RALLY: Let the refugees into Australia

Let the Refugees into Australia
PROTEST AND MARCH

SATURDAY 5 DECEMBER
2pm

State Library
corner Swanston St & Latrobe St (opposite Melbourne Central station)

Once again decent, desperate people seeking refuge from persecution are being treated like criminals by the Australian government.

Their most basic human rights are being abused in the name of "border security". It is time to take a stand – demand Human Rights for All

Welcome the asylum seekers - Demand that refugees in Indonesia and Malaysia be accepted by Australia- Process refugee claims in Australia – not on Christmas Island - Call on the Australian government to increase the refugee intake.

Show your support for refugees – be part of this protest on Saturday December 5.
A number of speakers from refugee communities, and refugee advocates will speak at the rally.
Be there. And spread the word – please circulate this email widely through your networks

Organised by Refugee Action Collective (Vic) and other refugee advocates.
For information go to www.rac-vic.orgvic.org/> or ring Marie on 0409-252-673

Rally endorsed by: Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, Victorian Trades Hall Council, Australian Tamil Congress, Justice and Freedom for Tamils, Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, Maritime Union of Australia, Electrical Trades Union, Construction, Forestry Mining & Energy Union-construction, Islamic Council of Victoria, Australian Education Union, Liberty Victoria, The Greens, Friends of the Earth, Community Radio 3CR, South West Trades and Labour Council, elamurasu (Tamil community paper), Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective, Socialist Alliance, Researchers for Asylum Seekers, Socialist Alternative, Communist Party of Sudan (Melbourne), Merethan Vision, North East Refugee Organisation (NERO), Solidarity, National Tertiary Education Union, Socialist Party, Jewish Labour Bund, FMLN, Jewish Democratic Society, RISE

Seeking asylum under Labor: Refugee rights and 'Indonesian Solutions'?

A public forum presented by Socialist Alliance examining the theory, practice and rhetoric of asylum seeker rights under the Rudd Labor government.

6.30pm, Tuesday 1 December
Resistance Centre
Level 5, 407 Swanston St, CBD (opposite RMIT University)

Speakers:

• Jody Betzien - Green Left Weekly journalist and former convenor of Refugee Action Collective (West)
• Australian Tamil Congress representative

Refugees including children from the group recently on board the Australian customs ship, Oceanic Viking, are now being held behind bars in an Australian-funded Indonesian immigration centre. They have described their conditions in detention as ''like jail'', and have pleaded for help.

In the last month the Rudd government has demonstrated their credentials in relation to refugee policy. This forum will examine the reality of refugee policy and practice in the last two years of the ALP government. Faced with the renewed refugee crises fueled by wars in Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, what tasks for the refugee rights movement to re- organise and rebuild?

Speakers will take up these issues and also look at the war in Sri Lanka against the Tamil people and why Australia’s support for this war is a factor in creating the wave of Tamil refugees.

www.socialist-alliance.org
For information, tel. (03) 9639 8622

End of year party

Socialist Alliance and Green Left Weekly invite you to our
End of year celebration

Celebrate another year of activism, a year of making a difference to the world we live in...

Saturday 5 December
5 - 9pm
Clarrie Wohlers Centre
(next to Fleming Park)
51 Albert Street - East Brunswick

$15/10 concession includes good food and live music from Balkan septet Slijvovich Orchestra (proceeds to keep Australia's radical paper, Green Left Weekly on the streets)

Inquiries: 9639 8622

How to get there: No. 1 or 8 tram along Lygon Street & get off at Albert St, tram stop no. 123.

Not stupid? Last screening The Age of Stupid

British High Commissioner Valerie Amos (The Age 13 Nov 2009) said she was shocked to see so many Australians are still sceptical about human-induced climate change, after speaking to Liberal frontbencher Nick Minchin who said it was all a myth!

What are you waiting for? Nick Minchin might not be going...but you should...

Sixty people came and saw the environmental film The Age of Stupid with Socialist Alliance and Green Left Weekly at Melbourne University on Thursday 12 Nov.

Our last showing of the film for 2009
>>>> Northcote
Wednesday 18 Nov, 6.30pm sharp, 303 High St, Northcote.
$10/6 concession

Proceeds to cover film licence and to keep Australia's progressive paper, Green Left Weekly on the streets:
www.greenleft.org.au.

For information or bookings, call Vannessa 0407 023 672 or Resistance Centre 9639 8622.