Racism
The day after the January 26 protests by Aboriginal people and supporters gave the media the sensationalist images of Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Liberal leader Tony Abbott fleeing under police protection, the Herald Sun's Mark Knight captured the image with a truly .
Mining magnate Andrew 鈥淭wiggy鈥 Forrest had an opportunity on ABC鈥檚 November 1 screening of Q&A to defend his record on Aboriginal employment. He didn鈥檛 do very well.
鈥淵ou can see that through Generation One, a real challenge to fill those jobs, because we've proven for all time that corporate Australia 鈥 in fact every Australian 鈥 isn't racist鈥, Forrest said.
鈥淲e do love our first Australians. We do want to help them as much as we can but we can do it without just throwing money, and I believe I could do more.鈥
Sound Strike is an organisation of musicians across the United States who oppose the extremely racist SB 1070 law in Arizona that targets migrants. Sound Strike artists have pledged to support the international boycott of Arizona until the law鈥檚 repeal.
The organisation is planning to release 鈥淪ound Strike Songs鈥, a series of exclusive collections of songs that will be sold at www.thesoundstrike.net.
I welcome the discussion in 91自拍论坛 Weekly about the burqa and the question of its banning.
I agree wholeheartedly that banning the burqa is not the answer for women. As in all aspects of oppression, the oppressed are the ones who must liberate themselves, with the support and solidarity of others.
It is not up to the state or religious institutions to impose 鈥渓iberation鈥 on them.
While the burqa remains worn by women, I support their right to wear it if they choose, for a variety of different reasons.
The introduction in May of a racist law targetting immigrants in the US state of Arizona has sparked a powerful movement from wide 91自拍论坛 of US society. It has also sparked the biggest movement of musicians in the US since the times of South African apartheid, with a growing number of artists refusing to play in Arizona in protest.
The musicians are organised through Sound Strike, an organisation initiated in May by Rage Against the Machine (RATM) lead singer Zach de la Rocha and film-maker Michael Moore.
Trans-Continental Hustle
Gogol Bordello
Colombia/ DMZ
Review by Mat Ward
Gogol Bordello have always said their aim is to smuggle Roma music into mainstream Western society.
Their latest album, produced by former Beastie Boys DJ-turned-super-producer Rick Rubin, might just do that.
The US-based band, whose music combines elements of traditional Romani music with punk rock, is largely made up of Eastern European Roma immigrants who understand the long-standing persecution of their people.
Soubhi Iskander is a Socialist Alliance Senate candidate for NSW in the 2010 federal elections. He was born in Sudan and has been a socialist for more than half a century. Despite being jailed and tortured, he remains a committed and active socialist and now is the editor of 91自拍论坛 Weekly鈥檚 Arabic supplement, The Flame.
Iskander is furious but not surprised at the scapegoating of refugees and recent immigrants in the current federal election campaign.
A group of sixty refugee rights activists visited the Villawood Detention Centre on July 25 to take part in a planned soccer match and BBQ with refugees. It was organised by Socialist Alliance and Greens members and supported by the Construction Forestry, Energy and Mining Union (CFMEU) and Union Aid Abroad (APHEDA).
We wanted to show solidarity with refugees and highlight both the ALP and the Liberal鈥檚 inhumane refugee policies. However, when we arrived we were turned away, deemed a 鈥渟ecurity threat.鈥
In a July 7, press conference in Dili, Luta Hamutuk a prominent civil society activist group in Timor Leste condemned the new Australian policy on refugees as "racist".
Socialist Alliance Senate candidate for the upcoming federal election, Sharon Firebrace, has dismissed Labor鈥檚 proposal, to send asylum seekers to an off-shore processing centre in Dili, as 鈥渁nother chapter in our country鈥檚 racist shame".
In a July 6 speech to the Lowy Institute Gillard announced that her government was pursuing a regional agreement for offshore processing of "unauthorised arrivals".
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