Nine refugees held in the Northern Immigration Detention Centre in Darwin staged a protest on top of a building in the centre鈥檚 compound on March 15 after they witnessed Serco guards assault another detainee.
The refugees 鈥 who are Rohingya people, an ethnic minority in western Burma 鈥 told refugee advocate Carl O鈥機onnor on March 16 that the protest was sparked by a physical assault on another Rohingya detainee.
鈥淥ne man was refused rice in the mess room,鈥 the refugees said. 鈥淥ut of frustration he broke a glass. He was then chased down and tried to escape from two Serco guards.
873
As the United States and Britain look for an excuse to invade another oil-rich Arab country, the hypocrisy is familiar.
Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is 鈥渄elusional鈥 and 鈥渂lood-drenched鈥, while the authors of an invasion that killed a million Iraqis, who have kidnapped and tortured in our name, are entirely sane, never blood-drenched and once again the arbiters of 鈥渟tability鈥.
But something has changed. Reality is no longer what the powerful say it is.
Of all the spectacular revolts across the world, the most exciting is the insurrection of knowledge sparked by WikiLeaks.
Emboldened by the successes of Muammar Gaddafi鈥檚 forces in Libya, a number of Arab regimes have escalated crackdowns on pro-democracy protests while the world鈥檚 media was focused on the earthquake disaster in Japan.
With the exceptions of Libya and Iran, the governments brutally cracking down on their citizens have received minimal criticism from the West.
Calls for 鈥渞estraint on both sides鈥 obscure the fact that it is governments armed with weapons made in the West ruthlessly attacking mostly unarmed people.
This video is from a protest by homeless people on 14-4-11 in response to plans by the state government to sweep homeless people off the street during the October CHOGM summit.
On March 13, more than 100 people attended the first organising meeting of Stop CSG Illawarra, a residents鈥 group campaigning for a moratorium on coal seam gas mining (CSG).
Six activists arrested in Harare, along with 39 others, were finally granted bail on March 16 after a month in jail. The activists were arrested for attending a video screening of footage from the people鈥檚 uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.
However, the six need to raise US$12,000 to pay their bail 鈥 far more than they can afford. An appeal is being launched internationally to raise the funds needed to pay the activists鈥 bail (see below for details).
The bail conditions require the six to surrender passports and travelling documents. They must report three times a week to the police.
Facing public anger and concern over the nuclear meltdown unfolding in Japan, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced temporary shutdown of several nuclear reactors.
On March 12, more than 60,000 anti-nuclear protesters in the south-western state of Baden-Wuerttemberg formed a 45 kilometre human chain from Stuttgart to the Neckarwestheim 1 nuclear plant.
Smaller protests took place in more than 450 towns and cities across Germany, anti-nuclear organisation Irradiated said. More protests are planned for March 26.
The Socialist Alliance and the Communist Party of Australia have released the following joint statement of left organisations and individuals about the March 26 NSW elections.
* * *
The NSW Labor Party is facing a trouncing in the March 26 elections because of the problems that have arisen from the ALP鈥檚 corporate profits-first, "economic rationalist" agenda.
In the process, it has carried out a privatisation spree, most recently selling off our state's retail electricity assets for next to nothing.
The ability of real politics to focus debate is impressive. The climate movement has long debated what policy mechanisms can best combat climate change.
鈥淩idiculous, counterproductive and stupid鈥 is how one US official described the treatment of alleged WikiLeaks whistleblower Bradley Manning.
Manning, a private in the US army, has been held in solitary confinement for nine months at Quantico Marine Corps Brig while awaiting a pre-trial hearing.
Breaking government ranks, spokesperson for the US State Department PJ Crowley criticized on March 10 the reported mistreatment of Manning. This mistreatment has included Manning being forced to strip and remain naked in his cell.
About 8000 people marched on the Western Australian parliament on March 15 to demand more local jobs from the resource export boom.
The Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union, Australian Manufacturing Workers Union and Maritime Union of Australia all mobilised big contingents for the protest.
Manufacturing employers also supported the rally. Local workshops are sitting idle while billions of dollars of infrastructure is being imported for the mining and offshore oil and gas industries.
Legal action was launched on March 16 against Wisconsin鈥檚 Republican lawmakers in an attempt to repeal the anti-union bill that was signed into law on March 11. The law bans collective bargaining for most public sector workers in Wisconsin. Associated Press reported on March 16 that a legal challenge was mounted by Dane County district attorney Ismael Ozanne. AP said: 鈥淒emocrats in the Wisconsin Assembly had alleged that Republican leaders did not give enough public notice that a committee planned to meet to amend the bill.鈥
- Page 1
- Next page