Two new documentaries that screened at the recent Sydney Film Festival shine a light, in contrasting but powerful styles, on an important, yet often neglected story in the refugee narrative — why people seek asylum.
Zebedee Parkes
Refugee activists in Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney held protest vigils for Salim Kyawmin, an elderly Rohingya man who died on Manus Island on May 22. The largest action was in Melbourne where 200 people occupied the streets for a short, time stopping traffic. In Perth refugee activists occupied the department of Immigration, making flowers and in Brisbane a protest was held in front of Peter Duttons office.
While the architect of Australia’s detention system Liberal Senator Jim Molan was rehearsing his lines to promote this cruel system on ABC’s Q&A, a woman was arrested for the crime of standing outside and peacefully holding a banner reading “Close the Camps, Bring Them Here”.
David Bradbury is an iconic left-wing filmmaker who has been at the forefront of telling the stories of people fighting against injustice and oppression for the past four decades.
Maritime Union of Australia workers, along with representatives of several other unions, walked off work to protest out the front of the Fair Work Commission offices to demand the right to strike in Sydney on May 29.
Vigil for Salim, a Rohingya man who died on Manus Island after being detained more than five years, suffering epilepsy and denied medical treatment.
Another person who came to Australia seeking safety and security died on Manus Island on May 22. The Rohingya man is the seventh person to die on Manus Island since Labor re-established offshore detention.
The man died after jumping out of a bus — it is being reported as a suicide. Doctors for Refugees had been calling on the government to bring him here for more than a year as he suffers from epilepsy.
Hundreds of people marched through Labor MP Anthony Albanese's electorate calling on him and Labor to oppose the Adani coalmine on May 19.
About 500 people gathered in Sydney on May 15 in support of Palestine, hours after the Israeli military killed more than 50 Palestinians who were peacefully protesting as the US opened an embassy in Jerusalem. Palestinians claim Jerusalem as their capital.
May Day this year, held on May 6 in Sydney, was the strongest, most powerful and largest May Day I have marched in for years.
I joined with dozens of union contingents comprising thousands of workers in Sydney, chanting “The workers united will never be defeated” and “What do we want? The right to strike.”
In our latest episode we look back at some of the largest May Day marches in Australia in years and discuss the growing Change the Rules for workers' rights campaign.
10 ways to win workers rights https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/...
Thousands of people marched through Sydney on May 6 as part of the Change the Rules campagin.
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