Issue No 16 | 04 June 1999 | |
Letters to the EditorLanguage is Important
Thanks to Workers Online for printing my article on indigenous rights. However, your introductory sentence requires some comment. Your statement: "Australia's treatment of its indigenous people is a problem that won't go away" raises two issues. Firstly, many indigenous people do not accept the description 'Australia's indigenous people'. The language can imply ownership, possession, even acceptance of conquer and domination, of one culture over another. The assumption underlying such language is that of a society operating from a non-indigenous perspective -a white default. Secondly, the issue central to the piece is one of equality and its yardstick. The 'problem' is not indigenous peoples entitlement to human rights and equality, the 'problem' is the Federal Government's failure to deal with the issue. Hopefully through action, the issue will 'go away' because the government will be forced, finally, to provide the justice to which indigenous people are entitled. I know Workers Online would be at one with me on that, but I believe the importance of the issue requires that it not be left open to interpretation. For these reasons, the language of the introductory sentence is not that which I would agree with or use. In unity Tony Morison Eds Note Another glitch was discovered in our presentation of Tony's piece. Unfortunately the hard copy wouldn;t print out. We'll re-publish his story next week ...
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Interview: Opening Australia Lindsay Tanner talks about new ideas, new policy and new politics in the Information Age. Unions: An Educated Fightback A visiting US trade unionist reveals how training better union delegates is the key to reversing the membership slide. Legal: A Fair Case for Free-Rider Laws The proposal to enable unions to charge non-members a service fee for negotiating enterprise agreements is consistent with the principle of freedom of association. History: New Ideas in Labour History See the latest from the May issue of Labour History, A Journal of Labour and Social History. International: Tiananmen Square Ten Years On We remember the massacre and the role that working people continue to play in fighting injustice. Review: Organising Our Future - What Use the US?? A new paper looks at what Australian unions can learn from the experiences of their American colleagues.
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