Campaigns & Solidarity

Early in April, a Cairns couple was charged under the anti-abortion provisions in the Queensland criminal code. A 19-year-old woman faces seven years imprisonment for allegedly illegally terminating a pregnancy while her 21-year-old partner faces three years imprisonment for providing the abortion drug allegedly used for the termination. These charges are bought under laws that should not even exist. Premier Anna Bligh has told the media that the charges are related to the importation of the abortion drug, but if this were the case, why have the couple been charged under the anti-abortion laws? Bligh can’t speak the truth because these charges are indefensible. Abortion should not be a crime.

Join the campaign! Drop the charges! Repeal all anti-abortion laws!
Contact the Pro Choice Action Collective, Brisbane at prochoiceaction@gmail.com, or phone 0400 720 757 (Kathy).

Imagine if the Australian government provided all education, from pre-school to post-graduate level, and all medical care, free of charge. Imagine if factories that were to be closed by their owners were taken under public control and put under the management of their workers to produce for the benefit of society. Imagine if, rather than stealing East Timor’s oil and gas, and sending troops to Iraq and Afghanistan to prop up US-imposed puppet governments, the Australian government sent doctors, teachers and sustainable development engineers to help lift Third World countries out of poverty. Such things are happening, not in Australia, but in two countries still struggling with underdevelopment: Cuba and Venezuela. Their achievements — in tacking poverty, disease and illiteracy; in giving ordinary people a real say in how their community services and workplaces are run; in reversing environmental destruction; and in providing medical care and cheap heating oil to the poor of other countries — show that there is a real alternative to a world based on greed, corporate profit and social inequality.

By Clare Middlemas

Voluntary Student Unionism (VSU) was introduced by the Howard Coalition government in 2006, the same year as the introduction of the Work Choices legislation, aimed at crippling trade unions. VSU made membership of a student union voluntary and due to a severe decrease in funding, the result was the closure or reduction of many essential campus services around the country. This was not the aim of VSU however. It was specifically aimed at silencing the student opposition to the government’s attacks on university funding.

[The following statement distributed by members of the Revolutionary Socialist Party at protest actions in early January against Israel’s war on Gaza.]

Dear comrades,

We write to challenge the lies and misinformation in the letter written by leading Socialist Alternative (SA) member Tom Bramble that was published on www.sa.org.au. We won’t address the tone of the letter (calling us amongst other things “gutless wonders”) – as we are not interested in mud slinging matches. We are however interested in the facts of the matter:

By Owen Richards

In June 2008, a US appeals court upheld the convictions of the Cuban Five — five Cuban nationals who were arrested and convicted of espionage, conspiracy to commit murder, and other illegal activities, in the US. The appeals court vacated the sentences of three of the five men, ordering re-sentencing trials for them. It affirmed a sentence of two life terms for one of the men and a 15-year sentence for another. Gloria La Riva is the director of the US National Committee to Free the Cuban Five. She spoke to Direct Action about the Cuba Five case.

By Hamish Chitts

After PM Kevin Rudd’s February 13 official apology to the Stolen Generations, media outlets around the world hailed him as a great humanitarian friend of Aboriginal people. That day’s New York Times reported that “Rudd opened a new chapter in Australia’s tortured relations with its indigenous peoples on Wednesday with a comprehensive and moving apology for past wrongs and a call for bipartisan action to improve the lives of Australia’s Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders.” In his official apology, Rudd spoke of creating a “future where this parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again.”

By Hamish Chitts

The global arms industry is a very lucrative way for businesses to profit from death, destruction and oppression. It is estimated that each year 2% of world gross domestic product (GDP), or more than US$1 trillion, is spent on the military. Part of this goes to the procurement of military hardware and services from the arms industry.

By Kathy Newnam

A 400-strong rally was held in Brisbane on November 1 as part of the campaign to free Lex Wotton, an Indigenous community leader from Palm Island, who was found guilty on October 24 of “rioting with destruction” by an all-white jury in Brisbane’s District Court. Wotton was singled out for his participation in the protest on Palm Island that took place following the death in custody on November 19, 2004, of Mulrunji Doomadgee, a 36-year-old Palm Island man, at the hands of Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley. Despite admitting responsibility for the death, Hurley was subsequently acquitted of manslaughter by an all-white jury in Townsville on June 19, 2007.

By Kim Bullimore

On October 7, the upper house of the Victorian state parliament will vote on the Victorian Abortion Reform Bill, which was passed in the lower house on September 11 by 48 votes to 35. The bill, which was moved on behalf of the state Labor government by women’s affairs minister Maxine Morand, is based on a Victorian Law Reform Commission (VLRC) report recommending the removal of abortion from the Victorian Crimes Act.