GLW Calendar, 2012-02, Melbourne

Date: Wed 1 Feb, 12:30pm

On the eve of the federal government decision that could make or break HRL, the proposed new coal-fired power station for Victoria, it�s up to us to convince the politicians that in 2012, new coal-fired power stations are a dud investment. Together we can convince the Gillard Government to withdraw their $100 million, and put it into renewable energy instead. Speakers include Mr. Kelvin Thomson, ALP Member for Wills and Mr. Adam Bandt, Greens Member for Melbourne. Victorian Parliament Steps, Spring St, City.

Website: Stop HRL

Date: Thu 2 Feb, 6:00pm

Speakers: Dennis Altman; Alice Echols; Jeffrey Weeks; hosted by Helen Razer. ACMI, Federation Square, City. Presented by La Trobe University & the Australian Lesbian & Gay Archives. $17/14.

Website: Midsumma

Date: Fri 3 Feb, 10:00am - Fri 3 Feb, 10:00pm

City Square, cnr Collins & Swanston Sts, City.

Website: Occupy Melbourne

Date: Fri 3 Feb, 4:41pm - Sat 4 Feb, 4:41pm

Forty years ago, a young Australian expat living in the USA synthesised the politics of the emerging gay liberation movement in a provocative book called Homosexual: Oppression and Liberation. In recognition of the fortieth anniversary of the publication of Homosexual and to mark Professor Altman's retirement, this international conference will bring together leading and emerging scholars to reflect on the impact of Homosexual and the legacy of gay liberation. Speakers from North and South America, Asia, Europe and Oceania will present over 80 papers. Hosted and funded by the Gender, Sexuality and Diversity program at La Trobe University in conjunction with the Australian Lesbian & Gay Archives, Midsumma, Victoria University and Australian Centre for the Moving Image. Victoria University, 300 Flinders Street, City.

Website: After Homosexual

Date: Fri 3 Feb, 6:00pm

Come along to Grumpys Green for some good green food, local drinks, and to listen to the great Madmen Band. Free entry; donations welcome. All proceeds will go towards the Oxfam East Africa Food Crisis Appeal. 6pm till late, Grumpys Green, 125 Smith Street, Fitzroy, VIC.

Date: Fri 3 Feb, 6:30pm

This book engages with today's big economic, environmental, democratic and social challenges; edited by Anitra Nelson & Frans Timmerman. Speaker: Jeff Sparrow (editor Overland). Entry free. Readings Bookshop, 309 Lygon St, Carlton.

Date: Sat 4 Feb, 12:45pm - Sat 4 Feb, 8:50pm

Yalukit Willam Ngargee will kick off the nine-day St Kilda Festival with an action packed program of free Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander music, dance, arts, children�s activities and more in O�Donnell Gardens. Music including: Jayden Lillyst; Benny Walker and Band; The Gracemakers; Tambo Company Band; Emma Donovan; The Last Kinection; Bart Willoughby Band. O'Donnell Gardens, St Kilda.

Phone: 9209 6306

Date: Sat 4 Feb, 3:00pm

Speakers: Moss Cass, (former Whitlam government minister) & Julia Dehm (Occupy Melbourne activist) in conversation with Anitra Nelson and Frans Timmerman (co-editors of Life Without Money). New International Book Shop, Trades Hall, Carlton South.

Date: Sat 4 Feb, 4:00pm

Inspired by Howard Zinn's books, The People Speak celebrates the extraordinary possibilities for creating social change that ordinary people have realized throughout the course of the United States' rich but often ignored history of dissent and protest. "If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will", Howard Zinn (1922�2010). Loophole Community Centre 670 High Street, Thornbury. Entry by $5 minimum donation: This will be a fundraiser to help pay for a computer for Mahmoud. Mahmoud is from Palestine and has had to seek asylum in Australia. He has been in detention centers for too long and even after being granted refugee status the Department of Immigration still keeps him locked up under the status of a 'security check'. So far, this security check has taken 8 months. Mahmoud is a talented illustrator and animator and this computer will allow him to start telling stories of refugees and to start being creative again.

Date: Sun 5 Feb, 11:00am

Allow foreign media in Syria. Syria wants free democratic society. Immediate end to killing of civilians. Respect people's right to peaceful protest. Provide immediate humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees. State Library, cnr Swanston & La Trobe sts, City. Organised by Australian Syrian Association.

Date: Sun 5 Feb, 12:00pm

Gather from 12 noon for march at 2pm Sharp. Cnr Lakeside Dr & Fitzroy St, St Kilda.

Website: Pride

Date: Mon 6 Feb, 10:00am - Mon 6 Feb, 4:00pm

SU Members at the Tenants Union Victoria are fighting for better pay and conditions. We will be stopping work and invite all supporters and other community sector workers to join us. We will be out the front of the office on Johnston Street sending the message to TUV management from 10:00am- 4:00pm. Tenants Union Victoria Office, 55 Johnston Street (between Nicholson and Brunswick Streets), Fitzroy, Australia. There will be a solidarity BBQ from 12:00pm- 2:00pm.

Date: Tue 7 Feb, 12:00pm

Action on first day of Parliament to remind them of the massive support for marriage equality. Parliament House, Canberra.

Date: Tue 7 Feb, 4:00pm

We have now been involved in the Afghanistan War longer than we were in Vietnam. A Roy Morgan poll late last year say 72% of Australians want the troops home - yet the war goes on. Join us in a vigil to oppose the war. 4:00pm - 7:00pm. Flinders St Station.

Date: Tue 7 Feb, 5:30pm

The Australian government is currently attempting to deport Afghan Hazara asylum seeker, Ismail Mirza Jan, to Afghanistan. Never before has an Afghan national been forcibly removed from Australia to Afghanistan. Recently Ismail received a temporary reprieve when the Federal Magistrates Court questioned whether he received 'procedural fairness' by the Australian government in their attempts to deport him. Ismail's deportation case will come back to the High Court on February 8. The refugee rights movement, and all those who oppose this move to forced deportations, have a short window of opportunity to build a broad campaign against the forced deportation of Ismail, and the terrible precedent it would provide for further deportations. Bourke St Mall. Organised by Refugee Action Collective (Victoria).

Date: Tue 7 Feb, 7:00pm

The first major feature documentary film revealing the impact of overfishing on our oceans; we see firsthand the effects of our global love affair with fish as food. Talk with Sea Shepherd after the film. Level 4, Ross House, 247 Flinders Lane, City. Entry by donation. The Big Picture at Ross House is a monthly film series showing films for the environment and social justice. This month we're supporting Sea Shepherd.

Date: Wed 8 Feb, 7:00pm

END: CIV illustrates the brutality of a civilization addicted to systematic violence and environmental destruction, and the heroism of those who confront it head-on. As Australia is beginning to experience more frequent environmental crises resulting from climate change and a history of poor environmental management this film will be instrumental in bringing awareness of the need to confront the system which allows this destruction to continue. Loophole Community Centre, 670 High St Thornbury.

Date: Thu 9 Feb, 7:00pm

On October 15 2007, activists around New Zealand woke to guns in their faces. Black-clad police smashed down doors, dragging families out onto roads and detaining some without food or water. In the village of Ruatoki, helicopters hovered while locals were stopped at roadblocks. Operation 8 involved 18 months of invasive surveillance of Maori sovereignty and peace activists accused of attending terrorist training camps in the Urewera ranges homeland of the Tuhoe people. Operation 8 asks why and how the raids took place. How did the War on Terror become a global witch-hunt of political dissenters reaching even to the South Pacific? Taame, Rangi, Emily and Urs, are the last to still face charges from the state terror raids of 15th October 2007 and their trial will start on 13th February 2012 in the Auckland High Court. This date has been confirmed which means we all have less than one month to get ready and do what we can to support. Reflections on Operation 8 & Q&A hosted by Gary Foley after the screening. Cinema 4 Cinema Nova, 380 Lygon St, Carlton. Tickets and payment on the door. $15 all profits go towards support for the Urewera 4 still on trial.

Date: Fri 10 Feb, 10:00am - Fri 10 Feb, 10:00pm

City Square, cnr Collins & Swanston Sts, City.

Website: Occupy Melbourne

Date: Fri 10 Feb, 6:00pm

As part of the global Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions campaign, Students for Palestine is taking on corporations in Melbourne's CBD that support the theft of Palestinian land and the brutality of the Israeli military. Bourke St, Mall.

Phone: 0410 513 302

Website: Students for Palestine

Date: Fri 10 Feb, 7:30pm

The Decline launch their second album full of humourous socio-political punk tunes. The Tote, 71 Johnston Street (Cnr Johnston & Wellington St), Collingwood

Date: Sat 11 Feb, 9:00am - Sat 11 Feb, 5:00pm

You're invited to join with Victorian climate action, fossil fuel and energy campaigners for a day of ideas and planning for Victoria's climate campaigns of 2012. Exciting plenary speakers will kick off the day, then campaigners from across Victoria will talk about what they are doing this year. From city Climate Action Groups, to farmers fighting coal mines, to direct action campaigners locking on to mining equipment and protecting native forests, to inspiring national renewable energy campaigns, to locals concerned about their kid's health. You can also propose your own work shop for an Open Space. Entry is by donation (to cover venue hire). South Melbourne Commons, 217 - 239A Montague St, South Melbourne. For more info email Brett.

Email: brett@thesharehood.org

Date: Sat 11 Feb, 11:00am

Stop Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Outside old GPO, corner Bourke and Elizabeth Streets, City • Death in custody of Terrance Briscoe, Alice Spring (5 January 2012) • 4th anniversary of the death of Mr Ward (27 January) • 5th anniversary of Queensland Police officer, Chris Hurley, being forced to front the Supreme Court charged with manslaughter and assault (5 February) • 8th anniversary of the death of TJ Hickey (14 February) • Stop Aboriginal deaths in custody — implement all 339 recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody • End privatisation of custodial services — cancel all contracts with G4S, SERCO and other profiteers from incarceration • Hold the police to account — end the practice of police investigating police. For an independent enquiry into the death of Terrance Briscoe. Establish elected community based review boards with the full legal and legislative powers to investigate, discipline and charge police, prison and custodial health officers found to be involved in a death in custody, negligence or lack of duty of care • End the harassment of deaths in custody families. Provide funding for families who have lost a loved one in custody to meet to allow their collective demands to be formulated, including suitable and adequate compensation. Use the $590,000 in fine money to establish a trust to honour the memory of Mr Ward. Erect a plaque at the fence line to remember TJ and publicise that his death was caused by a police chase. Remember Terrance Briscoe, Mr Ward, Mulrunji Doomadgee, TJ Hickey and all who have died in custody Organised by Indigenous Social Justice Association — Melbourne

Phone: 9388 0062

Date: Sat 11 Feb, 3:00pm

Featuring: The Coolbaroo Club (about racial apartheid in Perth in the late 1940s and fifties); The Tall Man (deals with the killing of Cameron Doomadgee on Palm Island in 2004); Ningla A-Na [Hungry for our land] (documentary about the establishment of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra in 1972). Starts 3pm. Further details TBA. Resistance Centre, level 5, 407 Swanston St, City (opposite RMIT). Organised by Green Left Weekly & Socialist Alliance.

Phone: 9639 8622

Email: peterson_err@hotmail.com

Date: Wed 15 Feb, 6:30pm

The main purpose of this meeting is to plan and delegate tasks for the projects we are committed to undertaking this year. Agenda: Introduction, LASNET background; Main commitments, Campaigns, our priorities; Solidarity delegation to Colombia; International multinational monitor; International visitors for 2012 from Chile (one of the president from CONFECH for April), a Colombian union leader from SINALTRAINAL for May; Possible gathering/conference for end of the year; Our publication, The Spectre. LASNET Space, Trades Hall Basement, cnr Lygon & Victoria Sts, Carlton South.

Website: LASNET

Date: Wed 15 Feb, 7:00pm

International Premiere with Michael Reynolds inspiring and personal story about a group of people building sustainable housing in the Baja California peninsula in Mexico. It serves as an introductory guide to building alternative sustainable housing, as well as describing, with the use of animation, how these buildings offer solutions to today’s most important issues like: energy, water, food, shelter, sewerage and recycling. This screening will be the International Premiere of the documentary, and will be introduced by Michael Reynolds the originator of the earthships bio-architecture concept. Reynolds was made famous through the documentary ‘Garbage Warrior’ which first introduced the ‘earthships’ theory to audiences around the world. After the film a Q&A with Reynolds will be held to further explore the concepts in the film. Melbourne Town Hall, cnr Collins & Swanston sts, City.

Date: Thu 16 Feb, 6:00pm

A major purpose of the Original Sovereign Tribal Federation is to unite Original society nationally. This purpose comes about through the vision to re-dignify relations with self and between genders and clans. Mark McMurtrie has 20 years experience in uncovering the fraud of the Crowns' claim to Sovereignty or dominion over the land and Tribes of this continent. Mark has a broad and in depth knowledge of how the parliaments of the UK and Australia have fraudulently tried to claim ownership over Tribal lands and people and has been instrumental in exposing the actions of the Crown Corporations' enslaving of Australians without Australians even knowing by using legal processes such as Capitus Dominutio Maxima. The invaluable information offered will include exposure to the documents which prove the nature and extent of the fraud being perpetuated by the Crown and its parliaments and how the Australian parliaments are now trying to claim ownership of both the land and people of this continent as slaves. Trades Hall, cnr Victoria & Lygon Sts, Carlton South. $10 waged, $5 unwaged. Memory stick's filled with Mark's work available for $30.

Date: Fri 17 Feb, 9:00am - Sun 19 Feb, 5:00pm

Federation Square & Birrarung Marr Event Park, near cnr Swanston & Flinders Sts, City.

Website: SLF

Date: Fri 17 Feb, 10:00am - Fri 17 Feb, 8:00pm

City Square, cnr Collins & Swanston Sts, City.

Website: Occupy Melbourne

Date: Fri 17 Feb, 12:00pm

Outside Telstra shop, cnr Bourke & Swanston sts, City.

Date: Fri 17 Feb, 5:00pm

Homegrown Australian documentaries about the organic permaculture revolution that is shaping the future of food. Entry by donation. 'Growing Change' follows the filmmaker’s journey to understand why current food systems leave hundreds of millions of people in hunger. It’s a journey to understand how the world will feed itself in the future in the face of major environmental challenges. 'Anima Mundi' asks will you survive the transition of human industrial civilization happening now due to peak oil and climate change? Can you see the forest for the trees, the earth for the dream, the universe for the seed? Anima Mundi is an innovative documentary about the planetary animal called Gaia and the human animal we deny, we deny at our own peril, yet a peril that is perfect in design. The Greenhouse, Federation Square, City.

Date: Fri 17 Feb, 6:00pm

Outdoor screening of documentary made by Sinem Saban & Damien Curtis about the NT Intervention; and a short film about the Kimberley campaign opposing the proposed gas hub at James Price Point. The screening will be preceded by live music and speakers including Greens Senator Richard di Natale. The focus is on making connections between the issues affecting indigenous communities in northern Australia, and involving us all in finding solutions. Doors open 6pm, speakers 7pm, and live music until dark, feature starts at 9pm. $20/$16. CERES Village Green, cnr Roberts & Stewart Sts, Brunswick East.

Phone: 9389 0100

Website: CERES

Date: Sat 18 Feb, 6:00pm

Eighteen years after a brutal attack against Ogaden Civilians by the Ethiopian Government and military, the Ogaden Youth and Students Union in Melbourne is hosting a Remembrance Day for the past and present victims and their family. Flemington Community Centre 24 Mount Alexander Rd, Flemington.

Phone: Layla 0423 674 009

Email: oysumelbourne@gmail.com

Date: Sun 19 Feb, 6:30pm

Hosted by esteemed poet and rapper Omar Musa (Moneykat). Performance Revolt, 12 Elizabeth St, Kensington. $18/$15. Organised by the Centre for Poetics and Justice.

Website: Centre for Poetics and Justice.

Date: Tue 21 Feb, 7:00pm

Speaker: Richard Denniss (The Australia Institute). City Square, Cnr Collins & Swanston sts, City.

Website: Melbourne Free University

Date: Wed 22 Feb, 6:15pm

Foreign correspondent Kim Barker’s personal account of reporting in Afghanistan and Pakistan, The Taliban Shuffle, is a fiercely honest – and occasionally hilarious – dissection of the absurdities of an intractable conflict. Barker, previously South Asia bureau chief for the Chicago Tribune, abandons the journalist’s conventional poker-faced neutrality for a mordant take on the newest American – and Australian – military quagmire. In conversation with Karen Middleton (An Unwinnable War). This is a free event; bookings are recommended. The Wheeler Centre, 176 Little Lonsdale Street.

Website: Wheeler Centre

Date: Wed 22 Feb, 6:30pm

A talk with the author Alex Mitchell, veteran journalist and one-time editor of the UK Trotskyist daily newspaper The Workers Press. In this role he travelled to the Middle East and interviewed Yasser Arafat, Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi. New International Bookshop meeting room, Basement, Trades Hall, Carlton. Entry by gold coin donation. Drinks and snacks available.

Date: Fri 24 Feb, 10:00am - Fri 24 Feb, 8:00pm

City Square, cnr Collins & Swanston Sts, City.

Website: Occupy Melbourne

Date: Sat 25 Feb, 2:00pm

The Occupy movement raises the questions of how and why the 1% maintain their rule at the expense of the 99%. Questions discussed will be: Can capitalism be reformed? Is socialism the only alternative? Can socialism be democratic? What would a socialist society look like? How can the 99% succeed in building an alternative society? Followed by "Introduction to Socialist Alliance". Resistance Centre, Lvl 5, 407 Swanston St, City (opposite RMIT).

Phone: 9639 8622

Email: peterson_err@hotmail.com

Date: Sat 25 Feb, 5:00pm

Panel discussion with Lionel Bopage, Michael Colin Cooke & Martin Mulligan. Darebin Intercultural Centre, 59A Roseberry Ave, Preston. Free dinner. Organised by Darebin Intercultural Centre.

Phone: 8470 8440

Email: intercultural@darebin.vic.gov.au

Date: Mon 27 Feb, 4:30pm

Richmond Town Hall.

Date: Mon 27 Feb, 7:00pm

Exhibition of paintings from the Saharawi refugee camps. Guest speaker: Carmela Baranowska, award winning documentary film-makker. Music by Brazilian Saba band Rio Samba. 7:00pm. The Clare, 421 Rathdowne st, Carlton. Drinks 6:00pm, 2 course dinner $45($40 conc). RSVP to Georgia 0425 702 975.

Phone: 0425 702 975

Date: Tue 28 Feb, 5:30pm

On February 28, over 100 million Indians will join together and walk off the job in what is likely to be the largest strike of workers the world has ever seen. The different labor unions have specific demands that they want to achieve with the strike. These include bringing contract workers up to the same level of employee protections as permanent workers, extending the minimum wage to cover the entire population, and countering the attacks on unions. Workers around the world will be standing in solidarity with those fighting for economic justice in India. Federation Square, City.

Website: Workers' Solidarity Network

Date: Tue 28 Feb, 6:30pm

Resistance Centre, Level 5, 407 Swanston St, City (opposite RMIT). A discussion about legal limits on the right to take industrial action and a campaign to win back the right to strike. Speakers: Len Cooper (Communication Workers Union telecommunications state secretary and founder of right to strike campaign); Tim Gooden (Geelong Trades Hall Council secretary); Paul Gilbert (Australian Nurses Federation). Only dictatorships ban strikes don't they? Wrong. Australia has so many legal restrictions to stop workers taking effective industrial action that the right to strike is effectively illegal. Victorian nurses and state public servants were forced to lift their only effective industrial bans. Qantas workers had taken very little industrial action before being locked out and banned from taking industrial action.

Phone: 9639 8622

Email: peterson_err@hotmail.com