Joint international solidarity statement to free the PSM detainees.
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Under an agreement endorsed by the federal court, the Quandamooka Aboriginal people of North Stradbroke Island, 22 kilometres off the Brisbane coast, have gained partial native title over the island. Speaking at a July 4 handover ceremony, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said the agreement opens the way for settlements of other native title claims in the Brisbane region, the July 5 Australian reported.
Eastern Star Gas were forced to halt coal seam gas workat a site in the Pilliga state forest on July 5 after an activist scaled a 25-metre high rig dropping a banner that read 鈥淣o Pilliga CSG鈥.
The activist, Warrick Jordan, was on the rig for almost 16 hours as part of a protest against ESG's proposal for 1100 coal seam gas wells and their associated infrastructure in the Pilliga.
At the protest, about 20 people, mostly residents of nearby Coonabarabran, staged a peaceful day-long blockade of the gates of the Eastern Star Gas site.
It鈥檚 been a fascinating few weeks in Tasmanian politics.
On June 16, the Labor-Greens government handed down a shocking budget that cut funding to public health, education, police and other services.
Thousands of public service workers gathered on parliament lawns that day to condemn the plan, saying that services were already struggling to meet demand.
The education cuts included a plan to close 20 schools. Education minister and Greens leader Nick McKim started a process of 鈥渃onsultation鈥 with affected school communities around the state.
Vivienne Porzsolt, a member of Jews Against the Occupation and the Socialist Alliance, is one of four Australians on the Canadian boat Tahrir, part of the Freedom Flotilla attempting to break Israel's starvation siege on Gaza. She reports on what happened when Greek authorities acted to stop the boats from sailing on July 4. A protest was held outside the Greek consulate in Sydney on July 7.
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More than 500 Malaysians and their supporters gathered in Melbourne's Federation Square on July 9 to call for free and fair elections in Malaysia. They were decked out in yellow shirts and held banners and placards. The rally, called in solidarity with the Bersih 2.0 democracy movement in Malaysia, chanted slogans in Malay and English, ranging from "Bersih bersih" (Clean, clean) to "change is possible".
When the multi-award-winning journalist John Pilger needed researchers for his latest film, The War You Don鈥檛 See, he turned to David Edwards and David Cromwell. The pair run media-analysing website Media Lens, which is set to turn 10 years old on July 9.
Here, they answer some of the 鈥渕ore interesting鈥 questions posed by their readers, plus a couple from 麻豆传媒 Weekly鈥檚 Mat Ward.
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Why did you start Media Lens?
The Greek parliament defied huge popular opposition, including a 48-hour general strike, to pass the latest set of extreme austerity measures demanded by the 鈥渢roika鈥 (the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund) in return for fresh loans.
However, many commentators have pointed out it is one thing to vote up the measures and another to force them on an increasingly discontented populace.
Sixty people, representing a broad cross section of the activist left and progressive movement, met on July 5 to discuss the implications of the vicious police assault demonstrators protesting outside Israeli-owned chocolate company Max Brenner on July 1.
The key issue debated was whether to set up a broader civil liberties campaign or whether to keep the focus on the 19 people who had been arrested at an action as part of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.
A small but spirited group of protesters braved driving wind and rain outside Fremantle鈥檚 Notre Dame University on the evening of June 30 to express their opposition to the university playing host to British climate change denier Christopher Monckton.
Earlier that day, Perth's daily newspaper The West Australian had obligingly provided free publicity for Monckton鈥檚 impending speech in an article occupying most of its front page.
Feminism is experiencing a revival in Adelaide with the formation of a new activist group, the South Australian Feminist Collective.
The group emerged from a feminist forum jointly hosted by Socialist Alliance and Femment, which followed the recent Adelaide 鈥淪lutWalk鈥 march against sexual assault and victim-blaming. The forum explored the politics of this event and the relevance of feminism today.
About 30 people attended the collective鈥檚 first meeting on June 25.
The meeting began discussion about how the group would be run, its aims and values.
The NSW Nature Conservation Council released the statement below on July 5.
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In a first for NSW, peaceful protesters have this morning stopped a coal seam gas exploration rig in the Pilliga Forest, south of Narrabri. One protester in climbing gear is suspended high above the ground at the top of a 25 metre rig at an Eastern Star Gas operation, with another group of protesters on site.
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