ADELAIDE — Some 250 people crowded into the Governor Hindmarsh Hotel on August 17 to support the right to protest. The benefit was to assist activists facing huge legal costs.
Davie Thomason is facing charges associated with last year's August 19 demonstration at Parliament House, and Green Left Weekly is being threatened with libel action over its coverage of the Hindmarsh Island (Kumarangk) issue.
The crowd was welcomed by Kuarna Aboriginal elder Cherie Watkins and addressed by Aunty Veronica Brodie. Barbara Pocock from Adelaide University reflected on the role that protesters like Thomason and publications like Green Left Weekly play in linking struggles and promoting solidarity.
The trade unionists, Ngarrindjeri and Kuarna people, students, environmentalists, feminists and international solidarity activists who attended were treated to songs, poetry and speeches.
Manly rally
SYDNEY — The August 19 meeting of the Campaign Against Racism decided to hold a rally in Manly on August 30. The "No to Hanson and Howard's Racism" rally is demanding an end to discrimination against migrants; no to Howard's 10-point plan on native title; no detention or deportation of refugees; no cuts to Abstudy; and full citizenship rights for migrants.
Pilgrimage against uranium
The Gaia Foundation is protesting against Australian uranium mining and exports with a 55-day bus trip — the Pilgrimage Project — visiting the Ranger mine and proposed Jabiluka mine in the Northern Territory, and Maralinga in South Australia.
"It is a crime against the future for Australia to flog this poison to the world", said Gaia Foundation spokesperson, former WA Greens senator Jo Vallentine.
Two Russians from Novozybkov, a city still highly contaminated from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, will join the trip, which began in Perth on August 6. Aboriginal communities affected by uranium mining will also be visited. For more information, call Jo Vallentine on (08) 9272 4252.