A group of 14 Occupy Sydney activists faced charges at Downing St District Court in Sydney on December 5. The charges arose out of the police eviction of Occupy Sydney's camp in Martin Place on October 23.
The cases were "stood over", allowing human rights lawyer Stuart Littlemore to take some of these cases to the High Court in the new year. Occupy activist Tim Davis-Frank quipped "It looks like we'll be occupying the court system for a while!"
A solidarity demonstration outside the court involved a few rogue Occupy tents on legs, who were refused admission into court.
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About 1000 refugee rights activists marched on the national conference of the Australian Labor Party in Sydney's Darling Harbour.
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About 10,000 people marched on the Australian Labor Party national conference to demand equal marriage rights on December 3 in Sydney. The ALP conference adopted policy supporting equal marriage rights for same-sex couples, but also voted to allow ALP members a "conscience vote" on the matter in parliament. The crowd was not impressed with this, which would likely see a vote lose, and vowed to continue the struggle.
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Green Left Weekly's Peter Boyle spoke to Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon outside Lynas Corporation's annual general meeting on November 30 about Lynas's plan to build a rare earths refinery in Malaysia.
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On November 29, inner west peace advocates gathered to give away fair trade chocolate crackles and sing freedom carols outside the Max Brenner chocolate outlet in Broadway, which is owned by the Israeli multinational, Strauss Group.
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Paul Benedek of the Socialist Alliance (Australia) gives a message of solidarity to the Egyptian Revolution at a rally outside the Egyptian Consulate in Sydney on November 26, 2011.
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More than 100 people filled Leichhardt’s Palace Cinema on November 24 for the Sydney premiere screening of Growing Change: A Journey Inside Venezuela’s Food Revolution. The documentary, made by filmmaker and solidarity activist Simon Cunich, examines the global food crisis that leaves hundreds of millions of people in hunger and is rapidly depleting the soil fertility on which long-term food security depends.
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Trade unionists from the Transport Workers Union, the National Tertiary Education Union and the Maritime Union of Australia joined Occupy Sydney activists in a protest on November 22 outside Angel Place Recital Hall, where the union-bashing CEO of Qantas Alan Joyce was addressing a forum.
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Two hundred people rallied outside NSW parliament on November 23 and handed over 20,000 petitions that call for a moratorium on coal seam gas (CSG) mining, a royal commission into the industry's impacts on communities and the environment and a ban on fracking. Coalition Premier Barry O'Farrell promised before the last election that his government would convoke a parliamentary debate on any issue upon receiving at least 10,000 petitions. -
A Corporate Greed Tour, organised by Occupy Sydney, took place in Sydney on November 19. The tour targeted several greedy corporations, including the Coles supermarket chain in solidarity with striking Baiada Poultry workers in Victoria. Baiada is a major supplier of chickens to Coles.
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Protesters gathered in Waterloo on November 17 to mark the national day of action against Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. The protest took place spot where 17-year-old TJ Hickey was killed during a police pursuit in 2004.
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City of Sydney Greens councillor Irene Doutney gave the speech below to Occupy Sydney’s Corporate Tour protest on November 19. * * * I’d like to acknowledge that we are meeting on Aboriginal land, Gadigal land, land that was never sold, ceded or given away. I pay my respects to elders past, present and future. This is Aboriginal land — always was and always will be.