Rally for East Timor
MELBOURNE — More than 200 East Timorese and their supporters rallied and marched on July 17 behind a banner demanding a referendum in East Timor and release of Xanana Gusmao, jailed president of the National Council of the Timorese Resistance (CNRT).
July 17 marks the anniversary of Indonesia's illegal incorporation of East Timor as its "27th province". The march was part of worldwide action called by Nobel peace prize laureate and CNRT vice-president, Jose Ramos Horta, and organised by CNRT, University Students for a Free East Timor, Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor and the Australia East Timor Association and the Sanctuary Network.
Democratic Socialists to contest Northcote
MELBOURNE — Maurice Sibelle is standing as a candidate for the Democratic Socialists in the coming by-election for the state seat of Northcote.
Sibelle said that the aim of the campaign was to build a fighting opposition to both economic nationalism and One Nation's racist nationalism. Following the success of community rallies and street marches organised by the Democratic Socialists in Brunswick and Footscray, Sibelle announced that the next rally, planned for August 8, will start at the corner of High and Separation Streets, Northcote.
Sibelle will also lead the Democratic Socialists' Victorian senate campaign in the next federal election.
Democracy for Burma!
MELBOURNE — Burmese students will rally outside the Victorian state parliament on July 12 at 12noon. The rally, organised by the All-Burma Students Democratic Organisation and other pro-democracy activists, will call on the Australian government to pressure the Burma State Peace and Development Council to convene Burma's national parliament by August 21, engage in dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi, free all political prisoners (including student leader Min Ko Naing), and re-open universities and colleges.
The rally will also call on the Australian government to impose economic sanctions against the Burmese military dictatorship and urge state governments to adopt selective purchasing laws that ban any contact with companies investing in Burma. The National Union of Students has also endorsed the rally.