Deaths in Custody Watch Committee (Western AAustralia) spokesperson, Marc Newhouse today announced a series of protest actions to be held following the Director of Public Prosecutions鈥 decision not to lay criminal charges against any of the parties responsible for the death in custody of Mr Ward in 2008. Mr Ward, an Aboriginal elder, died while being transported hundreds of kilometres across the WA Goldfields in a privately-operated prison van with faulty air conditioning.
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A national gathering of Aboriginal community leaders will expose what they describe as the 鈥渢reachery inherent in government policies targeting the civil and political rights鈥 of their communities.
The New Way Aboriginal Summit, being held in Melbourne from July 1 鈥 4 to coincide with NAIDOC Week, will host a press conference at 12.40 pm this Friday 2nd July at Trades Hall Council, the main summit venue.
Location: 'I have a dream' mural, King Street, Newtown
When: Friday July 2, 4.30-6pm
Representatives of local community organisations and political parties will take part in a community speak-out against racism on Friday July 2 in Newtown.
They will assemble under the 鈥淚 have a dream鈥 mural 鈥 featuring the legendary anti-racist Black American campaigner Martin Luther King.
Speakers participating include:
On June 1, part-Peruvian US actor and indigenous rights activist Q鈥檕rianka Kilcher was arrested for 鈥渄isorderly conduct鈥 after chaining herself to the White House fence while Peruvian President Alan Garcia met with US President Barack Obama.
Garcia refers to the Amazonian indigenous peoples of his country as barbaric savages. Kilcher had doused her body in black paint, symbolic of the oil killing the Amazon and its people.
The 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa began its final round of 16 on June 26. it came amid the unrelenting drone of vuvuzela horns, the knockout of big teams such as Italy and France, and street protests by local residents angry at the 40 billion rand the government has spent on the corporatised event.
Meanwhile, South Africa鈥檚 poor suffer substandard housing and access to basic services.
Football, or 鈥渟occer鈥 in Australia, is the 鈥渨orld game鈥, played by millions of people around the world and watched by hundreds of millions more. But is it truly the 鈥減eople鈥檚 game鈥?
On June 14, Muhammad Juma Abu Wardeh, a 17-year-old Palestinian labourer, was shot and wounded by Israeli snipers along the 鈥渂uffer zone鈥 in eastern Gaza as he collected materials for a cement plant in Jabaliya, north of Gaza City.
Israel鈥檚 ongoing blockade against the Gaza Strip has prevented access to raw construction materials, forcing workers to risk their lives to trawl open agricultural areas for resources.
It is with great sadness that 麻豆传媒 Weekly reports the death of human rights activist Rosemarie Waratah Gillespie, 69, who unexpectedly died in Melbourne on June 21 from a stroke.
An activist for more than 40 years, she was a human rights lawyer, activist, author, filmmaker, anti-capitalist, Indigenous activist and mother.
Waratah lived in Port Kembla and frequently travelled to Sydney to attend meetings at Humanist House, where she was vice president of the Humanist Society. The society was just one of her many passions.
Australia鈥檚 leading conservation groups said in a joint statement on June 21 that concern about lack of action to provide safeguards against large-scale oil spills in Australia will be a high-profile issue in the next federal election.
Thirty-two environment groups 鈥 including the Australian Conservation Foundation, WWF Australia and Pew Environment Group 鈥 have called on all political parties to commit to a network of large marine sanctuaries this coming election to provide safeguards for Australia鈥檚 unique marine life.
On June 20, US group Act Now to Stop War and Racism (ANSWER) released a statement, abridged below, on the blockade of the docks in Oakland that prevented an Israeli ship unloading its goods as part of the global boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign targetting apartheid Israel.
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A hastily convened caucus of Australian Labor Party federal MPs replaced former prime minister Kevin Rudd with his deputy, Julia Gillard, on June 24. This made her Australia's first woman PM. Treasurer Wayne Swan replaced Gillard as deputy PM.
The dramatic takeover unfolded publicly the previous night when the chiefs of Labor's right-wing factions withdrew their support for Rudd.
Women, the unemployed, the ill and frail will be the biggest losers from the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government鈥檚 slash-and-burn budget 鈥 and there will be no economic recovery.
That was the dire warning on June 23 from Canadians who have bitter experience of an identical right-wing assault on the public sector.
In the weeks leading up to the June 22 budget, the Con-Dem coalition sought advice from Canada鈥檚 former finance minister Paul Martin, who wielded the axe on his country鈥檚 public spending in the 1990s.
Labour history was made as New Zealand had its first mall workers strike on May 25. Workers in JB Hi-Fi in Albany, organised with the Unite union, went on strike for better pay and against a culture of bullying and intimidation against union members. Unite had already organised the first strike at a JB Hi Fi store on April 16. Unite member Jack Lucas said: 鈥淥ur manager told me that I would never get a pay rise if I stayed with the collective. There was a lot of pressure put on me to resign.
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