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Mohamed al Brmawi, a Syrian community activist spoke to Pip Hinman and Peter Boyle after the 2011 May Day march in Sydney.

Independent journalist and blogger Antony Loewenstein speaking at the 2011 Resistance Conference in Sydney on May 6. Part 1 of 2.

Samah Sabawi, from Australians for Palestine, addressed a community forum on May 13, 2011 in the Holy Trinity Church Hall, Dulwich Hill, which was called by local residents to discuss the controversy (incited by Rupert Murdoch's News Ltd media empire) around a December 2010 decision by Marrickville Council to support the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israeli apartheid.

Federal elections were held in Canada on May 2 after the conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper lost a motion of no-confidence in parliament. In the elections, Harper's government was returned -- winning enough extra seats to move from being minority government to a majority one.
Palestinians commemorate al Nakba

This article is reposted from http://gazatvnews.com . Protesters fired on by Israeli forces were commemorating al Nakba ("the catastrophe"), as Palestinians refer to the ethnic cleansing that accompanied the founding of Israel.

About 6000 people rallied in Jayapura, the capital of Indonesian-occupied West Papua on May 2 demanding a referendum on independence. The demonstration also commemorated the illegal occupation of West Papua in 1963. West Papua Media Alerts reported on May 2 that West Papua National Committee (KNPB) spokesperson Victor Yeimo said: 鈥淲e want to show Indonesia and the international community that we are not just a handful of people who want independence. All people of West Papua want to be free.鈥
In the first four days after Osama bin Laden鈥檚 assassination by US forces, the mass reaction in Pakistan is very mixed. In Punjab there is a general sympathy towards bin Laden, but not many are expressing it openly. In Sindh, the responses differ in different cities. For example, in Karachi there is more active commiseration for bin Laden and condemnation of the US attack. Surprisingly, not much happened in Khaiber Pakhtoonkhawa, where bin Laden was killed. Similarly, Baluchistan responded meekly against the killings.
No sooner had the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) released its dossier The FARC Files: Venezuela, Ecuador and the Secret Archive of Raul Reyes on May 10, that the international media was once again claiming more proof that Venezuelan government links to terrorism had been uncovered. Almost none mention that the entire basis of the document were files that Interpol and US and Colombian officials have admitted are dubious at best.
Thousands of people took to the streets in cities and towns throughout Syria on May 13, despite a week of intensified repression by the Baath Party regime of President Bashar al-Assad. On May 11, tanks shelled the city of Homs, one of the centres of protest, and mass arrests took place throughout the country.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 have any blood on my hands,鈥 Puerto Rican political prisoner Oscar Lopez Rivera wrote in February. 鈥淚 haven鈥檛 victimized anyone. And I鈥檝e devoted most of my life serving a just and noble cause and struggling to help make this world a better and more just one.鈥 For 30 years, Lopez Rivera has been imprisoned in the United States for his activities in support of freedom and independence for Puerto Rico, which is still claimed by the US.

A Palestinian solidarity conference held in Sydney over May 14-15 brought together more than 200 people to discuss the campaign in Australia in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom.

Voting across Britain on May 5 resulted in a rejection of changes to the electoral system, but election results in Scotland may herald the end of Britain as we know it. 聽 The referendum on introducing an 鈥淎lternative Vote鈥 voting system (much like the preferential voting system in Australia) to replace the current 鈥淔irst Past The Post鈥 system was decisively defeated. With a turnout of only 42%, 67.87% voted against the change. 聽