Issue 913

News

The campaign launch for Mike Crook, the Socialist Alliance candidate for the seat of Sandgate in the March 24 Queensland state election, took place in Einbunpin Park, Sandgate, on March 4. About 25 people, including several Greens supporters, attended the launch, which was held next to the lagoon in the seaside suburb. Crook told the audience: “For the major parties, Labor and Liberal National Party, the big corporations pay the piper, and therefore call the tune. For the Socialist Alliance, we believe that the really worthwhile political activity comes from the grassroots.

The Australian mainstream media has been awfully quiet about the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), of which round 11 is now underway in Australia at the Melbourne Convention Center over March 1 to 9. These talks are being held in secret.

Perth-based women's health doctor Kamala Emanuel has hit out at the "dangerous implications" of a "foetal homicide" law proposed by the Western Australian state government. The law if passed would, for the first time, recognise an "unborn baby" as a human life. The stated intent of the law would be to be create legal sanctions against people who assault a pregnant woman. People could face life imprisonment under these laws -- "the same as a murder charge" – if an "unborn baby" dies. The law would also apply in situations where a foetus was hurt due to negligent driving.
The House of Representatives narrowly passed changes on February 16 to the undemocratic building industry laws that target building workers. The Building and Construction Industry Improvement Amendment (Transition to Fair Work) Bill, which will replace the Building Industry Improvement Act, was narrowly adopted by a margin of one vote. The bill is now before the Senate.
The Mark McGowan-led Western Australian ALP opposition has promised it will support the Colin Barnett government’s controversial anti-association laws. The laws were debated in parliament on February 28. Barnett has said the law will “crack down on outlaw bikie gangs”. However, the words “bikie”, “motorcycle” or “gang” do not appear once in the bill.
Search For Your Rights logo.

The control measures in the anti-association legislation will limit our rights to freely associate with people by allowing the government to make a declaration on an organisation. This will allow the government to obtain “control orders” over individuals who are members, former members or people involved in the running of a declared organisation.

Writer and Occupy Melbourne activist Wil Wallace took part in a March 1 protest against the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, a new free trade agreement currently under negotiation between nine nations, including Australia and the United States. Wallace’s account of the protest is below. * * *
Melbourne activists gathered at Federation Square in the city centre on February 28 to voice their support for the All India General Strike. As many as 100 million workers had walked off the job in India to protest against low wages and poor working conditions in what is most likely the largest ever strike in human history. As the crowd unfurled banners and flags, visiting US activist-musician George Mann and friends played unionist songs. The music got the protesters in the mood to hear addresses from members of the various labour organisations.
The Australian Nurses Federation (ANF) Victorian branch released the statement below on March 1. * * * Private conciliation resolved disputes in 1997, 2001, 2004 and 2007 and can resolve 2012. The Baillieu government has spent more taxpayer money on lawyers — this time to prevent nurses and midwives from freely using social media to discuss the dispute. Baillieu government-paid lawyers wrote to ANF solicitors last night demanding the ANF delete nurses’ and midwives’ posts from the Facebook campaign page at www.facebook.com/respectourwork
Chanting “no cuts, no way, this is what the staff say”, 200 staff and student supporters defied rain to march through the University of Sydney on February 29 to protest against the university management’s move to axe 340 university staff. The rally, organised by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), took place on the first student orientation day.

Please share to counter the lies back by millions of dollars with the CSG industry's "We want CSG" rubbish! Time for truth in ads! Based on this article and also featured here.

The premiere of the new Venezuela solidarity film “Chasing Chavez” hit the big screen at the Schonell Cinema, University of Queensland, on February 29. About 70 people attended the launch of the hour-long documentary and applauded director Katrina Channells and co-producer and cinematographer Nik Lachajczak for their fine work.

On February 25, prominent Murri community leader Sam Watson launched the campaign for Liam Flenady, the Socialist Alliance candidate for South Brisbane in the March 24 Queensland elections. A crowd of more than 40 people attended a street meeting in Boundary Street, West End in the heart of the inner-city electorate held by Labor Premier Anna Bligh.

Analysis

How would you feel if you woke up to the breakfast radio news announcing that Green Left Weekly had just published its last issue? The left in Spain had that experience on February 24, when we learned that this would be the last day the progressive daily Publico appeared on the country’s newsstands (the online version continues).
Dave Kerin

Dave Kerin from the new community group Enough has helped run a daily picket outside Telstra’s Collins St office in Melbourne for the past three weeks. The picket is a protest against Telstra’s decision to send hundreds of jobs offshore.

The NSW department of planning released a set of new guidelines for wind farm developments in December last year. The department is seeking submissions from the public commenting on the new guidelines until March 14. The new guidelines include the most stringent noise regulation in the world, with turbine noise not allowed to exceed 35 decibels. The limit is 50 decibels or more in much of Europe, and 40 decibels elsewhere in Australia.
With international condemnation of Australia’s approach to asylum seekers and the intervention in the Northern Territory, Prime Minister Julia Gillard may not be well known for her support for human rights. Still she agreed to the Greens’ request for recognition of Indigenous peoples in the Australian constitution.
Nurses outside Maroondah Hospital, Melbourne.

Twice daily outside almost every Victorian public hospital there are nurses protesting and waving banners in a spirited display of defiance.

Self described “advocate for women and girls” Melinda Tankard Reist recently launched a defamation claim against blogger Jennifer Wilson for saying Reist is a Baptist. Wilson’s article, on her blog No Place for Sheep, criticised Reist’s anti-abortion stance.
The South Australian government has produced an “anti-binge drinking” ad that targets young women. It features a young woman slumped in a dodgy club toilet while someone else points her finger accusingly. The tagline reads: “Drink too much, you’re asking for trouble.” Journalist Catherine Deveney described the ad on Twitter as amounting to government-funded “slut-shaming”.

There is a growing disconnect between the official rosy picture of the Australian economy and mounting public anxiety about job insecurity. The latest official unemployment rate (January 2012) was steady at 5.2% and Treasury secretary Martin Parkinson insists there is no reason to worry. Australians, he said, should shake off their misplaced “boom with gloom” attitude.

Bob Carr.

What with the whole Rudd debacle, sparked by the whole Gillard debacle, Labor has been staggering from one crisis to the next. Time for some fresh and bold thinking!

The Socialist Alliance Queensland released the statement below on March 2. * * * The three Socialist Alliance candidates in the March 24 Queensland state election, two of who are former Labor Party members disgusted at Labor's betrayals of public interests, have called for a new trade union and community campaign to reverse the privatisations of the major parties.
Infectious Diseases Physician Trent Yarwood released the open letter below to Coalition immigration spokesperson Scott Morrison on February 28. * * * Dear Mr Morrison, I am writing to you regarding your press release dated February 27, 2012, entitled “Typhoid cases on latest boats highlight the risk of Labor’s border failures”.
The Socialist Alliance NSW released the statement below on February 29. * * * The Socialist Alliance NSW condemns the latest step in the attacks on NSW public sector workers and their unions, announced by Premier Barry O’Farrell on February 23. O’Farrell used question time to announce that he intends to introduce a bill to NSW parliament on March 6, which will increase penalties for industrial action in defiance of Industrial Relation Commission orders, or “wildcat strikes”.
WikiLeaks released the statement below on February 28. * * * Confidential emails obtained from the US private intelligence firm Stratfor show that the United States government has had a secret indictment against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for more than 12 months. WikiLeaks publishes Global Intelligence Files, exposes Stratfor Assange slams wishtleblower crackdown hysteria
Center for Constitutional Rights, Feb 28: Leaks published today from Stratfor, a private intelligence corporation, indicate the United States Department of Justice has issued a secret, sealed indictment against Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks. In response, the Center for Constitutional Rights issued the following statement. * * *
The Yes Men released the statement below on February 27. * * *

World

Founders of Invisible Children

The Kony 2012 film, produced by the Invisible Children NGO, has gone viral over the internet. Viewed more than 14 million times, and widely hailed in the mainstream media, the film targets Lord's Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony for his crimes -- but backs forces in the Ugandan military guilty of similar crimes and supports US military intervention.

Police and bailiffs removed peaceful Occupy London protesters from their camp outside St Paul’s Cathedral on February 28. The Coalition of Resistance, which unites a range of groups and individuals to campaign against the British government's savage austerity measures, released the statement below in response. Read more of Green Left's coverage of the Occupy movement. * * *
There has been a surge in protests and attacks against the US-led occupation forces in Afghanistan since February 20. The catalyst was the discovery by Afghan workers of burnt copies of the Koran at the waste disposal facility of the US military-run Bagram prison. More than 30 unarmed protesters have been shot by occupation and puppet forces since February 20 (or, as the Western media prefer to phrase it, “died in the riots”). Six occupation soldiers have been killed in attacks ― not by insurgents but by members of the Afghan security forces.
Millions of workers joined a one-day strike in India on February 28 in defence of public ownership and for stronger labour rights. Eleven major trade unions called the action to protest against the United Progressive Alliance government's policy of selling stakes in state-owned companies. They also demanded an amendment to minimum wage laws to keep pace with inflation, pensions for all workers and the registration of trade unions in different industries.
Chicago workers occupy plant, score win Workers facing layoffs at a Chicago window factory have declared victory after occupying their plant for 11 hours, OccupyWallSt.org said on February 24. The Occupy Wall Street website said: “Through direct community action, including the support of Occupy Chicago, the workers and their union prevented the California-based Serious Energy company from closing the plant for another 90 days. The workers hope this will give them time to keep the plant open, possibly by purchasing it themselves and creating a worker-owned co-op.”
It is a truism to say that democracy began with the Greeks ― less so to say that it originated in popular rebellion against debt and debt-bondage. Yet, with the Greek people ensnared once more in the vice-like grip of rich debt-holders, it may be useful to recall that fact. For the only hope today of reclaiming democracy in Greece (and elsewhere) resides in the prospect of a mass uprising against modern debt-bondage that extends the rule of the people into the economic sphere.
At last, the police have become efficient. They may have stumbled slightly with their investigation of News International, but they haven't made the same mistake with the people sitting around by St Paul's. Last year, presumably, if they'd been asked to evict Occupy London protests who camped at St Paul's Cathedral, they'd have written a report saying: "We have left no stone unturned in pursuing the occupiers, but after driving round the cathedral hundreds of times we have no evidence of any tents anywhere, or, indeed, of any cathedral."
Bolivia’s vice-president Alvaro Garcia Linera brought a message of hope and anti-imperialist commitment to Mexico in early February. Speaking to an overflowing assembly of students and university personnel at Mexico City’s UNAM (National Autonomous University), he said the left-wing government led by President Evo Morales welcomes social-movement protests and conflict. The more, the better. “The struggle is our nourishment, our peace,” Garcia Linera said. “It does not overwhelm us. Absolute calm frightens us.
Addameer is a Palestinian human rights organisation that works to support political prisoners held in Israeli and Palestinian jails. It offers free legal aid and works to end torture and other abuses of prisoners' rights. The group’s 10 lawyers visit more than 500 prisoners inside Israeli jails each year. They also represent prisoners held by the Palestinian Authority (PA), representing more than 400 Palestinian prisoners arrested by PA security forces in 2009-10.
The International Network in Solidarity with the Political Prisoners (INSPP) received the wonderful news on February 29 that Colombian labour activist, human rights defender and political prisoner Liliany Obando was to be released on bond the next day. Obando had been in jail for three years and seven months on charges of "rebellion". Obando was arrested on August 8, 2008 while serving as the human rights coordinator for Agricultural Workers Union Federation of Colombia (Fengasuagro), Colombia's largest organisation of peasant farmers and farm workers unions and associations.
The Western media reported on March 3 that the rebel city of Homs had fallen to forces of the Assad regime after a bloody 26-day siege. There were reports of a humanitarian disaster in the city and widespread killings.
Last year it was the indignado movement that filled Spain’s city squares with hundreds of thousands of protesters. On February 19, it was the union-led movement against the Popular Party (PP) government’s new labour law. On February 29, another mass protest flooded the squares: tens of thousands of students protesting against cuts to education in 25 cities and towns across Spain. They had paid no attention to the plea of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who on the eve of the protest asked Spaniards “to understand that things are not that easy”. Huge support
The release of secret emails from private intelligence company Stratfor by WikiLeaks has opened the door on the world of spying-for-profit. More than 5 million emails between Stratfor employees were stolen by hacker group Anonymous in December last year. The emails were passed on to WikiLeaks, which began releasing them on February 27.
When the paramilitaries of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) arrived in San Onofre in northern Colombia in the late 1990s, they came after dark, dragging people from their homes and disappearing into the night. Soon, they did not need the cover of darkness. People were executed in public plazas in broad daylight. Women and young girls were openly raped and abused.
When the early morning fog rises and drifting skeins from wood fires carry the sweet smell of India, the joggers arrive in Lodi Gardens. Past the tomb of Mohammed Shah, the 15th century Mughal ruler, across a landscape manicured in the 1930s by Lady Willingdon, wife of the governor-general, recently acquired trainers stride out from ample figures in smart saris and white cotton dhotis.
Lynas, an Australian mining company, is building a rare earth refinery close to the heavily populated area city of Kuantan in Malaysia. The ore is to be shipped from a mine in Western Australia but the highly toxic and radioactive waste which the refinery will produce will not be accepted back by the WA government.

Culture

Green Washed: Why We Can’t Buy Our Way to a Green Planet Kendra Pierre-Louis IG Publishing, 216 pages Radical German poet Hans Magnus Enzenberger once compared mainstream environmentalism to a Sunday sermon that terrifies parishioners with dire warnings of eternal damnation, but concludes weakly by promising salvation to any sinner who performs a simple act of penance. “The horror of the predicted catastrophe,” he wrote, “contrasts sharply with the mildness of the admonition with which we are allowed to escape.”
Sydney's inner-west community is set to take over Newtown’s nooks and crannies for the fourth time with the roving laneway festival Reclaim the Lanes. On Saturday, March 17, the forgotten and underutilised urban spaces of the inner-west will be transformed by the one-day festival. Pockets of artistic experimentation, live music and community participation are expected to bring 500 locals, friends and families out and about to enjoy the colourful spectacle.
This is an abridged version of an article that first appeared on February 24 in the Occupied Chicago Tribune, the newspaper backing Occupy Chicago. Despite brutal forced evictions of Occupy camps across the United States late last year, the movement for the interests of the 99% against the 1% is still going strong.

Letters

Co-operative housing I agree with nearly everything written by Douglas Jordan in the article Public housing is an issue for the whole community. Housing needs to be affordable, secure and accessible. Public housing is good and should be extended. The part I do not entirely agree with is "in essence social housing is the privatisation of public housing". There are two types of social housing. One is as described by Douglas, the other is co-operatives.