Parramatta Climate Action Network hosted a presentation by Beyond Zero Emissions (BZE) at Parramatta Town Hall on March 14. About 30 people attended the forum.
The presentation summarised the 鈥淶ero Carbon Australia 2020鈥 stationary energy report, which details how Australia can transition to 100% renewable energy by 2020.
In contrast to Australia, which has excellent renewable resources but is dominated by fossil fuel energy, Spain already has several large-scale solar thermal energy plants that provide baseload power.
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It was ironic, but only supporters of Palestine were clapping after a majority of Marrickville councillors decided on March 15 in favour of hiring a venue to a newly-formed local Jewish group that is hosting an Australian Rules Peace Team with connections to Israel.
Independent councillor Victor Macri, who had put the motion, did not look at all happy.
Socialist Alliance candidate for the NSW seat of Parramatta Duncan Roden was born in Fiji and grew up in Sydney's west. He is a member of the socialist youth organisation Resistance and is an activist with the Parramatta Climate Action Network and Westies Welcome Refugees.
Roden spoke to Tamil Aruvi about his views on the Tamil people鈥檚 struggle for self-determination. The interview is republished below.
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What do you know about Sri Lanka's treatment of Tamil people?
While I agree with most of the sentiments expressed in Peter Boyle鈥檚 article on Libya in GLW #872, I think the Left must always be flexible and practical.
鈥淧akistan has demanded an apology and explanation from the United States over a drone strike in a tribal region, which officials said killed 35 people,鈥 ABC.net.au said on March 18.
It said it was the seventh US drone strike in nine days. The article said it was the most lethal drone strike North Waziristan region since the US military escalated its bombing of Pakistani areas near the Afghan border in 2008.
A Pakistani foreign ministry spokesperson Tehmina Janjua said: 鈥淭he government of Pakistan strongly condemns the drone strike which has resulted in a large number of casualties 鈥
After waiting many months for a decision regarding their visas, several asylum seekers held on Christmas Island received rejection letters on March 16 from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship.
In the early hours of the next day, between 50 and 150 asylum seekers broke through iron gates and escaped the detention centre. Though the private Serco guards immediately tried to catch the escaped detainees, they were largely unsuccessful.
About 2000 mainly young Palestinians rallied in Gaza City on March 14. Waving Palestinian flags, they called on Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah to end their divisions, for democratic elections for the Palestinian Authority (PA), and for the end to Israel鈥檚 occupation of the West Bank and siege on Gaza.
Thousands more marching across Gaza the next day and 8000 people protested in Ramallah in the West Bank for the same demands.
About 100 protesters gathered in Brisbane Square on March 18 to protest the repression of pro-democracy protesters in the Gulf nation of Bahrain.
Rallygoers chanted 鈥淔reedom for Bahrain! Stop the Saudi Arabian invasion.
Yunes Ali, a representative of the Bahraini community in Brisbane, welcomed the support from all who attended the rally, and declared that the democracy movement in Bahrain could not be divided into religious categories. 鈥淣o Shiites, no Sunnis. Only Bahrain,鈥 he said.
On March 13, more than 100 people attended the first organising meeting of Stop CSG Illawarra, a residents鈥 group campaigning for a moratorium on coal seam gas mining (CSG).
Six activists arrested in Harare, along with 39 others, were finally granted bail on March 16 after a month in jail. The activists were arrested for attending a video screening of footage from the people鈥檚 uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.
However, the six need to raise US$12,000 to pay their bail 鈥 far more than they can afford. An appeal is being launched internationally to raise the funds needed to pay the activists鈥 bail (see below for details).
The bail conditions require the six to surrender passports and travelling documents. They must report three times a week to the police.
Facing public anger and concern over the nuclear meltdown unfolding in Japan, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced temporary shutdown of several nuclear reactors.
On March 12, more than 60,000 anti-nuclear protesters in the south-western state of Baden-Wuerttemberg formed a 45 kilometre human chain from Stuttgart to the Neckarwestheim 1 nuclear plant.
Smaller protests took place in more than 450 towns and cities across Germany, anti-nuclear organisation Irradiated said. More protests are planned for March 26.
The Socialist Alliance and the Communist Party of Australia have released the following joint statement of left organisations and individuals about the March 26 NSW elections.
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The NSW Labor Party is facing a trouncing in the March 26 elections because of the problems that have arisen from the ALP鈥檚 corporate profits-first, "economic rationalist" agenda.
In the process, it has carried out a privatisation spree, most recently selling off our state's retail electricity assets for next to nothing.
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