An April 12 community organising meeting called by the Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine decided to hold a range of events, including film nights and a public meeting leading up to a June 9 rally as part of the international campaign The world says no to Israeli occupation. The CJPP is inviting anyone interested in building this campaign to come to a meeting on April 26 at St Josephs Church, Bedford St, Newtown. For more information, email <cjpp@coalitionforpalestine.org>
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On April 12, Jorge Navas, secretary of the South Australian branch of the Health Services Union, spoke to a meeting at Unions Tas about human rights in Colombia and campaigns to protect union leaders.
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On April 8, police arrested 14 protesters at the Lake Cowal Gold Mine, 47 kilometres from West Wyalong in central-western NSW. Activists had locked themselves to mining machinery and entered the offices of the mine, in support of demands by the Wiradjuri traditional landowners that the mine cease operations. Some 100 Aboriginal and environmental protesters participated in the action.
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An action outside Kirribilli House on April 8, organised by the Refugee Action Collective, was addressed by RACs Ian Rintoul and Greens Senator Kerry Nettle, along with representatives from Falun Gong. Some 50 people gathered at Bradfield Park and marched through the streets to the gates of Kirribilli House, demanding an end to mandatory detention and temporary protection visas, the closure of the camps in remote areas, and the granting of asylum to Falun Gong detainees.
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According to a report by the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens Rights, between September 2000 (the beginning of the Al Aqsa Intifada) and July 2006, 68 pregnant women were forced to give birth at Israeli checkpoints in the Occupied Territories after Israeli soldiers barred them from crossing the road blocks to access hospitals and medical centres. Thirty-four infants and four pregnant women died at these checkpoints.
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Prensa Latina reported on April 11 that more than 100,000 Bolivians have already learned to read and write through the Cuban Yes, I Can literacy program since it began early last year. According to education minister Victor Caceres, in La Paz, more than 40,000 of the 286,280 people in the program have already graduated. The national program aims to teach more than 1.2 million illiterate people how to read and write so that the country can be free from illiteracy in 2008. President Evo Morales has already declared Tocata municipality, in Cochabamba, the first locality to be illiteracy-free.
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In early April, Independent Liquor worker and member of the Unite Union Steve Tipene took his own life, just eight days after he was sacked from his job. Unite had filed a challenge against the dismissal at the Employment Relations Authority shortly before hearing of his death. Unite reported on April 13 that Tipenes family believed the sacking was a major factor in his death and according to the union, the company has a long history of anti-union practices and workplace bullying. Unite organiser John Minto described 46-year-old Tipene as a strong unionist who understood the importance of workers sticking together. Steve took part in the strikes last year which gained the first collective agreement at Independent Liquor for 20 years. He has helped make it a bit easy for the employees who follow him at Independent. He was a good man.
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The Socialist Alliance condemns the Australian governments decision to deploy a 300-strong Special Operations Task Group to Afghanistan and repeats its call for a withdrawal of all Australian, US and NATO occupation forces from that country.
News
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More than 300 people attended the launch of UNITEs Boost Our Pay campaign on March 30 on Swanston Street outside the main strip of fast food restaurants. UNITE is campaigning for an end to youth wages, a $16 minimum wage, no individual contracts (AWAs), and for secure work hours.
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Citing low pay, management intimidation and poor safety, metal construction workers at the Coles Myer distribution centre in Somerton resigned their casual employment with labour hire contractor Busicom Solutions on April 11 and set up a 24-hour protest outside the centre.
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In the lead-up to Labors national conference, beginning in Sydney on April 27, WA-based advocacy group Project SafeCom has urged supporters of refugees rights to pressure the ALP leadership to ensure that a government led by Kevin Rudd wont commit the same human rights abuses witnessed during PM John Howards reign (some of which, such as the Tampa affair, were carried out with ALP complicity).
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On April 13, the Refugee Action Coalition (RAC) reported that Yuan Hui Min had been taken from Villawood detention centre to hospital. She is one of ten detainees on hunger strike in protest at the unjust situation of detention. The hunger strikers are calling for an end to forcible deportations, a maximum detention period of six months and for the immediate release of two detainees being held incommunicado.
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A dispute at Preston Motors has been resolved after an almost five-week-long campaign by workers, the National Union of Workers (NUW), Union Solidarity and other community groups. The companys initial offer of a mere $4 a week pay rise left the workers with little choice but to fight for their rights. A community picket line was established and held tight while the dispute was underway, and the company finally agreed to negotiate with the workers union, the NUW.
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On April 2 the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation and Oxfam Australia published Close the Gap, a report highlighting the shameful state of Indigenous health in Australia. The report ranked Australia as the worst at improving the health of indigenous people compared with other wealthy nations.
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MELBOURNE — Chanting ‘No nukes! No war! This is what we’re fighting for!’, more than 3000 people, including representatives of 80 different organisations, took part in the Palm Sunday peace parade on April 1. Dubbed Nuclear Fools Day, it was a protest against the expansion of uranium mining and proposals for nuclear energy. It also sent a strong message to the ALP, which looks set to scrap its ‘no new mines’ policy at its national conference later this month. Speakers included Cam Walker from Friends of the Earth, Bill Williams from the Medical Association for the Prevention of War, Dave Sweeney from the Australian Conservation Foundation, Democrat Senator Lyn Allison and Greens Senator Bob Brown.
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While NSW police minister David Campbell has inspected the new APEC command in Sydney in which the state government is wasting millions of dollars anti-war, environmental and workers rights activists are preparing to send their message to US President George Bush, PM John Howard and other APEC leaders in Sydney in early September.
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Following the trial of Tasers among Queenslands Special Emergency Response Team, they are now being introduced to all duty police officers in the Brisbane and south-east police regions, according to a joint statement issued by Queensland police minister Judy Spence and Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson.
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At this years national ALP conference, to be held in Sydney from April 27, delegates will determine whether or not to ditch Labors current policy of not supporting any new uranium mines (adopted in 1998). The current policy will almost certainly be overturned.
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“There is no future for oil-dependent agriculture”, well-known Columban priest and Philippines-based anti-GMO campaigner Brian Gore told the WA launch of Say No to GMO (genetically modified organisms) on April 5.
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In Papua New Guinea, 97% customary land ownership by the Indigenous people is recognised by the constitution. However, a powerful coalition is seeking to overturn this. At a forum hosted by AidWatch and supported by the Research Initiative on International Activism UTS, Sylvia Mulung and Howard Sindana, community organisers from the Bismarck Ramu Group in Madang province, explained the struggle being organised against the privatisation of land.
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Declaring that there is the distinct possibility of casualties and that should be understood and prepared for by the Australian public, PM John Howard announced on April 10 that an Australian military task force spearheaded by 300 Special Air Services troops would be deployed to Afghanistans south-central Oruzgan province.
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More than 50 people protested on April 12 against the Australian government’s decision to send 300 extra troops to Afghanistan. The speakout was called at short notice by the Stop the War Coalition. Activists pointed out that the wars against Iraq and Afghanistan are part of the same “war on terror”, are both motivated by lies, and are both wars of occupation in which innocent people are being killed for US corporate interests.
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Supporters of the Venezuelan and Cuban revolutions assembled on April 11 at the Iberoamerican square to commemorate the failure of the April 2002 US-backed coup against the government of Venezuela’s socialist president, Hugo Chavez.
Analysis
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A coalition of community groups including Friends of the Earth, the National Union of Students, the Stop the War Coalition, the Australian Student Environment Network, and the Australian Youth Climate Change Coalition have initiated a public lobby outside the ALP national conference beginning on April 27 to support delegates who are standing up to the proposed changes to the ALPs long-standing policy on uranium mining.
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On April 13, ABC Radio reported that the ALP state and territory governments would be lobbying the federal government to agree to a goal of a 60% reduction in Australian greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. They suggested that if the Howard government maintained its opposition, the state and territory governments would attempt to reach these goals without them. While opposed to the premiers proposal, even PM John Howard has recently acknowledged that there is a threat from climate change caused by human activity, leaving the greenhouse sceptic argument to the conservative fringe.
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Preliminary arguments have started in the retrial of Jack Thomas at the Supreme Court. The case demonstrates that the Howard government’s “anti-terror” laws can be used to criminalise non-terrorists.
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A year after the Howard government introduced Work Choices, the legislations negative impact on workers wages and conditions and unions ability to defend their members interests is clear for all to see.
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Last week, right-wing Sydney Radio 2GB shock jock Alan Jones was let off with a ticking-off from Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) for inciting on air the infamous anti-Lebanese bashing spree in Cronulla in 2005.
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While the Howard government has succeeded in partially defusing David Hicks’s unjust imprisonment as an election issue, it has still not convinced most people that Hicks’s guilty plea means he is a terrorist.
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Work Choices The first anniversary of Work Choices is marked by another employer exploiting the Howard government's feudal IR laws to reduce workers' pay and conditions National retail chain Darrell Lea Chocolate Shops expects its 1509 casual
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By late March, Spain’s wind power generation was contributing 27% of the country’s total daily power demands, surpassing supplies by nuclear and coal. This marks a new record for the contribution of wind-generated power to Spain’s electricity grid.
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In the lead-up to the March 24 NSW state election, you could be forgiven for believing that the NSW Greens were drug dealers: Hysterical attacks were launched on the party’s drugs policy, which focuses on harm minimisation and health issues.
World
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The streets of downtown Los Angeles became a sea of red shirts stretching for many city blocks on April 7 when at least 20,000 people turned out for one of the largest immigrant rights demonstrations since the big marches last year.
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Indonesian police have named two new suspects in the murder of human rights activist Munir, who died of arsenic poisoning on a Garuda flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam on September 7, 2004.
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The 19th Arab League (AL) summit, held in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh on March 28-29, voted to re-affirm support for the Arab peace initiative proposed by Saudi Arabias King Abdullah five years ago.
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On April 6, notorious Cuban-born terrorist Luis Posada Carriles was granted freedom on bail in the El Paso Federal Court, which will allow him to return home to his family in Miami after the payment of US$250,000. Posada, a former CIA operative, was the mastermind of the deadly bombing of a Cuban airliner in 1976, and has been involved in other terrorist acts and violent campaigns against popular movements in Latin America. Washington has denied requests to extradite him to Venezuela, where he had been imprisoned until he escaped in 1985.
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“The PST has increased its vote slightly on its results in 2000", Avelino Coelho da Silva, secretary-general of the Socialist Party of Timor, told Green Left Weekly by telephone from Dili. Coelho was the PST’s candidate in the country’s April 9 presidential election, the final results of which will be officially announced by the National Election Commission (CNE) on April 16.
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In his first two articles in the Cuban Communist Party’s newspaper, Granma, since becoming ill last year, President Fidel Castro lashed out at the recently signed ethanol deal between Brazil and the US. In an April 3 article he described it as “the internationalisation of genocide”.
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Organisers from the Philippines biggest left trade union centre, Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP Solidarity of Filipino Workers) spoke to Green Left Weeklys Sue Bolton about the repression that they encounter from the state and their efforts to unify left-wing trade unions.
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How did it happen that the President of Venezuela reached out to help the poor and the indigenous people of the United States?, Tim Giago asked in a March 19 Indianz.com article. He was referring to the provision of cheap heating oil to the US poor, including a number of Native American tribes, by the government of Venezuelas socialist president, Hugo Chavez.
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Nearly 700,000 people have signed an international online petition in solidarity with Vietnams victims of Agent Orange, which was sprayed extensively by the US military during the Vietnam War. The petition, which was launched in 2004, will be presented to the judges of the US Court of Appeal on the eve of an expected June ruling on a victims lawsuit against the nearly 40 chemical companies that produced the deadly chemical for the US military.
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In actions that have echos of the struggle in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, teachers and their union have installed themselves outside the governors office in the southern province of Neuquen, calling for better salaries and governor Jorge Omar Sobischs resignation.
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An April 4 Survival International article reported that a decree by Venezuela’s socialist president, Hugo Chavez, had banned the planned construction of new coalmines on the land of the Wayuu, Yukpa and Bari indigenous people in the state of Zulia, which is governed by a leader of the pro-capitalist opposition.
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In late March, Green Left Weekly’s Jim McIlroy spoke to Farooq Tariq, general secretary of the Labour Party Pakistan, in Lahore. The LPP is a revolutionary socialist organisation working with other forces to end the dictatorship of General Pervez Musharraf, and seeking to unite workers, peasants, women and youth in the struggle to bring about socialism in Pakistan. The interview took place amidst the campaign by lawyers and their supporters to reinstate the suspended Chief Justice of the Pakistan High Court, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.
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Four years ago, I walked through Melbournes CBD holding a placard that read: No blood for oil. I was an idealistic university student, intent on letting my government know that its not okay to launch an invasion in pursuit of so-called black gold in a country that was no threat to mine.
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Wrapped in the Iraqi flag and chanting anti-American slogans, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Shia snaked into the holy city of Najaf yesterday for a protest rally to mark the fourth anniversary of the toppling of Saddam Hussein and to demand the ejection from Iraq of US and British troops, the April 10 British Guardian reported.
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Official British government figures released on March 27 revealed that in the past year, the number of children in Britain living in relative poverty increased by 200,000. According to the March 27 BBC News, in 2005-06 the total number of children who satisfied the official definition of relative poverty living in households with incomes equalling less than 60% of the national average when housing costs are included rose from 3.6 million to a staggering 3.8 million.
Culture
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Want to buy a second hand war? Want to buy the war in Iraq? We went there for oil, made Iraqi blood boil now we're asking what for and wondering how we ever get back. The profits have gone and hope is forlorn it's preloved, it's used and we
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I once was a greenie but that's in the past As an ALP pollie I've made it at last Once I bellowed and blustered in front of the Oils Now I sit on the front bench — my eye on the spoils CHORUS I once was a greenie but that's in the past As
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Free Market Missionaries: The Corporate Manipulation of Community Values
By Sharon Beder
Earthscan, 2006
260 pages, $56
http://www.dadirect.com -
Cannot Buy My Soul: The songs of Kev Carmody
Various artists
Virgin, $24.99 -
Darwins Origin of Species: A Biography
By Janet Browne
Allen & Unwin, 2006
174 pages, $22.95