This week on Done By Law we take a look at the recent decision by Yarra Council to place a ban on public drinking. Local Law 8, was passed at a heated Council meeting last week and will give police the power to pour out opened drinks and issue on the spot fines of $100. We’re joined by Councillor Steve Jolly, the only member of Council to oppose the ban, and Belinda Lo from Fitzroy Legal Service.
Below is Labour Party Pakistan spokesperson Farooq Tariq's introduction to his new book, Facing the Musharraf Dictatorship: An Activist's Narrative, republished from Links. Following Tariq's piece on Links is the book's preface by Peter Boyle, national secretary of the Democratic Socialist Perspective of Australia. Facing the Musharraf Dictatorship is available from Good Books Lahore. Email goodbooks_1 [at] yahoo.com to order a hard copy. You can also download the entire 300-page PDF file by following the links at the end of the two articles or by going here.
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By Farooq Tariq
It was October 12, 1999. As usual, I was at the Labour Party Pakistan (LPP) secretariat in Lahore. Around 6pm, Farooq Sulehria called me to break the news that Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif had removed the army chief General Pervez Musharraf who was flying back to Pakistan from a visit to Sri Lanka. Sulehria asked me to issue a press statement to explain the LPP's point of view. "Wait and see the response of the army", I told him.
A journalist by profession, Farooq Sulehria was at home and his television was on. He called me again after an hour to tell me that the television transmission had stopped and the TV screen was blank.
"This is army taking over", I told him. "How do you know"?, he asked. "I have lived through two [periods of] army rule and this could be the third", I replied. I had faced the military dictatorships of General Ayub Khan (1958-1969), General Yahya (1969-1971) and General Zia ul-Haq (1977-1988). As student activists, we had raised slogans against Ayub Khan and Yahya Khan. But it was the military rule of General Zia ul-Haq which we fought energetically for all the 11 years of his dictatorship.
By 8pm it was clear that army had taken over. But there was no formal reaction from any political group. Pakistan Television (PTV) started broadcasting war songs. I went out on my motorbike to observe the state of affairs. The LPP office was just opposite the PTV building in Lahore. I saw army troops there. I went to Governor House on the main Mall Road of Lahore. Army trucks were there too.
Around 8pm, I went to the office of Nawabzada Nasrulah Khan, the head of People's Democratic Alliance (PDA), which the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was part of. There were jubilations. The PPP activists were happy that Nawaz Sharif was gone. I asked Nawabzada Nasarullah Khan why was he happy with the military takeover? Although smiling, he said, let's wait for the general's speech and his priorities. Meanwhile one PPP supporter brought in some Benazir Qulfa, a popular local flavour of ice-cream to distribute among those present. I was getting irritated by this behaviour.
I decided to go back to my office. I hurriedly collected the records of the LPP membership and other important documents to put them in a safe place. Army rule could mean the seizing of political parties' offices. We had a short meeting of leading comrades and decided to oppose military rule. Although, we had been opposing Nawaz Sharif's government since 1997, we could not welcome the military takeover under justification.
I went back home around 10pm and waited for the speech of General Musharraf. It was full of same old excuses of democracy not functioning. The general was claiming that his plane had been hijacked and it had not been allowed to land.
I immediately wrote a press release opposing military rule and went out to deliver it to the Daily Jang and other newspapers. Army trucks were everywhere but not many people were on the roads. I was very afraid of being stopped by military personnel and caught red handed with the press release, opposing their rule. It was around 11.30pm when I arrived at the front desk of the Daily Jang.
The next day the Daily Jang printed only a few lines of the LPP statement. But we were satisfied as we knew that every word that appeared in the newspapers would be read that day. The LPP was one of the very few political parties that opposed military rule from the day one. On October 13, I wrote a lengthy article explaining the reasons for the military takeover and it must be opposed. The article was perhaps the first explanation of the developmets available on the internet.
The next week, the office of our weekly paper Mazdoor Jeddojuhd (Workers' Struggle) was raided and the army took away all the copies of the newspaper. The cover headline was "No to army rule!". The paper started in 1980 from Amsterdam, by our small group of Pakistani comrades in exile due to the military dictatorship of General Zia ul-Haq. So, it was not new for us. We had received such treatment several times before, not only at the hands of the military rulers during the 1980s, but also by the civilian government of Mian Nawaz Sharif during 1992.
This was the beginning of our struggle against the military rule of General Musharraf. I was arrested atleast nine times during the nine years of Musharraf's military rule. Numerous police cases were registered against me and other activists of the LPP. My house and party office were raided many times by police seeking to arrest me. Sometimes they were able to catch me, other times the police raids ended in failure as I managed to hoodwink them.
During this period I often used to receive threatening telephone calls, not only from the police officers but also from army officers and sometimes from the intelligence agencies. LPP activists were also threatened by religious fundamentalists several times. All this was due to the LPP's staunch opposition to military rule and its relentless efforts to building an alternative to the politics of the rich and feudal.
This book is not a narration of Musharraf's nine-year army rule, rather it is a saga of our resistance to it. This is a story of the decisive last 18 months of Musharraf rule. Some of the articles and diaries I wrote during those 18 months are included in this book. Written at the thick of the activities, it is more like a running commentary of a cricket match.
[Farooq Tariq is spokesperson for Labour Party Pakistan.]
Below are details of some of the protests against the Rudd Labor government's right-wing policies that will be held at the ALP national conference this week (Thursday July 30 - Saturday August 1). The Socialist Alliance would like to encourage everyone to attend. You can read about why these protests are taking place here.
There will be a Socialist Alliance working bee to make props, placards and banners in Sydney 5.30pm-7pm Tuesday July 28 @ the Resistance Centre, 23 Abercrombie St, Chippendale. If you can come and help us at any of these protests and/or help at the working bee please call Brianna 0439 694 505 or Peter 9690 1977/0401 760 577
Thursday: Tasmanians Against the Pulp Mill
9am @ Convention Centre, Darling Habour
Thursday: Stop the NT Intervention
Join a public lobby of the ALP conference. Hands off Tangentyere - no blackmail! - no take-over of Alice Springs Aboriginal town camps - housing and services NOW for all communities. 12noon Thursday July 30 @ Convention Centre, Darling Harbour. Organised by the Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney.
Thursday: Troops out of Afghanistan
Join the Stop the War Coalition from 12 noon on Thursday 30 July at the Darling Harbour Convention Centre, to call on the ALP to bring the troops home and end the war on the people of Afghanistan. For more information ph Pip Hinman 0412 139 968, Marlene Obeid 0401 758 871, Anne Picot 0404 090 710
http://www.StopWarCoalition.
Thursday: Gaza Defence Committee is calling on supporters of Palestine to help leaflet the ALP conference
At noon GDC will be leafleting outside the convention centrewith a leaflet calling for support for the campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel.
A further action will take place at 5pm at an event being organised by Paul Howes, secretary of the Australian Workers' Union and a promoter of an international group, TULIP, which is opposed to isolating apartheid Israel. This event is at the Maritime Museum, 2 Murray St, Darling Harbour.
For more information about the Howes' event see <http://labor.net.au/news/
For more information about TULIP, see <http://www.tuliponline.org/>
For a critical appraisal of TULIP see <http://www.labournet.net/
To find out more about this action ring Raul 0403 037 376 or Diane on 0413 003 148.
Friday: Billionaires for Coal's "celebration" of ALP coal & climate change policy
9am @ the Convention Centre
Friday: Protest for Honduras
Restore democrasy, no more dicatorships! Protest outside the ALP national conference. 5pm Friday July 31 Convention Centre Darling Harbour. Convention Centre Darling Harbour.Organised by the Latin American Forum. Ph John for more info 0413 310 452.
Friday: Jobs and Rights for Working Australians - Rip up all Howard's anti-union laws!
12.45pm – 2pm Friday 31 July. Parkside Auditorium, Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre Darling Harbour. Meeting for all trade unionists & ALP conference delegates. For more information contact Pirjo Laine: plaine@actu.asn.au ph 03 9664 7333
Saturday: National Day of Action for Same-Sex Marriage. This year we alongside our Melbourne brothers and sisters, we will stage the nation's largest 'illegal' same-sex wedding! Chances are your relationships won't be formally recognised on the day, and you'll still be considered a second-class citizen long after you've consumated your marriage... so, what the hell... grab your partner, shine your ring, and invite your friends - we're getting hitched! Start 12pm @ Town Hall march to ALP conference @ the Sydney Convention Centre.
Organised by Community Action Against Homophobia www.caah.org.au.
Progressive fringe events at ALP conference:
Burma's future and Australia's role in it
Date: Saturday, August 1, 2009
Time: 12:30pm - 2:00pm
South Steyne Floating Restaurant and Function Centre
Cockle Bay, Darling Harbour
Sydney, Australia
Phone: 0416289235
Email: admin@aucampaignforburma.org: Australia's Role in a Time of Crisis
Socialist AllianceApril 21, 2009
“The Rudd government has completely blown its chance to show that its refugee policy is more humane than the Coalition’s”, Socialist Alliance spokesperson on refugee and asylum-seeker rights Jay Fletcher said today.
Fletcher was commenting on the anti-refugee hysteria manufactured by the Coalition after an explosion on board a small fishing boat packed with 47 Afghan asylum seekers and two crew killed five people and injured many more, some critically. The incident occurred on April 16 as the Australian navy was taking the vessel to the Christmas Island detention centre.
“Home affairs minister Bob Debus admits that the recent rise in the number of asylum seekers making the dangerous journey from Indonesia is due to people fleeing war-ravaged countries”, Fletcher said. “So why doesn’t the Rudd government increase the number of places available to these desperate people? Ninety percent of refugees coming to Australia have lost family members, and they genuinely need protection.”
“The racist Liberal Party immigration spokeswoman Sharman Stone has got Rudd and company spooked. That’s why the prime minister sounds like a rerun of John Howard when he calls people-smugglers ‘the scum of the earth’. By blasting their lucrative trade he hopes to neutralise the Coalition and stop Australians from asking why the trade exists in the first place.”
“Yet with 16 million refugees and 51 million displaced persons in the world and a country like Australia offering a miserable 13,500 places in 2008-09, some of those fleeing death and persecution have no choice but to place themselves in the hands of people smugglers.
“Even more, many of these refugees are fleeing from wars that Australia supports—in Afghanistan the presence of Australian troops is helping create more refugees every day, so Canberra has a humanitarian responsibility to help them.
“If the Rudd government had any sense of justice or spine on this issue it would immediately announce a big increase in refugee intake and confront the racists and xenophobes and their parliamentary wing in the Coalition head-on.”
“For example, why doesn’t Bob Debus go beyond pointing out that a microscopic 379 asylum seekers have reached Australian shores over the last year and tell the nation that each year Australia admits less than one refugee for every 1000 inhabitants, whereas a comparable country like Sweden allows in 17.7 per 1000?”
Fletcher concluded: “A ‘Swedish policy’ here would see an Australian refugee and asylum-seeker intake of around 250,000 a year—the beginnings of a humane and decent approach to their suffering that this country sorely needs.”
For further comment: Jay Fletcher 0438 819 131
Below is a statement from the family of Colin Duffy, one of the Irish republicans arrested after the recent attacks in the six counties, stating that he is refusing to take food in protest over the injustice of his case.While the date to make submissions to the NSW Legislative Council inquiry into the proposed sell-off of state prisons has passed, the Stop the Cell-off campaign against the privatisation (administered by none other than John Robertson, once famous for his role in the campaign to stop the privatisation of state electricity, now a sell-out to all and sundry.) continues.
There is a good background article in the current Green Left Weekly, reproduced here.
The actual campaign - run by the Public Service Association and the prisoners' rights group Justice Action - replete with petition (which we have published here earlier) and plenty of background information, can be accessed here.
Evidently NSW Labor is, in fact, as corrupt as we thought they were. It is of almost no surprise to discover that today's Sydney Morning Herald carries this lovely news: Labor MP Paul McLeay - head of the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee - has been receiving donations from none other than the company - GEO Group - running the only currently private prison in NSW - Junee prison.
In fact, he received donations at the same time that the company's contract was under review by the committee McLeay chaired! Hardly surprising, then, that the committee's report found - with some satisfaction - that it was cheaper (sorry, "good value for money") to house prisoners in private jails.
The profit motive is clearly a winner here. After all, who really wants to be treated like a human being when they're in prison, and be given all those crazy, whacky, perks like "edible food", "hope of rehabilitation", and "not being beaten half-to-death by the screws"?
If Queensland prisons are anything to go by, NSW prisons (and prisoners) are in for one hell of a ride, especially if - as is likely - GEO Groups (the second biggest operator of private prisons in the USA, with all the confidence that instils: think prison factories and squalor) gets Parklea and Cessnock jails in the privatisation process.
In the meantime, however, who could do more than trust the lovely NSW government. After all, it's not like their on the take from slimy developers, denying our right to due process in court, invading our homes, or run by an incompetent fool or anything.
"I am willing to give up a part of the country over which I believe we have rights so that Israel will remain a Jewish and democratic state in which citizens have equal rights, whatever their religion."Mind you, when you have Israeli academics whose solution to the Gaza issue is like that below, Livni seems positiviely moderate...
"When 2.5 million [Palestinians] live in a closed-off Gaza, those people will become even bigger animals than they are today, with the aid of an insane fundamentalist Islam. So, if we want to remain alive, we will have to kill and kill and kill. All day, every day. If we don't kill, we will cease to exist. The only thing that concerns me is how to ensure that the [Jewish] boys and men who are going to have to do the killing will be able to return home to their families and be normal human beings." (Jerusalem Post weekend supplement Up Front, May 21, 2004. quoted here)
More on Greece: Greece's main unions have called for a general strike. Teachers at universities in Greece have also gone on a 3 day strike in response to the murder of student Alexandros Grigoropoulos on Sunday night (Melbourne time). 
