An Open Letter from a Eureka Stockader

Dear Sydneysiders,

Yo u will appreciate that I am a disembodied spirit, but I was with you in spirit in Sydney on Dec 2, 2006, on the eve of the 152^nd anniversary of the events when I was killed but Australian democracy was born.

You will understand that I spend most of my time around Ballarat, but I=m often in Melbourne because the Eureka events of 1854 are most remembered in places like that - after all that=s where they happened.

But I=m always elated when that flag with the AFive bright stars@on a blue background are raised around Australia above a shearing shed, a minehead, wharf, or building site or anywhere else where the rights of Australian workers are being defended.

And I=m not talking about Australia in a narrow sense - in the inclusive sense it came to mean at the Stockade. There all of us, wherever we were born, swore Aby the Southern Cross to stand truly by each other and defend our rights and liberties@. We were Australians at Eureka without being the less internationalist or multicultural.

I was glad that your Defend Democracy Dinner was held in such a symbolic place as the East Sydney Leagues Club, the Rabbitohs. This club stood out against that corporate raider of clubs, Rupert Murdoch, that Australian who became a US citizen because he knew where the money was. The irony is stark. It was fortunate that a member of Redfern=s koori community provided the Arespect for the land@ opening at your dinner as the Leagues= Club is in the heart of Redfern. Siobhan McHugh was a fortunate choice as MC.(See www.mchugh.org). Not only did she keep the spirit of the gathering going for the whole evening - but her Irish accent was so similar to that of many of my mates and Peter Lalor when he addressed us in 1854. It brought tears to my eyes.

And it was an unanticipated coincidence when two people from the Australian West Papuan Association were able to bring the Morning Star flag and raise this West Papuan symbol of our near neighbour beside the Eureka flag of Australian democracy. They were on their way back from Canberra where the flag had been raised the day before to mark the anniversary of its first raising against Dutch colonialism in 1961 long before it became the West Papuan symbol against today=s Indonesian colonialism. Many of the West Papuan refugees who had escaped by canoe (and given temporary protection until the Howard government gave into Indonesian pressure and said ANo more@)had been at that Canberra flagraising ceremony.

And thanks John Denton for your lively music and poetry in the spirit of Eureka.. Also in the spirit of Eureka, Walshe ,wearing his oldest battered hat, gave those present a heightened understanding of the historical context of Eureka and a dramatised sense of Abeing there@ exactly 152 years ago on the night before the troopers= attack.

I=ve followed Bob Walshe=s lifelong interest in Eureka which he developed into the centenary history of the event after he had graduated as a post World War II ex service History student. Now his sesqui-centenary history goes deeper into the subject at a time when John Howard is pushing his view of our history which includes a dim view of Eureka and all it achieved. You who celebrate Eureka will need to do all you can to keep Howard=s distortion of the truth of our history out of our schools. I knew you Sydneysiders hadn=t forgotten us when you formed EurekaSydney in 2004 and I wondered why you=d gone quiet in2005 when democracy came to be more and more savagely attacked by the Howard government once it had gained a Senate majority.

Ex-Senator Susan Ryan ( in the Hawke Government) certainly summed up the main instances of incursions into democratic rights when she spoke to your 150 dinner guests - they certainly gladly and quickly accepted the dinner invitations, didn=t they? Let=s hope she inspires her Labor Party into a stronger stand against her quoted examples such as the muzzling of the ABC, the weakening of the Senate Committee system, the increase in Executive powers, the new restrictions on minor parties and the latitude allowed by the AWar on Terror@ to restrict the liberties of Australian citizens and genuine refugees( like other West Papuans trying to escape) seeking asylum in this country.

It was suitable that Dr John Buchanan was chosen to give examples of the Howard government=s attacks on workers and their unions. As Director of the Workplace Research Centre at Sydney University he is an expert in this field - and his historical perspective was valuable. Many of us at eureka knew well that the Australian colonies had come out of a system which regarded any coming together of workers to ry to improve their working conditions as seditious conspiracy. John Buchanan explained how this attitude is now the essence of Howard=s IR laws.

You in Sydney, and everyone else in Australia, won=t have a shortage of democratic rights to defend in 2007 - so keep EurekaSydney going in their defence. Don= t relax your guard in 2007 even if the ALP is elected because colonialism will not go away easily. We well knew how British colonialism hung on in our century so don=t expect American colonialism or any other colonialism to behave any differently in your century. 9 Buy Eureka books! Great Australian Gold Rush and Eureka Stockade by RD Walshe and Eureka Songs: Freedom, Struggle, Protest and Peace by A Pike (Both are available at Gleebooks)