No Fixed Address at the AGNSW

Legendary reggae and rock pioneers, No Fixed Address, play at the Art Gallery of NSW, last night.

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NAIDOC Up Late: Trailblazers

Photographs from last Saturday’s NAIDOC Up Late: Trailblazers concert at The Cutaway, Barangaroo, Gadigal Country, highlighting the deep lineage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander hip hop.

The opening smoking was performed by Matthew Doyle and Dancers, with a Welcome to Country by Uncle Allen Madden, followed with musical performances by:

  • MunkiMuk

  • Aime 4

  • Mau Power (with special guest, Radical Son)

  • Wizz

  • B Wise

  • A. Girl

  • Nooky

  • Tasman Keith

  • Barkaa

The event was hosted by Bala Luke and Ghenoa Gela.

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Trans Rights Are Human Rights Rally

Around 500 people turned up today at Sydney Town Hall, Gadigal Country, to protest for trans rights after a spike in right-wing, anti-trans attacks and activity in recent times.

Proceedings were chaired by Tilly Fay and Rohan, with speakers that included Jess Hooley (original 78er), Skye (United Workers Union), Liz Atkins (The Greens), King Woody (drag king artist), April Holcombe (co-convener of Community Action for Rainbow Rights), Darby King (Safe Schools) and Cassandra the Queen (drag queen artist).

The crowd then marched to the LGBTQIA+-friendly Pitt Street Uniting Church, which was recently vandalised. Reverend Josephine Inkpin spoke briefly, before the protest moved through the CBD and back to Town Hall.

The rally was organised by Rainbow Rights Coalition and Community Action for Rainbow Rights.

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No Fixed Address at the Marrickville Bowlo

Photographs of legendary rock and reggae band, No Fixed Address, playing at the Marrickville Bowlo last Thursday night, featuring original founding members, Bart Willoughby (drums/vocals) and Ricky Harrison (guitar/vocals), as well as Sean Moffatt (lead guitar) and Tjimba Possum Burns (bass).

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Action for Public Housing Rally

Yesterday, about 150 people turned up at Sydney Town Hall, Gadigal, to demand more funding for public housing.

The federal government has just announced an additional $2 billion towards public housing, but advocacy groups and the Greens party have described this amount as vastly inadequate.

Speakers at yesterday’s rally pointed out how Prime Minister Albanese has used his own personal story growing up in public housing as a campaign strategy, but was now underfunding the very type of housing which supported him during his family’s own time of need.

Wiradjuri and Gomeroi woman, Lorna Munro, spoke about how gentrification and forcibly moving people on (either through physical or economic force) has always been a tactic of control, especially of Aboriginal people, as a part of colonisation.

Carolyn Ienna and Karyn Brown, both facing removal from their public housing, called on the gathered crowd to help resist the redevelopment of their homes in Glebe and Waterloo, while Kristin O’Connell from The Antipoverty Centre demanded that State Housing minister, Rose Jackson, halt the destruction of current housing and build more stock. NSW Greens MP, Jenny Leong, demanded more housing for First Nations people.

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Save Public Housing at 82 Wentworth Park Road Glebe

Public housing activists and supporters spent their last day camping out at 82 Wentworth Park Road in Glebe on Monday, before suspending their protest and calling for the block of apartments to remain in public hands. They had been camping out since last week.

Since the recent election, the NSW ALP State Government have been moving to demolish the small complex for redevelopment and move exisiting tenants out. The ALP had promised to save public housing from privatisation prior to the election.

Monday’s action saw supporters gather at Wentworth Park Road to hear speakers talk about their ongoing campaign to protect public housing, including independent journalist, Wendy Bacon, who spoke about past campaigns, such as the protest to save Victoria Street in Kings Cross from ‘development’ during the 1970s.

Currently, there are over 35,000 homeless people in NSW with 50,000 on the wait list for public housing. Rents have sky-rocketed in recent times, forcing more and more people out onto the streets.

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NAB Fossil Fuel Protest

Around 100 people turned up to protest outside National Australia Bank’s headquarters in Sydney’s CBD, Gadigal.

A recent report by Market Forces has revealed the extent of Australia’s four big banks’ involvement in supporting fossil fuels. The report identified NAB as Australia’s most regressive bank in increasing funding to fossil fuel projects, including to coal giant, Whitehaven.

Protestors linked arms in a human chain at the front entrance of the main NAB offices at Wynyard, and staged a sit in at the rear entrance, before police moved in.

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Anti-AUKUS rally

Photographs from last night’s rally at Town Hall, Sydney, Gadigal, against the growing militarisation in the region and the AUKUS pact between Australia, the USA and the UK, which will see Australia acquire nuclear submarines.

The rally was initially planned to coincide with the QUAD summit, before President Biden withdrew last week.

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Free Julian Assange Rally

Hundreds of people turned out this morning to Hyde Park in Sydney, Gadigal, to urge the Australian Government to do more for the release of ex-head of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, who has been imprisoned at Belmarsh in the UK since 2019.

Speakers included former Greens senator, Scott Ludlam, human rights lawyer and Assange’s wife, Stella Moris, Assange’s father, John Shipton, human rights lawyer, Stephen Kenny, who defended David Hicks, and whistleblower, David McBride, who revealed alleged Australian war crimes in Afghanistan.

Julian Assange, journalist and founder of Wikileaks, is currently imprisoned in London, awaiting extradition to the USA, where he could face many years of imprisonment for publishing material about potential US war crimes in Iraq. Stella Moris said that extradition would effectively be a death sentence for her husband if it were to proceed.

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Rally Calls for End to Executions in Iran

Yesterday at Martin Place, Sydney, Gadigal, calls were made for an immediate stop to the current political executions in Iran.

Since the recent ‘Women Life Freedom’ uprisings in Iran, in part sparked by the death of Jina Mahsa Amani at the hands of the so-called ‘morality police’ in September last year, hundreds of activists have been rounded up by Iranian authorities, many of which have now been put on death row. Executions have already begun.

Speakers at yesterday’s rally in Martin Place, including family members of those on death row, called for a halt to all executions and for the Australian Government to do more to pressure Iran.

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Marking Al Nakbar 75 Years On

Photographs of yesterday’s rally on Gadigal land, commemorating 75 years since what Palestinians call ‘Al Nakbar’ or ‘The Catastrophe’, a date marking the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, and what Palestinians see as the start of the dispossession of their land and genocide.

Hundreds of people turned up yesterday at Sydney Town Hall, where they heard speeches from Randa Abdel-Fattah (author and anti-racism advocate), Fouad Charida (whose family’s land was taken during Al Nakbar), Anthony Lowenstein (journalist and filmmaker), Renuga Inpakumar (Eelam Tamil activist), Jasmine Al-Rawi (Student activist), Sally Khalil (Sudanese community advocate) and Fahid Ali (author and molecular biologist). The MCs for the day were Damian Ridgewell and Rand Khatib.

The crowd marched through the CBD before returning to Sydney Town Hall for final speeches.

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Port Kembla March Against The Nuclear Base

Photographs from Saturday’s historic May Day march down the streets of Port Kembla, where there are possible plans to build a nuclear submarine base as part of the AUKUS military pact.

Speakers warned the federal Labor government that the local community would vigorously campaign against any move to build a submarine base at Port Kembla, after reports emerged that the working-class industrial town had been identified by defence planners as the favoured site.

The protest was organised by trade unions, left-wing political groups, anti-war activists, environmentalists and First Nations representatives. Over 1,000 people attended the rally.

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Protest Outside the Military, Defence and Weapons Conference

A handful of determined protestors picketed outside the Four Seasons Hotel this morning, the site of a military, defence and weapons conference, ‘The Defence Strategic Review’.

In the midst of Australia’s biggest military build up in decades, costing billions of dollars, the conference featured a host of former politicians from both the Liberals and Labor, including current Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister, Richard Marles, the current Minister for Defence Industry, Pat Conway and former Defence Minister, Christopher Pyne (whose military lobbying company co-partnered the conference). Christopher Pyne was heckled as he arrived. Also attending were various lobbyists and defence-related firms, including ex-military officers.

This morning’s protesters aimed to bring focus to the revolving door of defence ministers from ‘both sides’ of politics, who walk into corporate defence and weapons-related jobs, demonstrating the nexus between government and the military industrial complex. Examples include Christopher Pyne (LNP), Steven Smith (ALP), Brendon Nelson (LNP), and Kim ‘Bomber’ Beazley (ALP).

The protesters pointed out that while Australia launches into unprecedented spending on nuclear submarines and guided missiles, economic recession looms as ordinary workers, families and the unemployed struggle to make ends meet. It is a cruel irony that these people are likely to be the first victims of any war that might break out.

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Coloured Diggers March ANZAC Day

Images from the 17th Coloured Diggers March on ANZAC Day, Redfern, Gadigal, which commemorates First Nations’ service in armed conflict and wars.

The day’s ceremonies commenced at The Redfern Community Centre with speeches by Coloured Diggers’ march founder, Pastor Ray Minnecon, M.C., Warrant Officer Class One Col Watego OAM, Nathan Moran (Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council) and others, followed by performances by dancers from the Glen Centre and Warren Morgan.

The crowd then marched down to Redfern Park, where further speeches were made, along with wreath laying and performances by the Toiarkau Roopu Haka, the Buuja Buuja Butterfly Dancers, poetry by Uncle Ken Canning and music by Dylan Voller, Radical Son and the Green Hand Band.

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The Voice: Beyond Yes and No

Photographs from Wednesday’s panel discussion, The Voice: Beyond Yes and No, hosted on Gadigal by Macquarie University’s Centre for Global Indigenous Future and Centre for Agency, Values, and Ethics.

The evening’s discussion revolved around alternative understandings, especially from First Nations perspectives, of the upcoming referendum on ‘The Voice’, as well as of treaty, truth-telling and sovereignty.

Panelists included Lynda-June Coe, Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts, Wayne Wharton, Dr Leanne Holt and Professor Duncan Ivison. The panel was moderated by Professor Bronwyn Carlson. Welcome to Country was performed by Uncle Allen Madden.

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Violet Coco at Doubleduke

Photoshoot with environmental activist, Violet Coco, at Doubleduke State Forest in far north NSW, which is currently being logged by Forestry Corporation NSW.

Several attempts to block the logging by protesters have so far failed. Forestry Corporation NSW have been quoted as saying, "timber harvesting in native regrowth forests takes place in around 1 per cent of state forests each year and each area is completely regrown".

Charges against Violet Coco for protesting on the Sydney Harbour Bridge in April 2022 were last week quashed after the judge found inconsistencies in police reports that her actions blocked an ambulance on emergency call.

Repressive anti-laws introduced last year are said to be targeting environmentalists and human rights activists.

Neither the NSW state Coalition, nor the state Labor Party have committed to repealing these laws on the eve of next week’s state election.

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Counter-Protest to 'Christian Lives Matter'

About 200 people turned out at Queen’s Square in Sydney’s CBD, Gadigal, to hold a counter protest against the right-wing ‘Christian Lives Matter’ rally that was held just down the road at Hyde Park. Around 2,000 people attended that rally.

Police and the riot squad were in attendance at Queen's Square, as speakers spoke out against the emerging Christian Lives Matter movement, which recently marched through Newtown and intimidated the community there. Some small scuffles unfolded today, as police moved their containment lines in and as some protesters tried to then breach those lines.

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Violet Coco Protest Sentence Overturned

Around 100 people turned out today at the Downing Centre, in Sydney’s CBD, Gadigal, to support climate activist, Violet Coco, whose 15-month sentence for protesting on the Sydney Harbour Bridge in April last year, was successfully quashed.

Violet was originally prosecuted under the repressive ‘anti-protest’ laws introduced to NSW Parliament by the Coalition State Government and supported by the NSW Labor Party, which threaten protestors with up to 18 months imprisonment and $22,000 in fines.

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Black Dynasty

Photographs of Black Dynasty, held at the Pride Village on Crown Street, Darlinghurst, Gadigal, as a part of World Pride, with Tyra Bankstown (MC), Nova Gina, Stone Motherless Cold, Lady Gargles, Shaniqua Hull-Empire, DJ Prolifix The Gifted and featuring mob from the Tiwi Islands, including the Tiwi Sista Girls.

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