Resistance!

Thousands of Canadian students and their supporters are expected to protest tuition fee hikes at a national day of action on February 7.

On January 21, Prime Minister John Howard condemned the organisers of the Big Day Out (BDO) music festival in Sydney for asking those planning to attend not to display Australian flags at the events as an “insult to the freedom it represents”.

As “Australia Day” approaches, heralded by government advertisements telling us to “celebrate what’s great”, the question arises again: what is nationalism?

Almost a year ago, in the same week the Howard government’s industrial relations “reforms” were passed by the Senate, most of the media’s attention was focused a series of “anti-terror” raids that targeted a group Muslim men in Melbourne. Despite all the media surrounding the arrests, the men were not charged with conspiring to commit any specific terrorist act. The media hysteria helped fuel the racist Cronulla lynch mob attacks in December 2005.

If greenhouse gas emissions continue to spiral, scientists predict ecological disaster: melting ice sheets, erratic and destructive weather patterns and increasing desertification. All this will turn hundreds of millions of people into refugees.

In the lead-up to the November 7 US Congressional elections, President George Bush’s Republican Party tried to terrorise the US public into voting for the party responsible for leading the country into the disastrous Iraq war.

Venezuela’s socialist President Hugo Chavez spoke for people the world over at the United Nations General Assembly in September when he attacked US imperialism’s attempt to dominate the world and subjugate its people. Referring to US President George Bush’s speech the day before, Chavez said: “The imperialists see extremists all around. No, it’s not that we are extremists. What is happening is that the world is waking up and people everywhere are rising up. I have the impression Mr Imperialist Dictator that you will live the rest of your days as if in a nightmare, because no matter where you look we will be rising up against US imperialism.”

The founding conference of the Australian Youth Climate Change Coalition (AYCCC) was held in Melbourne on November 20-22. The meeting involved representatives from 30 organisations, including the Australian Student Environmental Network, United Nations Youth Association, Oz Green, GetUp!, the Oaktree Foundation, the Greens and Resistance. There were also representatives from government youth councils, high school activist groups and university student councils, as well as university-based environmental and social justice groups.

The following statement was issued on November 25 by the socialist youth organisation Resistance.

The following statement was issued by Resistance, a socialist youth organisation, on November 16.

The ABC announced on October 31 that it was axing the popular satirical TV panel show The Glass House — one day after NSW Liberal Senator Connie Fierrvanti-Wells attacked the show in a parliamentary estimates committee hearing examining “ABC bias”.

After having supported the May 20 international day of action in solidarity with Venezuela and Cuba, the National Union of Students (NUS) has taken a retrograde step by voting against giving support to the international week of solidarity with Venezuela starting on November 12.