The NSW government wants to demolish public housing in Waterloo, which is currently home to around 4,000 tenants. Six towers and hundreds of homes are to be destroyed in order to make way for private investment and a new Metro train line.
In response, residents and community supporters have set up a Waterloo tent embassy. Aunty Jenny Munro, veteran Aboriginal activist, told Red Flag that the plans would be the “death knell for this community … It is 100 percent social housing – that is, housing for the poor”. Plans to establish 70 percent private and 30 public housing in its place are tantamount to a “new class war”.
Munro explained that current plans for gentrification were part of a strategy to ethnically cleanse the area – the latest chapter in the ongoing purges of the Aboriginal community from the Block and surrounding areas in Redfern and Waterloo.
The Waterloo towers and surrounding areas used to house thousands of Aboriginal residents; now there are only 300 left after successive state governments pushed people to outer western Sydney.
Residents of the towers are angry that, despite government rhetoric, there has been a complete lack of consultation and transparency over the entire process. “These plans have nothing to do with better housing – it is about corruption and greed”, Munro said.
Richard Weeks, the chair of the Waterloo Public Housing group and a resident of the towers, said that the blocks had been deliberately run down so that they could be condemned – part of the long term plan to force current residents out.
Some of the residents have had to contend with gas leaks for four years; others have had continuous flooding in their homes for 19 months. Nothing has been done about these and dozens of other serious maintenance issues.
Munro was defiant regarding the expected demolitions. She said that the tent embassy would continue until residents were given a real say over the future of their homes and their community.

Kay Dook

Waterloo tent embassy to combat ethnic and social cleansing

Activists gathered for a “freedom forum” at the Block in Redfern, Sydney, on 18 January. Organised as part of the Freedom Movement, the forum called for protest, not celebration, on Invasion Day – 26 January.
Jenny Munro, a Wiradjuri woman and founder of the Aboriginal Tenant Embassy in Redfern, opened proceedings. She condemned the conservative leadership of the Aboriginal rights movement: “They, rather than serve the interests of our people, serve the interests of the government. And in terms of those who serve the interests of government there seems to be a trilogy from hell: Pearson, Mundine and Langton.
“These people have been involved in politics for a long time: in the 20 years that I’ve been involved, they have undermined and compromised the cause of Aboriginal people.”
Munro spoke about the long history of resistance to Aboriginal dispossession: “We have had enough. It’s time to change. The act is in the dialogue. And from now on the dialogue will be: ‘We own this land’. We never said to James Cook, come in its all yours, and we never said it to [Arthur] Phillip or any other bastard who followed him. We have maintained our rights to this country and have never ceded it.
“And today they have actually come close to succeeding in their campaign of genocide and the extermination of our people … at the moment they are dispersing and dispossessing our people again. How many times will white people have the audacity to move us around and say, ‘It’s for your best interest’?”
In ending Munro said: “The time has come for us as Black people to say to Tony Abbott and any other government that’s voted in: you’ll have to talk to us. You will not to divide and conquer us anymore.”
The forum was chaired by Indigenous Social Justice Association president Ray Jackson. Other speakers were writer and activist Ken Canning, Nyoongar elder and social justice campaigner Uncle Ben Taylor, and journalists Gerry Georgatos and Jeff McMullen. All speakers urged those present to join the Freedom Movement’s convergence on Canberra on 26 January or attend protests in capital cities across the country.
For details visit <a href="https://indymedia.org.au/2015/01/10/wgar-news-aboriginal-sovereignty-day-invasion-day-survival-day-day-of-mourning-events">Indymedia</a>.

Freedom summit calls for action on Invasion Day

An Aboriginal tent embassy has stood on the Block in Redfern since 26 May (Sorry Day). Instigated by long term Aboriginal activist Jenny Munro, a founding member of the Aboriginal Housing Corporation (AHC), the embassy was erected as a protest against the proposed commercial development of the Block. The development, if it proceeds, will further erode community control over the Block.
The embassy is part of a lengthy battle between the Aboriginal community and Mick Mundine, who has been CEO of the AHC for close to 30 years. Activists have criticised Mundine for allowing property developers and the state government to push ahead with commercial development of the land with no guarantee of Aboriginal housing. Munro says that the Block was won in the 1970s as part of the land rights struggle to establish “black housing on black land”.
 More than four months old, the embassy is going strong, having endured numerous battles, including gale force winds and frequent attempts at physical intimidation. According to Munro and others Red Flag spoke to, the intimidation reached a peak over the weekend of 11-12 October, when flares were fired into the embassy. A large sovereignty sign at the front of the embassy was also attacked and those defending it assaulted. Maori woman Tepora Stephens was hospitalised with injuries sustained in the attack. One person has been charged, but according to Munro and another activist, Lyle Davis, the police have been more than reluctant to defend those protesting at the Block.
There are signs that those in power are now looking for what Munro describes as a “circuit breaker”. Mundine, Munro says, has sought redundancy from his position as CEO, and meetings are planned to shuffle the rest of the corporation’s membership. Munro is adamant, however, that all current members of the AHC have to be “purged”. Until there is a “solid indication that Aboriginal community control is restored to the Block”, the tent embassy will remain, she says. “Ordinary people are meant to be on that board, not outsiders.”
 For the moment, housing developer Deicorp has also backed off, delaying plans to begin development until next year, according to Munro.
Support for the embassy continues to grow. There are regular community events and plans for film screenings to educate supporters on the history of Aboriginal struggle and culture. The mood is upbeat: home from hospital, Tepora was back at the camp with her arm in a sling when Red Flag visited. Jenny Munro says, “We aren’t going anywhere until we get what we want.”

Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy still going strong

More than a dozen Aboriginal protesters set up a Tent Embassy on the Block in Redfern in late May. The government is pushing through a commercial redevelopment of the area, which, if successful, would result in more Indigenous dispossession.
Jenny Munro, the founder of the Tent Embassy and a founding member of the Aboriginal Housing Company, says, “The Block is Aboriginal land … we are reclaiming the Block for our people.”
At the heart of the dispute is the issue of affordable housing for Aboriginal people, as well as control over land that was won in the 1970s. In fact, the Block was the first major urban land rights victory: Whitlam handed over the deeds to the Aboriginal Housing Company (AHC) after Aborigines and activists from the Communist and Labor parties, as well as the Builders Labourers Federation, occupied derelict houses in the area.
However, Aboriginal control over the Block has been eroded. Over the last 20 years, residents have gradually been pushed out and the terraces bulldozed to make way for commercial redevelopment. Mick Mundine, the chief executive of the AHC for the past 28 years, has overseen the clearing of residents. Ray Jackson, the founder of the Indigenous Social Justice Association, says that since Mundine took over, “there is no community feed-in”. Providing affordable housing for urban Aboriginal families is “‘not profitable … the developers want a good return.”
The AHC’s grand plan for the Block is dubbed the Pemulwuy Project, which is supposed to encompass both commercial development and affordable housing. However, only the commercial half, which includes seven storeys of student accommodation, has been given attention. It is expected to gain financial backing within weeks. According to Ray, Mundine has “tinkered” with the Pemulwuy Project. Most of the redeveloped units can be sold to anybody, “even though it’s on Aboriginal land”. The other half of the Pemulwuy Project, set aside for affordable housing, is yet to receive any funding.
What is happening on the Block is indicative of the broader problems Aboriginal people face: due to chronic under-funding of government services, there is a constant housing crisis. Aboriginal people are four times more likely to be homeless than non-Aboriginal people. Overcrowded accommodation is also an issue being raised by the Tent Embassy. In some instances, families are crammed into spaces no bigger than the average living room.
The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union has provided a port-a-loo and a marquee – a sign of practical solidarity. Those at the Block aren’t taking things lying down. As Jenny says, “The Australian government doesn’t care about us … [but] they won’t be moving us from here without good reason.”

Redfern Block Tent Embassy established

Macquarie University has shut down a Socialist Alternative club stall that was petitioning for same-sex marriage rights and promoting the national protest against government funding cuts to higher education.
Campus security harassed and attempted to intimidate the students on the stall, despite the fact that Socialist Alternative is a registered club at Macquarie University.
Although this sort of behaviour has been encountered at Macquarie University before, security on this occasion forcibly removed petitions, signs and material from the stall.
They asserted that the material was “found property” and attempted to hold it at their office as “lost property” until members of the club threatened to go to the media.
Additionally, security continued to harass students after shutting down the stall. “I was followed to class by campus security guards and made to leave the university under threat of police arrest”, said Tom Harman, one of the students staffing the stall that day.
“This is not the first time that I have been harassed by campus security for expressing a political opinion”, he said. “Last semester I was confronted by several security personnel and forced off campus for posting National Union of Students material on a public notice board, which guards promptly tore down.”
Part of the reason that security at Macquarie University has been emboldened over the last few years is due to the fact that the administration dissolved the student union.
This has left students with no representation on campus, and more importantly, no body through which they can organise against the administration and the government’s attacks on higher education.
There is an increasingly repressive culture on campus which goes along with the increasingly corporatised nature of the university.
The incident highlighted the need for independent, active student unions which can fight for students’ rights – including the right to free speech and free association on campus.

Waterloo tent embassy to combat ethnic and social cleansing

Freedom summit calls for action on Invasion Day

Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy still going strong

Redfern Block Tent Embassy established

Macquarie Uni attacks free speech

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