Industrial Workers of the World

midday 1pm live on 3CR www.3cr.org.au the Tunnerminawait and Maulboyheener commemoration from Bowen lane outside RMIT today Jan 20th 2010

THE OTHER - REAL - CLANCY

by Mungo MacCallum (based on Clancy of the Overflow poem)

He was poisoning the water when he chanced upon a slaughter So he joined in patriotically to massacre and rape And he sees the vision splendid of the native problem ended And a land made safe for cattle from Tasmania to the cape

In my genocidal fancy visions come to me of Clancy With a Gin across his saddle and her children in pursuit As he leaves behind their crying he tots up the dead and dying As he calculates his bounty and gets ready for a root

With commendable persistence Clancy follows the resistance And you’ll find him in the rearguard with the priests and their Te Deums While the troopers do the shooting Clancy rides behind them looting

There’s tjuringas for collectors and some heads for the museums And when he meets Jacky Clancy sometimes offers baccy And many other presents to improve the shining hour When his cobbers call him silly he just smiles and boils his billy

For there’s measles in the blanket rolls and strychnine in the flour And a firm but friendly parson thinks he’ll try a little arson To exorcise the dreaming with his candle, book and bell His redeemer loudly praising, he sets all the gunyahs blazing To civilise the heathen with a touch of Christian hell

As he contemplates the scene he can remember Truganini And Pemulwuy and Banelon and others of their kind And on gentle summer breezes he can sense the new diseases That will carry their descendents out of sight and out of mind

And the sturdy stockhorse whinnies as he tramples piccaninnies And the rider cracks his stockwhip at the ones who run away And above the odd death rattle he can hear the lowing cattle As the drover brings them into camp to end a perfect day.

QE 36 "Australian story" by Mungo MacCallum http://www.quarterlyessay.com/

"Support The Walk off! live hip hop & Politics" on Tuesday, January 26 at 9:00pm. Fundraiser Start Time: Tuesday, January 26 at 9:00pm End Time: Wednesday, January 27 at 2:00am Where: Bella Union Bar Trades Hall Cnr Vic & Lygon sts Carlton