Lucha Fantastica - Mexican Professional Wrestling

Photos from last Saturday night’s professional Mexican wrestling event by Lucha Fantastica at The Factory in Marrickville. The finale featured a bout between ‘Elon Musk’ and ‘Mark Zuckerberg’, who were both defeated by the Mexican hero, Chico.

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Blak Lives Still Matter

Around 200 people gathered at Sydney Town Hall on Gadigal country to bring further attention to Aboriginal deaths in custody and to remind the public that Blak lives still matter.

Amongst the crowd in attendance, was the family of Kamilaroi-Dunghutti man, Ricky ‘Dougie’ Hampson/Chatfield, who died shortly after being discharged from Dubbo Hospital in 2021. Dougie’s family claims that the hospital failed to properly diagnose and treat a duodenal ulcer, due to the fact that he was Aboriginal. A coronial inquest into his death will be conducted in February next year.

Ricky ‘Dougie’ Hampson/Chatfield is one of more than 500 Aboriginal people who have died in custody since the report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody was handed down in 1991.

After speeches at Town Hall, the crowd marched through the CBD to the Supreme Court on Phillip Street.

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Defend Trans Rights Rally

Around two hundred people turned up yesterday at Sydney Town Hall, on Gadigal country, to defend Trans rights and to protest against the religious vilification legislation which was recently passed through the NSW Parliament. Opponents of the bill are concerned that religious groups have been favoured over the rights of LGBTQIA+ communities, especially over those of trans people.

After speeches at Sydney Town Hall, the rally marched through the CBD.

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The Last Rays at Central Station

Fan Girls

The Green Hand Band at the Marrickville Bowlo

Photographs of the Green Hand band playing at the Marrickville Bowlo a couple of weeks ago on June 24th.

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Djaadjawan Dancers at Centennial Park

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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