BY SARAH STEPHEN
There is a huge range of refugee solidarity web sites popping up every day, reflecting the broadening of support and sympathy for the plight of people trying to find a safe haven in Australia.
Children out of Detention (ChilOut) is campaigning to get children, along with their primary carers or families, out of detention. ChilOut has an impressive web site with a lot of useful resources, including reports from lawyers and psychologists about the effect of detention on children, fact sheets, drawings from children in detention and a regular list of activities. Visit <http://www.chilout.org>.
Australia Cares is a web site that was set up to support the Woomera detainees' hunger strike. It includes a discussion forum, details on how to get Say Yes to Refugees stickers and a report from the Adelaide university lecturer arrested while taking part in a hunger strike at Woomera detention centre. Visit <http://www.australiacares.org>.
Australians Against Racism was set up in October. The group's web site opens with the statement: There comes a time and point in history when silence is betrayal. That time is now. We want to use the mainstream media to speak up and say we do not support what is being done to refugees, asylum seekers and detainees in this country. The group has produced a television advertisement involving many artists and actors. It can be viewed at <http://www.australiansagainstracism.org>.
Another recent addition to cyberspace is an innovative campaign calling itself Spare Rooms for Refugees, a Victorian-based project to help asylum seekers enter the community, support refugees and promote alternatives to detention. The site includes the names and addresses of refugees in detention, with an appeal for people to write letters to them. It also contains handy barbecue facts for use in discussions. Go to <http://www.spareroomsforrefugees.com>.
Rural Australians for Refugees is a national network of groups in rural and regional areas. It began in NSW in October and has snowballed, with many other RAR groups forming around the country. The web site contains a thought-provoking plan for small towns to contribute to resettling refugees. Visit <http://us.geocities.com/rar1953>.
We are all boat people is the theme of a web site of an expanding group of media activists, artists, videographers, webheads, writers and designers. Together, the site says we have the power to challenge the border panic encouraged by the rhetoric of fear. We are making media and cultural actions to remind the government and people everywhere that all (non-indigenous) Australians are in fact 'Boat People'. From the First Fleet in 1788, through two centuries of migration, to the most recent arrivals, we share a common past and a current obligation to our fellow human beings.
The group launched itself with a huge banner-drop off the side of the Sydney Opera House, an image of a First Fleet ship and the words Boat People. The group encourages a thousand small actions, and provide some tools for how to participate, including a tactical media kit. Visit <http://www.boat-people.org>.
The campaign for a royal commission into the treatment of refugees now has an online petition, which also allows you to make a comment. Visit the royal commission site at <http://www.refugee-royal-commission.org> and visit <http://www.PetitionOnline.com/ausrefug/petition.html> to sign the petition.
From Green Left Weekly, February 6, 2002.
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