PM John HowardÂ’²õ decision to “take control” of 60 to 70 Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory began to be implemented on June 27 when the first Australian Federal Police (AFP) officers flew into the Aboriginal township of Mutitjulu, near Uluru. The police officers were met by a large community delegation demanding answers.
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More than 80 people packed out the Aboriginal Cultural Centre on June 23 for a public “peopleÂ’²õ trial” of US President George Bush. The meeting, organised by the Wollongong Stop Bush committee, heard testimony from Saeb Ali from Peace for Lebanon, Maritime Union of Australia Port Kembla branch secretary Gary Keane and Walk against Warming initiator and Resistance member Paola Harvey.
Heard the story about the last capitalist on Earth who sold the rope used to hang the second last capitalist? Well, they will try and make a buck from anything.
The following article is abridged from a speech by Susan Austin, Socialist Alliance Hobart branch convener, to a 250-strong Indigenous rights rally on June 27 organised by the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre.
On June 28, the Unions NSW council meeting adopted a motion expressing “support and solidarity with the Saharawi people in their struggle for freedom and independence. Unions NSW strongly condemns the gross violations of human rights carried out by the Moroccan regime against Saharawis, including students, workers and human rights activists in the occupied areas.”
Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly will be taking a one-week break. Our next issue will be dated July 18.
East Timor is holding parliamentary elections on June 30. Many commentators predict former president Xanana GusmaoÂ’²õ new party, the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT), will form government, ousting the current ruling Fretilin party. However, a new government is unlikely to bring an end to the severe social and economic crisis besetting the country, Tomas Freitas from Luta Hamutuk (“Struggle Together”), a Timorese activist group that monitors the state budget and the petroleum fund (now worth US$1.4 billion), told Â鶹´«Ã½ WeeklyÂ’²õ Peter Boyle. Freitas is also a member of the Consultative Council on the Petroleum Fund, which is comprised of government and civil society representatives.
Dr Gary MacLennan, a long-time socialist activist and lecturer in creative industries at the Queensland University of Technology, was suspended for six months without pay on June 6. He, along with a colleague, Dr John Hookham, was charged with misconduct following the publication of an article in the Australian that criticised a PhD film project that mocked the disabled. Students and staff launched a support campaign for the two suspended lecturers which has linked up with a struggle against QUT’s decision to close down the school of humanities and human services.
Shoalwater Wilderness Awareness Group (SWAG) spokesperson Steve Bishopric expressed concern on June 27 that the small community of Capricorn Coast on QueenslandÂ’²õ central coast faced potential pollution from undisclosed military toxins as a result of the Talisman Sabre 2007 US-Australian war games at Shoalwater Bay.
Condolence and commendation
For many years I worked in the Hunter Valley and Central Coast, and secured a modest livelihood from the splendid people who ran small businesses there. I was extremely upset at the loss of life that came about from the
Four years after an inquiry established collusion between British intelligence, the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the loyalist paramilitary killers of leading Belfast civil rights lawyer Pat Finucane, the Northern Ireland Public Prosecution Service (PPS) ruled on June 25 that there was “insufficient evidence” to bring charges against any police officers or British military intelligence personnel.
Leaders of the Mutitjulu community have questioned the need for a military occupation of their small community. Below is an abridged version of their June 27 statement.
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