Feature

Peaceful Occupy Melbourne protest brutally evicted

Breaking News - Re-occupation beginning Saturday 29th Treasury Gardens

After six days of peaceful occupation of the city square, and five days before the Queen is due to visit Melbourne, Lord Mayor Robert Doyle warned that if the protestors didn't leave today they would be forcibly removed. The eviction was carried out by 400 police including riot police and dogs. Horses and capsicum spray were also used to attack the crowd at various times. People stood their ground in the square before being removed one by one. Occupy Melbourne then staged a peaceful sit-in in Swanston St which was again brutally attacked. At least 65 people were arrested, most released without charge however it is believed that 5 people remain in custody. The crowd regathered at the State Library in the early evening and have vowed to gather once again - at 12PM in Federation Square, Saturday October 22nd. The struggle against social and economic inequality, against corporate greed and for a real democracy continues tomorrow on the streets of Melbourne and around the world.
Related: Occupy Melbourne Statement 3.30PM | 6PM Statement by Legal Support Team | Occupy Melbourne Press Release: Police Violence Warrants Full Inquiry | 3CR report | photos on flickr
Youtube footage of police violence:
video: eviction | video: protesters dragged away | video: man trampled by police horses | Occupy Melbourne - violent cop hits peaceful protester in the face | Police dogs and arrests in Swanston St | video: arrests in City Square | video: on the streets | Another violent arrest | Eviction and new begginning | The Eviction:Occupy Melbourne by Anthony Kelly |

Blog reports: Mike Stuchbery | Benjamin Solah | Green Left Weekly Live Blog | Simplicity Collective Blog | Nicola Paris | Today I was arrested at Occupy Melbourne | Simon Moyle
See full article to read an account of the day as it happened.

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Living in the Northern Territory: A submission to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child

article by Gerry Georgatos Michele Harris OAM and Georgina Gartland in June 2011 prepared a submission to the United Nations on what it is like for many Aboriginal peoples to live in the Northern Territory - a place of contrasts in which many Aboriginal peoples are subsumed by a whirlpool of inhumanity, neglected and disregarded into acute and abject poverty, and incarcerated as downtrodden. If a peep is heard from any downtrodden Aboriginal person who lives rejected as oppressed or marginalised in the Northern Territory they are punished by a tumult of government authority stampeding through their lives, saturating every last dignity of human worth, if not their unending spirits, telling them to shut up.

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Police close down overnight camp after thousands attend Occupy Sydney

About 3000 people attended Occupy Sydney today. A camp was set up in Martin Place outside the Reserve Bank with people staying overnight. The atmosphere was peaceful and nonviolent. There was a related protest occurring in Sydney - Rally for Refugees outside the Sydney Town Hall which many people also attended.

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Occupy Melbourne joins day of global solidarity

The Occupy Melbourne day in Melbourne's City Square kicked off with approximately 750 people and a large number of police. Approximately 20 tents have been set up from various groups including refugee support and campaign groups, the gay marriage campaign, an indigenous tent, kids' spaces, and many others. People are busy making signs and placards with calls for solidarity. Throughout today and subsequent days there will be workshops, and a General Assembly at 4pm weekends or 6pm on weekdays.

The Occupy Melbourne kitchen group has a wishlist - if you can help please donate.

Photos: Occupy Melbourne Flickr stream | Twitter: Occupy Melbourne Twitter feed using #occupymelb. For other Australian cities use: #occupybris #occupysydney #occupyperth #occupyadelaide | Occupy events around Australia
Blog Reports: Day 1 of Occupy Melbourne by Benjamin Solah | Occupy Melbourne: some initial thoughts by Jeff Sparrow | Mike Stuchberry on Occupying Melbourne
Youtube: Melbourne: Why I Occupy | We are the 99% | Occupy Max Brenner Melbourne no blood chocolates | Occupy Melbourne Day 1

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United Nations hears that Australia fails its children in the Northern Territory

Kathy Guthadjaka with her granddaughter, Gurang Gurang
CLICK FOR EARLIER STORY AND COMMENTS ON THIS

By Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney

Two reports were tabled at the United Nation's Pre-Sessional Meeting on the Rights of the Child in Geneva. These reports looked closely at whether Australia's commitments through the Convention on the Rights of the Child are being complied with. The first report, Listen to Children was far reaching across our nation's children in its comment. The second complementary report, Children of the Intervention, focused solely on those children living in the ‘prescribed communities' of the Northern Territory and under separate legislation to all other Australian children.

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BHP gets approval for world's largest open pit mine at Olympic Dam

BHP Billiton Olympic Dam mine expansion in South Australia has received a go ahead from Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke on 10th October 2011. This will create the world's largest open pit mine, over 1km deep, 4.5km long and 3km wide. The export of uranium is expected to increase from an average of 4,000 tonnes per year to 19,000 tonnes per year, and the production of copper, gold and silver also expected to increase. Olympic Dam already consumes an inordinate amount of ground water extracted from the Great Artesian Basin every day - for free. The mine expansion will entail BHP Billiton expanding groundwater extraction and building a 280 megalitres-a-day desalination plant at Point Lowly, northeast of Whyalla on Spencer's Gulf which will impact the only known breeding ground of the giant Australian cuttlefish, prawn fisheries and the sensitive marine environment.

Save Point Lowly | Save the Great Artesian Basin |
Events: National Day of Action against BHP Billiton - Thursday, October 20 - Melbourne Facebook page or Adelaide Facebook page | BHP Billitons Annual General Meeting at the Melbourne convention centre on November the 17th at 10:30am.

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Sydney Opera House banner drop protests Harvey Norman forest destruction

Five environmental activists were arrested yesterday for climbing the Opera House and draping a banner on one of the sails protesting Retailer Harvey Norman's participation in Australian native forest destruction. The banner read "No Harvey No! Stop selling Aussie forest destruction!" and was part of a global 24 hours of action targeting the Harvey Norman business with more than 30 actions taking place in Australia and several overseas.

Links: No Harvey No | The Last Stand | Markets for Change | The Last Stand Flickr Photostream | Indymedia Harvey Norman stories

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JOHN PAT – a death in custody – “We’ll get you, you black cunt.”

Gerry Georgatos "We have to get rid of racist cops. I don't want to dwell on the past but I have grown up bitter," said Nyungar Elder Ben Taylor. Mr Taylor is on the mark when he says, "They have been killing our people for two hundred years."

On 28 September 1983 a young life came to an end that sent a community into tears before it became rage and outrage dulled into anguish and sorrow by the passing of time. The tears of 28 September 1983 filled Roebourne, breaking the hearts of its Yindjibarndi peoples. A mother lost her eldest son, 16 years young. John Pat's death contributed to the call for an inquiry into Aboriginal deaths. Some things have changed however not enough has changed. His mother Mavis remembers him every hour of every day and not just on September 28 - there is a hole in her heart that nothing can mend, such is a mother's pain.

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Activist sees court judgment questioning jurisdiction over Aborigines

Aboriginal activist and trained lawyer Michael Anderson says a recent appeal court decision implies that Australian courts have no jurisdiction over Aborigines because they have never ceded sovereignty to the white invaders.

On Friday 30th September Mr Anderson appeared in a NSW District Court hearing an appeal by Ms Nicholson-Kitchener against her conviction for using an uninsured motor vehicle at Deniliquin and driving without a license.

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I said, “You lying dog, I seen what you did with my own eyes.”

by Gerry Georgatos During the last month Indymedia Australia and The National Indigenous Times in Editions 231 and 233 have highlighted the plight of the Western Australian Nyungar family whose young son, the eldest of their six children, was hit by a police-four-wheel drive. The incident occurred on March 6, 2009 and in that time the struggle for some justice and meaning had been lost in a vacuum of inhumanity, and only recently largely thanks to The National Indigenous Times and to Indymedia Australia and to the consequent awareness-raising have we prised some piecemeal gains.
Campaign resources: Belloti Support Group on Facebook -- Justice for Rex Bellotti Campaign Website
Background articles on IndymediaJustice for Rex Bellotti(4/8/2011) -- Justice for Rex Bellotti Jnr an inch closer - new witness and calls for an inquiry(1/9/2011)

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