May 17 is International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO). The day of protest began in 2004, and has been held every year since. This year, IDAHO events will be held in more than 60 countries.
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I wasn鈥檛 really sure what to expect from the Villawood detention centre. Most of what I knew came from mainstream media, which usually ignores a particular perspective: that of the refugees themselves.
鈥淨ueue-jumpers鈥, 鈥渆xpensive鈥, 鈥渦nwelcome鈥, 鈥渟hould be sent back鈥 are common themes. This rhetoric reduces asylum seekers and their experiences to nothing more than blood-sucking parasites looking for a warm place to nestle.
鈥淏oat people鈥 make up only 3% of all refugees coming to Australia. The rest arrive in planes. Where鈥檚 all the hype about 鈥減lane people鈥?
Thirty people gathered on May 6 at a meeting organised by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) and the New South Wales Teachers Federation (NSWTF). The theme of the meeting was 鈥淭rade Unions and Climate Change: Challenges, Opportunities and Alliance Building鈥.
Jeremy Kerbel, climate justice campaigner with the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union, outlined some of the LHMU鈥檚 climate change initiatives, such as calling hundreds of delegates in the lead-up to the 2009 Walk Against Warming and sponsoring the event.
Each Saturday for the past two months, a thousand or more Haitian earthquake survivors have met in the auditorium of the Aristide Foundation for Democracy (AFD) to discuss the future of their country.
Since its founding in 1996, the AFD has provided a place for grassroots activists and ordinary Haitians to debate and discuss national issues.
MELBOURNE 鈥 In the wake of the Rudd government鈥檚 backflip on climate change, more than 250 people rallied outside the Victorian parliament on May 6 to urge Labor Premier John Brumby and Coalition leader Ted Baillieu to commit to replacing Hazelwood coal-fired power station, the world鈥檚 dirtiest, with clean energy by 2012.
鈥淪top trampling rights to win votes鈥; 鈥淪top breaking laws to win votes鈥; 鈥淪top racist policy risking lives鈥 and 鈥淪top the freeze on asylum seekers' rights鈥 were key slogans at a rally organised by Amnesty International and other human rights organisations on May 8, as part of a national day of action.
The 300 protesters heard from Chaman Shah Nasiri, a Hazara refugee from Afghanistan who had suffered in the now-closed Nauru detention camp under previous Coalition prime minister John Howard's Pacific Solution policy.
Staring at the vast military history section in the airport shop, I had a choice: the derring-do of psychopaths or scholarly tomes with their illicit devotion to the cult of organised killing.
There was nothing I recognised from reporting war. Nothing on the spectacle of children鈥檚 limbs hanging in trees and nothing on the burden of shit in your trousers. War is a good read. War is fun. More war please.
The Socialist Alliance released the following statement in response to the developments in the anti-league tables campaign.
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The federal executive of the Australian Education Union (AEU) resolved on April 12 to impose a ban on implementing National Assessment Program 鈥 Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests, after damaging league tables were published in newspapers, based on 2009 NAPLAN data.
Socialist Alliance supports the principled stand against league tables taken by teachers.
A battle has been joined for the very soul of Arizona.
On one side, there are the Minutemen, the craven state Republican lawmakers, Governor Jan Brewer, and the utterly unprincipled John McCain, all supporting SB 1070, a law that codifies racial profiling of immigrants in the state.
SB 1070 makes it crime to walk the streets of this state without clutching your passport, green card, visa, or state ID. It not only empowers, but requires cops to demand paperwork if they so much as suspect a person of being undocumented.
The has endorsed Dr Renfrey Clarke to run for the Senate in South Australia. Clarke was one of the founders of the Climate Emergency Action Network in 2008, and is a well-known activist and writer on environmental topics. He is a member of the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union.
A specialist on Russia and Latin America, Clarke worked for many years as a foreign correspondent for 麻豆传媒 Weekly and other progressive media.
Below, Clarke outlines the priority issues around which he campaigns.
The following statement was released by the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), the organisation of the 鈥淩ed Shirts鈥, on May 6. It is abridged from .
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UDD leaders have again debunked speculation that the Red Shirt rally at Ratchaprasong will soon be packing up and the protesters returning home.
On May 8, 70 people from local groups joined with Socialist Alliance to march through Brunswick鈥檚 Barkly Square shopping centre, demanding management allow community stalls, including those held by the Socialist Alliance, to resume.
Protesters had a replica of the original cage that radical artist and Communist Party of Australia member Noel Counihan spoke from in the 1933 free speech battles in Brunswick. A speak-out was held in the shopping centre, defying police and security guards.
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