The City of Sydney Council wants to limit the distribution of printed material, something that Cameron Murphy, president of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties (NSWCLL), believes may violate the constitutionally implied right to freedom of political communication.
Issue 711
News
On the June 2-3 weekend, hundreds of people from around NSW will gather at the site of the proposed Anvil Hill mega-coalmine in the Upper Hunter Valley to protest their opposition to the state government and coal companies push to expand the coal industry. Its expected that NSW planning minister Frank Sartor will decide whether to approve the mine very soon.
A group of Rohingya people, a Muslim ethnic minority from western Burma’s Arakan state, is being held indefinitely at the Australian government detention centre on Nauru.
There are two big issues in this dispute: the right of academics to free speech and the question of QUT [Queensland University of Technology] conducting unethical research, left-wing academic Dr Gary MacLennan told Green Left Weekly on May 24.
“A social movement is essential for changing government and opposition policies to halt the climate crisis”, Dr Mark Diesendorf told a May 22 public meeting at the University of NSW to launch his book Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy. Diesendorf told the audience of around 200 people that individual and household solutions are not sufficient.
In June, Australia will host the largest military exercises ever undertaken in peacetime. Talisman Sabre 07 will involve 12,400 Australian and 13,700 US troops converging on various locations for their biennial war games.
On May 23, Sydneys Refugee Action Coalition (RAC) issued a call for support for a Chinese asylum seeker at Villawood detention centre who has been on hunger strike for 57 days. There are reports that the man was transferred to hospital from Villawoods medical centre on May 22.
In a Brisbane court on May 25, Palm Island resident Lex Wotton was allowed to withdraw his guilty plea in relation to riot charges, after Judge Phil Nase found that Wotton had been asked to plead illegally.
“Australian Tamils demand protection not persecution” was the theme of a gathering of more than 500 members of the Tamil community outside the Victorian parliament on May 22.
Analysis
Australia has long been known as one of the most wasteful countries in the world: per head of population we are second only to the US in the amount of waste we pile into landfills.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) could not be clearer: The right to strike is one of the essential means available to workers and their organisations for the promotion and protection of their economic and social interests (1983).
Just a week after Treasurer Peter Costello delivered the federal budget, which contained $31.5 billion in tax cuts over four years among other pre-election bribes, a Newspoll published in the May 15 Australian found that support for Labor had increased to 59% (on a two-party preferred basis) from 57% the previous month. Several other polls have since confirmed this trend.
John Howard was awarded the Jerusalem Prize for his friendship and commitment to Israel at a gala dinner at Melbournes Crown Casino on May 20. The award, by the Zionist Federation of Australia, the State Zionist Council of Victoria and the World Zionist Organisation, includes the John Howard Negev Forest, which will be planted by the Jewish National Fund (JNF) over an ethnically-cleansed Bedouin village.
The standard of health of Aborigines lags almost 100 years behind that of other Australians, according to the World Health Organisation.
The deepening of Australia’s drought- and global-warming-driven water crisis has thrown into sharp relief the historical and current inadequacy of the Liberal-Labor political establishment to put the needs of working people before those of big business.
Tom — not his real name — became a “person of interest” after taking part in the G20 protests in Melbourne last November. This softly spoken 24-year-old, a postgraduate student at Sydney University, is one of the latest victims of the police-state laws that seem designed to intimidate activists from organising, or attending, protests.
The May 15 death of right-wing evangelist and Moral Majority founder Reverend Jerry Falwell has provided an opportunity for many people to comment on the influence of the Christian right on American politics and culture. Falwell relentlessly attacked Hollywood, blaming it for the decline of “traditional values”.
World
On May 20, a group of women activists in Indonesias northern-most province of Aceh declared the formation of a new local political party the Acehnese Peoples Alliance Party for Womens Concern (PARAPP).
Between May 16 and 24, almost 100 Palestinians died and more than 340 have were injured in Gaza through a combination of renewed Israeli military attacks and fighting between Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah.
Documentary maker Michael Moore has made headlines again with his latest film, SiCKO!, which premiered at the Cannes Film festival on May 23. The documentary is a loaded gun aimed at the US health-care system, which is the most expensive in the world and yet provides the worst cover in the First World, according to the latest World Health Organisation scorecard.
Led by the country’s socialist president, Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan revolution is sending shockwaves through the corporate elite both within Venezuela and internationally. The Venezuelan people are waging a struggle to gain sovereignty over the country’s natural resources in order to rebuild the nation along pro-people lines.
May 27 will be end of the 20-year concession granted by the Venezuelan government to the RCTV corporation owned by multi-millionaire Marcel Granier to use the state-owned Channel 2 broadcasting signal. The Venezuelan government has announced that the channel will become a public station, similar to a number of stations in Europe, based on programs made by independent producers
On May 13, the Left party won 8.4 % of the votes in Germany’s smallest state, the adjoining north-western cities of Bremen and Bremerhaven. This was sufficient for the party to enter a west German state parliament for the first time, with seven MPs.
On May 13, the Left party won 8.4 % of the votes in Germany’s smallest state, the adjoining north-western cities of Bremen and Bremerhaven. This was sufficient for the party to enter a west German state parliament for the first time, with seven MPs.
While public support in the US for Washingtons counterinsurgency war in Iraq has collapsed, the Pentagon has drawn up plans to almost double the number of US combat troops deployed in the oil-rich country by the end of this year.
On May 10, British PM Tony Blair finally made his long-awaited resignation statement. Blair will stand down as prime minister with effect from June 27. He will also stand down as leader of the Labour Party, and preparations for the election of the next Labour leader — who will simultaneously become PM — got underway immediately.
The May 23 advocate (lawyers) solidarity conference decided to build more public support for the advocates movement for an independent judiciary and an end to the military dictatorship. The movement erupted after Supreme Court chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry was suspended on March 9. The conference vowed to bring more and more people to future demonstrations and rallies.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberations eight-year effort to seek justice for one of its party activists who was kidnapped in 1999 in the north-east Bihar state concluded on May 8 when the alleged culprit MP Mohammad Shahabuddin was sentenced to life imprisonment. Chhote Lal Gupta, the victim, is officially presumed dead.
Amidst allegations of intimidation and politically orchestrated violence in the wake of East Timors recent presidential election, political parties are preparing for the June 30 legislative election. The ruling party Fretilin, which won a majority of seats in the 2001 constituent assembly election, is facing the prospect of a significantly reduced representation in parliament.
Nearly 16 months after the election of indigenous President Evo Morales, vice-president Alvaro Garcia Linera is an authorised spokesperson on the strategic objectives of the unfolding process. In this role, he affirms that his government aims for a capitalism with a big state presence. The vice-president spoke to Pablo Stefanoni.
A few months ago, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton would have seemed the least likely Democratic presidential candidate to lead a congressional charge to repeal the authority of Congress bestowed in 2002 upon George Bush to wage war on Iraq.
Culture
A Hard Rain
By David Bradbury
Frontline Films
For copies or screening information visit <www.frontlinefilms.com.au>
By David Bradbury
Frontline Films
For copies or screening information visit <www.frontlinefilms.com.au>
Cutting Edge: Africa, Americas New Oil Target As world oil reserves decline, the US and other world powers are competing for African oil. SBS, Monday, June 4, 1.30pm.
Foul! The Secret World of FIFA: Bribes, Vote Rigging and Ticket Scandals
By Andrew Jennings
HarperSport, 2006
386 pages, $32.95 (pb)
By Andrew Jennings
HarperSport, 2006
386 pages, $32.95 (pb)
MELBOURNE — Smells Like Sulphur is an exhibition of political art that is being billed as ‘a tribute to Venezuela and the art of telling Bush to piss off’. It will feature paintings by western suburbs artist Van Thanh Rudd, including works from his ‘Carriers Project’, which involves carrying political artwork for display on the streets and in public spaces around Melbourne. The exhibition will also feature photography of Venezuela’s unfolding revolution by Roberto Jorquera. The exhibition will run from May 23-June 9 at the Trocadero Art Space in Footscray. On June 2, Venezuelan charge d’affaires Nelson Davila will be special guest at a special opening night with live music from The Conch and Nicolas Jorquera. The Trocadero Art Space is open 11am to 6pm, Wednesdays to Saturdays.
General
Tom Lewis, 83, is a long-time Green Left Weekly subscriber in a small town between Bundaberg and Gin Gin, Queensland. His eyesight is rapidly failing and he can no longer read. But last week he renewed his subscription to the paper and made a $100 donation to our fighting fund.
Resistance!
Organising is underway for demonstrations during the APEC summit, which PM John Howard is hosting in Sydney on September 8-9 and which US President George Bush and other world leaders will be attending. The Stop Bush collective is organising a convergence for September 8, aiming to draw people onto the streets to protest against the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan. The protest will also call for urgent action to stop environmental destruction and for the defence of workers rights.