The whole thing was a disaster and perhaps never should have been attempted in the first place, but the position that people like Lidia Thorpe pushed that it should be voted against because it didn’t go far enough, seems like radlib idealism to me. The cause of Indigenous Australians wouldn’t have been harmed by a successful yes vote, but it is harmed by the success of the no vote which for the most part is driven by racism and right wing reaction. The message Australian politics will take from this is that you don’t fuck with the status quo, even in the most minor or performative way
the media went to a huge effort to promote the idea that Lidia Thorpe was isolated, a lone loony, screaming obscenities over nothing, when in reality there were plenty of Indigenous groups who took the same, or similar lines. Articles just last week declared that people supporting Lidia specifically were switching their votes to yes at the last minute, when those same people had been rallying for a yes vote for months.
there’s even an example of Darebin council asking their long standing Indigenous advsory body what stance they should take on the voice. When they came back with there’s a diverse array of views, please dont take a stance, the council, filled with feelgood bourgeois party members from the greens and labor, sought a second opinion and backed the yes campaign.
I mean this in the nicest way possible, but your comment, and plenty of conversations I had with other people just ooze a kind of white mans burden energy. The colonial government shouldn’t be taking away the agency of indigenous people, it should be giving them back their fucking land.
it’s the gay marriage plebiscite all over again, the amount of time and energy that went into this, when they could have given it to us with the stroke of a pen. it’s not a once in a life time chance to change things for the better, it’s a distraction, something for laborites to give themselves a pat on the back for a job well done.
here’s a video interview with the president of BPU if you’re interested in hearing more
The whole thing was a disaster and perhaps never should have been attempted in the first place, but the position that people like Lidia Thorpe pushed that it should be voted against because it didn’t go far enough, seems like radlib idealism to me. The cause of Indigenous Australians wouldn’t have been harmed by a successful yes vote, but it is harmed by the success of the no vote which for the most part is driven by racism and right wing reaction. The message Australian politics will take from this is that you don’t fuck with the status quo, even in the most minor or performative way
Hmm… I’d be cautious about framing the sovereignty-first No position as being a radlib one.
The argument isn’t that the Voice would be benign but that it was an intentional step backwards.
Have you engaged with the arguments coming from the sovereignty-first No arguments?
the media went to a huge effort to promote the idea that Lidia Thorpe was isolated, a lone loony, screaming obscenities over nothing, when in reality there were plenty of Indigenous groups who took the same, or similar lines. Articles just last week declared that people supporting Lidia specifically were switching their votes to yes at the last minute, when those same people had been rallying for a yes vote for months.
there’s even an example of Darebin council asking their long standing Indigenous advsory body what stance they should take on the voice. When they came back with there’s a diverse array of views, please dont take a stance, the council, filled with feelgood bourgeois party members from the greens and labor, sought a second opinion and backed the yes campaign.
I mean this in the nicest way possible, but your comment, and plenty of conversations I had with other people just ooze a kind of white mans burden energy. The colonial government shouldn’t be taking away the agency of indigenous people, it should be giving them back their fucking land.
it’s the gay marriage plebiscite all over again, the amount of time and energy that went into this, when they could have given it to us with the stroke of a pen. it’s not a once in a life time chance to change things for the better, it’s a distraction, something for laborites to give themselves a pat on the back for a job well done.
here’s a video interview with the president of BPU if you’re interested in hearing more
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__hoHlc81Q0