow, and these coloured people walk together under one flag” also received much applause from the protesters.

“We have to make sure that there will be justice one day for blackfellas,” Jackson concluded.

Paul Miller reports that 200 people rallied on the same day in Melbourne. Protesters expressed their outrage not only at the miscarriage of justice in TJ’s case, but also at the harassment of the Aboriginal community on Palm Island and the wages that have been stolen from generations of Aboriginal workers.

The rally marched to the Melbourne Custody Centre and observed one minute’s silence to remember all those who have died in custody. Troy Austin, former ATSIC commissioner, told the rally, “The police should be there to protect, not to maim and kill.”

Petition signed by 2800+ handed to NSW Attorney-General

Two days after the protest, on February 15, the date that TJ died in hospital last year, a protesters’ delegation joined Ray Jackson and Auntie Bowie Hickey, when they entered the office of NSW Attorney-General Bob Debus. Jackson handed almost 3000 signatures on the ISJA petition calling for the re-opening of the Coronial Inquest over with the words, that he expects a written response within 4 weeks. Debus agreed by signing an according document.

Given that NSW premier Bob Carr had already pre-emptively dictated into the media’s feathers that he wouldn’t set up a new inquiry, as he was happy with the gathered information so far, the community is now called upon to start mobilising for a BIG rally on the Easter weekend, as they had resolved at a public meeting in Redfern Town Hall the week before (Green Left Weekly #615 reported).

Come to the first "open organising meeting" this Friday, February 25, 7pm @ a venue to be announced on the email group home page http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Redfern-Waterloo/