The occupy movement is spreading, and in more ways than one. It鈥檚 spreading across the globe 鈥 by October 11 occupytogether.org could boast of 1273 occupy events planned worldwide. But the movement, united under its slogan 鈥淲e are the 99%鈥, is also reaching out to, and involving, other established social movements. Environmentalists and climate campaigners have linked up with Occupy Wall Street protests in New York. Hundreds of climate activists joined a 5000-strong march there on October 5. Their message was well received by other protesters.
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Mothers and wives of聽Palestinian prisoners quickly gathered outside the office of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Gaza after a prisoner swap deal was announced on October 11 between Israel and Hamas.
These women have not seen their loved ones, imprisoned by Israel, for five years.
For the past five years, the families of 950 Palestinian prisoners from Gaza have been protesting weekly outside the ICRC鈥檚 headquarters, demanding their right to visit their sons, husbands and relatives inside the Israeli jails, a right denied to them by Israel.
The Venezuelan government returned more than 15,800 hectares of ancestral lands to the indigenous Yukpa people on October 12, as Venezuela celebrated 鈥淚ndigenous Resistance Day鈥 with public events and marches across the country.
Originally designated by then-US president Franklin Roosevelt as 鈥淐olumbus Day鈥 in 1937, October 12 is the date that Christopher Columbus first 鈥渄iscovered鈥 the Americas.
The anniversary was re-named 鈥淒ay of Indigenous Resistance鈥 by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in 2002 to commemorate indigenous struggle against European invasion and colonisation.
Israeli human rights organisation B鈥橳selem drew attention on October 10 to plans by the Israeli government to expel 27,000 Bedouin Palestinians living in what is known as 鈥淎rea C鈥 of the occupied West Bank.
Israel's Civil Administration is planning to expel the Bedouin communities living in Area C. In the first phase is planned for January. About 20 communities, involving 2300 people, will be forcibly transferred to a site near the Abu Dis rubbish dump, east of Jerusalem.
Fremantle in Western Australia is emerging as a key battleground between a Liberal-National state government committed to building freeways at any cost and a community that wants to see better public transport and an expansion of rail freight.
Container movements at Fremantle Port are predicted to double by 2020, yet the percentage being carried to port by train has declined from 17% in 2007 to 11% in this year. It is predicted to dwindle to 8.5% by next year.
Sitting in the shade of a small lemon tree in the German Colony area of Haifa in northern Israel, eight Palestinian activists are on hunger strike in solidarity with Palestinian political prisoners. The prisoners have been going without food since September 27 in protest against poor prison conditions and a lack of basic rights.
Muhannad Abu Ghosh, a Haifa resident and one of the hunger strikers, said: 鈥淚 decided to participate in the hunger strike in order to support the political prisoners, the freedom fighters, imprisoned in the Israeli dungeons.
The Tasmanian Labor-Greens coalition government has forged ahead with savage cuts to the state鈥檚 health services, causing anger, frustration and despair in the community. More than 7600 people have been languishing on the elective surgery waiting list. Yet the government said on October 4 that it would cut elective surgery by $58 million over the next three years.
This will cause 130 health jobs to be lost and wards to be closed in all the state鈥檚 big hospitals. It is possible that only emergency cases will be dealt with in future.
More than 3000 people turned out on October 16 in protest against coal seam gas mining plans in the area. The protest was further proof the coal seam gas (CSG) industry is in trouble. Its problem? An informed public.
The Australian said on October 10 that a survey had showed the CSG industry was 鈥渓osing the PR battle鈥, with 63% of respondents recalling a negative media story about CSG.
Driving the bad coverage has been the large grassroots campaign against the industry.
Occupy Sydney activists have been buoyed by motions of endorsement by the NSW State Council of the Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union (CFMEU) and the Canterbury-Bankstown Teachers Association, the Maritime Union of Australia and the NSW division of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU).
Lupe Fiasco, a US hip hop artist, wrote the following poem in support of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement. It was published in the second edition of The Occupied Wall Street Journal, which is published by activists in the OWS movement.
Walk With Us: Aboriginal Elders Call Out to Australian People to Walk with them in their Quest for Justice
Compiled and published by Concerned Australians
$15, 71 pages, hard cover
wwww.concernedaustralians.com.au
Walk With Us is the long awaited sequel to the highly regarded and recommended This Is What We Said 鈥 Australian Aboriginal People give their views on the Northern Territory Intervention, published in February last year.
At 11.30am on October 15, about 750 people converged on City Square in Swanston Street in Melboune鈥檚 CBD as part of the global movement. It is a movement inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement that has initiated similar movements in hundreds of cities worldwide.
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