Issue 930

Two hundred people rallied in Melbourne on July 18 to protest against plans to sell public housing to private owners and call for an increase in public housing. Greens MP Adam Bandt told the rally: “The state government will soon decide on the future of Melbourne’s public housing. We don’t know exactly what they have planned, but they want to increase rents and make access short term for people using it.” In Melbourne, about 7000 people are living on the streets. There are now 3000 people on the public housing waiting list.

A popular uprising against the brutal tyranny of the Omar al-Bashir regime is sweeping Sudan. It began with protest led by women students at Khartoum University but has spread throughout the country, a protester, Zaidah, told Green Left Weekly. Sudanese refugee communities around the world have started holding actions in solidarity with the uprising and on July 20 was the Sydney community's turn. It will be only the first of many more actions, the protesters vowed.

Anti-uranium protesters' peaceful message of "uranium is just not cricket" was clearly too frightening for South Australian police who mobilised on horses and attacked the protest. Thirteen activists were arrested in the music festival at Roxby Downs Olympic Dam mine. Photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zebparkes/sets/72157630616608436/ More on Lizards Revenge here: http://lizardsrevenge.net/ Film by Zeb Parkes for Green Left TV.

About 400 people rallied at Sydney Town Hall on July 16 to show their support for WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. The protesters held a vibrant march through the city streets. Speakers at the rally included Kellie Tranter, lawyer and human rights activist, Paul McAleer, MUA Sydney branch secretary, Richard Neville, founder of Oz Magazine, Irene Doutney, Greens Councillor for the City of Sydney, Fred Fuentes, Latin American Social Forum, Jake Lynch, Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies and Gail Malone and Anne Picot from the Support Assange and WikiLeaks Coalition.

Protesters at the Lizard's Revenge anti-nuclear protest camp near Roxby Downs, South Australia, marched to what they dubbed the "gates of hell" — the entrance to BHP’s giant Olympic Dam mine — on July 15.

The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) in NSW has fined a coal seam gas (CSG) company $3000 after it twice polluted a creek in the Pilliga forest near Narrabri in NSW by discharging contaminated water. Explaining the fines, the EPA said it “issued two penalty notices with fines of $1500 each to Eastern Star Gas for discharging polluted water containing high levels of salt into Bohena Creek in March and November 2010”.

Coles warehouse workers met two days into an indefinite strike on July 12 and voted unanimously to reject the latest offer from their direct employer Toll Logistics. Hundreds had gathered on a picket line to prevent trucks entering the site. Striking workers outside the warehouse, which owner Coles outsources to Toll, told Green Left Weekly that the offer wasn’t really “new”, but was only tweaked slightly from the old offer.

About 300 people rallied for equal marriage rights outside today's Liberal National Party Queensland state conference in Brisbane July 14. Protesters waved banners and signs opposing the recently elected Campbell Newman government's recent attacks on lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex (LGTBI) people’s rights.

NSW cuts risk kids, roads, fires NSW unions say plans to axe 1000 Department of Family and Community Services (DOCS) jobs will put children at risk. Treasury documents show more than 80% of the job cuts will be permanent employees.

The Environmental Defender’s Office NSW has advised community group Illawarra Residents for Responsible Mining Inc in a court case that will test the legality of mining company Gujarat NRE’s decision to start longwall mining in its Russell Vale colliery earlier this year.

About 50 shopping centre cleaners and their supporters rallied on July 13 outside the Westfield head office in Market Street to demand a better deal on pay and conditions. The protesters chanted, “Hey Westfield, listen up! The cleaners are standing up!” and, “What do we want? Clean Start! When do we want it? Now!” They were also protesting an assault on a union organiser at a protest outside the building the previous day.

The indefinite strike by Coles warehouse workers in Somerton, Melbourne, began with a few hundred people on the picket lines from 6am on July 10. At the time of writing, no trucks have been allowed in or out of the site. Coles outsources the operation of the warehouse to Toll Logistics. Coles and Toll had expected industrial action, but they hadn’t expected that the workers would vote for an indefinite strike.

This video shows the reasons for and some of the actions in Perth's largely successful campaign for free speech. See more videos by Green Left TV.

Support Assange and WikiLeaks Coalition activist Gail Malone gave the speech below at a July 16 rally in Sydney. * * * WikiLeaks is a gift to history. We now have, for the first time, the ability to write history not only through the eyes of the victors. WikiLeaks has become a leveler between people and government. They have ushered in an age where we, the people, have access to information once deemed for their eyes only.

Australian Greens leader Christine Milne and the party's MPs and Senators stood up to immense pressure from the big parties and the mainstream media to support some form of “offshore processing” of refugees (either in Malaysia, as the Gillard Labor government wants, or Nauru, as the Abbott Coalition opposition demands). The Greens stood firm against offshore processing and mandatory detention of refugees.

Federal Labor’s hopes that its carbon price handouts would lift its primary vote have proven futile, and as Labor policy and rhetoric moves further to the right, a section of the party has begun a full-blown assault on its alliance with the Greens.

Amidst the ongoing discussion about Fairfax, Gina Rinehart and the “crisis of journalism”, the ABC celebrated its 80th anniversary on July 1. As Fairfax and News Limited cut newsrooms and erect paywalls the ABC is expanding its online and broadcast news presence.

A NSW police convoy consisting of 40 Public Order and Riot Squad officers entered Grafton on July 11. Its mission — to “quell” the peaceful community members of Grafton and the Clarence Valley who were trying to be heard. The citizens and the Public Sector Association (PSA) had been seeking consultation with the NSW government over a decision that directly impacted on their lives and businesses — the “downsizing” of Grafton Gaol. But the government arrogantly refused to hear.

Guillaume Legault is a leading member of Quebec’s CLASSE — the Broad Coalition of the Association for Student Union Solidarity — a radical student organisation at the forefront of a months-long student strike against tuition fee hikes. Quebec’s student movement is still locked in struggle with the ruling Liberal government over the new fees. The government has responded with police repression and harassment of students. It also passed a new law that bans protests of more than 50 people unless police have given prior approval.

Operation Miracle, a humanitarian social program created by the governments of Cuba and Venezuela, has made it possible to carry out over 1 million eye surgeries in the South American nation over the last eight years, the Cuban News Agency said. “We’re operating some 5000 patients a week, the same amount of patients who benefited annually in Venezuela before the beginning of the program,” said national coordinator Manuel Pacheco, cited by the Venezuelan News Agency. Operation Miracle began in July 2004, taking care of patients with few economic resources who had eye problems.

The article below is based on a talk given at a Socialist Alliance meeting on June 26 in Melbourne by Chris Slee, a member of the SA Melbourne branch. * * * The Socialist Alliance supports the right of the Tamil people to self-determination. A resolution adopted at an SA national conference reads: "Socialist Alliance recognises that Tamils are an oppressed nation within Sri Lanka, and supports their right to self-determination.

Trouble flared across Ireland's north on the night of July 12 as sectarian Orange Order marchers insisted on marching through nationalist areas, the Morning Star said the next day. It said serious rioting followed a unionist (supporters of Northern Ireland's union with Britain) parade through the the largely Catholic and Irish nationalist working-class suburb of Ardoyne in north Belfast.

The June 22 coup carried out against Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo was an important blow to progressive movements across Latin America. The struggle against the coup is far from over, but learning the lessons of the coup are important. This requires placing the coup in the context of the turbulent process of change occurring in Latin America See also Paraguay: US makes gains from coup against Lugo

French car-maker Peugeot-Citroen announced a drastic cost-cutting plan on July 12 to slash 8000 jobs in France and close a major factory in Aulnay-sous-Bois north of Paris. Hundreds of workers at the Aulnay plant walked off the job and staged a protest in front of the site, which is one of France's biggest car factories and a bastion of car workers' trade unions. "It's a show of disgust because Peugeot has played with us for a year, over a year now, saying that it's not certain, we're not going to close," said Khenniche of the SUD union, who has worked at the plant for 17 years.

One aspect of the drive by the super rich to make working people bear the brunt of the new Depression is to attack the social wage. Part of this attack is the serious erosion of public education. This predates the crisis that began in 2007, but the recession that followed has been met with a sharp increase in such attacks. The failure of the federal government to adequately fund public education cascades down to the states and cities, who all cry there is not enough money, so cutbacks are necessary.

Congratulations on the launch of Green Left TV in Sydney on July 7. With the filming of the second Green Left Report in front of a live audience, it was a night to remember. Let’s hope that this is the start of something big. Community media needs our support to make it grow.

Rupert Murdoch: An Investigation Of Political Power By David McKnight Allen & Unwin, 2012 285 pages, $29.95 (pb) An adviser to the former New Labour government of Tony Blair in Britain called right-wing media tycoon Rupert Murdoch the “24th member of cabinet”. The advisor said no big decision inside No. 10 was ever made without “taking into account the likely reaction” of Murdoch.