Acknowledgement of Country//

Headlines//

We replayed the opening speech from this Monday's Vigil for Gaza, 7th Oct 2024, at the Marquis of Linlithgow Monument, by Evelyn Araluen. Evelyn is a Bundjalung Nation descendant born and raised on Dharug Country. She is a poet, researcher, co-editor of Overland Literary Journal. You'll hear Evelyn deliver an emotional speech from an Aboriginal perspective on the psychological toll of genocide and settler colonialism, followed by a poem called "The Power of Prayer, the Promise of Peace."//

Autistic disability activist Shaun Bickley caught up with Priya last week to discuss the labour exploitation of disabled people in so-called Australia with a focus on the issue of wage theft by Australian Disability Enterprises or ADEs. Shaun has educated on disability and access issues on 3 continents and organised the first successful city-level campaign to ban subminimum wage anywhere in the world, in Seattle in 2018. Today, you heard part two of that conversation (part one here). Shaun is campaigning for an end to subminimum wage for disabled people in Australia, and has created an open letter, which you can sign onto as an individual or endorse on behalf of an organisation [Plain English version linked at top of letter].//

Tamar Hopkins and Ilo Diaz of the Centre Against Racial Profiling joined us to speak about this week's launch of the Racial Profiling Data Monitoring Project. The project's website, racialprofilingresearch.org, hosts important data showing the extent of racial profiling in Victoria Police during street searches obtained via Freedom of Information requests covering four years worth of police search records. Tamar has been working in the area of police accountability and racism since 2005. She was the founding lawyer of the Police Accountability Project at Flemington & Kensington Community Legal Centre in Melbourne Australia in 2009. She has a PhD from UNSW on racial profiling, and has appeared as an expert witness at inquests and commissions investigating police accountability and racial profiling. Ilo has worked directly with communities experiencing human rights abuses in Melbourne, South America and Palestine. His background is in Human Rights observing in areas of conflict. Ilo also volunteers with Melbourne Activist Legal Support, providing his expertise to Legal Observer teams that observe police actions in protests.//

David Mejia-Canales is a senior human rights lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre. He joined us today to discuss the call from the HRLC that condemed the NSW Police Commissioner's Supreme Court application last week whichsought to stop people gathering for pro-Palestinian anti-genocidal rallies and candlelight vigils in Sydney over the weekend. This follows a history of concerning legislature across the continent on the right to protest, particularly in NSW. Earlier this year, the Human Rights Law Centre’s Protest in Peril report found that the right to protest has been under attack by governments and institutions over the last 20 years.//

Rally for Public Housing

Saturday 19 October, 11:30AM-1PM

126 Racecourse Road, Flemington

This rally has been called in opposition to the Labor Government's plans to demolish and privatise all 44 public housing towers in Victoria, starting with towers on the Flemington and North Melbourne estates. The rally is supported by RAHU, BPU, SPHC, Friends of Public Housing Vic, Vic Socialists, Socialist Alliance, and 100% Public (formerly Save Barak Beacon).//

Winter in Gaza

Palestinians in Gaza are approaching winter with very little to survive the season. With the increasing cost of commercial goods, families can’t afford to feed or clothe themselves or their children making them vulnerable to illness or fatality. They need support to survive! A group of folks campaigning for different families in Gaza have decided to combine our campaigns to reach a total goal of $12,000 AUD by 18th Oct.//

DONATE HERE:

ACC NAME: Metals 4 Mutual Aid

BSB: 313-140

ACC NUMBER: 1250 7209


Reference: Winter

Image credit: Matt Hrkac, 2024. Support Matt's excellent frontline photojournalism here.//