Australia

A crowd of up to 200 protesters met in support of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at the “Rally for Assange and WikiLeaks: Don’t Shoot the Messenger” at Sydney Town Hall on October 6.—

The Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network released the statement below on October 8. * * *

Independent journalist Austin Mackell sent the statement below to be read out at an October 6 rally in Sydney to support Julian Assange and WikiLeaks.

About 200 people rallied in Sydney on October 6 at a protest organised by the Support Assange and WikiLeaks Coalition and the Stop the War Coalition Sydney. Speakers are the rally included Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon, independent journalist Antony Loewenstein, Sydney branch secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia Paul McAleer, The Justice Campaign's Aloysia Brooks and Stop the War Coalition's Christine Keavney. Rally-goers also heard statements of support from independent journalist Austin Mackell, lawyer and human rights activist Kellie Tranter and the Afghan Peace Volunteers.

Arthur Murray died the other day. I turned to Google Australia for tributes, and there was a 1991 obituary of an American ballroom instructor of the same name. There was nothing in the Australian media. The Australian newspaper published a large, rictal image of its proprietor, Rupert Murdoch, handing out awards to his employees. Arthur would have understood the silence.

Barry Commoner, “a leader among a generation of scientist-activists” (New York Times) and possibly “the greatest environmentalist of the 20th century” (Ralph Nader), died in New York on September 30, aged 95.

In the past 11 years of the so-called war on terror, Australian troops have been sent to two US-led wars. The West has killed more than a million Iraqis and tens of thousands of Afghans, and displaced millions more. Our government backed the NATO intervention in Libya and is currently supporting everything short of military intervention in Syria.

This public statement was released on October 3 and was initiated by the signatories below. To add your name to the statement visit here.

Over the recent Labour Day weekend in Canberra, students from around the country came together at the EduFactory conference to discuss the current situation of Australian universities, to swap strategies and understanding and to foster links between campaigns and collectives. The conference was the result of dedicated work by grassroots organisers and included current and former, undergraduate and post-graduate students from a wide range of political persuasions.

The Sri Lankan civil war ended in 2009 and in the war’s aftermath there has been a plethora of serious human rights abuses perpetrated by the Sri Lankan government. Some of these abuses include abductions, torture and the murder of journalists and civilians, including women and children.

The Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney (STICS) released the statement below on October 1. * * * STICS has renewed calls for the national income management system to be dismantled, following the release of a damning report by the NT Coordinator General for Remote Indigenous Services (NTCGRIS). The report, which documents extreme waste on spending on bureaucracy, comes as the $120 million national expansion of income management is badly stalling, with few referrals and work bans on the scheme in NSW.

Police arrested and handcuffed two Brisbane-based activists, Rebecca Barrigos and Sid Zaoichi, after they set up a stall and petition against the state government’s budget cuts at a Brisbane university campus on September 21. Green Left Weekly’s Liam Flenady spoke to Barrigos about the arrests and the campaigns against austerity and for free speech in Queensland. * * * What were you and fellow activist Sid Zaoichi campaigning for on campus and why was security called to evict you?