Critical Times

1945- Hiroshima

2006- Beirut?

Hiroshima Never Again!

12:00 Saturday Aug 5

Parliament House Steps

Adelaide

ph 0412 974 575

*Stop the Israeli Offensive!

*Hands off Iran

*No to Uranium Mining!

Australia Cuba Friendship Society

Fiesta
on

Saturday 29th July 2006
8 pm

Folk Federation Centre
Cnr George St & South Rd Thebarton

Cost: $15.00 ($10 Concession)

Proceeds will provide
Aid for Cuban Projects

Raffle, Prizes & Souvenirs

Look forward to seeing you there!!

War-Crimes and terrorism

Israel is using terrorist tactics to punish the people of Lebanon and Palestine. Deliberate targeting of civilians or indifference to their death or injury is a war-crime. So is mass destruction of civil infrastructure, which will lead to further death and illness very soon.

Sydney rally against Israeli attacks on Lebanon & Palestine The streets were filled with throngs of people—many from Sydney’s Lebanese and Palestinian communities—as 20,000 people marched on July 22 to protest the bitter injustice of Israel’s latest offensive against the people of Lebanon and Palestine.

Indignant that media reports continuously refer to Israel’s aggression as “self defence’‘, countless home-made placards carried pictures of dead, injured or dying children with messages like” Is this the terrorist you were looking for?’‘.

The protest gave expression to the genuine and passionate concerns of a
community that establishment media and state and federal governments have done their best to terrorise and intimidate with “anti-terror’’ laws and a cultivated culture of fear.

THOUSANDS of people around the world bashed drums, brandished placards and chanted slogans today to demand an end to Israel’s offensive in Lebanon and Gaza.

The biggest rally took place in London, where thousands of demonstrators urged British Prime Minister Tony Blair to stop what they described as his support of the conflict and join international calls for an immediate ceasefire.
“Peace for Lebanon!” rang the chant as the march weaved its way through central London, past the US embassy and on to Hyde Park, watched all the way by the police.

12PM SATURDAY 22 JULY

STEPS PARLIAMENT HOUSE

ADELAIDE

This rally has been organized by NoWar, Australian Friends of Palestine, Members of the Lebanese Community and others to protest the assault on Gaza and Lebanon in the last several days.

Speakers will be drawn from the Lebanese and Palestinian communities of South Australia as well as representatives of the parliament and university academics.

This tragedy grows with the hourly increase in the number of dead and injured Palestinian and Lebanese, as well as Israelis as Hezbollah hits back.

An open letter to all unionists
The shadow boxing has ended. It’s time to start hitting back.

The situation in Western Australia, where at least 107 construction workers have been served writs with the possibility of $28,000 fines, represents a fundamental attack on our rights as workers and trade unionists.

Israel/Palestine
Noam Chomsky interviewed by
Amy Goodman
July 15, 2006

Democracy Now
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AMY GOODMAN: We’re joined on the phone right now by Noam Chomsky, professor of linguistics and philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, author of dozens of books. His latest is Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy. In May, he traveled to Beirut, where he met, among others, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

Marcus L’Estrange, a teacher, ALP member and former CES employee who left after blowing the whistle on questionable unemployment figures, writes:

Henry Thornton’s economic analysis in Crikey largely fails as it is based on a false and misleading unemployment figure of 5%. There are many things wrong with the monthly or headline “Labour Force” (Australia) figure on which Henry Thornton bases his analysis.

Some examples are that advanced countries such as Germany and Singapore only count a person as employed if they worked 15 hours or more.

Israel rains bombs on Lebanon

Sunday 16 July 2006, 4:25 Makka Time, 1:25 GMT

Israeli offensive does not look like ending soon

Israel continued to pound Beirut’s southern suburb on Sunday, the fifth successive day of an offensive on Lebanon.

The air strikes, which killed 35 civilians on Saturday, including 15 children, were meant to punish the Lebanese government for failing to disarm the resistance group Hezbollah.

Israel says this has allowed Hezbollah to menace Israel’s northern border, where measures just short of a state of emergency have been ordered.

By Robert Fisk in Mdeirej, Central Lebanon

07/15/06 “The Independent”—- – The beautiful viaduct that soars over the mountainside here has become a “terrorist” target. The Israelis attacked the international highway from Beirut to Damascus just after dawn yesterday and dropped a bomb clean through the central span of the Italian-built bridge a symbol of Lebanon’s co-operation with the European Union sending concrete crashing hundreds of feet down into the valley beneath. It was the pride of the murdered ex-prime minister Rafik Hariri, the face of a new, emergent Lebanon.

A UNION will reimburse Melbourne workers it says were docked four hours’ pay after a meeting to address concerns over the use of imported workers ran 20 minutes over time.

The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) says the penalty imposed on workers from Craigieburn Austral Bricks is the first time union funds have been used to repay workers docked under the Government’s recent industrial relations changes.

The union said today the workers held a stop-work meeting earlier this month after the brick manufacturer awarded a contract to build a new kiln to French company Ceric.

Four Christian peace activists who broke into America’s Pine Gap Spy Base near Alice Springs last year will stand trial in the Northern Territory Supreme Court on October 3, 2006.

Jim Dowling (Dayboro), Adele Goldie (Brisbane), Bryan Law (Cairns) and Donna Mulhearn (Sydney), face charges under the Commonwealth Crimes Act and the Defence (Special Undertakings) Act 1952.

The four, who are part of a group called Christians Against All Terrorism (CAAT), will be tried together and will plead not guilty.

Sunday 30 July 2:45pm

In the Shadow of the Palms

NoWar presents its next film fund raiser for 2006, In the Shadow of the Palms a compelling and moving feature length documentary by Australian film maker, Wayne Coles-Janess.

A 30 minute audience response and discussion period will be held immediately after the film.

In the Shadow of the Palms – Iraq has been described as a ‘humane and profoundly authentic’ portrayal of the struggles of the people of Iraq through this tumultuous war.

Stand up against war and for a nuclear free future
At 8.15am on August the 6th 1945 the United States military dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later at 11.

On Saturday July 22 at 7PM the Australia Venezuela Solidarity Network is holding a forum and dinner to be addressed by the Venezuelan Charge d’Affaires in Australia, Mr Nelson Davila.

The forum will take place at the Resistance Centre, Level 1/34 Hindley Street in the City, starting at 2pm. The dinner will be held at the Coglin Street Community Centre in the City, starting 7pm.

The attack on trade unions and workers in Australia will not stop with ‘Work Choices’. Every Australian must be made aware of the dangers facing our society. It is particularly important for those of us who are already fighting this battle to develop effective strategies in order to counteract the anti-worker policies of the current government.

Looks like new ABC Board members Keith Windschuttle (alleged to be an academic and historian but in fact associated with the Quadrant magazine that has received finance from the CIA) and Peter Hurley of the Australian Hotels Association and other right-wing members already on the Board like Michael Kroger are making their presence felt in swinging the ABC to an extreme right-wing political position.

This trend is already being reflected in news coverage in general and in some special news programs. The ABC’s reportage of East Timor events was particularly dishonest and one-sided.

The economic development of Australia, throughout the 19th and most of the 20th century, was carried out by government funding to kick start and provide growth for capitalism in this country. The risk takers were governments, the public purse, rather than venture or finance capitalists. This immense national infrastructure in Australia, that private enterprise so depended on for its own growth and profitability, gradually over the 1980’s and 1990’s was privatised.