BY PETER ROBSON & LISA LINES
Refugees' rights protests organised at short notice in Adelaide and Newcastle helped to expose the media's lies about asylum seekers in the second week of January.
In Adelaide, 60 people attended a January 8 protest demanding the closure of immigration detention centres, called by the socialist youth group Resistance just three days before. NOWAR and the Socialist Alliance also helped organise the action.
Speakers at the picket of Adelaide's immigration department offices included state Labor MP Kris Hanna, Resistance activist Luke Smith, Greens representative Anne McMinnian, Refugee Action Collective campaigner Lisa Lines, Sarah Hanson, the president of the Students Association of the University of Adelaide and Renfrey Clarke from the Socialist Alliance.
Forty people gathered in Newcastle's Civic Park on January 10 at 5:30pm to kick off anti-war and pro-refugee organising in Newcastle.
Newcastle Action for Refugee Rights called the action, in part to protest the media's lies about fires and protests in detention centres. NARR also wanted to express how the planned war on Iraq would exacerbate the worldwide refugee crisis.
Socialist Alliance activist Leslie Richmond described the conditions in the Baxter detention centre as "worse than hell holes".
Activists pledged to build the planned Easter protest at the Baxter detention centre. Representatives from the Quakers, Friends of Palestine, the Migrant Resource Centre and Health Professionals for Global Responsibility also voiced their support.
From Green Left Weekly, January 15, 2003.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.