Palestine forum
BRISBANE "For a day, the Palestinians felt that the whole world had not forgotten them", Eric Storlie, a peace activist recently returned from the Israeli-occupied West Bank, told a forum and video night at the Resistance Centre on October 18.
Storlie, based in Toowoomba, explained that he and other members of the International Solidarity Movement, a network of peace activists, had succeeded in clearing an earth blockade that prevented supplies of food and medicine reaching a Palestinian village in the West Bank. The presence of the international guests was a welcome boost for the Palestinian people, Storlie said.
The night also featured a revealing documentary film, Israel's Women in Black, about Israeli women peace activists who challenge the Israeli military's occupation.
Rally for publicly funded midwives
DARWIN Accompanied by 30 children and infants, 50 adults rallied outside the Northern Territory parliament on October 16 to demand fully publicly funded midwives and an end to insurance premium hikes on midwives. Home births currently cost around $1800.
While the World Health Organisation recognises the continuity of care provided by midwives as "the most appropriate care for the majority of healthy women", the NT Labor government is refusing to adequately fund mobile midwives to allow women the choice of giving birth at home.
Charges against Nike protesters dismissed
MELBOURNE The case against five protesters arrested outside the Nike superstore in Swanston Street in June 2001 was dismissed as "insufficient" in the Magistrates Court on October 14.
The five protesters had been charged by police with "besetting" the Nike premises and "obstructing police" during the the 10th weekly Friday night picket for workers' rights held outside the Nike store.
During the case it was stated in evidence that the police had mobilised 210 police officers on the night in order to crush the weekly protest.
From Green Left Weekly, October 23, 2002.
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