Gadigal Country/Sydney

  • Iraq war veteran condemns occupation

    “The only way this war will end is if we end it” — this was the central point of a talk by Matt Howard to an audience of around 100 people at the University of Sydney on August 14. Howard, a former soldier and a member of the US-based group Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), was in Sydney as part of a national speaking tour.

  • Conference discusses West Papua's future

    A conference organised by Indonesian Solidarity, in association with the University of Sydney Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies’ West Papua Project, was held on August 9-10, gathering West Papuan government and NGO representatives, academics and international solidarity activists to discuss the current obstacles to justice and prosperity faced by West Papua.

  • Forum dispels Howard's nuclear myths

    The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit could be the platform for Howard to announce a joint US/Australia nuclear action plan”, Imogen Zethoven, an anti-nuclear campaigner with the Wilderness Society, told a 50-strong public forum on August 15 organised by the Sydney Nuclear Free Coalition.

  • Parramatta preselects socialist candidate

    Rachel Evans, a well-known campaigner for refugee, workers’ and queer rights, was preselected as the Socialist Alliance candidate for the federal seat of Parramatta at a meeting of the Sydney West branch on August 7.

  • Esselte workers hold firm against intimidation

    As striking workers at office supplies manufacturers Esselte Australia in Minto entered their seventh week of resilient action against forced Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs), their boss was getting more desperate.

  • Peaceful protests - violent world leaders

    In an August 2 media release, Sydney branch of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) announced that it rejects “any suggested implication that demonstrating against the injustices of globalisation and war means support for violence”. The MUA statement was made in response to a NSW police training video for the September APEC summit that featured footage of MUA officials participating in legal non-violent protests.

  • Attacks on civil rights continue

    The NSW Labor government’s cabinet, once again intoning the chant of “terrorism”, has agreed to introduce compulsory DNA testing for anyone arrested for any offence. The leaked cabinet decision was reported in the June 22 Sydney Sun-Herald.

  • A voice for the voiceless

    A representative of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) was welcomed by a large crowd packed into a Sydney University lecture theatre on July 26.

  • Sex workers campaign against reversal of decriminalisation

    On June 2, 1975, sex workers in Lyon, France, occupied a church for two months, an action that inspired the contemporary sex-worker rights movement. On June 2 this year, 60 sex workers and supporters held a demonstration at Circular Quay to protest against the NSW parliament’s passage of the Brothels Legislation Amendment Act. Protesters described the legislation as a significant “reversal of decriminalisation”.

  • Esselte picket stops delivery trucks

    On July 18, 100 people supported 15 striking workers at the Esselte office supply warehouse in Minto by stopping delivery trucks entering the site for seven hours.

  • Defending the right to protest

    Lawyer Michael Bozic, unionist Peter McLelland and investigative journalist Wendy Bacon addressed 100 people at a July 16 Sydney public forum. The meeting was organised by the Stop Bush Coalition in the lead-up to protests during the September APEC summit, which US President George Bush will attend.

  • Terrorism 'go bag' for Sydney residents

    The “anti-terror” hysteria in the lead-up to the Sydney APEC summit in September has been ramped up still further — this time by Lord Mayor Clover Moore.