Three cheers for Hone Harawira: "hip hip hooray, Howard IS a racist"

Aussie PM labelled `a racist'` - The Dominion Post

Intervention plan shows Howard 'racist' - Maori MP [SMH]
Thank you Hone Harawira. Thanks for having the courage to say it: John Howard is a racist. His government is racist and his actions in the Northern Territory - purportedly to stop sexual violence against children - is a grab for precious resources, particularly uranium.

One of the men in this image
is a racist bastard,
the other one said so.

The Howard government wants to make Australia a key player in the nu-killer-ization of the planet. Australia has the world's largest reserves of recoverable uranium and global capital wants to get its hands on the stuff.

In order to do this any objections of the traditional owners must be overcome. What better way than to manufacture a moral panic as a national emergency and then militarise the place.

Speaking a couple of days ago on Maori TV, the Maori Party MP Hone Harawira compared Howard's actions to those of the Bush regime in Iraq. Three cheers to Hone Harawira.

What's been interesting is the apologetic way that the media has reacted to this story. It was covered on TV1 on Monday night in tones of shock and outrage: "How dare an uppity politician from the Maori party publicly declare a foreign leader to be racist?"

It's about time and other NZ politicians should do the same as Mr Harawira and call Howard a "racist bastard", because he surely is.

So far Howard has not commented on Mr Harawira's outburst, but New Zealand PM Helen Clark's office saays the comments are "regretable". What's regretable Prime Minister is that you won't say it too.

today the Maori Party issued a media release calling for a special caucus meeting to discuss what Howard is up to. It's a good idea to push this issue, but frankly I'd be surprised if the Clark government has the guts to confront Canberra on this issue. Here's a taster of the Maori Party release, which you can read in full here:

The Maori Party Caucus today called a special caucus meeting to consider the Australian Government's response to the report, describing it as a sledge-hammer approach - a widespread and ill-thought through attack on Aboriginal communities in Northern Territory - rather than focusing on the extremely significant situation of child sexual abuse.

Australia does have a "black history" and there is a lot of institutional racism. Unlike in New Zealand the indigenous "problem" in Australia is largely hidden in remote communities. Most Australians wouldn't have a clue what's really going on in the outback and, unfortunately, their ignorance is maintained by a media that is reluctant to really change Howard on this issue. However, not all Australians are troglodyte head-in-the-sand white supremacists. Here's a song from Australian comedian Eddie Perfect, it's perfect for John Howard.


If you want to know more about the nuclear fuel cycle in Australia (the link above is to a pro-nuclear blog site), try Nuclearfree Australia

Howard's Indigenous plan "selective, cynical and racist"

Socialist Worker (Australia) Howard's Indigenous plan "selective, cynical and racist"

This is a view of the Howard government that's missing from the mainstream Australian media.

Don Imus sacking - more to come?

So there's a fuss in the American media about racist shock-jocks and Don Imus has been sacked from his CBS gig. The Poynter Institute is one of many media organistions to weigh into this debate.
There's another example, that's perhaps not so well known outside Australia at least. The loud-mouthed Alan Jones, the tarnished 'king' of Australian talkback has also this week been found 'guilty' of racial incitement. His comments had much more effect than those of Don Imus.
In December 2005 Jones used his popular morning talkback show to encourage Anglo-Australians to converge on a popular Sydney beach to 'reclaim' it from supposed gangs of Lebanese-Australian youths.
The Australian broadcasting watchdog has found Jones breached guidelines on broadcasting racially vilifying comments. Unfortunately ACMA has so far not indicated what penalty, if any, will apply to Jones.
It's unlikely that his employer (in which he also has shares) will sack him.
It's also not the first time Jones has been in trouble. He was involved in the now infamous "cash for comment" scandal that rocked Australian broadcasting a few years ago. That he's still on air is testament to the weak nature of the broadcasting laws in Australia.