Thousands of protesters took to the streets across Iraq on March 4, defying a curfew and repression to demand democracy and economic justice, the March 5 Los Angeles Times said.
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Media reports paint Alice Springs as being in the midst of an out-of-control crime wave.
Action for Alice, a group of local business owners, has produced a commercial for Imparja television. The ad calls for a law and order push to end the alleged crime wave, which it blames on Aboriginal youth.
The level of hysteria reached a new pitch in an article by Nicolas Rothwell in the February 19 Australian. Rothwell claimed that Alice Springs was plagued by rampaging young Aboriginal people, fuelled by alcohol.
Andrew Ferguson, former NSW Secretary of the Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union (CFMEU), recently retired from that position and announced he would stand on the Australian Labor Party鈥檚 NSW Legislative Council ticket.
Ferguson, who identifies as a socialist, is likely to get the sixth position on the ticket. The top two spots will go to NSW Treasurer Eric Roozendaal and Planning Minister Tony Kelly, both of whom are from the ALP Right faction. Peter Boyle interviewed Ferguson for 麻豆传媒 Weekly.
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Peter Tatchell is an internationally renowned lesbian, gay, transgender, bisexual, intersex and queer (LGTBIQ) human rights activist based in England. He was one of eight 鈥渉eroes鈥 selected to take part in the lead float of the 2011 Sydney Mardi Gras.
Tatchell spoke to 麻豆传媒 Weekly鈥檚 Rachel Evans, Hannah Wykes and Farida Iqbal about his history of activism and the fight for equal marriage rights.
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When did you get involved in activist politics?
About 150 people rallied in Sydney on March 6 to call for an end to the persecution of WikiLeaks. The protest was organised by the Support WikiLeaks Coalition.
The rally also called for the release from jail of US private Bradley Manning. For nine months, Manning has been held in isolation in US military prisons for allegedly leaking more than 250,000 US diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks.
On March 2, the US army laid new charges against Manning, including the capital offence of 鈥渁iding the enemy鈥. If convicted, Manning could face the death penalty.
The Australian proclaimed a 鈥渨ar over the carbon tax鈥 and the leader of federal Liberal party Tony Abbott called for a "people's revolt" against a price on carbon.
The Tasmanian environmental campaign group Still Wild Still Threatened has called on Tasmania鈥檚 Labor/Greens coalition government to back down on its plan to build the Brighton Bypass and agree to demands from Aboriginal activists to change the bypass route.
Still Wild Still Threatened spokesperson Lily Leahy said on March 1 that the group 鈥渟tands in solidarity with the Aboriginal community in opposing this plan as it will destroy the artefacts and unique values of a 40,000 year-old site.
One hundred people rallied in Wollongong on March 5 in solidarity with the peoples鈥 uprising against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
The rally heard from Libyan students who spoke of the brutality of Gaddafi's regime and the need for democracy. They urged the Australian government to pressure Gaddafi to step down.
In a July 2010 interview with WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange, TED.com鈥檚 Chris Anderson said WikiLeaks had released in just a few years more classified state and military documents than every other media outlet combined.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a worry isn鈥檛 it,鈥 Assange said. 鈥淭hat the rest of the world鈥檚 media is doing such a bad job that a little group of activists is able to reveal more of that sort of information than the rest of the world鈥檚 media.鈥
Federal immigration minister Chris Bowen announced plans for a new 1500-bed detention facility on March 3. It is to be located at Wickham Point, an industrial area 35 kilometres south-east of Darwin.
The March 4 NT News said the Darwin Airport Lodge, which currently houses refugees, would also be expanded by 400 beds.
This would bring Darwin鈥檚 total detention capacity to 2900, making the city the largest detention location on the mainland 鈥 larger even than the notoriously overcrowded Christmas Island facility.
Since 2004, a mass mobilisation of popular support for marriage equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) people has gained momentum, and now a possible victory is in sight.
But sadly, marriage equality would not mean an end to homophobia or transphobia in Australia.
Lurking behind Australia鈥檚 marriage ban is an even more sinister injustice clothed in the language of religious tolerance.
Two activists were arrested on February 20 at a demonstration outside the US Embassy in Tokyo. The activists were taking part in a demonstration against the construction of a United States military base in Okinawa.
The activists were released from custody on March 5. Their supporters are campaigning for the charges against them to be completely dropped.
The demonstrators had received police permission to rally. But on reaching the embassy, protesters were greeted by a wall of police.
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