Two hundred young people attended a protest on May 19 to demand that the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay be closed. The action, organised by the combined schools Amnesty International group, heard from a range of speakers, including high school students, ALP state MP Lisa Sing and Greens state MP Nick McKim.
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After the Supreme Court on May 16 banned the Basque party Abertzale Sozialisten Batasuna (ASB) from contesting the May 27 local and regional elections, more than 82,000 Basques signed petitions for the creation of new electoral lists. However hundreds of pro-independence and left candidates in the Basque Country have also been banned on the basis of suspected links to Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA Basque Homeland and Freedom). Some 133 candidate lists of the legal party Accion Nacionalista Vasca (ANV Basque Nationalist Action), which formed in 1931, have also been banned. A statement on May 23 signed by 17 members of the European Parliament described the bans as a serious attack against the most basic civil and political rights in Europe and called for a political, peaceful resolution of the conflict in the Basque Country.
On May 21, Cuban President Fidel Castro condemned the British Navys purchase of a new nuclear attack submarine, saying it illustrates the sophisticated weaponry being used to maintain the unsustainable order developed by the imperial system of the United States. According to British military officials, the HMS Astute which will be launched on June 8 and two further submarines to be purchased, will each cost US$7.2 billion. The most surprising thing is that with that sum, 75,000 doctors could be trained to attend to 150 million people, Castro noted.
A new weekly left newspaper, antidot, has been launched in the German speaking part of Switzerland. The first issue appeared on May 1. The paper is published by a collective, the antidot Verein, comprising a broad spectrum of individuals and organisations, including a branch of the Greens, a branch of the Workers Party (PdA), the Socialist Alternative (SolidariteS), ATTAC Switzerland, anarchist organisations and others. The newspaper aims to provide an antidote to mainstream media and a forum for discussion among the social, environmental and political movements and groups on the left in the German speaking part of Switzerland. Visit <http://antidot.ch>.
There are two big issues in this dispute: the right of academics to free speech and the question of QUT [Queensland University of Technology] conducting unethical research, left-wing academic Dr Gary MacLennan told Green Left Weekly on May 24.
Tom — not his real name — became a “person of interest” after taking part in the G20 protests in Melbourne last November. This softly spoken 24-year-old, a postgraduate student at Sydney University, is one of the latest victims of the police-state laws that seem designed to intimidate activists from organising, or attending, protests.
On May 10, British PM Tony Blair finally made his long-awaited resignation statement. Blair will stand down as prime minister with effect from June 27. He will also stand down as leader of the Labour Party, and preparations for the election of the next Labour leader — who will simultaneously become PM — got underway immediately.
Between May 16 and 24, almost 100 Palestinians died and more than 340 have were injured in Gaza through a combination of renewed Israeli military attacks and fighting between Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah.
On May 18 the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) expressed its support for Iraqi railways workers, who on May 15 began an indefinite strike to win a pay rise and basic rights. The strike action, backed by the vast majority of rail workers, paralysed the countrys main north/south rail corridor. Workers wanted improvements in salaries and conditions, as well as improved safety, protection from attack and fundamental workers rights. The ITFs Mac Urata commented: It beggars belief that the dictatorial anti-union laws of the Saddam Hussein era are still in place. Legislation denying rail and other public services workers the right to strike and belong to a union must be removed immediately. The ITF fully supports this legitimate action.
While public support in the US for Washingtons counterinsurgency war in Iraq has collapsed, the Pentagon has drawn up plans to almost double the number of US combat troops deployed in the oil-rich country by the end of this year.
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