US President George Bush has been touring Latin American countries this March with two goals in mind: keep the continent divided and keep it subservient to US imperialist interests. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has also been visiting his neighbours. His goals are the opposite: to unite the countries of Latin America and to encourage and support the continent鈥檚 independence from US imperialism.
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On March 8, 300 people protested the Israeli military invasion of Nablus at the Huwwara checkpoint. Organised by a wide coalition of groups including the Popular Committee Against the Closure of Nablus and the General Women's Union, demonstrators chanted and carried Palestinian flags, signs, and photographs of loved ones who have been killed and arrested by Israeli occupation forces. Once at the checkpoint, several women leaders made speeches condemning the Israeli invasion of Nablus. The protest tried to pass through the checkpoint but was confronted by soldiers and border police. Demonstrators resisted when the Israeli soldiers and police created a barricade and prevented demonstrators from getting through the checkpoint. The Huwwara checkpoint was closed for one-and-a-half hours.
Police from the NSW anti-terrorism unit joined Victorian police to raid the homes of political activists in Sydney as part of the fallout from protests against the G20 meeting in Melbourne in November. Four men were arrested and a fifth later surrendered to police.
During a whirlwind tour of a series of Latin American nations, in what the media reported as a 鈥渃ounter-tour鈥 to that being carried out by US President George Bush at the same time, Venezuela鈥檚 socialist President Hugo Chavez signed a number of agreements that extend his country鈥檚 push to integrate the region鈥檚 economies. Via the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), promoted in alliance with socialist Cuba, Venezuela is signing a large number of agreements that aim to promote pro-people development based on cooperation rather than competition, in order to break foreign economic domination of the continent, predominantly by US capital.
The internet launch on March 5 of the Independent Australian Jewish Voices (IAJV) has provoked both criticism and support. Author Antony Loewenstein, one of the initiators, told 麻豆传媒 Weekly that the Jewish establishment reacted 鈥渧ery badly鈥 because, in his view, their position as the spokespeople for the Jewish community for decades is now being challenged.
Turmoil continues in the Labor Party in Newcastle following the imposition by the party head office of Jody Mackay over popular local member Bryce Gaudry to contest the seat.
A March 9 press release by the Washington-based Venezuela Information Office (VIO) pointed out that a US State Department report released on March 6 聯reveals that Venezuela strives to guarantee human rights and in fact, is beefing up measures to provide accessible avenues for lodging complaints and holding violators accountable聰.
John Bonsai (a very small bush) Howard is morally bankrupt, and cannot be trusted. While Saddam Hussein was a nasty bit of work, all of Bonsai鈥檚 arguments for war were lies.
In this NSW election Morris Iemma and the ALP are posing as big defenders of public services and public sector jobs.
Suciwati, the widow of Munir, the prominent Indonesian human rights activist killed by arsenic poisoning aboard a plane in 2004, visited Australia in February to call on the Australian government to help pressure Jakarta to resolve the case. Accompanying her was Usman Hamid, the executive director of Kontras 聴 the Indonesian Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence 聴 an organisation set up by Munir.
A True Person
Written by Gabiann Marin
Illustrated by Jacqui Grantford
New Frontier Publishing, 2007
27 pages, $24.95
Written by Gabiann Marin
Illustrated by Jacqui Grantford
New Frontier Publishing, 2007
27 pages, $24.95
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