On June 22, 80 people attended a World Refugee Day forum organised by Project Safecom at the Fremantle Navy club entitled 鈥淲hy the boats must come鈥.
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The following article is abridged from a speech by Susan Austin, Socialist Alliance Hobart branch convener, to a 250-strong Indigenous rights rally on June 27 organised by the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre.
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Shoalwater Wilderness Awareness Group (SWAG) spokesperson Steve Bishopric expressed concern on June 27 that the small community of Capricorn Coast on Queensland聮蝉 central coast faced potential pollution from undisclosed military toxins as a result of the Talisman Sabre 2007 US-Australian war games at Shoalwater Bay.
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More than 80 people packed out the Aboriginal Cultural Centre on June 23 for a public 聯people聮蝉 trial聰 of US President George Bush. The meeting, organised by the Wollongong Stop Bush committee, heard testimony from Saeb Ali from Peace for Lebanon, Maritime Union of Australia Port Kembla branch secretary Gary Keane and Walk against Warming initiator and Resistance member Paola Harvey.
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Striking workers at the Esselte Australia warehouse in Minto have described as 聯unrelenting聰 their employer聮蝉 tactics in attempting to force them to sign individual contracts (AWAs).
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On June 28, the Unions NSW council meeting adopted a motion expressing 聯support and solidarity with the Saharawi people in their struggle for freedom and independence. Unions NSW strongly condemns the gross violations of human rights carried out by the Moroccan regime against Saharawis, including students, workers and human rights activists in the occupied areas.聰
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The gay and lesbian community in Cairns is planning the inaugural Tropical Pride Festival, to be launched on September 16 at the Tanks Arts Centre from noon, with music from 5-9pm.
News
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On June 26, 50 inner-west film fanatics gathered inside the Petersham Bowling Club to revive another 16mm film print from the National Film and Sound Archives 聴 a place so far immune from attack in the 聯history wars聰.
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The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that of the 46 million pregnancies terminated each year, some 19 million occur outside the legal system. Most of these illegal abortions are unsafe 聴 performed by unskilled providers, or in unhygienic conditions, or both. Each year, an estimated 68,000 women die as a consequence of unsafe abortions.
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Ninety people crowded into the Redfern Community Centre on June 25 to hear traditional owners, environmentalists and Aboriginal rights activists explain their concern about federal government plans to set up a nuclear waste dump in the Northern Territory. It was the last event of the 聯From the Heart, For the Heartland聰 national speaking tour.
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On June 26, federal education minister Julie Bishop announced a new board to draft a new national Australian history curriculum. Among the draftees are conservative historian Geoffrey Blainey and right-wing commentator Gerard Henderson. This is the Howard government enforcing its own racist ideology on history teaching.
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The Killalea State Recreation Park between Shellharbour and Kiama comprises 250 hectares of Crown land on 8km of coastline renowned for its surf beaches.
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One of the Latrobe Valley聮蝉 longest-running industrial protests has ended. Former employees at Mechanical Engineering Corporation聮蝉 (MEC) Yallourn workshop left the site on the June 16-17 weekend after a 277 day protest.
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91自拍论坛 Weekly will be taking a one-week break. Our next issue will be dated July 18.
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An Indigenous man died in custody in Queensland on June 26. The death came a week after police officer Chris Hurley was found not guilty of the assault and manslaughter of Indigenous man Mulrunji on Palm Island in 2004.
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A snap protest at Parliament House attracted 250 people on June 27 against the federal government聮蝉 plan to send police and military into Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory. Speakers included Greens Senator Bob Brown, who labelled the plan a 聯concocted pre-election strategy by a government who for 11 years has done nothing for Aboriginal people聰. Sara Maynard from the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre suggested that protesters聮 anger be directed toward the Tasmanian premier and parliament for going along with the plan, while Aboriginal activist Jimmy Everett pointed out that PM John Howard is fighting one injustice with more injustice. Susan Austin from the Socialist Alliance spoke about the 聯Justice for Mulrunji聰 campaign and said more deaths in custody would be likely under Howard聮蝉 racist plan.
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Renowned left-wing author Tariq Ali told a packed public lecture at the Seymour Centre on June 26 that claims that we had reached the 聯end of history聰 had been well and truly disproven by the revolutions now sweeping Latin America.
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Up to 1000 activists descended on the town of Yeppoon on the central Queensland coast for the June 22-24 weekend of action against Operation Talisman Sabre 鈥 joint US-Australia war games.
Analysis
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Jasmine Ali was found not guilty on June 26 on charges relating to her involvement in a February 22 protest against US Vice-President Dick Cheney. The same day that she appeared before the court, the NSW government鈥檚 APEC Meeting (Policing Powers) Bill passed unamended through the NSW upper house. Ali was the second of two Cheney protesters to win court cases. There are six more trials to take place.
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During the last year the global warming debate has reached a turning point. Due to the media hype surrounding Al Gore鈥檚 film An Inconvenient Truth, followed by a new assessment by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the climate sceptics have suffered a major defeat.
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One of the major issues on which the next federal election will be fought is Work Choices, the 鈥渞evolutionary鈥 new workplace relations system the Howard government is taking credit for. Yet it was invented by the taxi industry mafia decades ago. It is called the bailee-bailor agreement and we cabbies 鈥 mugs that we are 鈥 have put up with it with barely a whimper.
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Heard the story about the last capitalist on Earth who sold the rope used to hang the second last capitalist? Well, they will try and make a buck from anything.
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Two of the world鈥檚 worst climate vandals 鈥 US President George Bush and PM John Howard 鈥 are preparing their lofty green rhetoric in the lead-up to the so-called 鈥渃limate change鈥 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Sydney in September.
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Dr Gary MacLennan, a long-time socialist activist and lecturer in creative industries at the Queensland University of Technology, was suspended for six months without pay on June 6. He, along with a colleague, Dr John Hookham, was charged with misconduct following the publication of an article in the Australian that criticised a PhD film project that mocked the disabled. Students and staff launched a support campaign for the two suspended lecturers which has linked up with a struggle against QUT鈥檚 decision to close down the school of humanities and human services.
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Leaders of the Mutitjulu community have questioned the need for a military occupation of their small community. Below is an abridged version of their June 27 statement.
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PM John Howard聮蝉 decision to 聯take control聰 of 60 to 70 Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory began to be implemented on June 27 when the first Australian Federal Police (AFP) officers flew into the Aboriginal township of Mutitjulu, near Uluru. The police officers were met by a large community delegation demanding answers.
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Condolence and commendation For many years I worked in the Hunter Valley and Central Coast, and secured a modest livelihood from the splendid people who ran small businesses there. I was extremely upset at the loss of life that came about from the
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In a June 25 joint statement issued with his Australians All co-patron and former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) chairperson Lowitja O聮Donoghue, former Coalition PM Malcolm Fraser attacked the Howard government聮蝉 June 21 announcement that it was taking control of 60 Aboriginal communities in remote areas of the Northern Territory as a 聯throwback to past paternalism聰.
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Aboriginal activist and legal director of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre Michael Mansell has questioned whether PM John Howard is accurately reading the report he claims motivated his new push into Aboriginal communities. The following is abridged from a June 25 press statement issued by Mansell.
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The good news is that Australian politicians and corporations are finally recognising that there is an environmental crisis. The bad news is that the 鈥渟olutions鈥 being promoted by the establishment define what is realistic for capitalism, so the 鈥渘eed鈥 for big business to remain profitable sets the parameters of what is 鈥減ossible鈥.
World
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She stood out at the table crowded by journalists and onlookers who kept entering the room. Her white hat with an intricate band of weaving shadowed her face as she spoke out in the constituent assembly聮蝉 Vision of the Country commission: 聯I will never forget how they killed our ancestors like Tupac Katari [an indigenous rebel leader], the way indigenous people have been treated like fleas, discriminated, excluded. That is why we are here, to call for profound change. We need a state that is plural, made up of many nations. But you, the slaves of multinationals, want no change at all.聰
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In a move reminiscent to the 1947-89 Cold War, on June 15 Washington imposed a series of restrictions on the export to China of high-tech goods, including aircraft engines, high-performance computers and other technologies that might have military applications.
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East Timor is holding parliamentary elections on June 30. Many commentators predict former president Xanana Gusmao聮蝉 new party, the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT), will form government, ousting the current ruling Fretilin party. However, a new government is unlikely to bring an end to the severe social and economic crisis besetting the country, Tomas Freitas from Luta Hamutuk (聯Struggle Together聰), a Timorese activist group that monitors the state budget and the petroleum fund (now worth US$1.4 billion), told 91自拍论坛 Weekly聮蝉 Peter Boyle. Freitas is also a member of the Consultative Council on the Petroleum Fund, which is comprised of government and civil society representatives.
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After several days of intensive, sometimes heated, discussions and membership consultations, public-service unions voted on June 28 to end their national strike and accept the South African government聮蝉 聯settlement offer聰. The strike, which began on June 1, was the longest and largest public-sector strike in South Africa聮蝉 history, with more than 700,000 workers on strike and another 300,000, for whom it was illegal to strike, taking part in militant marches, pickets and other forms of protest.
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Renewed Israeli airstrikes and ground incursion into the densely populated Gaza Strip have resulted in at least 13 Palestinians, including three children, being killed and more than 44 injured.
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Four years after an inquiry established collusion between British intelligence, the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the loyalist paramilitary killers of leading Belfast civil rights lawyer Pat Finucane, the Northern Ireland Public Prosecution Service (PPS) ruled on June 25 that there was 聯insufficient evidence聰 to bring charges against any police officers or British military intelligence personnel.
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According to a June 25 Venezuelanalysis.com report, the formation of the new United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) has entered a new phase. Officials and party militants had met in Caracas the previous weekend at the 聯National Meeting of Candidates for PSUV Militants in Caracas聰. According to the report, 聯Record numbers of Venezuelans have registered to be members of the new party聰 and the grassroots process of forming the PSUV 聯continues with wide participation聰.
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聯One week after American forces mounted their assault on insurgent strongholds in western Baquba, at least half of the estimated 300 to 500 fighters who were there have escaped or are still at large, the colonel who is leading the attack said Monday聰, the June 26 New York Times reported.
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Nigeria聮蝉 combative working-class movement has shown its strength and militancy. An overwhelmingly observed four-day nationwide general strike, which began on June 20, succeeded in rapidly forcing the country聮蝉 new president to back down on an announced doubling of value-added tax and increased fuel prices. The degree of popular support for the strike revealed that the 23-day-old regime of President Umaru Yar聮Adua is already thoroughly discredited and despised.
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In the wake of widely covered opposition protests against the Venezuelan government聮蝉 decision not to renew Radio Caracas Televison聮蝉 (RCTV) broadcasting licence following its countless violations of the law and its role in the 2002 coup attempt against the democratically elected government, 91自拍论坛 Weekly聮蝉 Sam King spoke with lawyer and writer Eva Golinger in Caracas. Golinger is the author of The Chavez Code and Bush Versus Chavez, which expose US intervention into Venezuela aiming to overthrow Chavez.
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Secretary general of the Saharawi Union of Journalists and Writers (UPES) Malainin Lakhal, currently on a speaking tour of Australia, spoke to 91自拍论坛 Weekly's Tony Iltis about the human rights situation in Western Sahara and the Saharawi people's long struggle for democracy and self-determination.
Culture
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Why Boycott Israeli Universities?
British Committee for the Universities of Palestine 2007
35 pages, 拢2.50
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A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, From the Cold War to the War on Terror
By Alfred W. McCoy
Metropolitan Books, 2006290 pages, $38.95 (hb)
American Torture: From the Cold War to Abu Ghraib & Beyond
By Michael Otterman
Melbourne University Press, 2007
285 pages, $24.95 (pb) -
For the sixth year, Melbourne鈥檚 community radio station 3CR (855AM) will conduct live radio broadcasts with Indigenous prisoners during NAIDOC (National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee) Week. But 3CR Indigenous broadcaster and musician Kutcha Edwards, who has been part of these unique broadcasts since they began in 2002, would rather they weren鈥檛 necessary.