Australians voted out the Howard Coalition government in 2007. But the Labor government's decision to suspend processing new refugees arriving by boat from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka means John Howard's racist refugee policies have been revived.
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On April 13, Venezuela celebrated eight years since a popular uprising defeated a US backed coup against President Hugo Chavez in April 2002 with a swearing in ceremony of 35,000 new militia members in Caracas. The day was named 鈥淒ay of the Bolivarian Militias, the Armed People and the April Revolution鈥.
It was hailed as the first 鈥渃ompetitive鈥, 鈥渙pen鈥, 鈥渕ulti-party鈥 elections in Sudan in 24 years, but there was little free, fair or open about the national poll that began on April 11 and was boycotted by opposition parties.
A coalition of community environmental groups has been trying to stop logging in the Mumbulla State Forest in the NSW far south east, with a blockade of about 90 people. The forest contains the last known koala colony between Canberra and Victoria.
The logging is being carried out by Forests NSW, a public trading enterprise under direct control of the NSW state government. Ninety-five percent of felled trees are to be processed at the Eden woodchipping mill, owned by South East Forest Exports (SEFE).
On April 11, the Hamoked Center for the Defence of the Individual (HCDI) released a statement headlined: "A new military order defines all residents of the West Bank as 鈥榠nfiltrators鈥 who may be jailed and deported.鈥
At the failed United Nations climate in Copenhagen in December, Bolivian President Evo Morales proposed that, given the lack of an accord among governments, the world鈥檚 people should be consulted in a global referendum.
An Israeli journalist who went into hiding after writing a series of reports showing lawbreaking approved by Israeli army commanders faces a lengthy jail term for espionage if caught, as Israeli security services warned at the weekend they would 鈥渞emove the gloves鈥 to track him down.
The US state department has suspended its climate change aid to Bolivia and Ecuador because both countries have refused to endorse the accord drawn up by rich nations at the United Nations Copenhagen climate summit in December.
Smile or Die, How Positive Thinking Fooled America & the World
By Barbara Ehrenreich
Granta Books, 2009
235 pages., $29.99
The Sri Lankan government鈥檚 fake sincerity towards the plight of the country鈥檚 Tamil minority may have impressed the Australian government, which claimed 鈥渃hanged circumstances鈥 as the reason behind its decision to suspend the processing of asylum seekers from Sri Lanka for three months. But it has done nothing to resolve the ongoing oppression of the Tamil people.
The article below is an excerpt from a March 2010 Greenpeace report entitled Koch Industries: Secretly Funding the Climate Denial Machine, published in March 2010 by Greenpeace. The full report can be read .
The Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM); Working People's Association (PRP) of Indonesia, People鈥檚 Democratic Party (PRD) of Indonesia, Turn Left Thailand, Partido Lakas ng Masa (PLM) of the Philippines, Socialist Alliance of Australia, and Solidarity (Australia) issued the following statement on April 10.The Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM); Working People's Association (PRP) of Indonesia, People's Democratic Party (PRD) of Indonesia, Turn Left Thailand, Partido Lakas ng Masa (PLM) of the Philippines, Socialist Alliance of Australia, and Solidarity (Australia) issued the following statement on
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