Dismissive letter on depression not helpful
Mark Harris鈥 well-balanced and thoroughly materialist short analysis of depression (GLW #888) did not warrant Dr David Faber鈥檚 dismissive (GLW #892): 鈥淚f you want to be Marxist, demonstrate a little historical materialism please.鈥
894
National environmental justice and indigenous rights organisation the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) that took part in the largest act of civil disobedience in decades at the White House in Washington DC from August 20 to September 3.
The purpose of these actions was to send a direct message to President Barack Obama to deny approval of the 2739 kilometre Keystone XL pipeline.
According to Australia鈥檚 outgoing discrimination commissioner Graeme Innes, racism is still a big problem in Australian society.
This is nothing new. Racism has been an issue in Australia since the very beginning of white colonisation, when Aboriginal people were forced from their lands to make way for the new colonial Australia.
But racism, like our society, has changed with the times. This throws up new challenges in tackling it.
"The pay offer is a lemon" has been the theme of protests by Australian Taxation Office (ATO) workers around Australia over the past two weeks.
Workers have put lemons on their desks and stuck up posters of lemons to symbolise their rejection of management's pay offer of 9% over three years, which is less than the rate of inflation.
Some workers have called for strike action in the tax office, as has happened in other government agencies.
About 100 people rallied in Melbourne on September 1 in defence of the Kurdish Association of Victoria after a series of violent attacks.
The Kurdish community has received numerous death threats. There have been many attempts to set the association's building on fire, ending on April 14 this year when the building was burnt down by arsonists and rendered non-functional.
Just a few weeks ago, eight bullets were fired at the remains of the building. Fortunately, no one was inside at the time.
Students rallied on August 29 against RMIT鈥檚 decision to terminate the Bachelor of Applied Science (Disability) course in 2012.
The course is the only disability specific degree available in Victoria and provides students with a professional education and a platform to offer leadership, innovation and quality service to community and disability-related groups.
In a statement on its website, RMIT said the course was cancelled because: 鈥淚nterest in the degree has diminished over several years, resulting in the lowest ever number of applicants in 2010.鈥
The August 31 decision of the High Court to stop the Labor government鈥檚 bid to deport up to 800 asylum seekers to Malaysia is welcome news and a success for the refugee rights campaigners and the lawyers who led the case.
But the judgement has not, as many hoped, spurred the government to change direction.
In fact, immigration minister Chris Bowen said the government may even now consider reopening the Nauru detention centre and was 鈥渘ot ruling anything in or out鈥.
About 200 protesters against the coal seam gas industry and supporters of refugee rights rallied outside a federal government community cabinet meeting at Yeronga State High School on September 1.
Despite three separate requests from the Lock the Gate Alliance management committee and individual members of the campaign against coal seam gas, no interview with federal environment minister Tony Burke was granted.
The US embassy in Canberra secretly assessed Australian ethnic minority groups, Indigenous prisoners, the Socialist Alliance, anti-war protesters, Cuba and Palestine solidarity activists and Amnesty International for links to political violence and terrorism, an embassy cable released by WikiLeaks on August 29 has revealed.
The cable, titled , was sent to the FBI, the CIA, the US Defense Intelligence Agency and the Secretary of State in Washington on March 2, 2009.
A WikiLeaks cable released on August 29 has revealed federal Labor MP for Melbourne Michael Danby offered to help the US embassy promote a 鈥淒ay of Solidarity with the Cuban People鈥. It was a May 21 2008 initiative of the designed to pressure the Cuban government.
In 2007, Australian government officials repeatedly told the US embassy in Canberra of its plans to increase Australian troop commitments in Afghanistan. But they asked the US government to keep quiet about it, as the plans had not yet been made public.
Other Australian officials briefed the embassy on Australia鈥檚 likely troop deployments even before the federal cabinet had approved it. The revelations are contained in three embassy cables 鈥 classified secret 鈥 that were released by WikiLeaks on August 29.
Related coverage:
Marking the 10th anniversary of the Tampa scandal, when the former John Howard government refused to allow the MV Tampa to dock in Australia after it had rescued asylum seekers at sea, close to 100 refugee rights activists converged on the Perth detention centre outside the domestic airport on August 27.
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