Kerry Smith

Five hundred people rallied outside the Perth Supreme Court Gardens on July 11 to demand that the coronial investigation into Mr Ward's tragic death be reopened. Mr Ward, a respected Aboriginal elder, was literally cooked to death in the back of a prisoner van while being driven from Laverton to Kalgoorlie to face court for a traffic offence in January 2008. The coroner found that temperatures inside the van reached 47° Celsius and that metal surfaces in the van would have reached 56°C.

On May 31, Israeli defence force commandos boarded an aid ship in international waters. The ship was trying to break the illegal military blockade of the Gaza strip and transport much-needed food and medical supplies. Nine aid activists were killed and several snap actions were held in Australia to condemn Israel’s actions and call for an end to the blockade. On June 1, 250 people rallied in Brisbane to condemn Israel’s attacks on the Gaza aid fleet. ALP vice-president Wendy Turner, and socialist activist and lecturer in creative industries Gary MacLennan, spoke.

Members of the Iranian community and their supporters protested outside the NSW state parliament on May 13 after the executions of five union activists in Evin prison in Tehran on May 9. Shirin Alam-Houli, Ali Heydarian, Mahdi Islamian, Farzad Kamangar and Farhad Vakili were hanged after being convicted of Moharebeh — “waging war on God”. Four of the activists were members of Kurdish opposition groups.

The campaign against league tables continued on May 11 with a protest organised by the Inner City Teachers Association (ICTA) of the NSW Teachers Federation. Fifty people rallied outside the office of NSW education minister Verity Firth. After the Australian Education Union federal executive’s last-minute decision to lift the ban on the National Assessment Program — Literacy and Numeracy tests, the action showed the campaign against league tables, and the damage they do to school communities, will continue.

Everyone Can be a Hero By J. R. Birch Inside Outsider Publications, 2010, 293 pages In The Iron Heel, Jack London used a narrative from the future to present the dystopian and utopian possibilities that existed in his time. Everyone Can be a Hero, a new independently published book for older children and teenagers, uses a similar device.

A mass community protest at the biggest coal port in the world, Newcastle, has succeeded in preventing coal ship movements all day on March 28. Hundreds of peaceful protesters occupied the harbour since 10 am in the morning.

The brutal killing of three Palestinian men by Israeli military forces in Israeli-occupied Nablus on December 26 sparked grief and outrage across Palestine and brought the northern West Bank city to a standstill as thousands mourned the lethal attack.

A protest picket outside the Sydney office of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd demanded an end to the racist NT intervention on October 29. The intervention was initiated by the previous Coalition government and continues under the ALP. It imposes welfare apartheid on NT Aboriginal communities and threatens Indigenous land rights.

October 30 was a national day of action in support of South Australian building worker Ark Tribe.

SYDNEY — Leichhardt Council, and Greens mayor Jamie Parker, will host a public meeting on November 7 to show support for Sydney Ferries against a state government proposal to privatise the service.

SYDNEY — NSW Greens MLC John Kaye addressed a morning rally outside the Financial Review Energy Conference on October 23.

More than 175 different climate change actions took place across Australia on October 24. The protests were part of the 350.org international day of climate action.