- 168 years ago, on this day
- “The finest thing in Australasian history”: Mark Twain
- December 3rd is a day all freedom lovers around the world should celebrate
- The Eureka claim lies with those who still fight for freedom and liberty
Recently I wrote an article for VAShiva news that touched on the Rebellion at Ballarat, Victoria, Australia on this day 168 years ago.
George Christensen, a fellow Australian, wrote the following letter today in commemoration.
Dear friend,
Some 168 years ago, on this day — 3 December — brave men fought and died on Australian soil in defense of liberty against tyrannical rule.
The event was known as the Battle of the Eureka Stockade, or the Eureka Rebellion and took place in the gold-mining town on Ballarat, Victoria in 1854.
Thousands of gold miners — or diggers as they were known — took arms against the authorities inside a flimsy makeshift barricade or fort, which later fell when government troops stormed it after many of the diggers had gone back to their tents to sleep. Death ensued for many.
It was a loss for the champions of liberty but still a shock to the authorities that so many men had dared stand up against their rule.
What led to the rebellion were a combination of grievances; principally the unjust and overly burdensome tax on the diggers and a yearning for the right to vote.
If it sounds to you very much like the revolutionary American protest cry of “no taxation without representation” then you’d be right.
A little less than a month before the rebellion, a public meeting of about probably 12,000 or so diggers and others saw the formation of the Ballarat Reform League and a motion was carried that:
… it is the inalienable right of every citizen to have a voice in making the laws he is called on to obey, that taxation without representation is tyranny.
They were right. For any government — a republic or a monarchy — to impose unfair financial burdens on the people and then to deprive them of a voice in how things are run is tyrannical.
The men (and some women) of the Eureka Rebellion stood for freedom and liberty, not authoritarian ‘isms’.
And yet the Eureka mythology has been usurped in Australia by both Socialism and National Socialism (or neo-Nazism).
The latter group, with its ethno-nationalist and white supremacist foundations, can hardly make a claim on Eureka given that the men who made up the rebellion were from all corners of the Earth and of all colours.
One of them was Italian Raffaello Carboni who wrote a book on the historical event.
In that book — The Eureka Stockade — Carboni recalls that when the rebel diggers’ famous southern cross flag was hoisted aloft, their appointed commander, Peter Lalor, “with the right hand pointing to the standard, exclaimed in a firm measured tone: “We swear by the Southern Cross to stand truly by each other to defend our rights and liberties”.
It doesn’t sound like either Socialism or National Socialism to me. And it wasn’t.
Peter Lalor — who was later elected to the Victorian parliament — flatly rejected Socialism and Communism just two years after the rebellion.
When debating the term ‘democracy’ Lalor said this:
I would ask these gentlemen what they mean by the term ‘democracy’. Do they mean Chartism or Communism or Republicanism? If so, I never was, I am not now, nor do I ever intend to be a democrat. But if a democrat means opposition to a tyrannical press, a tyrannical people, or a tyrannical government, then I have been, I am still, and will ever remain a democrat.
So, the Socialists and the National Socialists have no rightful claim to the Eureka mythos.
Rather, the claim lies with those who believe and still fight for freedom and liberty.
The Eureka claim lies with those who still fight for freedom and liberty against and in spite of tyrannical domestic governments and transnational government bodies like the United Nations, the World Health Organization and the World Economic Forum.
Those who still fight for freedom and liberty against and in spite of a tyrannical fake news legacy media.
Those who still fight for freedom and liberty against and in spite of even the tyrannical majority.
Sadly, we have seen our share of all of the above tyranny in recent times and are likely to continue to see it for some time to come.
When I served as a Member of the Australian Parliament, I recall giving a speech where I invoked the legacy of the Eureka Rebellion in defense of the rights of peaceful freedom protesters who were fired upon by the police in Victoria, the same State where the diggers were fired upon by police.
About 50 years or so after the Eureka Rebellion, American author Mark Twain visited the Victorian goldfields and wrote this on Eureka Rebellion:
… I think it may be called the finest thing in Australasian history. It was a revolution – small in size; but great politically; it was a strike for liberty, a struggle for principle, a stand against injustice and oppression … It is another instance of a victory won by a lost battle. It adds an honorable page to history; the people know it and are proud of it.
Today is a day to be proud of the Eureka legacy but it is also a day to rededicate ourselves to the cause of freedom and liberty:
We swear by the Southern Cross to stand truly by each other and fight to defend our rights and liberties.
Until next time, God bless you, your family and nation.
Take care,
George Christensen”
On page 163 of a recent publication about Raffaello Carboni and the European Rebellion is the following most extraordinary statement.
“Certainly, it was the legitimization of the Stockades struggle. Carboni, who dubbed himself Lalor’s historian, felt particularly involved, for, with James Oddie and John Campbell, he had nominated Lalor (who was subsequently unanimously elected).”
This refers to the nomination of Peter Labor on Saturday the 10th of November 1855 to become a member of the legislative council for this “El Dorado”; that is as one of the members of the Victorian Colonial Legislative Council that was set up about a year later.
George Christensen asked that his letter be shared.
December 3rd is a day all freedom lovers around the world should celebrate. As Mark Twain said …… “It is another instance of a victory won by a lost battle. It adds an honorable page to history; the people know it and are proud of it.”
