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In his 1958 autobiography Paul Robeson wrote that his dream was that all people could be, “free - to walk the good … earth as equal citizens, to live without fear, to enjoy the fruits of our toil to give our children every opportunity in life - that dream which we have held so long in our hearts is today the destiny that we hold in our hands”. As a black American, the third black person to win a scholarship to Rutgers, who went on to Columbia University to study law and who throughout his life faced racism, prejudice and segregation, Robeson found his real kith and kin among the working class and poor of all colours and races. To him tolerance and justice was paramount but in his experience little practiced in the so called civilized nations.
In 1960, thirteen years before the first official performance at the Sydney Opera House, Robeson performed for the construction workers on the site. It is interesting to consider the content of Robeson’s performance for the workers with the staging of the first official show, Prokofiev’s ‘War and Peace’ and the most recent attempt to reclaim the public space that is the Sydney Opera House by the 30a movement.
The Opera house was rented out by the Forbes corporation so they could bring together 350 of the world's Chief Executive Officers, Australian politicians and a coterie of their hangers on for the 5th Annual Forbes Global CEO conference. Steve Forbes, former US presidential candidate and one of the world's richest men invited the attendees to come together to “discuss the best ways to nurture and capitalise on innovation and reveal the latest global trends.” What this actually means can be found by looking at the credentials of those attending.
Of the published speakers list only one of the 42 people named belonged to an organisation that included the word “democracy” and “liberty” in its title. Even then its CEO is an economist. If we extrapolate that out to the full number of attendees less than ten of the 350 would represent organisations whose first stated aim is the betterment of the communities and societies from which their companies extract their wealth.
On the other side of the concrete and steel barriers, paid for not by the Forbes company but by the tax payers of New South Wales and the rest of us, were citizens who had come to voice their concerns about the ways these CEO’s run the world. Not being able to find themselves in the polished surrounds of the Opera House, also paid for by the tax payers of New South Wales, these citizens were confronted by police armed with Kevlar riot gear, batons, pepper spray and horses. Bennelong Point, it would seem, once more became the location on which two worlds collided.
Over two hundred years ago two civilisations collided not far from the place the Forbes CEO conference took place. Back then it was white European invaders who came in the name of expanding their imperial reach and whose task it was to find a new location to keep the so called scum of English society locked up. Back then the original inhabitants were not engaged in the imperial quest for territory and power but were to feel the full force of the colonial powers if they showed signs of resisting it. It was, fully, white against black, rich against poor and power against justice.
Two hundred years ago negotiations took place in far away lands where the then rulers of this new world made their decisions and had them enforced by the local constabulary. The locals were certainly not equipped with either the advanced technology of the imperialist invaders or the power to demand face to face meetings with their overlords. If they were lucky the local emissary might meet with a small delegation but access to the real powerbrokers was carefully protected.
Steve Forbes, a man with enough wealth to buy his own army, told reporters in the lead up to his conference that “if you have a free society and you want to have the opportunity to have people make their views known, sometimes temporary measures have to be put in place to have their protests take place, but also to secure the safety of the visitors and local citizens.” I found this a strange twist on the notions of citizenship, freedom and public debate.
The first Australians were deprived of the opportunity to have their views heard by the men who controlled their destiny. The first Australians were denied the opportunity to go about their business in the places they called home. The first Australians were also denied access to the privileges of citizenship and participation. According to Steve Forbes, this practice was well founded and still holds strong today. According to the New South Wales Premier, Morris Iemma and his Acting Deputy Police Commissioner, Terry Collins, anyone who resists this invasion by the new colonialists will feel the full force of the law. After all they would argue, it cost the New South Wales people $1.3 million to allow the neo-colonialists to hold their shindig at the Opera House along with another $1 million, chipped in on our behalf by the Federal Government.
Speaking on behalf of the ensconced new rulers of the world, former New York Mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, said that capitalism was the best way to alleviate poverty and “become more prosperous”. And this from a man who, when faced by the biggest tragedy his city had seen, allowed George the Lessor to exhort Giuliani’s fellow New Yorkers to move on and spend their way out of their grief.
Paul Robeson, Bennelong Point and the Sydney Opera House have linkages that are deeper and more profound than the pap that will be spoken at the Forbes Conference this year. Robeson, Bennelong Point and the Opera House are symbols of ‘we the people’ and the ongoing struggle between those who rule and those who are ruled. The Sydney Opera House Trust noted in their submission to the National Heritage Trust that the building is a “cultural icon” and a “focal point for community events”. It concludes that “the high cost of construction was met by a major public lottery that served to enhance its status as a place for the people.”
As we wake to spring mornings and think of the natural beauty that is blooming all around us it is pertinent to recall some other words from Robeson’s autobiography. He notes that, “common people of all nations are truly brothers in the great family of mankind (sic)” and that “there is a kinship among us all, a basis for mutual respect and brotherly love”. The Forbes conference, in cahoots with our governments, ensured that at the end of August the Opera House, this “place of the people”, was colonised once more by those whose minds very rarely turn to an examination of the conditions their decisions place vast tracts of humanity under.
As the 350 ‘Top CEOs’ meet in the Opera House to discuss our future and the best ways to carve up the seemingly ever growing profits from our skills and labour, the line is once more drawn in the sand and beckons us to consider which side we are on. Those who would “discuss the best ways to nurture and capitalise on innovation and reveal the latest global trends” have only one thing on their mind and that is not at all different from the mindset reigning two centuries ago.
Two hundred years ago the poor, the coloured, the resisters and the weak were treated with contempt and distain. Robeson’s dream will only be realised when we resist these new rulers of the world and work co-operatively in creating a new future free of the tyranny these neo-colonialists have imposed on us. Locking us out of the Opera House demonstrates whose side the CEOs and our governments are on. Where do you stand?