The following is abridged from a statement received by the socialist youth organisation Resistance from the Frente Francisco de Miranda (FFM), an organisation of revolutionary youth at the forefront of Venezuela聮s socialist revolution.
705
On March 28 and 29, a series of rightist mobilisations took place in Jakarta, including a 500-strong mobilisation aimed at disrupting a march and rally organised by the National Liberation Party of Unity (Papernas). The Papernas rally was protesting foreign domination of the Indonesian minerals sector and demanding its nationalisation. The right-wing thugs were armed with scythes, knives and canes. This was the fourth time in the last six months that Papernas has been targeted.
On April 4, students at the University of Sydney will protest against the $50-$100 million development of the United States Studies Centre (USSC), a 聯think tank聰 designed to 聯strengthen the relationship聰 between Australia and the US.
After five years of solitary confinement in a small metal cell, David Hicks pleaded guilty on March 26 to one of the two charges brought against him by US military prosecutors on March 1, to finally get out of the notoriously brutal US military prison at Guantanamo Bay. Hicks鈥檚 case has revealed just what a sham the US-led 鈥渨ar on terror鈥 really is.
In the lead-up to the April 27-29 ALP national conference in Sydney, a number of federal Labor frontbenchers and state premiers have declared themselves in favour of scrapping the party鈥檚 鈥渘o new mines鈥 policy in favour of an unrestricted expansion of uranium mining. This push 鈥 which ignores the views of a majority of Australians and the extreme dangers inherent in uranium mining and the nuclear cycle that it is part of 鈥 reflects booming prices for the mineral on the world market. However, a number of trade unions have opposed the policy change and vowed to fight it at the conference.
A hunger strike of 35 detainees in the Villawood immigration detention centre was initiated on March 28, sparked by the actions of Global Solutions Ltd (GSL) guards under the instructions of the immigration department. GSL guards snatched a Chinese woman from her bed in LIMA, the single women鈥檚 compound at Villawood. Dressed only in her pyjamas, she was dragged screaming from the compound and was deported only hours later.
After five years imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay without trial, David Hicks has agreed to a plea-bargain deal at his military commission trial to hasten his return to Australia. 鈥淚 think most of you would be pleading guilty to something to get out of the place鈥, Hicks鈥檚 father Terry told the assembled media after returning to Adelaide from Guantanamo Bay on March 29.
Around 120 people rallied outside Liberal MP for Deakin Phil Barresi鈥檚 electoral office in Mitcham, Melbourne, on March 27, the anniversary of the proclamation of the federal Coalition government鈥檚 unpopular and destructive industrial relations laws. The lunchtime protest and barbecue were organised by the Deakin community and Your Rights at Work campaign group, which has been raising awareness and campaigning in the area against the anti-worker laws.
On March 23, hundreds of thousands of people from all over India converged in Delhi to express their anger at the killing of peasant protesters on March 14 by police and thugs aligned with the West Bengal Left Front (LF) government. Those killed were resisting eviction from their land in Nandigram. Similar killings also happened on January 7. The mass rally was preceded by two days of cultural protests.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the departing US ambassador to Iraq, told journalists in Baghdad on March 26 that US embassy and military officials had met several times with representatives of Iraqi groups that have ties to the anti-occupation resistance movement.
The two-month-old government of leftist Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa and the popular movements that back him have emerged triumphant in their first battle with the oligarchy and the traditional political parties that have historically dominated the country. Correa in his inaugural address in January called for an opening to a 鈥渘ew socialism of the 21st century鈥 and declared that Ecuador has to end 鈥渢he perverse system that has destroyed our democracy, our economy and our society鈥.
- Previous page
- Page 3
- Next page