Three members of the Sydney-based refugee solidarity group the Cross Borders Collective occupied the rooftop of immigration minister Chris Bowen鈥檚 electoral office in Fairfield on April 29.
Their protest was a stand of support for the refugees who have been protesting inside immigration detention centres across Australia, including the week-long rooftop protest by three detainees in Sydney鈥檚 Villawood detention centre.
Police arrested the activists within a few hours and removed them from the roof.
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After months of pressure from apologists for apartheid Israel, eight Marrickville councillors, including two Greens councillors, voted on April 19 to rescind the Council鈥檚 to support the global boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.
However, an important national discussion about Australia鈥檚 responsibilities to help Palestinians win their rights has begun.
As part of a National Day of Action for refugee rights, about 250 protesters turned out to Melbourne鈥檚 Maribyrnong Detention centre on April 25 to show solidarity with refugees in detention and to oppose the mandatory detention of asylum seekers.
The human rights activists gathered at the detention centre entrance. They were addressed by speakers from the Greens, Students for Palestine and two former detainees including Ali Bakhtiavandi from the Socialist Alliance, who had been held in Maribyrnong for 16 months in 2001 and 2002.
Below is an address to Marrickville Council meeting on BDS by Dr. Peter Slezak, associate professor in history and philosophy at the University of New South Wales, arguing against a motion on April 19 to rescind the council鈥檚 support for the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.
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Not long ago, moral opposition to the Vietnam War and opposition to our complicity in the crimes in East Timor received the same denunciation we witness now against Marrickville council.
When climate change deniers took to the streets in March against the federal government鈥檚 proposed carbon price, some of this country鈥檚 most notorious shock jocks were leading the way.
Chris Smith, talkback host on Sydney commercial radio show 2GB, was a major promoter of the March 23 rally outside Parliament House in Canberra. The rally was littered with signs featuring misogynist slogans and bizarre rebuttals of the existence of climate change.
Everyone you鈥檇 expect at a conservative reunion was there, from opposition leader Tony Abbott to former One Nation leader Pauline Hanson.
"No uranium mining," "No nuclear industry," and "No nuclear waste dump," were the themes of the annual Rally for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament, held in Brisbane on Palm Sunday, April 17.
The rally and march attracted about 200 people.
The chief operating officer for Apex Energy NL, Chris Rogers, contacted Stop CSG Illawarra on April 5. He accused the group, which is campaigning against coal seam gas (CSG) projects in the region, of publishing two inaccuracies on its website: that drilling had already commenced and that CSG鈥檚 contribution to global warming is equally as bad, if not worse, than coal.
Who were the actual criminals that sparked the refugees鈥 revolt in Villawood detention centre in late April? There is no crime in climbing on top of a building and holding a banner saying 鈥淲e need help鈥, nor asking for a meeting with immigration officials after 15 months in detention, as two Kurdish Iranian refugees did on April 20, sparking protests that lasted for more than a week.
"Another Australia is Possible" was the main theme of the Socialist Alliance Queensland State Conference, held on Saturday April 16 in the Brisbane Activist Centre.
A feature panel, 鈥淔ighting for Another Australia鈥, included presentations from Murri community leader Sam Watson, Sri Lankan human rights activist Dr Brian Senewiratne, socialist educationalist and writer Gary MacLennan, and Socialist Alliance national executive member Lisa Macdonald.
The ALP took government on the back of the 鈥淵our Rights At Work鈥 campaign. But Labor has failed to 鈥渞ip up鈥 the Howard government鈥檚 Work Choices laws.
Australian Industry Group boss Heather Ridout told the 2011 HR Nichols Society conference: 鈥淭here were many positive elements of the previous [Coalition] government鈥檚 workplace relations laws that have been retained by the Labor government.鈥
I began writing this as a reply to a worker infected by the ideological disease that could be called today鈥檚 version of 鈥渢he socialism of fools鈥.
That was the name given by German socialists at the end of the 19th century to the irrational, bigoted and eventually genocidal idea that Jews were to blame for the plight of oppressed and exploited workers.
Today鈥檚 鈥渇ools鈥 in Australia blame asylum-seekers and refugees, especially those of Muslim faith or who come from the Middle East.
Two years ago, a war without witness was executed by the state against the Tamil people in the island of Sri Lanka.
In September 2008, after ordering all United Nations personnel, non-government organisations and media out of the Vanni region, the Sri Lankan government embarked on a vicious military campaign.
While it informed the world it was fighting the Tamil Tiger rebels and was following a 鈥渮ero civilian casualty鈥 policy, photographs, video footage and phone conversations with our relatives in the war zone told us a different story.
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