Action updates

NTU picket

DARWIN — Resistance members led a small picket at the Northern Territory University open day on August 27. The official theme of the day was "Open your mind". Activists titled the day "Open your mind ... but pay the fine" and handed out leaflets while marching with banners and placards. The picket was aimed at highlighting increasing fees and continual cuts to education funding, particularly the arts faculty. Cutting costs has recently meant failing to renew the contract of progressive politics lecturer Jim Jose.

Sinn Fein tour

BRISBANE — Sinn Fein emissary Jim Neeson spoke to a meeting at the Shamrock Hotel here on August 29, sponsored by Australian Aid for Ireland. Neeson is on a tour seeking public support for the peace process launched with the historic IRA cease-fire on August 31, 1994.
"A settlement in Ireland must take in all the communities and organisations", he said. "There is no place for bigotry and sectarianism." Neeson called on supporters of a free Ireland to support the peace process and to back Australian Aid for Ireland in its campaigns.

Call for Irish all-party talks

ADELAIDE — A well-attended picket of the British charge d'affaires office here on September 1 marked 12 months of the cease-fire in Ireland. Organised by Australian Aid for Ireland, the Coalition for the Irish Peace Process and Saoirse (Freedom for the Prisoners), the protest called upon the British government to begin all-party talks.

Ban landmines campaign

ADELAIDE — Pedestrians in Rundle Mall were confronted by a hazardous landmine field as they attempted to do their shopping on August 28. These landmines were fake, but real mines kill or maim 26,000 people each year.
The action was organised by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL). The crowd of around 50 people was addressed by the lord mayor of Adelaide, Henry Ninio; the Australian coordinator of the ICBL, Sister Patricia Pak Poy; and representatives of the Medical Association for the Prevention of War and Community Aid Abroad. Petitions were circulated calling on the Australian government to support a ban on landmines.
BRISBANE — The Queensland committee for the ICBL staged a display in Brisbane's Queen Street Mall on August 28. The committee — backed by 100 non-government aid, medical, church and trade union organisations — wants the federal government to support a total ban on landmines. The government has rejected this call, claiming landmines are a "legitimate defensive weapon."

Protest at Evans meeting

MELBOURNE — One hundred supporters of East Timor's right to self-determination rallied outside a meeting at Melbourne University on August 31 at which foreign minister Gareth Evans spoke about H.V. Evatt, Australia's postwar foreign minister, the "first internationalist".
Protesters pointed to the hypocrisy of Evans speaking on internationalism, given the Australian government's record of support for the Suharto dictatorship in Indonesia. The protest, organised by University Students for East Timor, was sponsored by Fretilin, CNRM, UDT, the Australia-East Timor Association, Aksi and Resistance.
One protester entered the meeting and requested one minute's silence for the dead of East Timor. The entire meeting, including a reluctant Evans, stood to observe it. Evans commented, "Yes, I'm doing as much as I can for East Timor".

Hospital defended

ADELAIDE — More than 500 angry residents of the western suburbs attended a meeting at the Fantasia Convention Centre here on August 30 organised by the "Keep the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Public" campaign. Former premier Don Dunstan chaired the meeting, and speakers included Claire McCarty, a QEH nurse, Sandra Kanck, a Democrat representative, and a spokesperson from the Save Modbury Hospital Action Group.