After the initial furore of the release of thousands of secret United States embassy cables by WikiLeaks, much of the mainstream media coverage has largely ignored or hidend the most important aspect of the saga 鈥 the damning contents of the secret documents that incriminate the powerful and expose their lies.
Much of the coverage has devolved into negative stories and allegations about the personal lives of WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange and the alleged source of the secret US documents, Bradley Manning.
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Sara Hudson, a research fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies, recently wrote that supported the Northern Territory intervention. It also attacked public land title in remote Aboriginal communities.
The article was what you might expect from a research fellow from the conservative think tank. "Public bad, private good", and so on. But one passage stood out to me, given I had visited many remote Aboriginal communities recently.
Socialist Alliance Hobart branch notes the recent expressions of disillusionment with all political parties in parliament in Tasmania.
The state government continues to disappoint with its lack of transparency when it comes to funding dodgy deals such as the proposed Aprin loan (now scuttled after Gunns chose a different bidder), with its inability to support the proper funding of public services such as education and health.
When you鈥檙e the world鈥檚 biggest resource corporation, and aim to gouge high profits for the next century from the world鈥檚 largest mine, you probably won鈥檛 care to let environmental considerations block your path.
Add in a state government frantic to get investment dollars flowing, and the outlook for threatened species in the vicinity could be grim.
BHP Billiton is due to decide early next year whether to spend an estimated $20 billion on a massive expansion of its Olympic Dam copper, gold and uranium mine near Roxby Downs, 560 kilometres north of Adelaide.
August will mark one year since Palm Island Aboriginal leader Lex Wotton was released on parole.
Unlike the police officer charged with the 2004 murder of Palm Island resident Mulrunji Doomadgee, Wotton was jailed for taking part in the protests against Doomadgee鈥檚 death. No one was jailed for Doomadgee鈥檚 death in police custody.
Despite his release, Wotton is muzzled by parole conditions aimed to silence him. He is subject to a four-year political gag, which bans him from speaking to the media or attending meetings.
Wotton has launched a High Court challenge against the gag order.
After 28 years, the Sydney Resistance Centre has moved to its new location at 22-36 Mountain Street, Ultimo. The new centre was officially opened on July 16. It was a special day for the Socialist Alliance national office, the Socialist Alliance Sydney branch and 麻豆传媒 Weekly.
A group of women teamed up at Tram Stop 1 on the corner of Bourke and Spencer streets on July 22 to commemorate the 42nd anniversary of a protest against women鈥檚 unequal pay by women鈥檚 liberationists Zelda D鈥橝prano and Bon Hull.
D'Aprano and Hull boarded a tram but refused to pay the full fare.
The 鈥渆qual pay team鈥 talked to commuters on the busy city tram and shared views on why women are still receiving unequal pay in Australia.
There is no denying it, depression is on the rise across the world. The World Health Organisation says depression will be the second largest contributor to the global burden of disease by 2020. For young people this is already the case. Depression leads to about 850,000 deaths every year.
But why is depression on the rise? In some instances it is a product of more readily available methods of diagnosis and public understanding of the disorder. But increases in suicide rates and other indicators suggest that the increase in depression is well beyond this statistical readjustment.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the millionaire former president of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and leader of France鈥檚 center-left Socialist Party, is charged with raping a west African immigrant housekeeper in a five-star Manhattan hotel.
But Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr seems like he wants to make the whole case go away.
After initially agreeing to US$1 million bail and house arrest, Vance arranged for Strauss-Kahn to be released without any bail. The press reported prosecutors and Strauss-Kahn鈥檚 lawyers met about a deal in which the case would be dropped.
Shortly before noon on July 21, officers from the Australian Federal Police raided the Sydney office of Greenpeace Australia Pacific, confiscating material but making no arrests.
Despite growing international outrage over the Sri Lankan military鈥檚 mass killings of over 40,000 Tamil civilians in 2009, the Sri Lankan government is defiantly refusing to heed international demands for an independent investigation into the atrocities. Instead it is escalating a range of discriminatory and repressive policies towards the Tamil people.
Australia鈥檚 cricketers should take a principled stand in defence of human rights and justice, and boycott playing with Sri Lanka until the government there conducts itself according to the rules of international society.
Asylum seekers in Scherger detention centre in north Queensland launched a hunger strike on the morning of July 21.
By the afternoon of July 22, 67 asylum seekers had joined the hunger strike. Most of the protesters are ethnic Hazaras from Afghanistan.
The asylum seekers released the statement below on July 22.
* * *
In the Name of Merciful God,
This hunger strike is a response to the continued pressure exercised by the Australian Immigration Department on us.
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