Twenty people gathered on June 22 in defence of civil liberties and in solidarity with Joanne Ball, who was facing trial. This was the first trial of an activist arrested during February protests against visiting US Vice-President Dick Cheney. By the end of the day, the prosecution鈥檚 case had collapsed and charges were dismissed.
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The Victorian Socialist Alliance held a successful special state conference in Melbourne on June 16. Ninety people attended, with a strong presence from Geelong and Ballarat. The conference also attracted activists from environmental organisations, a range of unions and Latin America solidarity groups.
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On June 17, 400 people marked World Refugee Day by rallying outside the Melbourne Exhibition Building and marching through Fitzroy. The new concentration camp on Christmas Island was a focus for the rally, and protesters called for all detainees on Christmas Island and Nauru, as well as in Australia鈥檚 鈥渙nshore鈥 refugee jails, to be freed, and for temporary visas to be replaced with permanent residency. Speakers included representatives of the West Papuan and Tamil refugee communities.
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The Tasmanian state Labor government has rejected a claim by public sector nurses to bring their pay and conditions in line with their mainland counterparts.
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More than 3 million people in Vietnam are estimated to be still suffering from the devastating health effects of Agent Orange, a herbicide that the US used extensively during the Vietnam War. In 2004, these victims sued nearly 40 US chemical companies for their role in supplying the deadly chemicals, but the case was rejected by a US court. An oral presentation of the appeal by the Vietnamese victims started on June 18 in New York City. US veterans held a vigil in San Francisco on June 19 in support of the appeal. On June 15, on conclusion of a visit to Vietnam, Ricardo Alarcon, the president of Cuba鈥檚 parliament, also expressed his support for the Agent Orange victims鈥 appeal case.
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More than 4000 teachers, school support staff, parents and students rallied outside the South Australian parliament on June 14. The rally, called by the Australian Education Union (AEU), protested the 聯efficiency dividends聰 announced in the recent state budget, which will result in funding cuts of $50,000-$100,000 to most schools.
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The University of Western Sydney聮s Board of Trustees has officially proposed closing UWS聮s Blacktown Nirimba campus by 2009. The university administration claims that the closure is due to a decline in student numbers (not surprising since the administration has cut most degrees at the campus) and financial constraints (despite a $36 million surplus in 2006). According to a June 16 report on ABC聮s Stateline, Blacktown has one of Australia聮s fastest growing populations.
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Many people in Aceh remain traumatised two years after a peace deal ended almost three decades of war. If left untreated this could trigger violence, according to a recent report by the International Organisation for Migration, the Indonesian government and the Harvard Medical School. Some 85% of nearly 2000 people interviewed were still plagued by fears and deep insecurity. The report said 35% of people interviewed suffered depression, 10% post-traumatic stress and 39% anxiety. Almost three-quarters said they had been exposed to combat, with 28% reporting they had suffered beatings and 38% that they had lost a friend or a relative in the conflict. 聯These memories are alive in the community, and they have the tremendous power to reproduce that violence聰, said Harvard聮s Byron Good. Limited resources remain a major obstacle for those requiring treatment, with most aid being dedicated to tsunami recovery and little to post-conflict rehabilitation.
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On June 20, 30 people attended a public forum to launch a campaign for an August 12 national day of action for same-sex marriage rights. The NDA is being built around three slogans: 聯Repeal the ban on same-sex marriage聰, 聯Give us civil unions聰 and 聯Hands off same-sex adoption聰, and so far, rallies are being planned in Sydney, Melbourne, Lismore and Perth.
News
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聯Not many people realise that Hawaiians feel that our country is under an occupation聰, Terrilee Kekoolani, an organiser with the DMZ Hawaii activist coalition, told a public meeting of 20 people on June 19. She was in Australia to take part in protests against the US-Australian Talisman Sabre war games in Queensland.
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聯Tear up Work Choices! Defend all our rights at work聰 is the title of a new petition being circulated by trade union activists around Australia. The petition calls on the ACTU and state, territory and regional labour councils to immediately call a national day of protest to demand the full repeal of Work Choices and the Workplace Relations Act. It also calls for workers聮 right to take industrial action to be enshrined in Australian law.
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World Refugee Day was marked with a loud protest by the Sudanese community and friends on June 20 in Hyde Park, to call for urgent action over the crisis in Darfur that has left more than 400,000 people dead. Eighty people participated in the rally 聴 organised by the Darfur Action Network (DAN) and Caritas International 聴 including leaders of the Sudanese community in Melbourne.
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Aims to make a killing "We run an absolute dictatorship and that's what's going to drive this transformation and deliver results. If you can't get the people to go there and you try once and you try twice, then you just shoot them and get them out
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Barry Hemsworth, a Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union member and workplace delegate, was sacked unfairly from his job at Botany Cranes in Sydney鈥檚 eastern suburbs in 2006, made possible by the Howard government鈥檚 unfair dismissal laws. July 2 will mark the 300th day that Barry has held vigil outside the gates of his former employer with the support of the union movement.
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Christians Against All Terrorism members Donna Mulhearn, Bryan Law, Jim Dowling and Adele Goldie, known as the Pine Gap Four, were found guilty on June 14 of breaching an archaic law 聴 the Defence (Special Undertakings) Act (1952) 聴 when they conducted a 聯citizens聮 inspection聰 of the US-Australian spy base at Pine Gap on December 9, 2005, to highlight its role in the Iraq war.
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The Queensland Police Union (QPU) has launched a series of radio advertisements that accuse the state Labor government of political interference in the case of Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley. A jury returned a verdict of not guilty for Hurley on June 20 in the Townsville Supreme Court. Hurley had been charged with the assault and manslaughter of Mulrunji Doomadgee, a 36-year-old aboriginal man, at the Palm Island police watch-house in November 2004.
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Reproductive health service provider Marie Stopes International has announced it will begin providing medical abortions using cancer drug methotrexate at clinics in New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia and Victoria. The move to broaden the offering of medical abortions using methotrexate in combination with another drug, misoprostol, may add momentum to push the more effective abortion pill, RU486, onto the market.
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Jim McIlroy, the Socialist Alliance candidate for the Brisbane seat of Griffith, called on Labor leader Kevin Rudd to condemn the Talisman Sabre war games being held at Shoalwater Bay.
Analysis
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Kevin Rudd聮s decision to convene a special ALP national executive meeting to expel Joe McDonald marks a new high tide of anti-unionism in the so-called party of the unions. The ACTU, and unions like the CFMEU, should cut funding to Labor if its attacks on unionists don聮t stop.
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The headline of the June 21 Adelaide Advertiser blared 聯Unfair pay聰 and for once, most fair-minded people had to agree with the paper. The headline was referring to a pay rise for the state聮s already overpaid members of parliament.
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Ker-ching! $2.5 million from the Business Council of Australia. Ker-ching! $3 million from the Australian Chamber of Commerce. Ker-ching! $1-2 million from the Minerals Council (they聮ve got a few billion in spare change). Ker-ching! $3 million from the Master Builders (they swear they don聮t swear like those thuggish unionists in the building industry). Ker-ching! $1 million from the National Farmers Federation (聯Sorry John, we聮re still bleeding from the Patricks聮 fiasco and there聮s the drought 聟聰). Ker-ching!
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I hope that when Kevin Rudd speaks of zero tolerance on lawlessness he means that bosses who kill workers with unsafe work practices will be jailed, and workers who have had their entitlements stripped away by employers, with the backing of the Howard government, will see justice.
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The following is abridged from a speech given by Nathan Fenelon 聴 or 聯Natty Fen聰 聴 to the June 22 聯Justice for Mulrunji聰 rally in Melbourne.
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'Speciesism' Richard Bulmer (GLW #713) presents a well-reasoned case against capitalist livestock meat production on environmental grounds, but in doing so he makes what I believe to be two errors. Firstly, it is inappropriate to use words like
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The right to strike is always agreed in principle. 聯We won聮t remove the right to strike聰, the Work Choices ads said. Employers agree 聴 subject to restrictions to protect their class interests. The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) policy is for the workers聮 right to withdraw labour without sanctions.
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The June 11 edition of ABC TV聮s Four Corners confirmed what Australian former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib has claimed since his January 2005 release without charge: that the Australian authorities were complicit in his abduction and torture.
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Federal education minister Julie Bishop has announced a tender process to trial performance-based pay in schools. Australian Education Union (AEU) federal president Pat Byrne described the scheme as 聯cash-for-grades聰, and called for more federal funding for state education.
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The ABC鈥檚 June 18 Four Corners program on Telstra was a damning expose of the anti-worker policies being implemented by Australia鈥檚 largest employer, Telstra. 鈥淭ough Calls鈥 featured interviews with the family, friends and loved ones of two former Telstra workers who were driven to suicide by the relentless pressure of Telstra management to meet unrealistic performance targets.
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Proposed laws introduced into the NSW parliament mean that the greater Sydney area will become a police state for two weeks around the APEC summit. The APEC Meeting (Policing Powers) Bill 2007 is expected to be passed without significant amendments.
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Prime Minister John Howard announced on June 21 a plan to take control of some 60 Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory, supposedly to tackle a child sex abuse crisis in those communities. It is a plan that severely limits and in some instances eradicates the democratic and land rights of all Aboriginal people in remote NT communities.
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Since the Australian government鈥檚 decision to declare a 鈥渨ar on terror鈥 in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the US cities of New York and Washington on September 11, 2001, federal parliament has enacted no less than 26 pieces of legislation that form so-called anti-terror laws. The justifications for the laws ignore that acts such as murder, hijacking and blowing things up have never been legal. The laws鈥 real purpose is to criminalise political dissent and to create the impression of a 鈥渢errorist threat鈥 to justify military aggression overseas.
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West Australian union official Joe McDonald has rejected calls by Labor leader Kevin Rudd for him to leave the ALP. He insists he will fight moves by the party鈥檚 national executive to have him expelled, setting the stage for an important showdown.
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In an effort to be reelected for a fifth term PM John Howard is trying to convince workers that this is as good as it gets. Looking at his favorite figures, we might be forgiven for thinking he聮s right. In May, unemployment was at a historic low of 4.2% and the economy was growing at an annual rate of 3.8%. Employment grew by 39,400 that month while unemployment fell by 5500. However, these figures hide the reality that the benefits of the boom have been very unevenly shared.
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Michael Bozic, a barrister with the NSW Council of Civil Liberties, said on June 20 that the new powers being given to police during the APEC summit would make the conservative former premiers Robert Askin and Joh Bjelke-Petersen proud. Askin, NSW鈥檚 Liberal premier from 1965 to 1975, was famously quoted in 1966 demanding that the convoy accompanying visiting US President Lyndon Johnson 鈥渞ide over the bastards鈥 鈥 anti-Vietnam War protesters.
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聯I聮m taking control聰, said Johnny Howard, with a contrived quiver of righteousness in his voice. His face was set into a familiar pastiche of horror and disgust at the degraded behaviour of lesser beings. He also conveyed a weariness 聴 the weariness of shouldering the 聯white man聮s burden聰.
World
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Activists from the Indonesian National Student League for Democracy (LMND) and the National Liberation Party of Unity (Papernas) in the East Kalimantan city of Balikpapan have been the targets of harassment by the local government officials, police and the military (TNI).
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Socialist Worker (SW-NZ), an organisation of revolutionary socialists in New Zealand, has sparked a new round of debate among socialists internationally over how to understand and relate to the socialist revolution in Venezuela, led by the government of President Hugo Chavez. On May 1 SW-NZ issued a statement arguing the Venezuela鈥檚 revolution is of 鈥渆pochal significance鈥.
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Not for the first time in recent years, politics in Bolivia has spilled out of the official institutions and onto the streets. With the constituent assembly entering into its decisive phase 鈥 less than two months from its official deadline to draft a new constitution to present to the people in a referendum 鈥 Raul Prada, a delegate from the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS, the party of Bolivia鈥檚 indigenous president, Evo Morales), told La Razon on June 18: 鈥渋t has become sufficiently clear that the issues this assembly is dealing with will not be resolved only inside the assembly, but rather outside鈥.
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In a June 19 joint press conference in Washington with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, US President George Bush said: 聯It聮s interesting that extremists attack democracies around the Middle East, whether it be the Iraq democracy, the Lebanese democracy, or a potential Palestinian democracy.聰 He was referring specifically to the popularly elected Hamas-led government of the Palestinian people taking action in Gaza to prevent a bloody coup by their defeated rivals, Fatah, which since the January 2006 elections has been armed, funded and trained by Israel and the US.
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Reporters Without Borders (RWB). The name, modelled on that of humanitarian organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), conjures the idea of an organisation that monitors global standards of press freedom, offers insightful and hard-hitting investigative reports on world conflict and defends the safety of courageous journalists in war-torn countries. One would imagine that such an organisation would lend its support to one of the few countries in the world that is taking major leaps in democratising the media by breaking the existing monopoly of corporate domination.
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Addressing Palestinians for the first time since he declared a state of emergency a week earlier, in a nationallly televised speech on June 21, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas denounced Hamas鈥 leaders as 鈥渕urderous terrorists鈥 who had carried out a 鈥渃oup鈥 in the Gaza Strip.
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On June 18, Vilma Espin Guillois, legendary guerrilla fighter and leader of the Federation of Cuban Women, passed Away in Havana. An official note issued by the Cuban government is abridged below.
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The enormity of China鈥檚 environmental nightmare is well-known. However, its root causes 鈥 especially the part played by First World capital 鈥 is less widely understood. One example is the massive dumping in China of First World 鈥渆-waste鈥 鈥 electronic and electrical waste.
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The following are excerpts from a statement made by Cuban President Fidel Castro on June 20, the day after revolutionary leader Vilma Espin Guillois died in Havana.
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As the national strike by more than 700,000 South African teachers, nurses, health workers and other public servants entered its fourth week on June 22, the African National Congress (ANC) government steadfastly refused to seriously revise its miserly pay offer. President Thabo Mbeki knows that if his neoliberal, pro-big business regime relents and grants the public-sector workers a much-needed above-inflation pay increase, it will embolden the country鈥檚 private-sector workers to fight for a similar rise.
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On June 3, an elderly flower seller in the municipality of Chongqing was critically injured when council rangers violently cleared the area of street hawkers. In response, a thousand-strong riot erupted. Three days later, a similar incident occurred in the Henan provincial capital of Zhengzhou, when a riot of thousands of people forced a backdown from the authorities.
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On June 19, Labour Party Pakistan (LPP) general secretary Farooq Tariq was released from jail after being detained for 15 days by the Punjab government. His arrest was part of a crackdown on political activists following an escalation in Pakistan聮s pro-democracy movement after President Pervez Musharraf聮s decision to suspend Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry on March 9. Tariq, who is demanding a judicial inquiry into the detentions, will be a guest speaker at the Latin America and Asia Pacific International Solidarity Forum in Melbourne on October 11-14. The following is abridged from a statement issued by Tariq after his release.
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On June 13, explosions destroyed the two 100-year-old minarets of the highly revered Shiite Askariya mosque in the largely Sunni inhabited city of Samarra, 100 kilometres north of Baghdad. 聯The Askariya shrine means a lot to us, the people of Samarra聰, Abu Abdullah, a Sunni who lives next to the shrine, told the June 13 Washington Post, adding: 聯To lose the shrine hurt us a lot, and made us afraid about what will happen next. Someone wants to create sectarian strife by doing this act.聰
Culture
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Silencing Dissent
Edited by Clive Hamilton & Sarah Maddison
Allen & Unwin, 2007
279 pages, $24.95 -
Pirates of the Caribbean: Axis of Hope
By Tariq Ali
Verso Books, 2006
244 pages, $49.95 (hb)
Visit -
Close the Gap
Photo exhibition by Oxfam Australia
Waterfront Place foyer
Eagle Street, Brisbane
Until June 29 -
The Vote Against Discrimination
Kirrit Barreet Aboriginal Art and Cultural Centre, 407 Main Road, Ballarat
Free entry, until August 30
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As It Happened: Six Days in June (Part 2) 聴 Looks at the 1967 six-day war when Israel occupied the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank. SBS, Friday, June 29, 8.30pm.