Gadigal Country/Sydney

On April 13, the Refugee Action Coalition (RAC) reported that Yuan Hui Min had been taken from Villawood detention centre to hospital. She is one of ten detainees on hunger strike in protest at the “unjust situation of detention”. The hunger strikers are calling for an end to forcible deportations, a maximum detention period of six months and for the immediate release of two detainees being held incommunicado.

While NSW police minister David Campbell has inspected the new APEC command in Sydney — in which the state government is wasting millions of dollars — anti-war, environmental and workers’ rights activists are preparing to send their message to US President George Bush, PM John Howard and other APEC leaders in Sydney in early September.

A coalition of community groups including Friends of the Earth, the National Union of Students, the Stop the War Coalition, the Australian Student Environment Network, and the Australian Youth Climate Change Coalition have initiated a public lobby outside the ALP national conference beginning on April 27 to support delegates who are standing up to the proposed changes to the ALP’s long-standing policy on uranium mining.

An April 12 community organising meeting called by the Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine decided to hold a range of events, including film nights and a public meeting leading up to a June 9 rally as part of the international campaign “The world says no to Israeli occupation”. The CJPP is inviting anyone interested in building this campaign to come to a meeting on April 26 at St Joseph’s Church, Bedford St, Newtown. For more information, email <[email protected]>

An action outside Kirribilli House on April 8, organised by the Refugee Action Collective, was addressed by RAC’s Ian Rintoul and Greens Senator Kerry Nettle, along with representatives from Falun Gong. Some 50 people gathered at Bradfield Park and marched through the streets to the gates of Kirribilli House, demanding an end to mandatory detention and temporary protection visas, the closure of the camps in remote areas, and the granting of asylum to Falun Gong detainees.

In Papua New Guinea, 97% customary land ownership by the Indigenous people is recognised by the constitution. However, a powerful coalition is seeking to overturn this. At a forum hosted by AidWatch and supported by the Research Initiative on International Activism UTS, Sylvia Mulung and Howard Sindana, community organisers from the Bismarck Ramu Group in Madang province, explained the struggle being organised against the privatisation of land.

More than 50 people protested on April 12 against the Australian government’s decision to send 300 extra troops to Afghanistan. The speakout was called at short notice by the Stop the War Coalition. Activists pointed out that the wars against Iraq and Afghanistan are part of the same “war on terror”, are both motivated by lies, and are both wars of occupation in which innocent people are being killed for US corporate interests.

Supporters of the Venezuelan and Cuban revolutions assembled on April 11 at the Iberoamerican square to commemorate the failure of the April 2002 US-backed coup against the government of Venezuela’s socialist president, Hugo Chavez.

In the lead-up to the March 24 NSW state election, you could be forgiven for believing that the NSW Greens were drug dealers: Hysterical attacks were launched on the party’s drugs policy, which focuses on harm minimisation and health issues.

SYDNEY — On March 31, the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network’s Sydney committee annual general meeting forged plans for expanding the campaign to invite Venezuela’s socialist president Hugo Chavez to tour Australia this year — an antidote to US President George Bush’s scheduled September visit. Guest speaker Venezuelan charge d’affaires Nelson Davila underscored the popular changes transforming Venezuela out of poverty and towards socialism. The meeting also decided to embark on monthly films, forums or street actions in support of Venezuela to build momentum towards the Latin American and Asia Pacific International Solidarity Forum being held in Melbourne this October. To get involved phone Kiraz on (02) 9690 1977.

A hunger strike of 35 detainees in the Villawood immigration detention centre was initiated on March 28, sparked by the actions of Global Solutions Ltd (GSL) guards under the instructions of the immigration department. GSL guards snatched a Chinese woman from her bed in LIMA, the single women’s compound at Villawood. Dressed only in her pyjamas, she was dragged screaming from the compound and was deported only hours later.

Emboldened by the current right-wing security environment, spy agencies are attempting to recruit at Australian universities.