AUSTRALIA AND SOCIALISM

AUSTRALIA DAY (January 26)

Europeans began to settle in New Holland (as Australia was then called) in 1788. Eleven ships carrying officers, troops, and convicts arrived on these shores and declared it a British colony. This became New South Wales. Some 40,000 to 60,000 years before, after a long journey by foot, their distant ancestors had already arrived, setting out from Africa, walking up through Asia Minor, across India and into the Burma Peninsula. From there they transformed themselves into sailors and island hopped down through the Indonesian Archipelago to New Guinea. From there some eventually strayed South and found the northern shores of the Island Continent Europeans would later call ‘New Holland’.

When the British (descended from another wave of wanderers from Africa into Europe after the last Ice Age) arrived, there were perhaps two million or so of the original settlers inhabiting this land. They did not take much notice of the new arrivals, apart from spearing some of the cattle for food and also a settler or two from time to time. Some were friendly to the newcomers but there was not a lot of traffic between the two groups. The British considered the ‘natives’ to be primitive and barely human. As the original inhabitants had not seemed to have established any sort of land ownership system, the new wave did not bother to set up treaties between the aboriginals and themselves.

Guns, germs, and steel (as Jared Diamond has phrased it) just about did for the Aboriginal people, who were quickly reduced to several hundred thousand and became virtual serfs to the Europeans. These folk had practiced ‘firestick’ farming for tens of thousands of years and had transformed the landscape and climate of this great and ancient southern land. They did not think that the land belonged to them in any sense but that they belonged to the land, their mother, and were part of it. They had not fallen into the dangerous dichotomy of ‘man and nature’. They were nature, along with everything else.

The newcomers, longing for the land they had been forced to leave, set about making it as much like England as they could. This included repeated attempts to introduce rabbits, hares, and foxes for hunting. Eventually they succeeded in these attempts. Twenty-four rabbits became the many millions that ruined much of the land and which, despite two attempts to wipe them out with viruses, appear to be making a dramatic comeback For a history of rabbits in Oz, see). By and large, the Europeans and now many others from Asia and other countries than England, have done pretty well. We call it ‘The Lucky Country’. Right now our economy looks in very good health, with employment at 95% and many industries, especially mining, finding it difficult to find sufficient workers, particularly skilled workers. Want to earn six figures? Come to Oz and drive a truck up in the Pilbera.

Although Australia Day has become quite an important day, it has not perhaps matched in significance ANZAC Day, celebrated on April 25. On this day, we remember our military defeat by the Turks in the Dardanelles in the early days of World War 1. This was quite a disaster and after a while we slunk off during the night, much to the disconcertment of the Turks the next morning. Aussies have been going off to other peoples wars for quite a long time, without having actually picked a fight on our own account. Our independent, almost larrikin attitudes have not endeared us to commanders of other armies, particularly the British Army (check out the film, Breaker Morant) However, we do a good job of soldiering. Moreover, the experience of combat has done much to foster and develop our sense of ‘mateship’ which we share with our cousins across the Tasman Sea, the New Zealanders (the NZ in ANZAC), our good mates the ‘Kiwis’.

In a ‘catch as catch can and the devil take the hindmost’ world, this spirit of supporting each other and taking the part of the underdog (looking after our mates), I suspect makes us appear ‘socialists’ to others. Mateship is very nearly androgynous but more pronounced in men. Anyway, ANZAC Day is a big event, with dawn services in every little town and big marches in the cities. The US Veterans Day has nothing on ANZAC Day. By the by, we also treat our returned soldiers pretty well, in terms of medical services.

An example of Aussie mateship in the offing is our response to the devastating floods across Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria. The bill for these may rise to $20 billion, to fix it all up. Thousands of folk have lost everything in these floods, not to mention tragic and heartbreaking stories of loss of life, fortunately not nearly as high as it might have been. The Federal Government reckons it will have to come up with $5 billion quickly to get things going. The Prime Minister has just announced a short term levy on all taxpayers towards this goal. And note this well, please, she has proposed a CUTBACK in defence spending, as well as cutbacks in some other areas (hello, it seems we are not concerned to wage a war of terror in the name of national security). Does anyone begrudge this move? Not a soul…of course we will do all we can to help our mates who are in a bit of trouble.

As you can see, I love this country. But I am returning to the US on February 15th. There you go…I have said my piece in relation to Australia Day.