One month of campaigning against the inhumane detention of queer Pakistani refugee Ali Humayun has resulted in the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) granting him one four-hour home visit on May 31. Humayun spent the time with his partner, Julio Lorenzo.
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Nuclear power is a solution to nothing but will create endless problems, Helen Caldicott told a meeting of 60 people on June 4. The revival of the nuclear debate by PM John Howard and Labor leader Kevin Rudd was a false one, she said.
On June 6, 120 people attended a public meeting, organised by Peace Convergence Melbourne, against Talisman Sabre 2007. Involving 14,000 US and 12,000 Australian troops, Talisman Sabre will be the largest joint military training exercise in AustraliaÂ’s history. Areas in central Queensland and the Northern Territory (including the Great Barrier Reef and Indigenous heritage sites) will be centre stage.
The Socialist Alliance has decided to run long-time socialist activist Jim McIlroy in Labor leader Kevin Rudd’s seat of Griffith in Brisbane’s central-south in the federal election. Its nationwide election campaign themes are “People before profits!” and “Planet before profits!”
Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly is committed to social justice and environmental sustainability, speaks out against capitalism, and sides with the marginalised and oppressed. But it is silent on the plight of the most oppressed group of all — non-human animals, notably those exploited by the animal agriculture industry.
The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) has officially started the process of forming a local political party following a meeting in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh on June 4, which was attended by GAM leaders, members of the Aceh Transitional Committee (KPA) and activists from the Aceh Referendum Information Centre. KPA Chairperson Muzakir Manaf said that that the idea to form a local party is part of GAM’s political struggle following the Helsinki peace deal signed by GAM and the Indonesian government on August 15, 2005. “Now is the time for us to undertake measures to create an Aceh that is more just and dignified”, he told Acehkita.com on June 5. Aceh is the only province in Indonesia where law permits the formation of local parties not affiliated with an existing nationally based party. Three local parties have already been established — the leftist Acehnese People’s Party, the Acehnese People’s Alliance Party for Women’s Concern and the Gabthat Party.
Having just visited Cuba — and as a former head of public health for the Perth east metropolitan region and former chairperson of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners — it was obvious to me that the 45-year US trade embargo against the island-state has seriously affected its ability to provide health services to its people.
On June 6, around 20 members of Women and Men of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA/MOZA) were arrested while conducting a peaceful, silent march through Bulawayo to launch their “10 Steps to a New Zimbabwe”. Two groups of people began the march from different locations towards the offices of The Chronicle, a government-owned newspaper, but both were stopped and beaten by riot police along the way. Several people required medical attention. The march was organised to highlight the unfairness of current negotiations in Zimbabwe that only involve politicians who, WOZA reports, will “not be addressing issues of social justice — the ‘bread and roses’ Zimbabweans need”. For more information, visit .
Coming to Terms with Nature: Socialist Register 2007
Edited by Leo Panitch & Colin Leys
Monthly Review Press, 2007
304 pages, US$25
Edited by Leo Panitch & Colin Leys
Monthly Review Press, 2007
304 pages, US$25
In what the superstitious might call natureÂ’s revenge, wild seas caused a coal freighter to run aground in Newcastle on June 8, the day after the NSW Labor government approved the opening of a massive open-cut coalmine at Anvil Hill in the Hunter region.
Cuban newspaper Granma reported on June 6 that Venezuela’s socialist president, Hugo Chavez, had called for an expansion of ALBA — the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, a solidarity-based alternative to US-backed bilateral “free trade” agreements and the Free Trade Area of the Americas. Chavez made the call during the closing of the first meeting of ALBA’s Council of Ministers in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas.
Temple of Dreams
Directed by Tom Zubrycki
Sydney Film Festival, Sat June 16, 11.50am
Directed by Tom Zubrycki
Sydney Film Festival, Sat June 16, 11.50am
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