Peace vigil gathers support
MELBOURNE — Peace activists have set up a permanent vigil on the lawns outside the State Library, in the heart of the central business district, to provide a continuous forum for the growing opposition to the bloodshed in Afghanistan.
Staff at the State Library have attempted (so far unsuccessfully) to close down the vigil, on the grounds that activists were eating on library property — despite the fact that this "library property" was a lawn and a popular lunch-time spot for Melbourne office workers.
Refugee rights actions held
BRISBANE — "I cannot remember a time when so many lies were told [by a government] to the public", University of Queensland lecturer Ross Daniels said of the federal policy on refugees and asylum seekers at a public forum here on October 11.
The forum, titled "Crossing borders: globalisation, racism and the refugee crisis", was organised by Brisbane's Refugee Action Collective.
The forum came a week after a RAC-organised rally on October 5, when 300 people converged on the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs to protest bi-partisan attacks on asylum seekers.