Shame, Labor, Shame!

By Peter Boyle

A wave of deep moral revulsion swept through anyone in this country with social conscience when Labor PM Kevin Rudd uttered that ugly sentence: “This government makes no apology for a hard-line approach to people smuggling and border security.”

We are back to Tampa. An “Indonesian solution” is being prepared to replace the “Pacific solution”, as a Labor government leads both major parties in competitive mining of still deep-seated racism and xenophobia. Shame, Labor Shame.

These politician are total hypocrites. They parade as champions of human rights as the guardians of civilised values but when a small boatload of poor and persecuted refugees approach Australian waters that posture thrown out of the window.

These people are fleeing war and devastation that Western governments and corporations have supported or even caused. And they are driven, by the hundreds of millions, across many borders. In a single day more refugees cross into the territory of some of the world's poorest countries than all those desperate people who have ever hazarded a small boat journey into Australia. Imagine the outrage of these “civilised” Australian politicians if the nations bordering the world's war zones were to turn refugees away at gunpoint. But that's what the Australian navy is being forced to do by a Labor government.

So much hope, by so many people, was placed in the Rudd Labor government that it would turn its back on the ugly politics of the Howard era. Any moral credit earned by the much-celebrated apology to the Stolen Generation of Aborigines has well and truly been canceled with Rudd's recent “no apology”.

Green Left Weekly voices the outrage of those who really stand for justice and truth. This voice sorely needs to be as loud and clear as possible at times like this. Green Left Weekly is building the movements that will one day allow us to break the two parties of the right monopoly in this country. But we can only do this with your help, including your financial help.

$8678 came in to the Green Left Weekly Fighting fund since the last issue, bringing the total raised so far this year to $187,490 which is 75% of our $250,000 target for this year. We need to raise just over $60,000 over the remaining months to get there. If you can help us get there please do.

A big thank you to all the supporters who have sent in donations (regular or occasional). You are responsible for 54% of the total raised so far this year. The rest was raised through fund-raising events organised by our supporters. Please keep supporting those events. Chances are there is one taking place near you in the next two weeks

Rights on Site - Ark Tribe Prosecuted

From Rights On Site

Ark Tribe is a construction worker from South Australia facing six months in jail. He has been charged with not attending an interview with the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC).

Ark was working on the Flinders University site in Adelaide. Conditions were so bad that workers drew up a petition calling for safety improvements, on a handtowel.

It took an intervention by the union and the state government safety regulator to get the most pressing problems fixed and finally, after several days, things began to get back on track.

One by one workers from the site were called before the ABCC.

The penalties for those who don't cooperate with ABCC investigations are frightening - fines of up to $22,000 for things like stopping work to make sure workers are safe and jail for up to 6 months if you don't answer their questions. Even the police don't have the powers the ABCC have.

In Ark's words, "If I've done something wrong, I'm prepared to cop it, but I won't be treated unfairly."

We need to get the Rudd Labor Government to get rid of these laws, before another construction worker faces jail.

Federal Court upholds Australian Government support of torture

CANTERBURY- BANKSTOWN PEACE GROUP
MEDIA RELEASE April 26, 2009

Federal Court upholds Australian Government support of torture

The Federal Court has dismissed Mamdouh Habib's appeal against the decision of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) decision not to return his passport.

The former Howard Government withdrew Habib's passport after his release from Guantanamo Bay. The reason given was that he might commit some illegal act if allowed to leave the country. The basis of this assertion was "secret" because of "national security" issues.

In a very controversial case, the AAT supported the Government position.

"Never mind that more than 80% of evidence was not presented in open court," Raul Bassi from the Canterbury Bankstown Peace Group commented. "Habib and his lawyer received hundred of documents mostly blacked out for national security reasons."

"The most dreadful part of the Tribunal ruling was that even the presiding magistrate accepted that Mamdouh was tortured. Yet whatever he said under torture was accepted by the Tribunal as evidence against him. On this basis the AAT denied Mahdouh his passport."

Bassi continued: "With the election of the Rudd Government, Habib was hopeful that the approach to his case would change. But in relation to human rights, as with Aboriginal issues, the war in Afghanistan and the anti-terrorist laws, there is a line of continuity between the old and new governments.

"Yesterday's ruling confirms that. The same lawyer who represented the Howard government in the first case represented the Rudd government in the appeal, and with the same arguments.

Bassi added that there was no doubt about the existence of torture by the military and security agencies of the United States and its allies. "The Obama administration has accepted that the US has been using torture as a common procedure supported by the highest authorities in the country at the time. The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and the Australian Federal Police originally denied any knowledge, but lately its has come to light that their agents saw Mamdouh Habib in Guantanamo Bay clearly in distress and that he told them that he had been tortured."

"The question now is what Mamdouh can do to achieve justice. All judicial avenues seem closed and appeals to the government have fall on deaf ears,. The Canterbury-Bankstown Peace Group wrote to the Attorney-General last year asking for an inquiry but he refused to do anything about the case."

Bassi concluded: "The Canterbury-Bankstow n Peace Group is committed to supporting its member, Mamdouh Habib in his quest for justice. We are organising different actions to take his case to Canberra, into the international arena, and to let everyone know what the Australian government is capable of.

We initiated the campaign to bring Mamdouh and David Hicks back from Guantanamo Bay. We could never have guessed that he was coming back to a country where his rights would be almost as restricted as when he was in prison."

For more information: Raul Bassi 0403037376

Take a stand against prison privatisation!

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.

Sri Lankan Crisis Statement

Via http://fastuntoaction.wordpress.com:
[A PDF copy of the statement can be downloaded here, and the Socialist Alliance has set up a page of solidarity resources here.]
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Despite international calls for a cease-fire, the conflict in Sri Lanka continues to escalate.

The district health official in the conflict zone has stated that 40-50 Tamil civilians are dying each day. Most recently the Sri Lankan government issued orders to doctors and other health staff to leave the conflict area immediately.

In an attempt to put an urgent stop to the humanitarian catastrophe, a group of young Tamil Australians have written a ‘Sri Lankan Crisis Statement’ for the wider Australian community to sign.

From 2 March 2009 we will take it to the media and the Australian government to raise our concern for this largely unreported war.

If you want to sign this statement, please leave a comment on this page or email fastuntoaction@hotmail.com as soon as possible with your name and title.

Please forward it to other contacts who maybe interested in signing this statement.

****** STATEMENT ******

We are Australian citizens who share a deep concern about the escalating civilian crisis in Sri Lanka.

We call on the Australian government to demand the Sri Lankan authorities and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam declare an immediate ceasefire.

We are deeply concerned about the lack of medical staff and aid agencies serving the estimated 250,000 civilians trapped in the conflict zone. In September 2008, the Sri Lankan government evicted United Nations and international aid agencies from these areas.

While the local Red Cross is still operating within the conflict area, their presence is threatened by the ongoing conflict. The departure of international witnesses within the conflict area will remove accountability for all parties to the conflict.

The Sri Lankan government has also issued orders to doctors and other health staff to leave the conflict area immediately.

We demand the Sri Lankan government allow international monitoring and medical and aid agencies unrestricted access to the conflict zones immediately.

In direct violation of the Geneva Convention, civilian hospitals in the conflict zones have repeatedly come under aerial bombing and shelling. Furthermore, on 2 February 2009 the Sri Lankan Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse stated that everything outside a government declared safety-zone is a military target and no exception will be given to medical facilities.

We urge the Australian government to demand the Sri Lankan government stop the aerial bombing of hospitals and both parties cease placing civilians in direct cross fire in all areas. Foreign and domestic media have been banned from entering the conflict zones since January 2008, when the government unilaterally withdrew from a cease-fire and commenced its military offensive. Without independent reporting, it is impossible to separate fact from propaganda mitigated by all parties to the conflict.

We call on the Australian government to pressure Sri Lankan officials to permit independent journalists unrestricted access to the conflict zones.

Furthermore, we recognise that the Tamil citizens of Sri Lanka have been subject to ethnic discrimination by successive Sri Lankan governments since Sri Lanka gained independence in 1948.

We acknowledge that all people, including the Tamils, have the right to self-determination and must freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.

We acknowledge that a military solution to this conflict will not bring lasting peace to Sri Lanka.

With the intention of ensuring long-term peace, we call on the Australian government to lead political negotiations that recognise the legitimate aspirations and protects the human rights of all Sri Lankans.

Signatories:

• Wendy Bacon, Professor of Journalism, University of Technology, Sydney
• Chris Nash, Professor of Journalism, Monash University
• Antony Loewenstein, Independent journalist and author
• Damien Kingsbury, Associate Professor, Deakin University
• Charles David, NSW Public Service retiree
• Jude Prakash, Chartered accountant
• Jeff Loewenstein, Barrister

If you want to sign this statement, please leave a comment on this page or email fastuntoaction@hotmail.com as soon as possible with your name and title.

Pat Finucane 20 years on: Public Inquiry Now!

Please sign, and distribute, the online petition being launched on the 20th anniversary of the murder of Belfast lawyer Pat Finucane by a British-sponsored loyalist death squad. The petition is available at http://www.gopetition.com/online/25253.html

***
Background (Preamble):
Leading Belfast human rights lawyer Pat Finucane (39) was shot dead by a loyalist death squad in front of his wife Geraldine and their three young children as they sat down to dinner on February 12, 1989.

Overwhelming evidence that the British state colluded extensively with Pat's killers has been revealed but successive governments have for two decades blocked attempts by Pat's family to initiate a fully independent, international public inquiry into his assassination.

COVERING UP COLLUSION

A police inquiry led by the former head of the London Metropolitan Police John Stevens concluded in 2003: “Collusion is evidenced in many ways. This ranges from the wilful failure to keep records, the absence of accountability, the withholding of intelligence and evidence, through to the extreme of agents being involved in murder.”

Despite this, the Department of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in the North of Ireland ruled in June 2007 that there was “insufficient evidence” to bring any further charges against any police officers or British army soldiers.

A British government-commissioned review of Pat's case led by Canadian Judge Peter Cory recommended a full public inquiry into the case in 2004, which the government has failed to implement.

And under the Inquiry Act 2005, which the British government insists is the only possible framework for any future investigation in this case, the government would control who sits on the inquiry, it could order that part of the inquiry be held in private and it could decide which findings are published and which are kept secret.

STATE-SPONSORED ASSASSINATION

Pat's murder happened just weeks after British Home Office minister Douglas Hogg claimed in the British Parliament that some solicitors in the North of Ireland were “unduly sympathetic” to Irish republicans.

The extent of state collusion is illustrated by those involved in Pat's murder:

*The man who provided the intelligence for the killing was Brian Nelson, a British army agent.

*The leader of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) group which carried out the killing was a Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) Special Branch agent, Tommy Lyttle.

*The man who subsequently confessed to being the UDA gunman who killed Pat Finucane was Ken Barrett, also a Special Branch agent.

*The UDA man who supplied the gun that killed Pat was William Stobie, a Special Branch agent – later killed in 2001 by the UDA when he threatened to lift the lid on the Finucane case.

20 YEARS ON – TIME FOR TRUTH

Since his death Pat's family has battled for an independent, international public inquiry into his murder. They have campaigned tirelessly and have won significant international support, including from UN agencies, Amnesty International and now the new US President Barack Obama.

As time goes on the chances of an inquiry uncovering the truth get smaller. Already at least two key witnesses have died.

Pat's wide Geraldine Finucane has said: “Each day that passes makes it all the more likely that the adage 'justice delayed is justice denied' will be all too apt in my husband’s case.”

***
Petition:
We, the undersigned, support Pat Finucane's family in their struggle to establish the truth behind his 1989 murder, and to uncover the role the British state played in colluding with the loyalist death squad that assassinated him.

We condemn the policy of successive British governments of repeatedly delaying a full inquiry into Pat's case.

We call on the British government to immediately initiate a fully independent, international public inquiry into Pat's murder.

20 years on, it's time for truth.

http://www.gopetition.com/online/25253.html