Australian Manufacturing Workers Union organiser Colin Muir, Australian Workers Union organiser Sam Woods, and Electrical Trades Union organiser Gerry Glover joined union members at a barbecue in front of British Aerospace Engineering (BAE) on July 8.
More than 290 union members voted to continue an indefinite ban on overtime and working rostered days off, and for 24-hour stoppages on Fridays. Only essential, high-voltage switch work will be carried out.
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About 250 people attended the Students of Sustainability (SoS) conference at Flinders University in Adelaide over July 4-8. A highlight of the conference was the attendance of the Indigenous Solidarity Rides bus full of passengers on their way from Newcastle to the convergence at Alice Springs.
They presented workshops on the NT intervention, its effects on Aboriginal communities and the struggle to repeal the racist laws.
Last week was another ugly political week in Australia. There was much to be disgusted about, but one line disgusted me particularly.
It was from an apologist for the Julia Gillard Labor government who dared to offer this whispered excuse for the PM's shameless embrace of racist scapegoating of desperate asylum seekers:
鈥淛ulia Gillard is pretending to be conservative so that [Coalition leader Tony] Abbott can't use this issue to win the elections. Once Labor wins, they will implement a different policy.
鈥淚t's clever politics.鈥
Hundreds of activists in Washington, DC demonstrated on July 6 outside the White House to protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu鈥檚 visit.
Protesters held signs calling on the US government to end military aid to Israel as Netanhayu met US President Barack Obama.
After the meeting, Obama said: 鈥淚 think the Israeli government, working through layers of various governmental entities and jurisdictions, has shown restraint over the last several months that I think has been conducive to the prospects of us getting into direct talks.鈥
Humanity is in a race against time to avoid the environmental and social catastrophe caused by climate change.
At times, it seems we are losing the race. When we look at the sabotage of international summits by the rich countries, or the false solutions peddled by governments and corporate polluters, the challenge we face can seem overwhelming.
But globally, there is a rising people鈥檚 movement demanding real action on climate. This movement gives reason for hope and inspiration.
Canada & Israel: Building Apartheid
By Yves Engler
Fernwood Publishing/Red Publishing
Toronto, 2010, 168 pages.
Most Canadians today would probably agree that their country's foreign policy is pro-Israel. Even Canada's 鈥渓iberal鈥 supporters of Israel complain that siding so explicitly with Israel damages Canada's role of a peacemaker. It signals a shift away from the country's perceived balanced approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard鈥檚 July 5 announcement that she would solve the refugee crisis by being tougher on refugees did what former PM John Howard failed to do in his 11 years of conservative rule. She has made former One Nation MP Pauline Hanson feel at home.
Hanson announced she wasn鈥檛 emigrating to Britain, as planned, saying she was in 鈥渢otal agreement鈥 with Gillard鈥檚 plan to 鈥渟weep political correctness from the debate鈥, the Australian said on July 6.
Gillard鈥檚 main proposals cast refugees as a problem to be solved 鈥 and blame the refugees for that problem.
About 800 people joined the NAIDOC week march on July 9.
Young Kooris mostly led the chants, as a show of Aboriginal pride. The most popular chant was 鈥淎lways was, Always will be, Aboriginal land鈥.
Alf Bamblett, executive officer of the Victorian Aboriginal Community Services Association, told the crowd the federal government was extending income management beyond the Northern Territory and there was every chance it could come into Victoria unless it was resisted.
The board of Pride Toronto held a press conference on the lawn outside its offices on May 25 to announce the phrase 鈥淚sraeli Apartheid鈥 would be censored from the upcoming 2010 Pride Parade.
The decision, aimed at banning the Toronto-based activist group Queers Against Israeli Apartheid from the gay pride parade, set off a firestorm in the community.
This included refusals to take part in the festival and an open letter denouncing the decision by eight founding members who organised the first Toronto Pride parade in 1981.
On July 9, 60 people took to the streets to condemn the death of Aboriginal trans woman Veronnica Baxter. She was found dead in the Silverwater Metropolitan Reception and Remand Centre 鈥 a prison for men 鈥 six days after her arrest by Redfern police on minor drugs charges.
The protesters were in Wollongong for Queer Collaborations, a yearly student activist conference supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex and gender diverse rights. The July 5-9 conference had 180 participants and the theme 鈥淔ighting Queers Need Fighting Unions鈥.
Following a community rally against racism in Sydney's inner-west on July 2, activists went to local Labor MP Anthony Albanese's office on July 8 to present him with a huge open letter that had been signed by many in his electorate. The letter called on Albanese to reject the racist politics pursued in the upcoming federal election.
Wiya! Angela Pamela
by the Super Raelene Brothers & the Little Sisters Collective
Review by Emma Murphy
Wiya! Angela Pamela, a protest song in three languages with an incredibly catchy base and back beat, is the result of collaboration between funk-folk band the Super Raelene Brothers and the Little Sisters Collective, two Alice Springs-based groups.
The song, in Western Arrernte and Luritja, with a smattering of English, is in response to 鈥 and part of a campaign against 鈥 the proposed Angela Pamela uranium mine.
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