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The Sydney Peace Foundation released the statement below on August 17. * * * The Sydney Peace Foundation thanks the government of Ecuador for giving asylum to Julian Assange.
Max Bound grew up during the Great Depression, and his view of the world was shaped in part by such experiences as seeing classmates being sent home from school because they were too hungry to stay conscious. He left school at the age of thirteen and as a teenager he started reading socialist theory. His experience working in a coalmine, as a cleaner, a tram conductor and as a builder's labourer gave him a thorough education in how the world worked.

An emergency action against a new bi-partisan plan to return to 'offshore processing' of refugees to Australia in detention camps in Nauru and PNG was one of several held around Australia on very short notice on August 15.

Equal Love rally for Marriage Equality held in Melbourne on August 11, 2012 was attended by more than 3,000 people. Speakers included Federal MP Adam Bandt, Ryan Hsu from the NTEU, Doug Pollard from JOY FM. Michael Ross performed his song 'Equal Love'.

“The Palestinian people will never surrender. We will win in the end,” Shamikh Badra, youth and students coordinator for the Palestinian People's Party in the Gaza Strip, told a public forum in the Resistance Centre on August 14. The forum was sponsored by Socialist Alliance and Resistance. He passed around graphic photos of Israeli military attacks on Gaza to the audience. The photos showed “the war crimes of Israel; how the Palestinian people suffer from the Israeli occupation”. He asked: “Where is the rule of international humanitarian law in this.”
WikiLeaks released the statement below on August 16. * * * In a communication this morning to the government of Ecuador, the UK threatened to forcefully enter the Ecuadorian embassy in London and arrest Julian Assange. The UK claims the power to do so under the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987. This claim is without basis. By midnight, two hours prior to the time of this announcement, the embassy had been surrounded by police, in a menacing show of force.
The Support Assange and WikiLeaks Coalition released the statement below on August 16. * * * Ecuadorian Foreign Minister, Ricordo Patino, has confirmed that UK police have threatened to invade the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and arrest Julian Assange. This would be an unprecedented and scandalous violation of international law.
Anglesea Air Action, a group of residents opposed to the Victorian government’s plan to extend the lease for Alcoa’s Anglesea coalmine for 50 years, released the statement below on August 15. * * * Anglesea Air Action criticise the state government’s renewal and extension of the Anglesea coalmine without releasing the Alcoa Health Risk Assessment which, it has been revealed, have been on their files for years.
The Support Assange and WikiLeaks Coalition released the statement below on August 16. * * * Extraordinary scenes are unfolding in London as British authorities are reported to have entered the Knightsbridge building, which houses the Ecuadorian Embassy, in defiance of more than 100 years of tradition which treats diplomatic compounds as sovereign territory of the embassy’s government.

Activists from Refugee Action Collective rallied in Melbourne on August 15 against the Gillard government using