GLW issue number 918

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Phil Monsour Band releases Ghosts of Deir Yassin CD

Musician and activist Phil Monsour is releasing his latest 12-song CD, Ghosts of Deir Yassin after the mobilisations for Palestinian Land Day on March 30. The CD is available online at Cdbaby and other outlets.

GREEN LEFT TV: Malalai Joya on why Australian troops should leave Afghanistan

Malalai Joya, a brave activist from Afghanistan who opposes Western occupation and local Afghan warlords, gives an impassioned message to the Australian government and the Australian people. Among the questions she answers are: Who is Australia supporting? What is the role of Australian troops in the occupation? What should Australian people do?

International News

Indonesia: Protests explode over fuel price rise

Indonesia has been rocked by an explosion of popular protest against fuel price rises right around the country. Indonesian Police Watch says between March 23 and 26 alone, there were 1063 demonstrations, 16 police stations were damaged and 750 protesters were arrested. Green Left Weekly's Peter Boyle spoke to Dominggus Oktavanius, secretary-general of the Peoples Democratic Party (PRD) of Indonesia on April 4 about the outbreak of mass unrest. * * *

East Timor: How the poorest threaten the powerful

Czech writer Milan Kundera's truism, "the struggle of people against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting", described East Timor. The day before I set out to film clandestinely there in 1993, I went to Stanfords map shop in London's Covent Garden. "Timor?" said a hesitant sales assistant. We stood staring at shelves marked "South-East Asia". "Forgive me, where exactly is it?" After a search he came up with an old aeronautical map with blank areas stamped, "Relief Data Incomplete". He had never been asked for East Timor, which is just north of Australia.
Further International News

Comment and Analysis

Community proposes cooperative alternative to factory closure

Far from taking the closure of the Heinz tomato factory sitting down, workers and community members from the 150-strong rural Victorian town of Girgarre are getting organised. After the announcement by Heinz last year that it would shut down its operations in Girgarre, 200 kilometres north of Melbourne, more than 300 people met there in August and formed the Goulburn Valley Food Cooperative (GVFC). See also How 'productivity' is destroying rural Australia

How 'productivity' is destroying rural Australia

Behind the hype of Australia’s mining boom and “economic stability” lies the very real crisis affecting rural Australia. The impacts of droughts and floods (aggravated by capitalist-induced climate change) are part of the explanation. The real culprits behind the devastation being wreaked on rural communities are big business and the free market fundamentalists running the country in their interests. And unless a fundamental shift in priorities takes place, the situation is set to worsen. See also:
Further Comment and Analysis