On June 5, Labour Party Pakistan general secretary Farooq Tariq was arrested from his home by a large contingent of police without a warrant. His detention is part of a recent wave of repression by the military regime of President Pervez Musharraf, in which hundreds of activists have been arrested. The LPP, which is pursuing legal action and organising protests against Tariqs detention, believes he was arrested due to his role in the lawyers pro-democracy movement and in activities against the Pakistan electronic Media Regulatory Authority, and because of the LPPs announcement that it would hold a Free Media Conference on June 6. Tariq had also been arrested on May 4 and detained for three days to prevent his participation in the public reception for suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.
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The Socialist Alliance has decided to run long-time socialist activist Jim McIlroy in Labor leader Kevin Rudds seat of Griffith in Brisbanes central-south in the federal election. Its nationwide election campaign themes are People before profits! and Planet before profits!
Having just visited Cuba — and as a former head of public health for the Perth east metropolitan region and former chairperson of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners — it was obvious to me that the 45-year US trade embargo against the island-state has seriously affected its ability to provide health services to its people.
The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) has officially started the process of forming a local political party following a meeting in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh on June 4, which was attended by GAM leaders, members of the Aceh Transitional Committee (KPA) and activists from the Aceh Referendum Information Centre. KPA Chairperson Muzakir Manaf said that that the idea to form a local party is part of GAMs political struggle following the Helsinki peace deal signed by GAM and the Indonesian government on August 15, 2005. Now is the time for us to undertake measures to create an Aceh that is more just and dignified, he told Acehkita.com on June 5. Aceh is the only province in Indonesia where law permits the formation of local parties not affiliated with an existing nationally based party. Three local parties have already been established the leftist Acehnese Peoples Party, the Acehnese Peoples Alliance Party for Womens Concern and the Gabthat Party.
When the Australian Bureau of Statistics released the latest national accounts last week it was revealed that the corporate profit share of all Australian income had risen to 28.1%, well above the long-term average of 20%.
Cuban newspaper Granma reported on June 6 that Venezuelas socialist president, Hugo Chavez, had called for an expansion of ALBA the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, a solidarity-based alternative to US-backed bilateral free trade agreements and the Free Trade Area of the Americas. Chavez made the call during the closing of the first meeting of ALBAs Council of Ministers in Venezuelas capital, Caracas.
On June 6, around 20 members of Women and Men of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA/MOZA) were arrested while conducting a peaceful, silent march through Bulawayo to launch their 10 Steps to a New Zimbabwe. Two groups of people began the march from different locations towards the offices of The Chronicle, a government-owned newspaper, but both were stopped and beaten by riot police along the way. Several people required medical attention. The march was organised to highlight the unfairness of current negotiations in Zimbabwe that only involve politicians who, WOZA reports, will not be addressing issues of social justice the bread and roses Zimbabweans need. For more information, visit http://www.wozazimbabwe.org.
The Australian government has recently come under fire for the inefficiency of its overseas aid programs, particularly in the Asia Pacific. The June 4 Sydney Morning Herald reported that more and more aid destined for the region was being lost in administrative costs or dished out to private corporations in the name of “development”.
Yossi & Jagger — The story of a gay relationship in the Israeli army. SBS, Saturday, June 16, 1.05am.
Compass: Bearing Witness — Examines the trauma experienced by journalists who have been witness to terrible world events while on assignment.
In what the superstitious might call natures revenge, wild seas caused a coal freighter to run aground in Newcastle on June 8, the day after the NSW Labor government approved the opening of a massive open-cut coalmine at Anvil Hill in the Hunter region.
There is little mystery behind Iraqis' tenacious resistance to US President George Bush's war of occupation: over four years of war have left the country devastated and resulted in the deaths of over half a million Iraqis, according to a study published in the influential British medical journal The Lancet.
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