|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
Speech by Rose Jackson at the Sydney Palm Sunday 2005“we never forget the lessons of this war, our sense of right and wrong will be forever shaped by this experience”
When John Howard was re-elected as the Prime Minister in October last year, I think everyone here felt the same empty feeling, the same bewilderment, repulsion, the same complete incomprehension that this Government that led us into war for no reason, lied to us the whole way, were exposed, lied again, and then didn't even have the maturity to acknowledge when they had clearly got it wrong, were re-elected so convincingly. I needn't recount for most of us how determinedly we put our ballot into the box that day, how it meant so much to us as a statement of our opposition to what had occurred in our name. Although we lost, we still probably felt some solace from having on that day registered our disapproval, used our democratic right to have our say. Just a small insight, though, hundreds of thousands of people didn't have that chance. After all that has happened, they didn't even get the opportunity to make that small, symbolical gesture. These people are young people. When the war on Iraq was declared, I had been enrolled to vote for 3 months. Last October, thousands of young people, so well informed, so outraged, so angry, were still either too young to enrol to vote, or had not managed time to enrol. It is important for people to realise that so much of the passion of young people, so much of our feelings that we must stand up and make ourselves heard in every possible way is related to the fact that we do not feel engaged, or are literally excluded from the electoral process. Young people are so often the least important part of the political process, their voices lost or ignored. The images of school children marching down the streets with slogans for peace scrawled in texta on their bodies raised so may eyebrows because suddenly people could see that the young people of Australia were not the mobile phone using, hipster pant wearing teeny-boppers of popular media. They were politicised, they were engaged, they were active, and they were angry. Within months of me arriving at university for the first time, I was walking out in protest against this war. The feeling that ran through the air the day war was declared -the mobilisation of students on the streets, the students screaming through megaphones as they drove around the sandstone building of the University of Sydney announcing the news, the recognition that, as young Australians, we do not and will never have our opinions printed in the mainstream press. We have to fight so much harder to be taken seriously. When we raise our voices around the dinner table discussions with parents and friends the sense of 'what would they know' is palpable. The school teachers who think that discussions of Iraq are too 'adult' for the classroom - these are things that makes the young people of this country so angry about this war, and so determined to keep up the discussion, the debate, and the fight. For the young people in this crowd, the rule of the Howard government has played such a significant role in our lives. Growing up in a time like this, a time of interest rates and political lies, you become aware of yourself, your politics, your nation, all under the cloud of ultra conservatism. We have not known anything but this Government. John Howard has been Prime Minister since I was in Year 6 of Primary school. Imagine, if you can, how this makes us feel. After everything that he has done, after his outright attacks on young people through youth wages, work for the dole, HECS increases, having your entire outlook on life based on a reaction to a form of Government that could not be less interested in what you have to say. The reality for Australian youth is an education system we cannot afford, forced to sign up for the military recruiters that come onto our campuses and offer "free" education for signing up. Young people are forced to feed the military drive of our leaders because we cannot afford to get an education otherwise. I don't know what progressive Federal Government is. I do not know what it is to feel proud of your government. For many young people we have never had anything done in our name that we feel ownership of. This government's illegal war in Iraq is the height of this. Doug Cameron described John Howard as the most sycophantic PM we have ever seen. For young Australians, he is the ONLY PM we have ever seen - you can imagine how that makes us feel, so angry, so disgusted at the idea that he is the only man to have spoken in our name. Palm Sunday is not just about the war in Iraq though.In fact, it's not really about war at all, it's about peace. Students probably more than anyone hold this concept close, shelter it from the reality of the Howard government, protect this ideal deep within. We will not let peace go. We will not be told it is out of date. We will not be told it cannot be done. We didn't enjoy the 60s and 70s. For young people now, we have had no release. We use opportunities like Palm Sunday to sustain ourselves. It is so clear to us that the process of war has failed, that it is devastating and wrong, that it is tragic. The human cost of war overwhelms many young people. Growing up in a nation that is killing in your name is not something that is unique to modern Australian youth, but it is just as awful for us as it was for everyone else who has experienced it. I stand up here as a voice for the young people of today, as a member of the active and growing student movement. We acknowledge all those who have gone before us as students calling for peace, justice and democracy. We are certainly not the first members of the student movement to join the call for peace, and the real message of today is that we will not be the last. The injustice in Iraq has rekindled the passion of the young generation, and we never forget the lessons of this war. Our sense of right and wrong will be forever shaped by this experience. Young people have seen now the horrors of war, and will forever be struggling for a compassionate and peaceful world. In a way it is sad that we have to come together every year on Palm Sunday to re-state out commitment to peace, to re-assure ourselves that it is possible. It is sad because peace is something we still do not have. It is heartening to see, however, that we keep coming back, that despite the lies, the injustice, the war, that we keep the faith that peace is possible. The push for war is strong, but for young people, the movement for peace is stronger. Today, John Howard does not speak with our voice, he does not act in our name. Today young people reclaim their voice and speak clearly for themselves when we send out our message to the world - bring our troops home, and peace on earth. |
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
© Walk Against the War Coalition 2003. |
 |
