{"id":37562,"date":"2015-02-18T17:31:02","date_gmt":"2015-02-18T07:31:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=37562"},"modified":"2015-02-22T14:45:21","modified_gmt":"2015-02-22T04:45:21","slug":"an-open-letter-to-the-black-rose-collective-from-ray-jackson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=37562","title":{"rendered":"An open letter to the Black Rose collective [from Ray Jackson]"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Update (February 22, 2015)<\/strong> : On Saturday evening, February 21, Ray issued a retraction of his open letter. Consequently, I’ve edited this post to reflect this fact.]<\/p>\n

Ray Jackson of the Indigenous Social Justice Assocation (ISJA) has written an open letter tto the Black Rose anarchist collective re their participation in the TJ Hickey march that took place in Sydney on the weekend. I thought I may as well republish it here.<\/p>\n

See also<\/em> : Thomas ‘TJ’ Hickey rally in Redfern marks 11th anniversary of death<\/a>, ABC, February 14, 2015 | Mother of Thomas ‘TJ’ Hickey calls for peaceful march after protesters clash with police<\/a>, SBS, February 14, 2015 | Heavy handed police presence at TJ Hickey march in Sydney<\/a>, Green Left Weekly<\/em>, February 14, 2015.<\/p>\n

An open letter to the Black Rose collective [from Ray Jackson]<\/p>\n

a personal perspective, without apology.<\/p>\n

your actions last saturday, 14 february, 2015, have once again given power to the redfern police to shut down the tj hickey marches entirely … [snip]<\/p>\n

[Below is the relevant section of Ray’s subsequent letter retracting his previous open letter. The full letter may be read here<\/a>.]<\/p>\n

of cops & banners [&] other things<\/strong><\/p>\n

before i get into this post it is most important that you know that mick mundine has had papers served on aunt jenny at the redfern aboriginal tent embassy at the block and that she and those others in attendance there are to vacate ‘his’ land on monday 23\/2. it is most important that if you can go there now or go between now and sunday night and stay for the monday eviction actions then i strongly urge you to do so. the block does not belong to the venal charlatan, mick mundine, but to the aboriginal community for the building of low cost accommodation for our elders and families. we must save the block for that purpose and not to enrich mick and his crew of thugs.<\/p>\n

attached are the ‘reasons for judgement’ that justice monika schmidt handed down on friday 13\/2 when she prohibited the route we wanted to do whilst not banning the march. i have written on the event previously but, to my shame, it had errors in it. substantial errors of fact and judgement.<\/p>\n

the first mea culpa goes to les malezer of the congress for the wonderful and totally unexpected letter of support from him that he sent me with full permission to use it in court which i most certainly did. whether it impressed hh as much as it did me is unknown. i thank you, les, for your generosity of spirit in this matter. the support letter can be found below.<\/p>\n

the next ommission from my previous post re the tj events was to exclude from the list of speakers cheryl and keith kalfauss who each year travel from melbourne to add their solid support and voice and that of our melbourne comrades. well done.<\/p>\n

but the main mea culpa is to unreservedly apologise to all the members of the black rose collective. i acted without reason and merely jumped to conclusions on the day. the banner that was fought over on the day belonged to the members of the trotskyist platform (tp) and whose members have joined our tj marches for years. there was one anarchist flag that was shown to me and when i ok’ed it it was tied to the fence.<\/p>\n

i also made other errors of fact relative to the participation of the anarchists and other left groups in all our rallies and marches but i am not into grovelling. i have publically agreed with my errors and, i believe, it would be far more constructive to move on from here. like the foul abbott, i have listened and i have learned!<\/p>\n

there are several matters that i wish to raise for further discussion and they include police thuggery, banner protocols and my continuation in these events …<\/em><\/p>\n

[end: remainder here<\/a>.]<\/p>\n

fkj<\/p>\n

ray jackson
\npresident
\nindigenous social justice association<\/p>\n

prix des droits de l\u2019homme de la republique francaise 2013
\n(french human rights medal 2013)<\/p>\n

1303\/200 pitt street, waterloo. 2017
\nisja01@internode.on.net
\n61 2 9318 0947
\n0450 651 063<\/p>\n

we live and work on the stolen lands of the gadigal people<\/p>\n