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New laws have been passed in the NSW parliament that allow police to conduct secret searches of people’s homes, including the examination of computers. The new laws build on anti-terrorism legislation, but the new powers are for crimes as minor as growing a few cannabis plants.
One hundred and fifty people protested in Canberra on March 21 against federal government plans to introduce a national internet filter. The protest was organised by the Digital Liberty Coalition.
ASIO: The Enemy Within
Written & published by Michael Tubbs, 2008
275 pages,$25
Available from the Search Foundation, lvl 3, suite 3B, 110 Kippax St, Surry Hills, NSW
Ph 9211 4164, fax 9211 1407
On March 20, former federal court judge Marcus Einfeld was sentenced to three years jail, with a non-parole period of two years, for trying to get out of a speeding fine.
The Western Community Action Network (WeCAN) held its first public forum at the Footscray Town Hall on March 19.
Tinariwen, who are touring Australia in April, first became known abroad at the initial Festival of the Desert in Mali in 2001, now an annual event. This was also the year it started travelling to Europe. Until then its music was for Tuaregs across the Sahara, an outlet during their resistance struggle, when forced by drought into exile in Libya or south-eastern Algeria in the 1970s.
The reintroduction of a rail-based public transport system for Cairns and promotion of rail freight in far-north Queensland were the key themes of a 100-strong public meeting on March 18.
The United States authorities indicted five Cubans in Miami in 1998 for their role as agents of Cuban security, infiltrating right-wing Cuban terrorist groups. The Cuban Five requested that the trial judge move their trial out of Miami, arguing it was impossible to receive a fair trail in a city renowned for its fanatically anti-Castro Cuban exile community.
Two reviews present the Rudd government with opportunities to readjust the policy settings of post-secondary education and determine its future funding arrangements.
On March 23, 100 students attended a demonstration at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT)_organised by the Islamic Society, as part of a long-running campaign for a dedicated Muslim prayer facility on the city campus.
Last week one big economic news story and two small stories exposed the mad squalor of the profit system under which we live.
The article below is abridged from Socialist Voice, http://www.socialistvoice.ca>. It is by the editors of SV, Roger Annis and John Riddell. Annis is among the international guests attending the World at a Crossroads conference, Sydney, April 10-12. For more information, or to register, visit http://www.worldatacrossroads.org.