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GLW is taking a break. Our next printed edition will be dated September 1 (and published online on the evening of August 29). However, the 91自拍论坛 website will be updated after August 21 with news and analysis of the federal election outcome. Visit 91自拍论坛 and please consider taking out an so we can continue to bring you an independent voice.
Margarita Windisch

Victorian Socialist Alliance Federal election candidates strongly condemn the Australian Federal Police raids on the Kurdish Association of Victoria and community members.

Greens candidate for Mackellar Dr Jonathan King is a blue-blooded radical. King gained national prominence in 1988 when he staged an $11 million recreation of the First Fleet's voyage. The historian and former journalist became, in his own words, 鈥減olitical hot property,鈥 courted by both major parties. He declined their overtures. Politics 鈥渨as in [his] blood鈥, King said, but he was 鈥渢oo radical鈥 for the major parties. Following the bicentennial voyage, King found his 鈥渘ext big project, and that was helping the environment鈥.
On August 16, Darwin was the venue for a screening of Our Generation, a landmark new documentary about the plight of Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory living under the repressive NT intervention. The film focuses on the effects of the intervention on the Yolngu people of East Arnhem Land, which coincided with a move by the NT Labor government to move people off traditional homelands and into larger towns (the 鈥渉ub town鈥 policy).

Sick of the manipulative, increasingly policy-free barrage of major party negative advertising in the race to the August 21 Australian federal election?

About 500 people rallied in Melbourne on August 13 to put the Liberal and Labor parties on notice that the refugee rights movement is rebuilding, and a growing number of people are willing to stand up for refugees. The Refugee Action Collective organised the protest under the slogan of 鈥淪tand up for Refugees鈥 in a bid to have the treatment of asylum seekers recognized as a human rights issue. There were contingents of Greens, socialists and the Community Public Sector Union. Protesters chanted, 鈥淓ast Timor no solution, let the refugees in鈥.
PERTH 鈥 Members of the Perth Burmese community held a commemoration on August 8 for the democratic uprising that took place in Burma exactly 22 years before. Speakers at the commemoration called for a restoration of democracy in Burma, including freedom for pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and for stronger action in support of democracy from the Australian government. A solidarity dinner for the Burmese struggle was also held on August 7.
Immigration officials accept about 99% of claims for refugee status by people who have arrived by boats in Australia. But this hasn鈥檛 stopped mainstream politicians from punishing those seeking asylum in this way. In April, the government announced it would temporarily freeze visa applications from newly arrived Sri Lankan and Afghan asylum seekers. In June, about 70% of Afghan (mostly Hazara) claims were rejected, according to the Refugee Action Coalition (RAC). Such rejection figures have never been seen before.

The article 鈥淎boriginal embassy to appeal decision鈥听(GLW #848) included the sentence: 鈥淭he developer [Stockland] refused to consult the Aboriginal community about the development [at Sandon Point near Wollongong Illawarra], although it was a requirement in the preparation of the Sandon Point Environmental Assessment Report.鈥

The cover of the August 9 edition edition of Time magazine featured a shocking picture of Bibi Aisha, a young woman whose nose and ears had been cut off. The photo was accompanied by the headline: 鈥淲hat happens if we leave Afghanistan鈥. However, what happened to Aisha took place in Afghanistan under Western occupation. In return for allowing Time to publish her photo, Aisha was flown to the US for reconstructive surgery. However, although Time ensured her mutilated face was seen worldwide, they appear less keen for her voice to be heard.
An August 10 summit between recently inaugurated Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has lowered tensions in a region that some believe was on the brink of armed confrontation. The situation reached boiling point after Colombia鈥檚 July 22 claims in the US-dominated Organisation of American States that Venezuela was 鈥渉arbouring terrorists鈥.
In Australia, the question of environmental protection has increasingly been linked to the need to reduce or contain the nation鈥檚 population level size. This is often tied to the argument that the high level of consumption in First World countries is unsustainable.