AUSTRALIA—Throughout the country on January 26, 2016, thousands of black Aboriginal people gathered in protest of what white settlers call Australia Day.
On January 26, 1788, the British first landed on and occupied aboriginal land—what is now known as Australia—to establish a penal colony.
After Britain’s defeat in the American revolution, it no longer had the wealth that the thirteen colonies provided and was unable to unload the poor and diseased populations in Britain to North America.
Britain was forced to look for new lands to colonize as it needed a means to unleash its exploding population to help forward its imperial efforts.
One means in which it would do this, is by establishing a penal colony in which Britain would criminalize its unwanted population and send them to work as laborers.
Despite owing its founding as a penal colony, white settlers celebrate this day because it marks the moment they were freed from the poverty and disease they faced in Europe through the genocide and colonialism of the black Aboriginal people.
In contrast, the black Aboriginal people rightfully term the day Invasion Day, which would begin the genocide, rape, and occupation of their lands.
In Australia’s largest city, Sydney, thousands protested with speeches and chants denouncing the celebration of black Aboriginal occupation and also highlighting the oppression still experienced by the black Aboriginal population.
Protesters gathered to listen to speeches that detailed the mass killings, the forced labor and the forcible removal of black Aboriginal children to be “civilized” by white families and missionaries.
Protesters blocked the streets in demonstration and called for a treaty for self-determination of black Aboriginal people and recognition of their land rights.
There were also demonstrations in Tasmania, Brisbane and Melbourne at the respective Parliament Houses as hundreds gathered in each location to put pressure on the colonial government.
The APSP supports Occupied Australia
The African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) not only stands in solidarity with the black Aboriginal people, but also understands that they are a part of the oppressed African nation.
It is suggested that Aboriginal people are the “direct descendants of African migrants who left Africa more than 75,000 years ago.”
Chairman Omali Yeshitela of the African People’s Socialist Party eloquently explains in “An Uneasy Equilibrium”:
“…All black people through the world are potentially part of the African nation, whether they were part of the forcible dispersal or whether their present in other places predates the assault on Africa.
“This includes black people in Australia, India or other places who generally experience a sense of sameness associated with African blackness and the oppression we share because of our blackness.
Under imperialist world domination, blackness is universally perceived as justification for our oppression.”
The Chairman’s point is highlighted by the fact that black Aborigines, similar to Africans throughout the world, have been colonized and have suffered from rape, and genocide at the hands of the colonizers.
These horrific acts on the black Aboriginal population still continue to present day.
For instance, black Aboriginal people of Australia, once 100 percent of the population, now only make up a mere 2.5 percent of the total population, but a staggering 27 percent of persons in prison in the country are black Aboriginal.
Much like in the U.S. where Africans make up approximately 13 percent of the U.S. population, but make up almost 50 percent of those incarcerated in the U.S.
African people are oppressed wherever we are in the globe.
African people and oppressed people around the world are also rising up to challenge colonialism and fight for self-determination.
We see this in places like the U.S., Occupied Azania, Colombia, as well as Australia.
All these simultaneous acts of resistance are evidence that we are on the cusp of revolution.
As African Internationalists, we understand that we must unite the whole of the African nation whether we are in Occupied Australia or Occupied Azania.
We are clear that the Indigenous Africans fighting for self-determination in Australia should be part of the Australian Front of the African Revolution in the international struggle to free Africa and African people around the world.
Uhuru! Touch One! Touch All!
Forward the Revolution!
