GLW issue 686, published 2006-10-11.

Free West Papua!

The third annual national gathering of the Australian Coalition of West Papua Support Groups on September 16-17 affirmed the right of the people of West Papua to self-determination and decolonisation.

Public behind Hicks

A September 1-3 Newspoll survey commissioned by the progressive lobby GetUp revealed that more than 91% of people in Australia believe Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks deserves a fair trial without delay. Only 24% believe he will receive a fair trial at Guantanamo Bay. Visit <><http://www.getup.org.au>.

Sit-in at housing ministry

Around 150 urban settlers from 20 settlements in Perak, Selangor and Kuala Lumpur gathered on October 2 at the housing ministry to mark World Habitat Day and demand the ministry cease issuing eviction notices against them. Many of the settlements are threatened with forcible eviction by developers and local authorities without any fair compensation or alternative housing. Eventually the ministry’s director agreed to arrange an appointment between a protest delegation and the housing minister. Photos from <><http://parti-sosialis.org>.

Loose Cannons

Trained not to get caught "The US general helping train Iraq's police forces on Wednesday said none of the death squad members detained in the past month during a security operation in Baghdad had ties to the Ministry of Interior or other

Further

Union activists plan national gathering

Australian News

'Justice for Mulrunji' actions planned

Around 50 people — including the brother of Mulrunji, who died at the hands of police in the Palm Island watch-house in November 2004, many other Murris and representatives from Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation, the Greens, the Democrats and the Socialist Alliance — gathered on October 5 at Jagera Hall to plan a march on state parliament on October 10 to demand justice for Mulrunji.

Green Left Weekly Fighting Fund 2006: Serious political business

When Indigenous activist and socialist Sam Watson talks about "serious political business" he means just that.

Further Australian News

International News

New poll: Iraqis want troops out

“A strong majority of Iraqis want US-led military forces to immediately withdraw from the country, saying their swift departure would make Iraq more secure and decrease sectarian violence, according to new polls by the State Department and independent researchers”, the September 27 Washington Post reported.

Celebrating five years of the women's bank

On September 12 Venezuela’s left-wing President Hugo Chavez announced the expansion of the Development Bank for Women — Banmujer — during a meeting in the Teresa Carreno Theatre to celebrate five years since the bank’s founding. Chavez offered another 100 billion bolivares (A$65 million) in resources to the bank.

Further International News

Comment and Analysis

Peak oil: Is the oil running out?

“Dear reader, civilisation as we know it is coming to an end soon.” This is how the Peak Oil: Life After the Oil Crash website introduces itself. Peak oil is the theory that the world’s oil supplies will soon reach their highest output, their peak, after which there will be a rapid decline in output. The website argues that “the consequences (if true) would be unimaginable. Permanent fuel shortages would tip the world into a generations-long economic depression. Millions would lose their jobs as industry implodes. Farm tractors would be idled for lack of fuel, triggering massive famines. Energy wars would flare.”

Bangladeshi gay man refused protection visa

Motahar Hussein is a Bangladeshi man seeking asylum in Australia. He has been languishing in the Villawood refugee detention centre for two years because the Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT) has twice refused to accept that he will face homophobic persecution if he is forced back to Bangladesh. Green Left Weekly’s Rachel Evans spoke to Hussein in Villawood.

Further Comment and Analysis

Editorial

US threats drive Korea nuke crisis

On October 3, North Korea’s foreign ministry issued a statement announcing that US “threats of nuclear war, sanctions and pressure compel the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] to conduct a nuclear test, which is essential for bolstering its nuclear deterrent and as a corresponding measure for defence”. Western spy agencies estimate North Korea has enough plutonium to make up to 10 nuclear bombs.

Letters

Letters to the Editor

Climate change Lachlan Malloch reviewed Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth in GLW #683, concluding: "The film's suggestion of individual and largely apolitical actions, mute what could have been a clarion call for radical global change." Citizens

Cultural Dissent

Calling progressive poets

Poets for PalestineDeadline for submissions November 10, 2006Email <><Poets4Palestine@gmail.com> or mail to P.O. Box 255 New York, NY 10013, USA

The frontier revisited

The Other Side of the Frontier: Aboriginal Resistance to the European Invasion of AustraliaBy Henry ReynoldsUNSW Press, 2006245 pages, $29.95 (pb)

Further Cultural Dissent

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