The recent uprising in West Papua was sparked by racist attacks on Papuan students in the Indonesian city of Surabaya. However, the West Papuan people have been struggling for more than 60 years against Indonesian occupation, human rights violations and for the right to self determination.
Indonesian occupation has led to human rights abuses, disappearances, kidnappings, extrajudicial killings, forced displacement and the death of an estimated 500,000 Papuans.
Union leader Esmail Bakhshi, student and civil rights activist, Sepideh Gholian, and four activist journalists were sentenced to long prison sentences by the Iranian regime on September 7.
As the climate crisis worsens, the fires that are currently raging across New South Wales and Queenslandse are becoming the new normal.
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of London on August 31 to oppose British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plan to prorogue parliament and force through his Brexit agenda. More national mobilisations have been planned for September 7–8.
Indonesian People’s Front for West Papua (FRI-West Papua) spokesperson, Surya Anta was arrested in Jakarta on August 31 and accused of “subversive” acts in relation to his advocacy for West Papua.
The Parramatta Women’s Shelter, which will meet a critical need in Sydney’s west, has secured a lease and supporters say it will be ready to welcome women and their children within months.
On August 17, Indonesian Independence Day, armed Indonesian police, soldiers and radical Islamic militia stormed a student dormitory in the Indonesian city of Surabaya (on the island of Java), which housed West Papuan students, arresting 43. The attack reportedly took place because the students had allegedly refused to raise the Indonesian flag.
This unmissable play, starring Colin Friels, is a eery reminder of the still pervasive power of religion over science and the tensions between the pursuit of knowledge and the power of official ideology.
Farooq Tariq, spokeperson for the Awami Workers’ Party, in Pakistan spoke to Green Left Weekly on August 6 about the situation in Kashmir.
It’s understandable to feel enraged watching the news about our climate: record-breaking summer temperatures across Europe, the disappearing Arctic ice sheet, deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon. It’s depressing stuff. Green Left is an antidote.
