Issue 900

News

  • Occupy Melbourne calls for Treaty with Indigenous Australia

    Occupy Melbourne released the below on October 27. * * * Occupy Melbourne鈥檚 8th general assembly passed a proposal, put forward by the Indigenous Working Group, to support the creation of a treaty between the First Nations of Australia and the Australian Commonwealth Government. The call for recognition of Aboriginal Sovereignty gained public prominence in Australia with the establishment of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra in 1972.

  • Yarra Socialist Party councillors pledge support to Occupy Melbourne

    Socialist Party Yarra City councillors Anthony Main and Stephen Jolly released released this letter below to Occupy Melbourne on October 27. * * * Dear Occupy Melbourne comrades, Thank you for your letter to Councillors requesting support from the Yarra City Council. On behalf of the two Socialist Party Councillors at Yarra we would like to offer the following brief reply.

  • Union secretary: 鈥楳elbourne Lord Mayor Doyle should resign鈥

    Communications Workers Union secretary Len Cooper released this statement on October 25. * * * Melbourne Lord Mayor Doyle has been responsible for one of the most disgraceful episodes in this city's history. The Occupy Melbourne protesters were holding a peaceful, disciplined, well organised protest, largely confined to the city square, thus preventing inconvenience to most others.

  • FoE slams decision to extend life of Anglesea coalmine

    Friends of the Earth released the statement below on October 25. * * * Today鈥檚 announcement that coalmining will be allowed to continue at Anglesea is possibly the worst in a long list of bad environmental decisions since the Baillieu government was elected, according to Friends of the Earth. The government says that the supporting legislation, introduced to parliament today, will 鈥渕odernise鈥 its agreement with the Anglesea coalmine and power station and support regional jobs.

  • Occupy Auckland sends open letter to Julia Gillard

    The general assembly released this 鈥淥pen Letter to the Prime Minister of Australia鈥 on October 24. * * * From the General Assembly of Occupy Auckland, New Zealand In session, the 24th day of October, 2011 Madam Prime Minister, Respectfully, we the assembled citizens, residents and supporters of the Auckland Occupation wish to convey to you our deepest disappointment in the recent repression by Australian police of the peaceful demonstrators in Melbourne鈥檚 City Square and Sydney's Martin Place.

  • LIVE BLOG: Occupy Sydney general assembly

    9.30pm: The general assembly passed several other proposals (which happened after GLW's laptop had a temporary power emergency). These included: a decision to lodge a schedule one with the police outlinining a march route from Town Hall, to Wynyard Park, to Martin Place, and back to Town Hall. The assembly also agreed on the statement read out earlier that night. Now occupations in Brisbane, Canberra, Perth, Melbourne and Adelaide have a common statement, which will be printed by Fairfax by Friday (so we were told).

  • Murray Darling Basin Authority to open floodgates for mining

    The released the statement below on October 19. * * * The Lock The Gate Alliance claims that the Murray Darling Basin will be another casualty as Precautionary Principle is thrown to the wind in the resources boom. Lock the Gate President, Drew Hutton says pressure from States addicted to mining royalties is most likely to be behind the Murray-Darling Basin Authority鈥檚 (MDBA) plan to allow massive increases in groundwater use in the forth-coming Murray Darling Basin Plan.

  • Occupy Perth general assembly prepares for action

    Between 80 and 100 people gathered for an open-air general assembly in Perth on October 22. It began at 11am and finished around 5pm. The main purpose of the assembly was to make plans for establishing a Perth occupation at the end of the Chogm Protest (taking next Friday, October 28) that would last at least throughout the CHOGM summit. There was quite a constructive discussion and a lot of enthusiasm to begin an occupation next weekend. Eleven working groups were established.

  • Occupy Melbourne calls for inquiry into police violence

    released the statement below on October 21 following a brutal police attack on protesters earlier that day. * * * Occupy Melbourne have called for a full inquiry into unlawful police behaviour amid scenes of police violence on the streets of Melbourne today. The call comes after riot police disrupted a peaceful demonstration in Melbourne鈥檚 CBD.

  • Occupy Adelaide gets organised

    Inspired by Occupy Wall Street and the global revolt against corporate greed, a diverse range of new and experienced people have gathered at several public assemblies, each of more than 40 people, to discuss building the movement in Adelaide. Following an October 15 action where 200 people gathered in Victoria Square, the collective has held a major working bee to make banners, signs, placards to help build awareness of Occupy Adelaide.

  • Occupy Sydney statement: 'Join us -- we are all 99%'

    read out the statement below at an October 22 rally held at the occupy site in Sydney鈥檚 Martin Place. The statement was adopted unanimously by about 1000 rally attendees. * * * We are the workers. We are the indebted. We are the immigrants and the indigenous. We are the homeless. We are the students. We are the unemployed. We are the underrepresented people of the world. We are the 99%. We are Occupy Sydney.

  • Diary of an occupation 鈥 seven days at #occupymelbourne

    91自拍论坛 Weekly鈥檚 Sue Bolton has been part of the protest since it began on October 15. Below she recounts the past week of the occupation in Melbourne鈥檚 City Square, which was broken up by a fierce police assault on October 21.

  • Nurses vote to defend health care, human rights

    Same-sex marriage, the inhumane treatment of asylum seekers and serious issues affecting the aged care sector were among agenda items discussed at the Australian Nursing Federation鈥檚 (ANF) Biennial National Conference 2011. The conference met over October 20-21 in Canberra. The ANF is the professional and industrial voice for nurses, midwives and assistants in nursing (AINs). Its membership stands at 214,000 and it is one of Australia鈥檚 fastest-growing unions.

  • Gladstone harbour dredging could have caused fish disease

    The Queensland government lifted a ban on fishing in and around Gladstone Harbour on October 6, but controversy over diseased fish goes on. Writing in the October 19 Courier Mail, environment reporter Bryan Williams : 鈥淭he mystery of the Gladstone fish disease outbreak continues, with scientists focusing on a parasitic flatworm and about 300 tonnes of Barramundi that spilled into the Boyne River last summer from Awoonga Dam.

  • ATO staff to vote again on enterprise agreement

    Australian Taxation Office management has announced it will put a revised draft enterprise agreement up for a staff vote between November 9 and 15. The new version is little different from management鈥檚 original proposal, which was rejected by staff by a margin of 59% to 41% in June. The total pay rise being offered is still 9% over three years, which is less than the expected rate of inflation.

  • High spirits at Occupy Sydney after four days

    The continued into its fourth day with a kitchen, information desk, media centre and people鈥檚 library set-up, as protesters come and go from the now comfortably established rally site.

  • Giant rally held in Illawarra against coal seam gas

    More than 3000 people walked across the iconic Sea Cliff Bridge today in opposition to coal seam gas (CSG) mining. Simultaneously, abseilers lowered a banner from the escarpment that said: "This community has spoken. Stop CSG". Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery, and councillors George Takacs, Lee Colacino, Bede Crasnich, Vicki Curran, Jill Merrin and Greg Petty attended the walk.

  • Protest commemorates SIEV-X refugee disaster

    About 200 people attended a rally and march in Brisbane Square on October 15 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the sinking of the refugee boat SIEV-X, with the loss of 353 lives 鈥 146 of whom where children. The then-Howard government and Australian navy knew of this disaster but allowed these asylum seekers, fleeing war and persecution, to die. Speakers at the rally included former Democrats Senator and now Greens member Andrew Bartlett, an Iraqi refugee now settled in this country, and human rights lawyer Julian Burnside.

  • Big turnout at Townsville Stop CSG rally

    Organisers were stoked with an exceptional turnout for an anti-coal seam gas (CSG) rally that took place in Townsville on October 16 as part of the coordinated national day of action. More than 150 protesters marched from Victoria Bridge through town chanting slogans such as 鈥淔rack is whack鈥 and 鈥淟ock the gate, before it鈥檚 too late鈥. The rally proceeded to Anzac Park where various speakers addressed the crowd. Gail Hamilton from the North Queensland Conservation Council said: 鈥淭he people in Townsville are standing up and saying we don鈥檛 want CSG鈥 It is not a safe energy option.鈥

  • Qld: Hundreds rally to defend water from CSG

    More than 600 people rallied and marched in Brisbane鈥檚 CBD on October 16, as part of a national day of action to 鈥淒efend our water from coal and coal seam gas鈥. The rally in Queens Park was sponsored by the Lock and Gate Alliance and Defend Our Water Queensland. Lock the Gate Alliance spokesperson Drew Hutton told the rally: 鈥淲e live in the driest country on earth. To allow the mining industry to pollute our water and destroy our best farming land is a disgrace. 鈥淲hy is the Labor government allowing the mining companies to ruin our state? And the Liberal-National Party are no better.鈥

Analysis

  • Video: Can the #Occupy movement grow in Australia? (with GLW editor Simon Butler)

    Many commentators and politicians have argued that the global movement of occupations that followed the Wall Street occupation against the rule of the richest 1% will not take root and grow in Australia, which has so far escaped the current global recession. Simon Butler, an activist in #OccupySydney and co-editor of , disagrees.

  • What鈥檚 holding renewables back?

    The barriers to renewable energy are many. It鈥檚 not just a matter of the draconian new Victorian laws against wind farms 鈥 the legacy of government support for fossil fuels also hangs heavily over the renewables sector.

  • Socialist Alliance condemns police attacks on Occupy camps: 'They cannot arrest the truth'

    The released this statement on the morning of October 23. * * * Socialist Alliance condemns violent police attacks on Melbourne and Sydney occupations Socialist Alliance condemns the violent police dispersal of peaceful protesters at Occupy Melbourne (October 21) and Occupy Sydney (dawn, October 23) and pledges its full support for the re-establishment of these occupations against the tyranny of the world's richest 1%.

  • Mental anguish, torment: daily life for detained refugees

    As the federal Labor government was forced to drop its maligned 鈥淢alaysia solution鈥 and process all refugees arriving by boat in Australia, there was the hint that its inhumane detention of thousands of refugees would also be questioned.

  • 91自拍论坛 Weekly reaches 900 issues, fights on

    This is the 900th issue of 91自拍论坛 Weekly. We are very confident that we will get to the 1000th issue and beyond. We know we can continue to be the most-read environmental and left campaigning newspaper and website in Australia. The fact that we reach this milestone amid a still-growing global movement of occupations against the tyranny of the world鈥檚 richest 1% goes some way to explaining our confidence.

  • War criminal Rajapaksa to visit Perth

    Several prominent Australian human rights advocates have called for protests when Sri Lanka鈥檚 鈥渨ar criminal鈥 president, Mahinda Rajapaksa comes to Perth in late October to attend the Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

  • Mining companies on the rampage in south-west Australia

    Australia鈥檚 south-west is the only part of the country internationally recognised as a biodiversity hotspot. It is also a major agricultural area. The south-west town Margaret River is one of the country鈥檚 primary wine producing regions and a major tourist destination.

  • Coal seam gas fight is about our future

    Stop CSG Illawarra鈥檚 Jess Moore gave the speech below at the 3000-strong rally against coal seam gas mining that took place in Clifton, north of Wollongong, on October 16. * * * Like so many people who live in the north Illawarra, there is a creek that flows through my backyard. Most of those creeks come from aquifers: the Hawkesbury Sandstone Aquifer System that the coal seam gas companies want to drill through to get the gas. This campaign is about our future and our right to protect this area 鈥 to protect our drinking water, our food and our future.

  • People power is key to our future

    national convenor Peter Boyle gave the speech below at the recent Climate Change Social Change activist conference, held in Melbourne over September 30 to October 3.

  • Bob Carr wrong to lecture occupy movement

    Former New South Wales Premier Bob Carr says he is excited by the Occupy Wall Street protests against US corporations, which deserve 鈥渁 roughing up 鈥 after the abuses that blighted the lives of ordinary families鈥. Yet he has decided the protest movement has no future.

  • Corporate managers have more psychopathic traits, says study

    More corporate managers are psychopaths than the general population, a detailed research project has discovered. The University of British Columbia study , published in Behavioural Sciences and the Law, March/April 2010, looked at professionals who had been spotted as potential management material, the people thought to have the skills that could get them to senior positions.

  • Survey: global wealth in hands of the few

    The huge number of transnational capitalist firms straddling the planet are effectively controlled by a very small group of centrally important players, says a ground-breaking survey conducted by Swiss researchers. Deploying statistical methods normally used in physics, Stefania Vitali, James B. Glattfelder and Stefano Battiston of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, data-mined information held by business intelligence firm Bureau van Dijk. The data, which included company ownership structures, allowed a new insight into the relationships between 43,060 corporations.

World

  • Video: Police gas protesters, dismantle Occupy Oakland

    Oakland police stormed the Oakland Occupy protest encampment outside City Hall just before 5 a.m. PDT. Police lobbed flash grenades and reportedly fired tear gas. Initial reports say at least 70 people have arrested and the police tore apart the protest camp.

  • Global Occupy actions: A victory for the outraged

    October 15 was the first time since February 2003, with the huge demonstrations in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq, that a call for an international action on a specific date has met with such a response.

  • Gaza: Some prisoners freed, but hunger strike continues

    A confusing feeling passed through me after hearing about the exchange of 1027 Palestinian detainees for the only Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, who was held captive by the Palestinian resistance fighters. I don鈥檛 know whether to feel happy or sad. Gazing at the faces of the prisoners鈥 families in the solidarity tent in Gaza City on October 18, I see a look that I have never seen before: eyes glittering with hope. Thinking about those women whose relatives are most likely to be released and seeing their big smiles makes me happy.

  • Greece: Unions set for more strikes

    Greek trade unions warned on October 21 of further strikes in the next week after parliament approved new harsh cutbacks amid mass protests that left one man dead and about 200 injured. Civil servants' union Adedy secretary-general Ilias Iliopoulos said the new law "will not be implemented" and accused the government of ignoring popular dissent. Greece's main private-sector union, GSEE, was also planning new strikes. GSEE board member Stathis Anestis said: "We plan long-running opposition to ensure that the crippling cutbacks imposed by our loan shark predators are not enforced."

  • Kenya invades Somalia, blames Islamists

    On October 16, Kenyan forces entered southern Somalia. The invasion is aimed against the Islamist militia al Shabaab. It is in response to a recent rise in cross-border kidnappings of Westerners, with four abducted in the past month. Kenya is not the only regional country with soldiers in Somalia, which has not had a functioning government since 1991. An African Union force of 9000 Ugandan and Burundian troops has been in the country since January 2009, when it replaced an Ethiopian force. AU troops have launched their own offensive against al Shabaab.

  • West Papua: Army starts fresh crackdown on freedom movement

    Indonesian army forces brutally attacked the Papuan national conference in Abepura on October 19. The conference was attended by up to 20,000 people discussing West Papua's struggle for independence from Indonesia. WestPapuaMedia.info said on October 21 that local sources confirmed six people were killed. New Matilda.com reported on October 20 an account from a priest who saw a truck full of arrested people who were 鈥渃overed with blood鈥 and had been 鈥渂eaten and shot鈥.

  • Occupy London Stock Exchange: 'The system is unsustainable'

    On October 15, about 4000-5000 of protesters in London descended on London's financial sector as part of the 鈥淯nited for Global Change鈥 actions that took place in more than 1000 cities and towns worldwide. Occupy London Stock Exchange is occupying an area in front of St Paul's Cathedral and holding people's assemblies to discuss the goals, demands and direction of the movement.

  • Scenes of joy in besieged Gaza

    The sense of joy was palpable in the streets of Gaza on October 18 as hundreds of Palestinian prisoners jailed by Israel returned home. It was a remarkable day in the life of the territory鈥檚 1.6 million Palestinians. During the past five years Israel has levied a heavy price on Gaza's civilian population for the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit by Palestinian resistance fighters. It has been extracted with Israel鈥檚 warplanes, tanks, bulldozers and relentless siege.

  • John Pilger: The Son of Africa claims continent鈥檚 crown jewels

    United States President Barack Obama announced on October 14 that he was sending US special forces troops to Uganda to join the civil war there. In the next few months, US combat troops will be sent to South Sudan, Congo and Central African Republic. They will only "engage" for "self-defence", says Obama, satirically. With Libya secured, a US invasion of the African continent is under way. Obama's decision is described in the press as "highly unusual" and "surprising", even "weird". It is none of these things. It is the logic of US foreign policy since 1945.

  • Tunisia: Elections amid fresh protests, confusion

    After being delayed by three months, the official campaign for Tunisia's constituent assembly began on October 1, paving the way for the October 23 elections. More than 80 different parties, many formed or legalised since the overthrow of dictator Zine el Abidine Ben Ali on January 14, and about 1500 different lists vyed for a place in the 218-member assembly.

  • Global indignation inspires Spanish movement

    The overwhelming success of the October 15 鈥淯nited for Global Change鈥 demonstrations (which took place in more than 1000 cities and towns in about 90 countries) is having powerful positive feedback on the indignados (15-M) movement in Spain.

  • Kenya: Flower cash crops reap hunger, destruction

    An estimated 2.4 million Kenyans are facing food insecurity this year. One cause is poor rains, which have affected all of north-east Africa and are probably at least partially the result of climate change. Another is the rising cost of imported food. Rising food costs are also partly caused by climate change, but also by speculation. For the finance industry, food is just another commodity to be bought, sold or hoarded to generate the most profits.

  • Yemen: Fresh bloodshed as Saleh hangs on

    The latest wave of the bloodshed that has taken place in Yemen since September 18 shows the country鈥檚 hated President, Ali Abdullah Saleh, has no intention of leaving power peacefully. At least 35 people were killed and many more were wounded in government attempts to crack down on protesters between October 15 and 18, The Guardian said on October 18. Government forces also battled tribal fighters and defected soldiers loyal to anti-Saleh political forces.

  • Occupy movement spreads to Pakistan

    Left-wing political parties, trade unions, social activists and student groups at a press conference in the Labour Party Pakistan (LPP) office invited people to join them in an Occupy Lahore anti-capitalist camp at Nasir Bagh in the city centre. The camp will continue for at least two days. A program for the camp will be announced soon. The camp is being set up in solidarity with the worldwide Occupy movement and the growing unrest among peoples caused by the global economic recession.

  • Peru: Business-friendly cabinet named amid some reforms

    In the aftermath of Ollanta Humala鈥檚 June 5 victory in the Peruvian presidential election, the 鈥渋nvestment community鈥 and the international business press reacted with the hysteria of thieves who think they have heard a distant siren approaching. Their first impulse was to cut and run. Peruvian stocks plunged amid fears that this 鈥渞adical leftist鈥 would put an end to the 鈥済ood times鈥, levelling higher taxes on mining profits and perhaps nationalising key export industries.

Culture

  • Tanner glosses over Labor's faults

    Sideshow: Dumbing Down Democracy By Lindsay Tanner Scribe, 2011 232 pages, $32.95 (pb) Lindsay Tanner, the former finance minister in the federal Labor government, laments in his book, Sideshow, the rotting core of democracy in Australia that plumbed its most dismal depths in the lacklustre, 鈥渘on-of-the-above鈥 elections of 2010. The commercial media, he says, have been responsible for dumbing down the quality of political debate and sapping the level of popular political engagement. There is much in Tanner鈥檚 critique that is accurate.

  • BDS update: Voices screaming to be heard in Gaza

    Electronic Intifada (EI) brought together three stories in early October that paint a vivid picture of the need for a cultural boycott of Israel. This certainly is no surprise, given that EI is without a doubt the best source out there on the Palestinian struggle.

  • Jewish diaspora opposition to Israel detailed

    Jewish Identity & Palestinian Rights: Diaspora Jewish Opposition to Israel By David Landy Zed Books, 2011, 272 pp., $49.95 Just over a year ago, I attended the launch of the radically Zionist 鈥淔riends of Israel鈥 (supporters of the state of Israel as an exclusively 鈥淛ewish鈥 state) at the charismatic Christian Victory Life church in Perth. I did so openly as a member of Friends of Palestine. I sat with my Palestinian scarf draped around my Jewish neck and listened nervously to more than two hours of speeches.