Action updates
ADELAIDE — The Young Christian Workers organised a protest outside McDonald's on July 18 against the company's support for the Liberals' proposed youth wage of $3 an hour. The demonstrators pointed out that Labor and ACTU proposals also contained no real solutions. "A youth wage of $117, proposed in the Carmichael Report, works out at about $3 an hour anyway", a YCW representative told Â鶹´«Ã½.
- A soup kitchen outside the Department of Social Security on July 22, organised by Resistance, got a positive response from unemployed people. Many said they supported the "Stop Unemployment" rally planned for August 19.
BRISBANE — At a picket on July 24 to protest against the defence force's exclusion of gays and lesbians, speakers pointed out that, while they did not encourage gays and lesbians to enter the defence forces, any discrimination in one sector of society would affect others. It would also make it difficult for those already in the services to be open about their sexuality.
- A soup kitchen and forum were organised on July 22 by Resistance to protest against Keating's youth jobs summit. The protest was also attended by representatives of the Unemployed People's Union. At a public forum that evening speakers from Resistance and Young Christian Workers pointed out the dangers of the proposals for a youth training wage.
HOBART — About a dozen members of the Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group held a wreath-laying ceremony at the Cenotaph on July 24 to protest against the ban on gays and lesbians in the military services.
- Dressed in black, young protesters wound through the Mall on July 22, loudly chanting slogans such as "Unemployment: who's to blame? Keating/Hewson — just the same!" A speech put demands for socially useful, meaningful work; a decent, broad education for all people; the right to a livable income; and equal pay for equal work.
MELBOURNE — More than 10,000 people participated in the annual AIDS Candlelight Vigil on July 19. Participants including members of the lesbian and gay community, people living with AIDS, friends and families walked through the city to the Exhibition Buildings. There, in a moving ceremony, the quilt which commemorates those who have died from AIDS was unfolded as the names of those remembered in its panels were read out. Twenty new panels were presented.
- A small group demonstrated outside the Commonwealth Government offices on July 24 against the government's refusal to lift the ban on gays and lesbians serving in the defence forces. The demonstration was organised by Gays and Lesbians Against Discrimination (GLAD). A submission by GLAD will soon be nister Senator Robert Ray.
- Some 150 people rallied outside the Melbourne Supreme Court on July 22, in protest at the recent not guilty verdict over the murder of Joe Godfrey. Robert Murley admitted to stabbing Godfrey 17 times, punching him, cutting his throat and setting fire to his flat. His defence was that Godfrey "made a pass" at him. BAD (Buggers and Dykes), which was formed to fight this and other instances of anti-gay violence, performed street theatre at the rally.
- A demonstration against the Canberra youth jobs summit was held here on July 22 outside the Myer store in Bourke Street. The venue was chosen because Coles Myer, an employer with very much to gain from low youth wages, was invited to the jobs summit while youth had been almost left out.
PERTH — ACT UP and Resistance distributed safe sex information for young people at the closing ceremony, and local band competition, of the WA Ministry for the Family's Youthfest on July 18. Several hundred condom and information packs, many containing the Fantastic Sex Facts Calendar, were distributed.
- A dozen people laid a wreath at the Kings Park War Memorial on July 24 to protest against the ban on gay, lesbian and bisexual people in the defence forces. Speakers from Westside Observer and ACT UP and Senator Jean Jenkins from the Australian Democrats expressed their outrage at the ban.
- There was a picket outside DEET offices on July 22. Protesters called for an end to the slave labour market, demanded equal pay for equal work and no work for the dole. Resistance members read aloud the Youth Bill of Rights and led a walk through Hay St Mall calling attention to youth unemployment.
SYDNEY — Protesting fishermen gave away more than $50,000 worth of freshly caught gemfish at the Pyrmont wharves on July 24. A spokesperson for the protesters said that under new quotas enforced by the Australian Fisheries Management Authority, local fishermen have already exceeded their quota for the three-month gemfish season, which has just started. Democrat MLC Richard Jones says there must be no caving in to the fishermen's demands. He claims gemfish stocks have declined rapidly over the past few years because of overfishing.
- A national protest campaign has been launched in response to Liberal Party plans to slash ABC funding and commercialise the national broadcaster. The campaign group Friends of the ABC says the Coalition's plan to force the broadcaster to seek funds through corporate sponsorship will destroy its independence. The Coalition plans to cut the ABC's budget by $50 million.
- Resistance set up a soup kitchen in rn suburbs, on July 22 to protest against the proposals put forth at the youth jobs summit in Canberra. Demonstrators gave out free mugs of soup and copies of the Youth Bill of Rights.
- "We are here to make sure the public knows exactly what is going on, and that Bruce Roberts doesn't have to stay in jail any longer", prisoners' rights activist Brett Collins told a gathering outside the High Court here on July 23. Arrested on a drink driving charge, Roberts could be forced to serve out the balance of 15-year jail sentence imposed in the mid-'70s after he and his mother, Violet Roberts, murdered his father after suffering years of violent, alcoholic abuse.