Australia has a human rights defender on a par with Raoul Wallenberg and Oskar Schindler for his stance against Nazi Germany, yet William Cooper is little known in Australia today. Appalled by the vicious carnage of Kristallnacht, the watershed pogrom of November 1938, Aboriginal leader Bill Cooper (right) led a protest walk from his home […]
The awarding of the highest US civilian honour, the Medal of Freedom, to former Australian Prime Minister John Howard this month (left) was staggering to human rights activists familiar with his record. Even more galling was the same award given to Colombia's President Álvaro Uribe. The Presidential Medal is intended to recognise an "especially meritorious […]
A short documentary has appeared on the internet about Scott Parkin, the nonviolent US peace activist who in 2005 was detained in Australia for 5 days and then deported for being a 'direct or indirect risk to Australian national security.' Greenpeace Australia's communications director, Dan Cass, is depicted describing Parkin as Australia's first political prisoner. […]
The trail of the 'Raytheon 9' enters its likely final week. These nine men occupied the Derry offices of an arms manufacturer for 8 hours back in August 2006 with the purpose of preventing war crimes. Claims Eamonn McCann, due to take the stand this week: "Israel had dropped so many bombs over southern Lebanon, […]
It's a bumper year for 40th anniversaries, especially for the United States: assassinations, moonwalks, war, protest. Elsewhere there were coups, decolonisation, nuclear tests. 1968 was also the year of the Prague Spring and the invasion of Czechoslovakia, student riots in Paris, violence and starvation on a mass scale in Biafra (Nigeria). Last week was the […]
Writes Nobel Peace Prize nominee, John Dear, SJ: "On May 1, the Catholic Worker [movement] celebrates its 75th birthday, and to mark the occasion, Marquette University Press will publish Dorothy Day’s diaries, The Duty of Delight. Meanwhile, a beautiful new DVD documentary, Don’t Call Me a Saint, has been released, offering rare interviews and footage […]
Amnesty International called it "shocking and preventable." On 27 January 2008, Australian indigenous leader and land rights activist Ian Ward — "one of the last nomads born in the Gibson Desert" — died in custody. The Warburton man was being driven 915km from Laverton in the Western Desert to Kalgoorlie for a mention in relation […]
Forty-five years ago, this is how Martin Luther King spent Easter (an excerpt from his autobiography): [O]n April 10 . . . the city government obtained a court injunction directing us to cease our activities . . . [W]e did an audacious thing, something we had never done in any other crusade. We disobeyed a […]
The deadline for nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize is this month. Only certain eminent persons may forward names to the selection Committee. Exactly who is nominated is kept secret for 50 years. As 1984 winner of the Prize, Archbishop Desmond Tutu is qualified to nominate others. Along with Drs Leo Rebello and Charles Mercieca, […]
Peter McGregor, Australian pacifist and ‘education radical activist’ for over 40 years, died yesterday. An academic by trade, McGregor was also a convener of the Australian Anti-Apartheid Movement along with Meredith Burgmann. Last year he attempted to arrest senior members of the Australian government on suspicion of war crimes. According to Queensland anti-war activist Ciaron […]
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