Officially Leonora is not a detention centre for refugees but an “alternative place of detention”. Between January 21-23, the Refugee Rights Action Network’s second “Caravan of Compassion” made the 1660km round trip from Perth to Leonora. Caravan participant and Resistance member Zebedee Parkes describes his weekend trip to the remotely located concentration camp.
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After as many as 2 million people took over Tahrir Square and the streets of Cairo, with millions more across Egypt, on February 1 to demand on end to the US-backed dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak, the regime responded with a violent assault on protesters continuing to occupy the square. Below are two eyewitness reports from US-based progressive media outlet Democracy Now! on the events.
All those scenes from Cairo of mass demonstrations look like the perfect expression of the big society.
So we can only assume British PM David Cameron wants us to try something similar here. It would certainly encourage more people to take an interest in politics.
Instead of complaining that kids show no interest in the political process when they are asked to study details of local government boundary changes, teachers could say: "Today we're going to find out how new governments are formed" and get the class to stand on a tank in Trafalgar Square.
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List of protests in support of Egyptian democracy movement, against Western support for regime
Melbourne:
Friday February 4, 5.30pm
State Library to march to the Parliament House
Facebook page
Brisbane:
Friday February 4, 5pm
Brisbane Square (top of Queen St mall, outside Casino)
Facebook page
Adelaide:
Speakout: Friday February 4
2.30PM
Parliament House North Tce Adelaide
Rally: Saturday February 12, 11am
International Socialist Review editor Ahmed Shawki reports from Cairo on the latest mass protests against Hosni Mubarak--and what the future holds for Egypt's uprising. This was first posted on February 2 at www.socialistworker.org .
More coverage:
Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal
Al Jazeera live streaming from Egypt on the rising
Live blogging by the Angry Arab
Based on Psalm 137
By the waterholes of Mother Country we slung down our yidakis, and cut our bodies and drugged our minds in grief, as we remembered the dreamtime.
And the settlers demanded from us a corroboree performance and a jail sentence, mutual obligation and a souvenir boomerang for the gift shop.
How could we dance and perform sacred traditions for their markets? We have become aliens and inmates, invisible in this eternal land.
See also:
Editorial: Floods and climate link cannot be denied
Flood recovery: Make the polluters pay
Floods show need for public insurance scheme
Venezuela: New laws, funds to cope with floods, homelessness
When you fly over the earth’s oldest land mass, Australia, the view can be shocking.
Al Jazeera.net reported on January 29 that new protests had erupted in the Middle Eastern nation of Yemen, which sits at the bottom of the Arab peninnsular, demanding an end to the regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The site reported on January 28 that thousands had also taken to the streets in anti-government protests in Jordan, with people angry over price rises and unemployment.
About 40 people attended a ‘Hands off WikiLeaks’ rally held in Franklin Square, Hobart on January 29.
Speakers from the Greens, the Socialist Alliance, the Secular Party, Young Libertarians and unaligned individuals addressed the rally. They called on the Australian government to support Julian Assange, defend WikiLeaks and support the right to free speech and freedom of information.
On January 3, 170 cleaners and security guards at Hongik University in Seoul were sacked for forming a union and demanding better conditions.
The workers formed a union on December 1 and demanded decent working conditions. Since their sacking, the workers have held a sit-in protest at the university campus — eating and sleeping on the cold, hard floors of the Munheon Building.
Hongik University is South Korea’s most famous university for visual arts. Many graduates are showing their support for the workers through their art work.
Resistance is proud to announce that its 2011 national conference will be held over May 6 to 8 at Redfern Community Centre, Sydney.
All socialists and left activists are welcome to attend.
The initial conference agenda will soon be posted at Resistance.org.au. It will include panel presentations and workshop discussions on a wide range of the urgent issues confronting humanity today, including:
- Ecosocialism and the climate emergency;
- Justice for Indigenous people;
- Refugees and racism;
- The Latin American revolutions and socialism of the 21st century;
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