Australia

An emergency action against a new bi-partisan plan to return to 'offshore processing' of refugees to Australia in detention camps in Nauru and PNG was one of several held around Australia on very short notice on August 15.

WikiLeaks released the statement below on August 16. * * * In a communication this morning to the government of Ecuador, the UK threatened to forcefully enter the Ecuadorian embassy in London and arrest Julian Assange. The UK claims the power to do so under the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987. This claim is without basis. By midnight, two hours prior to the time of this announcement, the embassy had been surrounded by police, in a menacing show of force.

Equal Love rally for Marriage Equality held in Melbourne on August 11, 2012 was attended by more than 3,000 people. Speakers included Federal MP Adam Bandt, Ryan Hsu from the NTEU, Doug Pollard from JOY FM. Michael Ross performed his song 'Equal Love'.

The Support Assange and WikiLeaks Coalition released the statement below on August 16. * * * Ecuadorian Foreign Minister, Ricordo Patino, has confirmed that UK police have threatened to invade the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and arrest Julian Assange. This would be an unprecedented and scandalous violation of international law.
Anglesea Air Action, a group of residents opposed to the Victorian government’s plan to extend the lease for Alcoa’s Anglesea coalmine for 50 years, released the statement below on August 15. * * * Anglesea Air Action criticise the state government’s renewal and extension of the Anglesea coalmine without releasing the Alcoa Health Risk Assessment which, it has been revealed, have been on their files for years.
The Support Assange and WikiLeaks Coalition released the statement below on August 16. * * * Extraordinary scenes are unfolding in London as British authorities are reported to have entered the Knightsbridge building, which houses the Ecuadorian Embassy, in defiance of more than 100 years of tradition which treats diplomatic compounds as sovereign territory of the embassy’s government.

Activists from Refugee Action Collective rallied in Melbourne on August 15 against the Gillard government using
Carolus Wimmer, a longstanding member of the Latin American Parliament and International Relations Secretary of the Communist Party of Venezuela, spoke at a Sydney forum on Latin America in revolt on August 11, sponsored by the Communist Party of Australia. During his Australian tour, he also addressed meetings in Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.
The report delivered by the Angus Houston-led “expert panel” on asylum seekers is not a plan for “stopping the boats” or stopping people from risking their lives at sea. It is a plan to demonise refugees and use them as a scapegoat for the rising government-led attacks on Australian people.
The ALP’s capitulation to populist refugee-bashing is wrong on so many levels that it's hard to know where to begin. The underlying rationale is patently false. The Age reported: “In a major backdown from her earlier insistence on the Malaysia ‘people swap’, Prime Minister Julia Gillard declared: ‘If people want to put up banners that this is a compromise from the government: dead — in order to start saving lives.’