Workers, students and families will take to the Yarra River on March 24-25 to raise funds for and create greater awareness about the situation faced by refugees and asylum seekers in Australia.
Issue 703
News
Workers, students and families will take to the Yarra River on March 24-25 to raise funds for, and create greater awareness about the situation faced by, refugees and asylum seekers in Australia.
Tasmanian logging giant Gunns Ltd announced suddenly on March 14 that it was withdrawing its proposal to build a $2 billion pulp mill at Bell Bay in northern Tasmania from the independent Resource Planning and Development Commission (RPDC) and called on Labor Premier Paul Lennon’s government to legislate to approve the project.
On March 15, more than 1000 public sector workers and their supporters rallied in the city under the banner of “Job cuts = service cuts”. They were expressing opposition to the 20,000 “backroom” job cuts proposed by the NSW Liberals as part of its state election campaign. The election will be held on March 24.
As part of an international weekend of protest on the fourth anniversary of the US-British-Australian invasion of Iraq, 800 people participated in an anti-war rally and march on March 17 that began at Sydney Town Hall.
On March 15, the federal Coalition government announced that 82 of the 83 Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka intercepted by the HMAS Success on February 21 are to be deported to Nauru, where they will be indefinitely detained.
On March 15, the Canterbury/Bankstown branch of the NSW Teachers Federation (NSWTF) held a speak-out at Labor Premier Morris Iemma’s local electoral office in the seat of Lakemba. Iemma was invited to address the speak-out but did not respond.
Police from the NSW anti-terrorism unit joined Victorian police to raid the homes of political activists in Sydney as part of the fallout from protests against the G20 meeting in Melbourne in November. Four men were arrested and a fifth later surrendered to police.
Analysis
The Pacific island-nation of Tuvalu is the first country to have evacuated some of its citizens because of the sea-level rise driven by global warming. The highest point on the eight coral atolls that make up Tuvalu’s 26 square kilometres of territory sits only five metres above sea level. Almost a quarter of the nation’s population have already been evacuated and the remaining 8000 Tuvaluans may also have to leave in future years.
The Pacific island-nation of Tuvalu is the first country to have evacuated some of its citizens because of the sea-level rise driven by global warming. The highest point on the eight coral atolls that make up Tuvalus 26 square kilometres of territory sits only five metres above sea level. Almost a quarter of the nations population have already been evacuated and the remaining 8000 Tuvaluans may also have to leave in future years.
NSW’s big cities, especially Sydney, are poisoning the environment and making us all sicker and more stressed. The longer we continue with the state’s “transport model” — where cars carry 78% of people to work and trucks 60% of goods — the worse things will get.
In early February, rains that flooded up to 70% of Jakarta and displaced some 450,000 people began. Across Indonesia, 85 people died, according to a March 12 Agence France-Presse report. Bloombergs wire service reported on March 6 that, according to government estimates, the floods caused a direct economic loss of at least 5.2 trillion rupiah (US$574 million), with indirect losses of 3.6 trillion rupiah.
The AC Neilson poll published in the March 12 Sydney Morning Herald had the federal Labor opposition in a commanding lead over the Coalition, with 61% of the two party-preferred vote. ALP leader Kevin Rudd was the preferred prime minister of 53% of respondents. Green Left Weekly asked a number of trade unionists how much of Labor’s rise in the polls can be attributed to the union movement’s campaign against Work Choices and how they believe these unjust laws can be defeated.
Turmoil continues in the Labor Party in Newcastle following the imposition by the party head office of Jody Mackay over popular local member Bryce Gaudry to contest the seat.
The internet launch on March 5 of the Independent Australian Jewish Voices (IAJV) has provoked both criticism and support. Author Antony Loewenstein, one of the initiators, told Green Left Weekly that the Jewish establishment reacted “very badly” because, in his view, their position as the spokespeople for the Jewish community for decades is now being challenged.
More than 500 people from 35 countries have been incarcerated in the Guantanamo Bay prison complex since 2002. Since becoming the detention centre for prisoners captured in US President George Bushs unending global war on terror, it has been the source of numerous allegations of physical and psychological abuse. It is a legal black hole in which detainees have waited for up to half a decade without charges being laid.
John Bonsai (a very small bush) Howard is morally bankrupt, and cannot be trusted. While Saddam Hussein was a nasty bit of work, all of Bonsai’s arguments for war were lies.
The federal Coalition, some state Labor governments and the corporate media have been justifying racist policies by claiming they are defending women’s rights. This argument has been one of several “justifications” for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and for why we should all be worried about refugee arrivals.
World
A March 9 Venezuelanalysis.com article reported that the previous day Venezuelan authorities had arrested two National Guard officers over an alleged plot to assassinate Hugo Chavez, the countrys socialist president. Agents from Venezuelas Military Intelligence Directorate took retired General Ramon Guillen Davila and his son, Capitan Tomas Guillen, into custody. They will be tried for instigating rebellion.
Sekai Holland, a long-time leader of Zimbabwes liberation struggle and a champion of womens rights, was detained by police on March 11 in the latest violent crackdown by President Robert Mugabes increasingly unpopular regime. Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai was also arrested and later taken to the intensive care unit of a Harare hospital with severe injuries resulting from police beatings.
The Fiji Womens Rights Movement is protesting the March 13 promulgation of the Water Authority of Fiji Bill, which according to public service and public sector interim minister Poseci Bune will provide more effective management of water, including opportunities for competition in the provision of water and facilitating the corporatisation of the Water Authority of Fiji. Opposition to water privatisation sprang up last July when organisations including the Fiji Human Rights Commission protested the inclusion of five major private sector figures in a nine-person committee established to prepare a charter on water and sewerage. In a March 15 statement, FWRM executive director Virisila Buadromo said that Water is a basic human right, and we are very worried about the commercialisation of this essential resource. We are appalled that water, as essential to life as air, will be treated like a business especially in light of clear community concerns on the issue.
The March 1 British Guardian reported that an elite team of officers advising the US commander, General David Petraeus, in Baghdad has concluded that they have six months to win the war in Iraq or face a Vietnam-style collapse in political and public support that could force the military into a hasty retreat.
The Campaign to Free Womens Rights Defenders in Iran reported on March 12 that Shadi Sadr and Mahboubeh Abasgholizadeh were charged on March 11 with being a threat to national security. They are the only two women remaining in custody after the arrests of more than 30 women on March 4. Sadr, a lawyer, was arrested while defending the women activists arrested at a demonstration that day. Sadr and Abasgholizadeh have been denied access to their lawyers and have been interrogated without their lawyers being present.
In 1989, 39 pharmaceutical giants sued the government of AIDS-stricken South Africa, seeking to stop it from implementing a law to improve the poors access to life-saving AIDS drugs. That aggression sparked a public outcry within South Africa and elsewhere, leading to an international campaign that only ended in 2001 when the 39 companies dropped their case.
The small Andean nation of Ecuador is facing a political crisis as the Congress and the courts turn on each other over new president Rafael Correa’s plans for a Constituent Assembly and a “citizens’ revolution” to build “21st century socialism” in the poverty-stricken country.
US President George Bush has been touring Latin American countries this March with two goals in mind: keep the continent divided and keep it subservient to US imperialist interests. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has also been visiting his neighbours. His goals are the opposite: to unite the countries of Latin America and to encourage and support the continent’s independence from US imperialism.
On March 16 police arrested Satur Ocampo, a member of Congress from the left-wing Bayan Muna party list. Ocampo, who had been in hiding for eight days, was taken into custody shortly after he filed a court petition to quash the arrest warrant. He faces charges of killing military spies in the 80s, according to a March 17 Philippine Daily Inquirer report.
During a whirlwind tour of a series of Latin American nations, in what the media reported as a “counter-tour” to that being carried out by US President George Bush at the same time, Venezuela’s socialist President Hugo Chavez signed a number of agreements that extend his country’s push to integrate the region’s economies. Via the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), promoted in alliance with socialist Cuba, Venezuela is signing a large number of agreements that aim to promote pro-people development based on cooperation rather than competition, in order to break foreign economic domination of the continent, predominantly by US capital.
A March 9 press release by the Washington-based Venezuela Information Office (VIO) pointed out that a US State Department report released on March 6 reveals that Venezuela strives to guarantee human rights and in fact, is beefing up measures to provide accessible avenues for lodging complaints and holding violators accountable.
Suciwati, the widow of Munir, the prominent Indonesian human rights activist killed by arsenic poisoning aboard a plane in 2004, visited Australia in February to call on the Australian government to help pressure Jakarta to resolve the case. Accompanying her was Usman Hamid, the executive director of Kontras the Indonesian Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence an organisation set up by Munir.
Two large undercover security guards arrive first in a separate car to survey the parking garage. They radio “all clear” back to the second car, carrying Patricia Isasa and her escort. The first guards then scout out the route to the restaurant and stake out her table according to lowest security risk.
On April 9, East Timor will hold its second presidential election, which will be followed by parliamentary elections. The East Timorese political system combines a president, who is commander-in-chief of the army and who has veto powers over legislation, with an executive cabinet headed by a prime minister who is elected by the parliament.
The Netherlands-based Royal Philips Electronics NV, one of nearly 40 chemical majors sued by Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange for supplying the defoliant to the US military, is now also being sued by its insurers. The US made extensive use of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.
The arrival in February of 85 refugees from Sri Lanka, most of them members of the island’s Tamil minority, in Australian waters near Christmas Island highlights the situation of war and racial oppression in Sri Lanka.
Culture
Message Stick: Pride of the League — A look into the Rabbitohs football club's Indigenous heritage through the use of the "black" rabbit for away games. ABC, Sunday, March 25, 1.30pm.
Kidnapped by the CIA — Examines the illegal kidnapping of
A True Person
Written by Gabiann Marin
Illustrated by Jacqui Grantford
New Frontier Publishing, 2007
27 pages, $24.95
Written by Gabiann Marin
Illustrated by Jacqui Grantford
New Frontier Publishing, 2007
27 pages, $24.95
Ugly Betty
With America Ferrera & Eric Mabius
Sundays 7.30pm, Channel 7
With America Ferrera & Eric Mabius
Sundays 7.30pm, Channel 7
They are the children of “cholos” — the disrespectful name given to urban indigenous people in Bolivia. They refer to themselves in English single-syllable words and the names of their songs speak of indigenous pride; they criticise capitalism and demand a radical social change. This mix, so appropriate for these times, characterises the “hip hop” movement of El Alto, which is expanding and channelling youth rebellion in this large city of poor migrants, located at a height of 4000 metres and surrounded by impressive snow covered peaks.
General
March 14 was Black Bashing Day on Tim Blair’s blog . Most other days are Muslim-bashing days, but on this day his red-neck cyber-mates decided to pick on Jakalene X, Aboriginal activist, rap artist and the lead candidate on the Socialist Alliance upper house ticket for the March 24 NSW election.
Letters
'Welfare cheats'
The Howard government has spent the past decade misrepresenting the facts to justify frequent "crackdowns on welfare cheats". There are around 3000 convictions for welfare fraud per year, or 0.05% of the total number of
Resistance!
As US President George Bush was preparing for his recent "We care" trip to Latin America — during which massive demonstrations of Latin Americans responded by saying "No you fucking don't" and "Get the hell out of here" — he was briefed by
On March 14, 80 international students from Central Queensland University's Melbourne campus protested against the failing of a big majority of students in the final subject of their accounting course. Of the 180 students who did the subject, 56 were
Morris Iemmas calculatedly boring Im-so-predictable-so-vote-for-me campaign has virtually put NSW to sleep. More than ever before, interest in the NSW state elections has dwindled to the point where even the Fairfax-owned Sydney Morning Herald is desperately trying to generate interest by running the hapless oppositions election campaign for it.
A national survey conducted last year by the University of Melbourne’s Centre for the Study of Higher Education for the Australia Vice-Chancellors’ Committee (AVCC) has revealed that most of Australia’s 700,000 university students have become financially worse off over the past five years.