A poem by Joseph Monsour about the struggle by East Timorese for freedom and those that supported them in December 1975 when the Indonesian government ordered the invasion. The text is below.
Seven Marched
Unfurl the banner,
Move onto the street.
Only Seven,
But seven marched
It was a time of rage
Rage forgotten
People forgotten
Students had been there
Seen the people mass
Their eyes were alight
Hundreds of years of poverty
The shackles broken
Independence the banner
Revolution so near
Our own Cuba, our own Castro
Our own Guevara
Posters banners to all unions
Australia's Union of Students last act
A last call.
Workers Students Unite!
Solidarity across the sea.
Darwin's wharf unions were firm.
The tyrant must be stopped,
Black ban his country,
Stop our country's folly
Whitlam 's last, Fraser's first
Not for Oil, Diplomacy, Security
But we were not organised
Most students had gone home,
Christmas holidays were near.
It was only spontaneous action.
Only seven there
Why not the street?
The monster would invade a small country
Eat its people
Let us take this Brisbane Street
Just for a moment.
For the people of East Timor.
Unfurl the banner
Onto the street
Only seven
But seven marched
For a peoples freedom.
Posters banners to all unions
Australia's Union of Students last
act
A last call.
Workers Students Unite!
Solidarity across the sea.
Darwin's wharf unions were firm.
The tyrant must be stopped,
Black ban his country,
Stop our country's folly
Whitlam 's last, Fraser's first
Not for Oil, Diplomacy, Security
But we were not organised
Most students had gone home,
Christmas holidays were near.
It was only spontaneous action.
Only seven there
Why not the street?
- Poem by Joseph Monsour
Read by Ian Curr from Pirate Radio: 4PR - Voice of the People
