On July 5, anti-war activist Peter McGregor confronted Attorney-General Philip Ruddock at a University of NSW symposium and served him with a warrant for war crimes. Police arrested McGregor, a retired academic from Newcastle, and charged him with 聯unlawful entry on inclosed lands聰. The warrant charged Ruddock, along with PM John Howard, foreign minister Alexander Downer and defence minister Brendan Nelson with crimes including 聯Planning, preparing, initiation or waging a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances聰.
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聯Governments will only act when they are forced to by social movements聰, Dr Mark Diesendorf told around 150 people at the Queensland University of Technology on June 28. 聯In the USA and Australia, these social movements around climate change are growing, and involving a broader sector of the community.聰
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聯I completely agree with New Zealand Maori Party MP Hone Harawira that Prime Minister John Howard, by attacking marginalised Aboriginal communities, is a 聭racist bastard聮聰, Aboriginal leader and Socialist Alliance Indigenous spokesperson Sam Watson said in response to Harawira聮s July 9 comments.
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Fifty delegates from the Queer Collaborations student conference, held in Hobart from July 9 to 13, rallied on July 12 in solidarity with Northern Territory Indigenous communities that are being invaded by federal police. The conference voted to support the Indigenous community in the NT against the Howard government聮s interference. The rally then marched to Liberal Senator Eric Abetz聮s office to hand him the statement written by the elders of the Mutitjulu people, which asked for community assistance but not police intervention.
News
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On July 14, Gold Coast doctor Mohamed Haneef was charged with 聯providing support to a terrorist organisation聰 after 12 days in detention without any charge. His detention without charges or a trial shows the danger to civil liberties posed by federal and state 聯anti-terror聰 laws.
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Arumugam Rajeevan, an Australian cirizen of Sri Lankan Tamil origin, was arrested in Sydney on July 10 on terrorism charges. This follows the May 1 arrest of two Tamils in Melbourne on similar charges.
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A gathering of 150 unionists and political activists stood outside the Queensland ALP conference held at Brisbane聮s Exhibition and Convention Centre on June 30. Organised by the state branches of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union and the Electrical Trades Union, the protest called on the ALP to maintain the promise made at the ALP national conference to abolish the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC). After the national conference, Labor聮s industrial relations spokesperson Julia Gillard announced that a Labor government would keep the ABCC until 2010.
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Some 80 people packed the Resistance Centre on July 1 for a Latin America solidarity conference organised by the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network (AVSN), Australia Solidarity with Latin America (ASLA) and the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) committee.
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Money for nothing "The 11th annual study of 71 countries by investment bank Merrill Lynch and consultancy firm, Capgemini found that buoyant economic growth across the world pushed the riches of 'high net worth individuals' (HNWI) up by a hefty
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My university, the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), has given 22 student and staff records to the Australian Federal Police, the NSW police and the Australian Taxation Office.
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The annual rally for NAIDOC week on July 13 drew a crowd of 1500-2000 people. While officially a day to celebrate the survival and revival of Indigenous culture and heritage, outrage at PM John Howard聮s recent intervention in the Northern Territory was palpable in the crowd. A sea of placards and banners made reference to the importance of protecting land rights, and fears about children being taken away.
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July 5 marked 196 years since Venezuela declared its independence following a long struggle led by the country聮s Indigenous people and a black slave revolt. To mark Independence Day, the embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela hosted a public conference in Sydney on July 7.
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During the visit of US aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk to Sydney, Stop the War Coalition activists held two anti-war protests 聴 on July 5 and 8. Under the gargantuan shadow of the Kitty Hawk activists handed out anti-war material, held a banner calling for the end of the occupation of Iraq, and spoke out for the withdrawal of Australian and US troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.
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A report by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission (HREOC), launched on June 22, recommends that laws discriminating against gays be removed. The report comes at a time when record numbers of Australians are in favour of gay marriage.
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Thousands of people rallied on July 13 and 14 around Australia during NAIDOC (National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee) week. Around 400 people gathered in Brisbane on July 14. Speakers from as far away as the Torres Strait Islands spoke out against Howard鈥檚 invasion of the Northern Territory, Aboriginal deaths in custody, inequality in health and housing, and the Beattie government鈥檚 plans to forcibly amalgamate councils. New Zealand activist Julia Espinoza spoke about Maori solidarity with Aboriginal people.
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In a judgment against the police that was describing as 聯scathing聰 by Sydney Morning Herald journalist David Marr, magistrate David Heilpern dismissed all charges against the two 聯tranny cops聰 who were violently arrested at a protest against US Vice-President Dick Cheney on February 23. This brings to four the number of Cheney protesters who were charged and acquitted.
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Fifteen of the 20 workers at the Esselte site in Minto, in Sydney聮s south-west, have been on strike for four weeks. The stationary company has been trying to force its employees onto Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs 聴 individual contracts) for two years.
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On June 30, 45 people met to prepare the next phase of the Save Ralph聮s Bay (SRB) action group聮s campaign against a proposed canal housing estate being built by the Walker Corporation, owned by billionaire Lang Walker, inside the publicly owned Ralphs Bay Conservation Area, in the Derwent river estuary.
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In an unexpected backdown, the Queensland University of Technology agreed in the Federal Court on July 12 to continue paying the salaries of the two lecturers who were suspended after they criticised a documentary titled Laughing at the Disabled: Creating Comedy that Confronts, Offends and Entertains, produced by QUT PhD student Michael Noonan.
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Internationalism was a strong theme of the 36th Resistance conference held in Sydney over July 5-8. Apart from hearing from Julia Espinoza from Socialist Worker in New Zealand and Gusti Galuh Ratna Sari from the Indonesian National Student League for Democracy, the whole conference took part in a separate one-day forum on July 7 organised by the Venezuelan Embassy.
Analysis
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PM John Howard聮s new 聯intervention聰 policy in the Northern Territory has begun with federal and state police storming into Indigenous communities.
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The 10th national Labour History Conference on June 4-6 delved into the labour movement聮s past, but also featured interesting debates about present-day concerns.
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聯John Howard is more than happy to welcome war criminal George Bush to Sydney in September, but he won聮t even give the time of day to struggling workers, such as Botany Cranes union delegate Barry Hemsworth, who is still on the grass more than 300 days after being unfairly sacked聰, Socialist Alliance activist Pip Hinman told 91自拍论坛 Weekly.
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PM John Howard and ALP leader Kevin Rudd have both attacked Unions NSW secretary John Robertson for comments, secretly recorded and leaked to the media, made at a Bennelong Your Rights at Work meeting in late June.
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Recent attacks on the organic food industry are about discrediting it to soften up the public to accept genetically modified (GM) crops, Dr Maggie Lilith of the Conservation Council of WA and the Say No to GMO campaign told 91自拍论坛 Weekly.
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I am sure readers would agree that the real swindlers were exposed in the discussion after the much-watched screening of Martin Durkin聮s Great Global Warming Swindle on ABC TV last week.
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聯Australian Defence Minister Brendan Nelson has admitted that securing oil supplies is a key factor behind the presence of Australian troops in Iraq.聰 This was how the BBC reported Nelson聮s July 5 comments to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on the release of a review of Australia聮s 聯defence strategy聰.
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Ali Humayun, the queer Pakistani locked up in Villawood Immigration Detention Centre, is suing VIDC management and the federal government for negligence of care.
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Pressure from unions over the exploitation of foreign workers employed under the 457 visa scheme for temporary workers has forced the Howard government to tighten some of the regulations.
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Three years after extending its moratorium on the commercial growing of genetically modified (GM) crops, the Victorian ALP government appears poised to remove the ban when it expires in February 2008.
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In last month聮s elections in the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU), the Workers聮 Rights team took all positions against a ticket led by an alliance between the union聮s print and vehicle divisions. Some Workers聮 Rights candidates received over 80% of the vote. In the Victorian branch, where most positions were strongly contested, 40% of members voted.
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聯We聮ve tried to enter Palestine by land. We聮ve tried to arrive by air. Now we聮re getting serious. We聮re taking a ship聰.
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A bill recently pushed through federal parliament has the potential to threaten state moratoriums on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) by granting new powers to the federal agriculture minister, a WA anti-GMO activist told 91自拍论坛 Weekly.
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It is often thought that concern for the interconnection of living systems is a modern development. But Karl Marx聮s talked about it repeatedly throughout his Capital.
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The following is abridged from a letter sent by Dean Mighell, Victorian secretary of the Electrical Trades Union, to ALP leader Kevin Rudd following Mighell聮s forced resignation from the party on May 30.
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On June 25, Russell Miles, a proud member of the International Socialist Tendency and widely-loved community activist, ended his life.
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'Speciesism' While I can agree with Richard Blumer (GLW 713) about the horrors of intensive capitalist animal farming and the need for reform to prohibit cruel and unnecessary suffering of animals, I cannot agree with his argument that "speciesism
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We mourn our friend and comrade Gail, who lost her valiant battle with cancer on July 2.
World
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聯Nearly five months into a security strategy that involves thousands of additional US and Iraqi troops patrolling Baghdad, the number of unidentified bodies found on the streets of the capital was 41% higher in June than in January, according to unofficial health ministry statistics聰, the July 4 Washington Post reported.
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Coinciding with the release of a report by Human Rights Watch exposing endemic human rights abuses in West Papua and the refusal to allow a member of the US Congress to visit the province, protests featuring the Morning Star flag were held.
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In the two weeks following the Sharm el Sheikh Summit on June 25, at which Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert promised to release 250 Fatah-affiliated prisoners from Israeli jails, Israel abducted more than 300 members of Fatah in the West Bank.
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The June 30 election has resulted in neither of the two main contenders 聴 the ruling party Fretilin and the recently formed CNRT (National Congress for Timorese Reconctruction) 聴 gaining an outright majority for a new parliament. Fretilin secured 29% of the vote, followed by CNRT with 24%. After the result was announced by the National Election Commission on July 9, a process of wrangling ensued within the East Timorese elite over how the government shall be composed and who shall lead it.
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Indonesian police routinely torture, rape and kill with impunity in West Papua and risk fanning separatism there, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released on July 5.
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On June 27, Tony Blair finally stepped down as prime minister, exiting Downing Street to the sound of loud jeers from anti-war protesters and families of soldiers killed in Iraq. His successor, former Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, gave a brief speech at the door of Number 10 in which he used the word 聯change聰 no less than eight times. Many British trade union leaders have been hoping that Blair聮s departure and Brown聮s ascendency may signal a move away from the neoliberal agenda pursued by three successive Blair governments. This was always a vain hope, as Brown was Blair聮s treasurer for the entire 10 years of his reign and architect of many of New Labour聮s most reactionary policies, including the infamous Private Finance Initiatives that have brought many National Health Service trusts to the brink of bankruptcy.
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The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) ruled on June 28 that the 2001 conviction of Libyan citizen Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi 鈥 sentenced to 27 years鈥 jail for allegedly bombing Pan Am flight 103, which exploded over the Scottish town of Lockerbie on December 21, 1988, killing 270 people 鈥 鈥渕ay have suffered a miscarriage of justice鈥. The SCCRC referred al Megrahi鈥檚 case to Scotland鈥檚 appeal court.
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Like the rest of Latin America, Venezuela鈥檚 history is scarred by colonialism鈥檚 racist legacy 鈥 Venezuela鈥檚 people were dispossessed in 1520 following Spanish settlement. In the following centuries, they were systematically killed and their land exploited. Slavery, which allowed the colonisers to plunder Venezuela, existed until 1854, and at the time of the 1830 constitution neither indigenous people nor those descended from Africa were recognised as Venezuelans.
Culture
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Joanna Blythman exposes the hype about the recent British food revolution as a myth.
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Lucky Miles
Directed by Michael James Rowland
With Kenneth Moraleda, Rodney Afif and Srisacd Sacdpraseuth
In cinemas from July 19 -
The Monster at our Door: The Global Threat of Bird Flu
By Mike Davis
The New Press, 2006
216 pages, $22 (pb) -
Smoke suffocates charcoaled slabs of continents while
Uncertain politicians hesitate to make unpopular precedents.
Now or never.
Sunshine energy abounds, but rejected as being economically unsound.
Heat melts the ice as white bears drown in spreading seas but
Industries cling to destructive, established technologies.
Now or never.
Evolution? or extinction?
@auth poem = Selina O聮Brien