Black Against Empire, the History & Politics of the Black Panther Party
Joshua Bloom and Waldo E. Martin Jr, University of California Press, 2013, 560 pp., $54.95
The United States in the 1960s was a tinderbox of unresolved racial tensions. With Jim Crow racism dominating the South and oppressive police patrolling the northern ghettos, Martin Luther King鈥檚 Civil Rights Movement ignited hopes for change nation-wide.
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McDonald's workers and supporters held a picket on May 10 outside the Britomart McDonald's store in Auckland, said activist Socialist Aotearoa activist Nico on a May 12 post at Unite news.
Nico said a group of about 30 people created a physical picket line across the two entrances of the store, holding banners and placards reading 鈥25c won't pay the rent鈥 (in reference to the company's pay rise offer), and 鈥淢cStrike鈥.
Guilty 鈥 of cooking rice
鈥淎 Saudi student living in Michigan was questioned in his home by FBI agents after neighbours saw him carrying a pressure cooker and called the police. Talal al Rouki had been cooking a traditional Saudi Arabian rice dish called kabsah and was carrying it to a friend's house ...
It was almost a simple formality. Rejecting any attempt by the Greens to introduce rudimentary protections, the Australian Senate voted on May 16 to excise the entire country from the migration zone.
It will most likely be given approval by the lower house soon. If implemented, it will mean that for all asylum seekers who arrive by boat, Australia -- and by proxy the Refugee Convention -- will legally not exist.
About 70 activists gathered in Parramatta Town Hall on May 11 for the second annual Climate Change-Social Change conference.
Hosted by 麻豆传媒 Weekly, the conference drew together a broad range of activists from various environment campaigns, anti-coal seam gas groups, the Greens and the Socialist Alliance, cementing its role as an important annual gathering for western Sydney activists.
The Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) held a rally in Sydney on May 9 to demand that the federal budget raise the Newstart allowance by $50 a week.
They also demanded all commonwealth benefits be properly indexed so they are in line with living expenses.
About 100 people attended the rally with representatives from the Community and Public Sector Union, Australian Services Union, the Salvation Army and tenant advocates.
After a week of being subjected to headache-inducing politicians posturing and spinning about the Great Budget Deficit, all that was needed was that speech from Richest-Australian-and-Walking-ATM Gina Rinehart.
Billionaire Numero Uno was only outdone by Billionaire-Would-Be-PM Clive Palmer, who successfully outflanked, on Q&A, Labor and Liberals from the left on the treatment of refugees.
The gulf between the science and the politics of climate change has never been wider. Consider the in the five years from 2005. Experts say the Arctic ice cap is now in a 鈥渄eath spiral鈥. The region is warming two to four times faster than the global average.
A South Australian council has voted to swap a recreation park in St Clair with a former factory site. Under the proposal the popular St Clair reserve will be sold to developers and used for high-density housing. The Actil site 鈥攚hich has contaminated soil 鈥 will then be developed as an open space.
The decision by Charles Sturt council, on May 13, paves the way for the parkland 鈥 which had previously been earmarked for a war memorial park for World War II veterans 鈥 to be rezoned for housing development. The council鈥檚 may described the decision as "an affront to democracy."
The fight against homophobia is arguably the civil rights issue of our times. It is increasingly unacceptable that, in 2013, society continues to discriminate against people based on their sexuality.
This is most obviously demonstrated by the continued refusal to grant equal marriage rights to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LBGTI) people.
The Country Liberal (CLP) government of the Northern Territory announced sweeping new police powers on May 10 that will, in effect, criminalise drinking across the NT.
Police will be able to issue 鈥渁lcohol protection orders鈥 to anybody charged with an alcohol-related offence that carries a minimum sentence of six months in prison. The orders will be issued for three months at a time (up to 12 months in total), and prevent the person from consuming alcohol or being on licensed premises.
The Australian ran an article on May 2 that claimed 鈥渢he boycott, divestment and sanctions movement has been caught on camera admitting 鈥榯here isn't really any connection鈥 between Australian Max Brenner chocolate shops and Israel鈥. Below is a response by Palestine solidarity campaigner Patrick Harrison, who was quoted in the article. It was submitted to the Australian but not published. *** When I visited Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories in 2011 to take part in environmental volunteer projects, apartheid was plain to see.
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