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Refugee supporters in Melbourne have rallied four times in less than a week in support of Tamil refugees Priya and Nades, and their two Australian-born children, who the government wants to deport to Sri Lanka.

Diverse communities and voices are protesting across Australia to demand the government let Priya, Nades and their children stay in Biloela.

Hundreds rally at short notice in Sydney demanding the government release Priya, Nades and the girls and let them stay in Australia.

The Home to Bilo campaign features in this week's Activist Report along with the latest international solidarity and environmental activism.

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 September 20 global Climate Strike is gaining unprecedented support, including from unlikely quarters, including tech companies, university administrations and even the big four banks, writes Pip Hinman.

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.

In response to the crackdown on activists and protesters in West Papua, which has followed this attack, regional left organisations have issued the following joint statement.

Jonathan Strauss joined the September 1 vigil in Cairns for the Biloela family of Priya, Nades and their two children and writes about the growing impact of the refugee rights mvement.

Iconic characters in popular culture such as Sherlock Holmes, Dracula and Frankenstein's monster are in the public domain, allowing anyone to use them to create new stories. Spider-Man should be too, writes Peter Robson.

While it was Afro-American blues music that grew into rock and roll, soul music sprang from the Black tradition of gospel churches. Aretha Franklin was undoubtedly the greatest soul singer of the 60s and this film shows that she never left the church behind.

An image from a medieval translation of Avicenna's Canon

There would have been no Enlightenment without Avicenna and his successor, Averroes – who Bloch sees as forming an “Aristotelian left” trend, writes Barry Healy.