Wherever President George Bush went in Europe this June, whether he was meeting with G8 leaders, Pope Benedict, presidents or opposition leaders of NATO allies, or rightist officials in the former socialist countries, he provided an excellent reason for the people to come out in the streets, often in massive numbers.
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Socialist Alliance hosted a discussion on June 12 about standing up to the “police state” laws introduced into the NSW parliament for the period of the September APEC summit. One person arrested in connection with the G20 protests in Melbourne last November told the meeting that police had directed him not to attend the APEC protests. He urged participants not to be intimidated by such tactics.
The recent storms that devastated much of the NSW Central Coast and the Hunter Valley were described by some as a mini cyclone. The fierce gales led to dramatic floods — the most severe since the 1970s, the deaths of several people and the beaching of a coal freighter on a Newcastle reef.
The 50th anniversary of the 1957 Palm Island strike was marked by a “very emotional” commemoration on June 15, Indigenous activist Gracelyn Smallwood told Green Left Weekly. She said up to 4000 people took part. Among the activities, relatives of the seven men and their families who were handcuffed, chained and removed at gunpoint from the island spoke about the violation of their human rights. The strike was triggered by a system that meant every Indigenous person on Palm Island had to work for 30 hours per week while being paid only in rations.
The ABCs Four Corners program on June 11, Ghost Prisoners, was a powerful exposure of the United States global torture network and of Australian complicity in it, said Socialist Alliance spokesperson Raul Bassi. Its another step towards justice for Mamdouh Habib, one of the victims of this criminal system that has tortured some to death, forced others into worthless confessions and disappeared hundreds.
Disability support worker Joanne Ball will appear before a local court on June 22 on charges of obstruction and interferring with a police officer during the February protest against the visit to Sydney by US Vice-President Dick Cheney.
On June 12, 80 people attended a meeting in support of two Tamil activists who were recently arrested for allegedly sending tsunami relief funds to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
On June 16, a group of human rights campaigners and former political prisoners in Chile rallied at the Cowper Wharf in Woolloomooloo to protest the arrival of the Chilean Navy training ship Esmeralda. The ship served as a floating torture prison for political prisoners under General Augusto Pinochet’s 1973-90 military regime.
Farmers in East Nusa Tenggara have lost 25-40% of their income due to irregular rainfall. Fishers in the Maluku islands are experiencing poor catches as they lose their ability to predict sea climate and fish movements. Climate change has arrived in Indonesia, and it is hitting the countrys poorest first and hardest, according to a survey by Oxfam. Oxfam said that in recent years the rainy season has been either late or so unpredictable farmers did not know when to start planting, resulting in failed harvests and a drastic drop in income, and widespread hunger and malnutrition, especially among children.
On June 19, a Federal Court judge refused to throw out a case aimed at obtaining millions of dollars worth of severance pay for workers employed by car parts manufacturer Tristar Suspension and Steering Pty Ltd.
The Howard governments so-called fairness test for all new workplace agreements (individual contracts and collective agreements) is destined to become law, with Labor Party support, before the end of June. The legislation, which purports to guarantee fairness to workers who trade off their entitlement to penalty rates, overtime pay and holiday leave loading, passed through the House of Representatives on May 29.
During Condoleezza Rice’s visit to Panama on June 5, she described Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s decision not to renew the licence of Radio Caracas Television as his “sharpest and most acute” move yet against democracy. She urged the Organisation of American States to send its secretary general to Caracas to look into the move and deliver a full report on his findings. Rice declared: “Freedom of speech, freedom of association and freedom of conscience are not a thorn in the side of the government. Disagreeing with your government is not unpatriotic and most certainly should not be a crime in any country, especially a democracy.”
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