Photo Above: DjabWurrung Gunnai Gunditjmara woman and, now, independent federal senator Lidia Thorpe.
Photo credit: Matt Roberts/ABC News
Aboriginal People’s Advocate Lidia Thorpe Resigns From the Greens
Bravo Lidia Thorpe for
Having the Courage to Unshackle Her Struggle for Aboriginal People’s Rights
6 February 2022: DjabWurrung Gunnai Gunditjmara woman and prominent voice for Aboriginal rights, Lidia Thorpe today quit the Greens. The federal senator, who had been the Greens First Nations spokesperson, will now sit as an independent. Announcing her resignation from the Greens, Lidia Thorpe stated that: “This country has a strong grassroots blak sovereign movement, full of staunch and committed warriors, and I want to represent that movement fully”, “It has become clear to me that I can’t do that within the Greens.”
Earlier, targeted for her strong advocacy of Aboriginal rights and her refusal to simply roll over and accept the powerless “Voice” to parliament scheme that was being championed by small-l liberals, social democrats, “progressive”-liberals and many mainstream conservatives, Lidia Thorpe had been subjected to a despicable witch-hunt over having once dated a former member of a motorcycle gang (big deal!). Greens leader Adam Bandt failed to defend Thorpe from the witch-hunt and indeed, in a cowardly way, forced his First Nations portfolio head to resign as the Greens deputy leader in the Senate. Although our Marxist-Leninist politics are different to Lidia Thorpe’s politics, we salute her determined advocacy of Aboriginal people’s liberation right now and say: Down with the racist, right-wing and small-l liberal witch-hunt of Lidia Thorpe! Bravo Lidia Thorpe for having the courage of her convictions to resign from the Greens in order to unshackle her struggle for Aboriginal people’s rights!
Hopefully Lidia Thorpe’s resignation will encourage any progressive-minded workers or youth that have illusions in the Greens to also break from the party. And hopefully it will put pressure on those Far Left groups that tail after the Greens and give it electoral support to dump their unprincipled support to this party of the “progressive”-liberal wing of the inherently anti-Aboriginal, capitalist establishment. We say: No unity with any wing of Australia’s racist, capitalist ruling class – including the “progressive”-liberal wing represented by the Greens!
We need to break the working class free from the clutches of the social-democratic ALP and the influence of the “progressive”-capitalist Greens in order to unleash the power of the workers movement to both fight for workers’ own living standards and to support the liberation struggles of the staunch blak liberation warriors. Unite our multi-racial trade unions with Aboriginal people and all people of colour in joint struggle against all racist oppression! Resist the state removal of Aboriginal children from their families that has been happening under Liberal-National, ALP and ALP-Greens governments alike! Resist the state murder of Aboriginal people in custody! Justice for Veronica Nelson, Kumanjayi Walker, David Dungay, Rebecca Maher, TJ Hickey, Mulrunji Doomadgee, John Pat, Eddie Murray and the many other victims of Australia’s racist, rich people’s regime! Don’t let the racist ruling class cover up their crimes through their window dressing “Constitutional Recognition” and their powerless “Voice”. Fight for decent housing and services in black communities paid for by confiscating the wealth of the greedy mining and pastoral bosses and in communities administered directly by Aboriginal people! Fight for genuine, full Aboriginal land rights!