The Israeli Law Centre, Shurat HaDin, has filed a complaint under the Racial Discrimination Act with the Australian Human Rights Commission against the Sydney Peace Foundation鈥檚 Stuart Rees and Sydney University's Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies鈥 Jake Lynch.
The complaint claims Rees and Lynch are supporting racist and discriminatory policies through their support for the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against the Israeli government.
It is the first time Australia鈥檚 anti-racism laws have been used against people involved in the BDS campaign.
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Western Australia Premier Colin Barnett and Local Government Minister Tony Simpson unveiled the state's worst-kept secret on July 30, when they announced their plan to slash the number of councils in Perth from 30 to 14.
This statement was released by Gasfield Free Seaspray on July 28.
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A crowd of more than 600 hundred people came together in Seaspray today to celebrate the results of a survey that showed 98% of the community wants the area to remain gasfield free.
Doggedly loyal to the struggle for socialism and a member of five different socialist organisations over his life, Allan Little departed our ranks in Brisbane on July 12 at the age of 81.
A person of incredibly modest means, he began his working life as a cane cutter in Queensland鈥檚 north and finished as a unionist and manufacturing worker in the Brisbane suburb of Rocklea.
Ferociously independent and always reluctant to burden anyone with personal requests 鈥 even when bed bound 鈥 Allan rarely talked about his life鈥檚 experiences.
Stop CSG Illawarra released this statement on August 2.
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The NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer, Professor Mary O'Kane, released the initial report from her review into coal seam gas (CSG) on July 31.
The findings 鈥 particularly the contaminants involved and risks to water resources 鈥 confirm risks that community members have been talking about for years.
However, the recommendations from the review are framed by the terms of reference, and focus on how to develop the industry, not if or under what conditions development is safe.
This statement was released by the on August 2.
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鈥淏oth Liberal and Labor governments have squandered the fruits of the mining boom,鈥 said Peter Boyle, the Socialist Alliance candidate for Sydney, in response to the Rudd government's August 2 economic statement.
鈥淎nd the only real solution lies in reversing the tax cuts given to the rich by the Howard and Gillard-Rudd governments and by nationalising the mines, banks and energy companies and put them under the democratic control of the community.
A forum at the University of Wollongong on August 1 called "Trouble in the Edufactory: The Sydney Uni Strike and the Struggle for the University" heard from Sydney university PhD student and casual academic staff member Mark Gawne.
Gawne, a graduate of the University of Wollongong, described this year's series of strikes at Sydney as the product of years of dissatisfaction among staff and students over increasing cutbacks.
Recent polls say the refugee rights movement is in the minority on the issue. An Essential Report shows 61% of Australians support the 鈥淧NG solution鈥, which proposes to expel all refugees that arrive by boat to Papua New Guinea.
But we can win people over on this question because we have truth and justice on our side.
I am old enough to have taken part in the movement against the Vietnam War. I remember that at the start about only 30% of the public was against that war. But the anti-war movement went on to decisively win the battle through a persistent campaign out in the streets.
The mainstream press has focused on the decision of the judge in the military courts-martial of Bradley Manning to find him not guilty of 鈥渁iding the enemy鈥.
However, judge Denise Lind's conviction of of the whistleblower who exposed war crimes for 20 other charges amounts to a full-scale assault on democratic rights.
The courts-martial now enters the sentencing phase. Manning faces a maximum of 136 years behind bars.
Whatever the final sentence is, it is widely believed it will be decades in the military stockade.
Fearing state repression, farmers in the Cataumbo region of Colombia, on the border with Venezuela, have formally requested asylum in Venezuela.
Farmers in the Rural Workers鈥 Association of Catatumbo (Ascamcat) erleased a public letter on June 21 asking Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro for refuge. They have been protesting and blocking roads since June 10 in response to a campaign to forcefully eradicate coca cultivation in their area. They say they fear military reprisals.
Former Brazilian president Lula, who helped found the ruling Workers鈥 Party (PT) and governed from 2003鈥2010, took his time to comment on the wave of protests that erupted in mid-June, bringing millions onto the streets.
But when he finally gave an interview, he warmly welcomed the protests: 鈥淏razil is living an extraordinary moment in the affirmation of its democracy. We are a very young democracy ... It鈥檚 only to be expected that our society should be a walking metamorphosis, changing itself at every moment.鈥
The Barack Obama administration has proposed new regulations for hydraulic fracturing on 756 million acres of public and tribal lands.
The rules were written by the drilling industry and will be streamlined into effect by a new intergovernmental task force, established by the president, to promote fracking 鈥 a practice that has been linked to water poisoning, air pollution, methane emissions and, most recently, earthquakes.
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