Dale Hess Calendar from 2012-02-17

Go here to read more about Muckaty, NT

Friday 17 February – Sunday 19 February: 'Manuwangku – Under the Nuclear Cloud' photo exhibition. This is a major initiative in support of Muckaty Traditional Owners fighting to prevent their land being used for a nuclear waste dump. The exhibition is a great medium to engage with a range of people and highlight this serious issue. 

Federation Square, Melbourne, Sustainable Living Festival. 

Saturday 18 February, 7 pm to 9.30 pm: Screening of the documentary film: Home. Transition Town Maroondah, supported by Maroondah City Council are holding a movie night as part of the Sustainable Living Festival’s Transitions Film Festival program – where the showing of the documentary HOME will be a synchronised event across the state. The movie will be followed by an audience discussion. Come and be inspired by Yann Arthus Bertrand’s beautiful footage of the earth in his movie HOME. Ponder the way we live and a sustainable future; Talk about your thoughts for sustainability action; Hear about how you can be involved with sustainability action in your community. All this will begin with a beautiful live musical performance by special guests, The Tracey Roberts Duo. 

Venue: Ray Symons Centre at Eastwood Primary School & Deaf Facility. Enter via Bondi St, Ringwood East. 

Cost: Entry by voluntary gold coin donation to go towards sustainability initiatives at Eastwood Primary School & Deaf Facility. 

Travel: Bicycle - parking available on site; Train – Lilydale line to Ringwood East station then a short walk, see Melway ref 50 C9; Car – Mainly on-street parking. Invite a friend or neighbour and car pool or walk. 

Disability access via Bondi St and Alexandra Rd. 

RSVP: By 15 February to nelly.belperio@maroondah.vic.gov.au or call 9298 4261

Sunday 26 February, 3.00 pm for 3.30—5.30 pm: Sunday Circle Refugee Conversations. Sr Brigid Arthur csb will guide recent asylum seekers as they share their stories with us. David Manne will discuss the legal position of refugees and asylum seekers in Australia. David acted for the asylum seekers in the recent challenge to the Malaysia Solution in the High Court. Questions and discussion will follow. Light refreshments will be served. Limited Tickets available to this free event, so book early to avoid disappointment. 

Venue: Treacy Centre, 126 The Avenue, Parkville. 

RSVP: 21 February. www.trybooking.com/BBUD Tel: 9813 4023

Monday 27 February, 7.30 pm to 10.30 pm: Human Rights in South Mount Hebron. Presentations, video footage and discussion with visiting Israeli activist Inbal Sinai to explain the effects of the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank, house demolitions and settler violence on these communities, as well as information on the current community projects making a positive difference; a delicious buffet of Palestinian food including mana’eesh, falafel, kefta, salads, and dessert; poetry and music. 

Venue: Le Petit Français Crêperie et Café, 307 Toorak Road, SouthYarra. Only a 5 minute walk from South Yarra Station (Cranbourne/Pakenham/ Frankston/Dandenong lines), on tram routes no. 8 and no. 78. 

Cost: Adults: $45 per head; Student concession: $35 per head. 

RSVP essential. Contact francescabrown68@gmail.com or 0430 503 086.

Only 40 places available so reserve your place early.

Sunday 11 March: Japan Nuclear Disaster First Anniversary. Events are being planned to mark the anniversary of the nuclear power plant disaster in Japan, where people’s lives and health continues to be affected. Details to be posted at www.11march.com

An Independent Office of Animal Welfare - hopefully it will come sooner rather than later

From Animals Australia:

VICTORY! Labor votes animals into office

10 February 2012

For too long our Agriculture Ministers (responsible for animal welfare) have been answerable to the very perpetrators of industrialised animal cruelty. Now there's hope for an end to the conflict of interest with an Independent Office of Animal Welfare.

Australians were relentless last year in their efforts to give our abused live exported animals a voice but what many may not know is that this fierce advocacy has done more than that. It is set to deliver all Australian animals the independent representation they have so desperately needed — through their own office!

The first critical step has been taken — with the Australian Labor party acknowledging the importance of animal welfare to Australians by voting at their national conference to establish an Independent Office of Animal Welfare. This is a remarkable development which has the potential to change the animal welfare landscape in Australia.

Our current system has consistently failed animals for decades. Both at the Federal and State levels, departments and ministers charged with looking after animal welfare have as their primary stakeholders the very industries that cause animals the greatest suffering. With this clear conflict of interest — the welfare of animals has always come second to the economic interests of the rural lobby.

This is why in 2012 we still have 500 million animals confined to cruel factory farms; why we continue to subject animals to the horrors of live export; why dairy calvestrucked to slaughter can be legally denied food for 30 hours; and it is why after three years of consultation sheep and cattle are still not provided with nationally consistent legal protection.

An Independent Office of Animal Welfare would have the authority to shape policy and make decisions that first and foremost are in the interests of the animals. The IOAW received vehement support from all sides at the ALP conference, demonstrating the strength of our united voices last year and that animal welfare is finally acknowledged as an issue of political and national significance.

It's terrific that the IOAW is ALP policy, but we now need to encourage the government to implement it. If your local Federal member is in the ALP please contact them today: applaud the ALP for voting for the establishment of an Independent Office of Animal Welfare, and note that you look forward to it being established as soon as possible. You have helped us give animals a voice. Now let's get them an office.

Bushfire remembrance

Tess Lawrence has sent this article to me for which I thank her.  It was first posted in Independent Australia yesterday. In Melbourne, we have had strong winds this week.  I am sure many are like me and remember the winds of three years ago with their smoky greyness casting a dramatic pall.  For me, in the wind, I remember them.

~~~~~~~~

Picture from here

To-day is the 3^rd anniversary of the apocalyptic Victorian bushfires — as well the 45th of a similar tragedy that befell Tasmania in 1967. Contributing editor-at large Tess Lawrence was touched by both calamities. The following is a piece written while the embers still smouldered in Victoria.

Only tears of angels can extinguish these flames, bathe charred hearts and our incinerated souls.

We have never seen such apocalyptic fire in Victoria, demonic flailings lashed by hellfire winds, delivering an Armageddon well prophesied upon a sunburnt country already dying of thirst.

Embers, like anger, still smoulder. Nature’s mighty force is one thing.

When she is aided and abetted by human accomplices, then she is seduced into believing she is invincible. C’mon baby, light my fire. The impotent goading the omnipotent. Make no mistake, arsonists are terrorists, turning our beloved land into valleys of death and destruction.

As we haul the twisted corpses of our brothers and sisters from their still warm tombs  in scenes reminiscent of another kind of war zone, we must not capitulate to the despair, the horror and the sadness we now feel.

As we count and bury our dead, the undead amongst us must embrace the dying and the injured.

As we smell the burnt flesh of the wounded, the smoke is smeared as strong as paint upon our landscape and upon our heartscape.

We salute our mighty fireys, fire-fighters and rescue workers. And brave neighbours and friends and family members who risked all to save and help others.  Some forfeiting their own lives, and even loved ones and property as they toiled.

All are heroes, whether in the uniform of the CFA or the Salvos; whether they bear the Jaws of Life or administer healing cups of tea, offer hugs, words of encouragement or talk gently to us of a happier future far from today’s nightmare.

As we begin to bulldoze the corpses of livestock and animals trapped in stables, cages, pens, that we left behind, or bury pets that died with their owners, and as we put down hundreds of half-burned, bloated, blinded and near dead creatures with half-beating hearts; eyes crazed white with fear and pain — I can promise there is a guilt of the human survivor even in this; that we did not, could not, protect those trusting creatures in our care.

We must all help in whatever way we can and even if we don’t have money to spare, we can lend a hand in so many other ways, either on an individual basis or with community working bees.

So often, in the heat of disaster, we inundate crisis centres with support. But it is in those lonelier days into the future, when the blistering subsides and the emotional regrowth starts to show that we need to be there for those of us forever scarred by these fires.

Tasmanians know this only too well. Black Tuesday 1967 is like a welt upon the memory of those of us who lived through it. We lost 62 of our own during that maelstrom, when the air turned into a blood-red solid element. Like Icarus, our State was hurtling towards the sun.

About 900 of us suffered burns and injury, some forever disfigured, disabled, deformed and reformed by the fire, its heat reforging our molten skin like play dough. This too, too solid flesh did melt.

More than 7,000 Taswegians found themselves homeless. My own family amongst them.

In a bizarre co-incidence, both Black Tuesday and Victoria’s fires happened in February – and exploded on the same date – the 7^th — 42 years to the day!

The post traumatic impact of tragedy leaves a different imprint on us all. It manifests in different ways. On different days. Even decades later.

It is always with us. It becomes part of our emotional ringbarking. One is not even conscious of it. But it is a psycholgical stigmata that reappears during these times of stress and particularly when there are similar recurrences.

The embrace of family, friends, schoolmates, and the kindness of strangers becomes   a parliament of healing and support; a Loving Cup, a shared humanity in which we find comfort in one another.

You find such precious jewels amongst the ashes of razed houses and dreams. You learn from bitter experience these are the truest. They are to be polished and cherished and placed like runes in a safe place in your heart.

And they do sustain you and remind you of the goodness in the hearts of others. And you find yourself fingering them in moments of insecurity and fear. In such places as Ethiopia, Iraq, Kuwait, I have done this to calm myself.

It is knowing you are not alone in such horrendous difficulties that can salve wounds and the hurt. No amount of anaesthesia will numb the emotional pain.

Experiencing these horrors gives us empathy with those who daily live with the nightmare of war and bombs, disease and starvation. It brings us a little closer to the 800,000 human beings who were disembowelled, mutilated and hacked to death by their own species in Rwanda.

None of us is immune from tragedy. Not even those of us who report the news, good or bad. Channel 9′s famous newsreader Brian Naylor and his wife Moiree are you or I on another day, another place.

I covered the Ash Wednesday fires for the now defunct Melbourne Herald – now merged into the Herald Sun, sister paper to The Mercury – where I did my wonderful and happy cadetship and covered everything from Courts to Shipping.

At the time of Black Tuesday, our Dad was a sub-editor on The Mercury – most of us kids were still at school. Dad’s workmates and families were fantastic to us.  Everyone was.  People lent us their homes and lent us their hearts.

Our next door neighbour Fred Scheppein and his beloved wife Pat (who has since died) bought our block and told Mum and Dad, if ever they wanted to rebuild, it was theirs. Just like that. We never did rebuild. But thank you Fred and Pat.

I do believe that every death diminishes us all. In Victoria, the number of deaths is increasing. The bell has yet to toll for others.

2009 Victorian bushfires

Somewhere there is the person/or persons responsible for some of this bloody murder most foul. Getting their rocks off as they monitor the international media response to their cowardly deeds. Perhaps filming on their mobile phone for a Youtube boast.

The same Queen who sent Dame Elisabeth Murdoch congratulations for her 100^thBirthday, also sent her condolences to Victorians who lost loved ones.

The arsonist (s) would pin this on a chest like a badge of dishonour. But beware, forensic teams have already moved in to analyse your handiwork.

Anyone who has smelled the burning flesh of humans never forgets it. Those of us who have to identify corpses will never forget it. To see your loved one(s) and animals grotesquely disfigured by fire is a spectre that haunts one forever.

Imagine, too, the psychological impact upon those who find the bodies and the paramedics, police, medical and Defence and other teams now working to save us and mend us.

One thing I do know, is that the human spirit seems to be greater than the adversity that challenges it.

We can overcome tragedy and we can rebuild. We can rebuild our lives and we can rebuild property and we can rebuild broken hearts and broken spirits. We have before and we will again.

But we should not be embarrassed or afraid of seeking psychological help and de-briefing counselling.

I hope the fires are extinguished by St Valentine’s Day; more an act of mercy than Love.

I hope that the tears of angels fall like rain on the smouldering earth about us to put out the fires that rage on the land and in our hearts. And that we use these tears to bathe wounds and cleanse us from the smoke, in our throats and in our eyes.

Life goes on. Not always in the same direction as originally planned; often with an increased faith in humanity and a greater sense of community.

How true it is, that tragedy often brings out the best in people; so it’s there — inherent. The Phoenix is already risen, borne aloft by the collective indomitable human spirit.

The murderous person(s) who set the torch that ignited this current inferno also lit a candle to a shared humanity and turned a nation into a family.

(Tess Lawrence’s family has been burned out twice — and lost everything on both occasions. Once in political riots — and once in bushfires. She still grieves and cries about the family’s five beloved dogs who died in these fires.)

Cut, cut Qantas! Won't share the pie in Australia

Qantas is Australia's national flag-carrier.  

If anybody had never heard of Qantas outside Australia, 

many did when Dustin Hoffman made it famous in the movie, Rain Man

Keeping Qantas from crashing is now a doubly important factor in its operations: safety and public relations.  The Qantas record is a matter of national pride, but it is a record which is being eroded on daily basis.  Servicing by Australian staff has gradually been taken over by Asia and Asian staff being paid Asian wages.  In short, there is a race for the wages bottom which could imperil - and, it is believed by many, often does imperil - passenger safety.  Cut, cut, cut is the name of the game in international airlines - and the flying public is complicit in this.

People in the British Commonwealth have been led to believe that slavery was abolished in 1833 and later in the USA after the American Civil War.  Slavery exists to-day every time a wage is run down and diminished; when a labour market is oversupplied, work is scarce, and people offer themselves for cut-rate labour prices.

Qantas has now become party to this attitude.  It is a deliberate company policy.  It is personified by its CEO, Alan Joyce, who implements Qantas Board policies - including a strong anti-union attitude - under the leadership of Leigh Clifford.  Australian corporate watcher, Stephen Mayne, sums up the attitudes of Joyce and Clifford here.

Picture below from here.

All this is a lead in to suggest to Networkers that they pop over here to read an excellent article by barrister and human rights lawyer, Jocelynn Scutt.

Further reading:

Wider agenda in union stand-off with Qantas

Is this  the start of a brutal new era of IR?

QANTAS training workers in LA for strike threats

Company chairs urge industrial relations overhaul

An ironic Qantas victory
For Qantas challenges still loom
Alan Joyce opposes law changes for Qantas

The Intervention never stops: NT Consultations Report 2011 - By Quotations

From Georgina Gartland, of 'concerned Australians':

Please find below new book report, NT Consultations Report 2011: By Quotations (February 2012 ).  It is in similar style to This is What We Said (Feb 2010) and Walk With Us (2011).

It is very pertinent now as the SF Northern Territory Bill 2011 and two related bills Senate Inquiry (these bills extend the NT Intervention) has just commenced.

Hoping you may also include and help advertise (in your next newsletter and throughout your networks) this book is available. You may wish to point to the current senate inquiry, your own submission / to others especially those of NT Aboriginal Groups, a few noted below. To date there ave been 238 submissions received and more to be added.

Please go here to see submissions received.  

The ‘concerned Australians ’submission is no 87.

Submission no. 40 is NT Elders & Community Representatives - listen to whole video (first 1- 2 minutes stops and start slightly) it is really worth listening to in whole . And, also written submission no. 29 of Elders and Community of Ramingining . These are most important as the later two are from Aboriginal people living under the NT Intervention.

We hope to support Aboriginal people attending the hearings - purchasing these books will inform you and also help towards this. Note there is an option for bulk orders please see order form below which can be downloaded directly from this post. (Previous books can be ordered by downloading order form from www.concernedaustralians.com.au.)

Thank You
 Georgina Gartland
'concerned Australians

A new social contract for Australia?

Further reading:

The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (free e-book  for reading or download)

Religion, welfare and the new social  contract in Australia - Paul Smyth (headline  discussion points)

Assessing the social contract equilibrium in a Post 9/11 world: An Australian perspective by Robyn Cooper.(2011Honours thesis, Murdoch University)

Sustainability and the Social Contract with Australia’s Country Towns - Prof John Martin, La Trobe University

Prosperity for all Australians   - 2011 Brotherhood of Saint Laurence Sambell Oration by Jennifer Westacott, CEO of the Business Council of Australia

With capital punishment, you're not hung until the appeal process is exhausted. Bankruptcy is different ...

I meant to write this post yesterday.  But I dragged my heels.  I knew what I wanted to say. But still I dragged my heels.  Why? The previous two days had been busy. I'm not as young as once I was so I need a longer recovery period than once I did.  But I don't think that was the whole story.  I think it was a mix of sadness, frustration, and outrage.  Perhaps when I get to the end of this post you might share those feelings with me.

Regular readers of The Network may have taken time to read of the Tess Lawrence battle against injustice. Tess's battle continued on Tuesday in the jurisdiction of the Federal Bankruptcy Court of Australia. Tess was in court to plead for an extension of time to appeal against orders declaring her bankrupt.  It is difficult to write about the numerous proceedings arising out of Tess's plight because the words I write might not be intelligible amidst the complexity of what has been going on.

In short, Tess's bankruptcy has come about because of proceedings brought about by McKean Park Lawyers. The reasons for this take many twists and turns which include a threat to Tess's life which left her incapacitated with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PSTD).


Piggy-backing on this was a sequestration order issued in October in favour of the National Bank of Australia (NAB) as the priority creditor.

What left me frustrated and outraged were what I consider to be two systemic flaws in operations of the bankruptcy proceedings which militate against defendants, particularly people like Tess who are self-representing litigants, and favour plaintiffs, legal professionals, and bankruptcy trustees.  These three categories comprise a powerful phalanx against those who can't afford legal representation.

It might be one thing for the bigger or more corporate fish such as Alan Bond to appear as a defendant and perhaps laws and systems have been put in place to deal with such people and/or corporations.  However, I believe - from what I saw on Tuesday - that there is no justice for the minnows trying to find their way in this legal and financial ocean.

Tess has missed out on at least one important hearing - and the really important one was the October one where Justice North handed down his sequestration order.  Tess missed out for two reasons.

1. For a lot of the past few months or so, Tess has not been functioning well because of the PSTD which is a direct result of adverse treatment by a particular person in the legal profession on court premises at the time of an earlier hearing and the failure of the judiciary and the legal system to take any action in the matter.  In fact, it was only due to accessing effective psycho-therapeutic treatment that Tess was on her feet stating her case and defending herself on Tuesday.  
2. She did not know the hearing was on.  That's right she received no notice, no documents telling her that her case was being heard on a particular day.  Nor - and this is where the legal system disadvantages people other than those making their living from or attached to the legal profession - is there any need for proof of service (by affidavit or any other means) that the defendant has been advised of the forthcoming legal proceedings.  The only obligation is that, at the very beginning of what can be quite protracted and continuing proceedings, there is a requirement for proof of service at the first hearing. After that, the legal system doesn't require anyone to even bother!

I was amazed at the energy and intelligence and sheer fight with which Tess put her case on Tuesday.  I am not a lawyer but I have worked in and around the law for a substantial part of my working life.  As a union official, I had to prosecute many cases within the Industrial Relations Commission and the Industrial Magistrates Courts.  Didn't lose any of those cases.  So I was quite satisfied with the way in which Tess acquitted herself on Tuesday.  I was more than satisfied since I knew the distress she has been in for some considerable time.  At one stage, I thought there might have been a 60-40 chance of Tess succeeding but as the hours passed this optimism receded.

As the morning's hearing proceeded to a dismal end one fact - which outrages me more than words can express - became clear.  There is an appeal process available following the declaration of bankruptcy and the sequestration order.  Now when capital punishment was still in operation, the powers-that-be couldn't hang a person until the very last possibility of appeal was exhausted.  Not so, it appears, in bankruptcy proceedings.  The Federal Bankruptcy Court appoints a trustee to carry out all the disposition of property and so on.  To put it not so nicely, the trustee picks over the financial bones of the defendant.  However, the trustee does not have to wait until the appeals process is exhausted before doing this.  They take up their tasks immediately if not sooner!

From what was said in court, I understand that the reason that the trustee does not wait for the appeals process to be exhausted is that there are so few appeals.  For all intents and purposes, it appears the general intent is to allow the trustee to go and get on with whatever is necessary to do.  And there are consequences from this attitude, this system of legal convenience.  

Because work has already begun, because costs are thereby incurred by the trustee, and because the trustee has priority in any costs awarded by the court, there is a hesitancy - because then things would get really complicated - by the presiding judge to allow the appeal to succeed.  Because if the appeal was allowed to succeed, how would the already scrambled eggs be unscrambled? If they could be unscrambled, what costs would be incurred - not to mention red faces and inconvenience - in so doing.

• As the priority creditor, NAB (NAB by name, nab by nature?) has long since repossessed Tess's home at Daylesford.  NAB - or those acting on its behalf - have changed the locks and incurred much destruction to Tess's personal belongings; her tools of trade as a working journalist and media analyst; and made the pursuance of her rights difficult insofar as all her files relating to the bankruptcy were taken.  
• Tess brought forward in court that she had placed a number of files and documents - some relating to the bankruptcy case and others of no concern to the case whatsoever - in the custody of a lawyer friend whose offices were subsequently visited by personnel acting for the Law Institute of Victoria who proceeded to take her files.  She has not seen or had access to those files and documents from that day to this.
• Tess made clear to the court that those who were prosecuting her have now taken to persecuting her.

I want to record the appreciation of myself and of Tess to Keith Kaulfuss for his support at court on Tuesday. Keith is a faithful fighter against injustice and, even though he had never met Tess, he was prepared to spend time in court in support.  

The saga continues.  Tess is taking every avenue open to her to pursue her case.  The next episode will be in the Supreme Court of Victoria.

• If you wish to be kept informed so that you too, dear Networkers, can support Tess, please email me at misseaglesnetwork(at)gmail(com).
• If you have a similar story, please be in touch at the aforementioned email address. I am particularly interested in cases which demonstrate, as Tess's does, legal/systemic flaws and inequities which might be able to be addressed by lobbying governments and other jurisdictions for change.  Please keep your story brief and clear.

Green Left Weekly Calendar 2012-02-01

Wednesday, February 1

Rally: Critical moment for HRL. On the eve of the federal government decision that could make or break HRL, the proposed new coal-fired power station for Victoria, it's up to us to convince the politicians that in 2012, new coal-fired power stations are a dud investment. Together we can convince the Gillard Government to withdraw their $100 million, and put it into renewable energy instead. Speakers include Kelvin Thomson (ALP MP for Wills) & Adam Bandt (Greens MP for Melbourne). 12:30pm. Parliament House steps, Spring St, City. For more info visit Quit Coal.

Thursday, February 2

Public meeting: After 'Homosexual'. The legacies of gay liberation. Speakers: Dennis Altman; Alice Echols; Jeffrey Weeks; hosted by Helen Razer. 6pm. ACMI, Federation Square, City. Presented by La Trobe University & the Australian Lesbian & Gay Archives. $17/$14. For more info visit Midsumma.

Friday, February 3

Rally: Occupy Melbourne: Occupy Fridays! 10am-10pm. City Square, cnr Collins & Swanston Sts, City. For more info visit Occupy Melbourne.

Booklaunch: Life Without Money. Building Fair and Sustainable Economies. This book engages with today's big economic, environmental, democratic and social challenges; edited by Anitra Nelson & Frans Timmerman. Speaker: Jeff Sparrow (editor Overland). Entry free. 6:30pm. Readings Bookshop, 309 Lygon St, Carlton.

Concert: Jazz for good. Fundraiser for East Africa food crisis. Come along for some good green food, local drinks, and to listen to the great Madmen Band. Free entry; donations welcome. All proceeds will go towards the Oxfam East Africa Food Crisis Appeal. 6pm till late, Grumpys Green, 125 Smith St, Fitzroy.

Friday, February 3-Saturday, February 4

Conference: After 'Homosexual': The legacies of gay liberation. Forty years ago, a young Australian expat living in the USA synthesised the politics of the emerging gay liberation movement in a provocative book called Homosexual: Oppression and Liberation. In recognition of the 40th anniversary of its publication and to mark Denis Altman's retirement, this international conference will bring together leading and emerging scholars to reflect on the impact of Homosexual and the legacy of gay liberation. Victoria University, 300 Flinders Street, City. For more info visit After Homosexual

Saturday, February 4

Festival: Yalukit Willam Ngargee. Yalukit Willam Ngargee will kick off the nine-day St Kilda Festival with an action packed program of free Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander music, dance, arts, children's activities and more. Music includes: Jayden Lillyst; Benny Walker and Band; The Gracemakers; Tambo Company Band; Emma Donovan; The Last Kinection; Bart Willoughby Band. 12.45-8.50pm, O'Donnell Gardens, St Kilda. For more info ph 9209 6306 or visit Yalukit Festival.

Booklaunch: Life Without Money. Building Fair and Sustainable Economies. Speakers: Moss Cass, (former Whitlam government minister) & Julia Dehm (Occupy Melbourne activist) in conversation with Anitra Nelson and Frans Timmerman (co-editors of Life Without Money). 3pm. New International Book Shop, Trades Hall, Carlton South.

Film screening: The People Speak. Inspired by Howard Zinn's books. Celebrates the extraordinary possibilities for creating social change that ordinary people have realized throughout the course of the United States' rich but often ignored history of dissent and protest. 4pm. Loophole Community Centre, 670 High Street, Thornbury. $5 minimum donation: This will be a fundraiser to help Palestinian refugee Mahmoud, currently held pending an ASIO 'security check'. For more info visit Industrial Workers of the World.

Sunday, February 5

Rally: Demonstration for Syria. Allow foreign media into Syria; Syria wants a free democratic society; an immediate end to killing of civilians; respect people's right to peaceful protest; provide immediate humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees. 11am. State Library, cnr Swanston & La Trobe Sts, City. Organised by Australian Syrian Association.

Rally: 17th annual Pride march. Gather from 12 noon for march at 2pm Sharp. Cnr Lakeside Dr & Fitzroy St, St Kilda. For more info visit Pride march.

Monday, February 6

Rally: Tenants Union Victoria: Stop work and solidarity BBQ. SU members at the Tenants Union Victoria are fighting for better pay and conditions. We will be stopping work and invite all supporters and other community sector workers to join us. We will be out the front of the office on Johnston Street sending the message to TUV management from 10am-4pm. Tenants Union Victoria Office, 55 Johnston St (between Nicholson and Brunswick Sts), Fitzroy. There will be a solidarity BBQ from 12 noon-2pm.

Tuesday, February 7

Canberra Rally: Marriage equality cavalcade to Canberra. Action on first day of Parliament to remind them of the massive support for marriage equality. 12 noon. Parliament House, Canberra.

Vigil: Oppose the Afghan War. We have now been involved in the Afghanistan War longer than we were in Vietnam. A Roy Morgan poll late last year say 72% of Australians want the troops home, yet the war goes on. Join us in a vigil to oppose the war. 4-7pm. Flinders St Station, City.

Rally: Stop the deportation of Afghan Hazara asylum seeker Ismail Mirza Jan. Never before has an Afghan national been forcibly removed from Australia to Afghanistan. Recently Ismail received a temporary reprieve when the Federal Magistrates Court questioned whether he received 'procedural fairness' by the Australian government in their attempts to deport him. Ismail's deportation case will come back to the High Court on February 8. The refugee rights movement has a short window of opportunity to build a broad campaign against this forced deportation and the terrible precedent it would provide. 5:30-8:30pm. Bourke St Mall, City. Organised by Refugee Action Collective.

Film screening: The end of the line. Where have all the fish gone? The first major feature documentary film revealing the impact of overfishing on our oceans. Shows firsthand the effects of our global love affair with fish as food. Talk with Sea Shepherd after the film. 7pm. Level 4, Ross House, 247 Flinders Lane, City. Entry by donation. The Big Picture at Ross House is a monthly film series showing films for the environment and social justice. This month we're supporting Sea Shepherd.

Wednesday, February 8

Film screening: END: CIV. with director Franklin López. END: CIV illustrates the brutality of a civilization addicted to systematic violence and environmental destruction and the heroism of those who confront it head-on. As Australia is beginning to experience more frequent environmental crises resulting from climate change and a history of poor environmental management this film will be instrumental in bringing awareness of the need to confront the system which allows this destruction to continue. 7pm. Loophole Community Centre, 670 High St, Thornbury.

Fabian forum: Australian media: The question of integrity. David McKnight's recent book on Rupert Murdoch is a good curtain-raiser for this year's Fabian Forums. To coincide with the launch of thebook, David and Robert Manne will lead our first discussion for 2012 on the need for vigilance in pursuit of a healthy democracy. 6-7:30pm. Melbourne City Convention Centre, 333 Swanston St, City. $10 (non-members), $5 (members, concession and students). RSVP toFabian forum.

Thursday, February 9

Film screening: Melbourne benefit screening of 'Operation 8' with Gary Foley. On October 15 2007, activists around New Zealand woke to guns in their faces. Black-clad police smashed down doors, dragging families out onto roads and detaining some without food or water. Operation 8 involved 18 months of invasive surveillance of Maori sovereignty and peace activists accused of attending terrorist training camps in the Urewera ranges, homeland of the Tuhoe people. Four activists still face charges from the raids and their trial will start on February 13 in the Auckland High Court. Reflections on Operation 8 and Q & A hosted by Gary Foley after the screening. 7pm. Cinema 4, Cinema Nova, 380 Lygon St, Carlton. Tickets and payment at the door. $15. All profits go towards support for the Urewera 4 still on trial. Please reserve tickets via Hayley.

Friday, February 10

Rally: Israeli Apartheid Inc. Corporate criminals BDS tour. As part of the global Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions campaign, Students for Palestine is taking on corporations in Melbourne's CBD that support the theft of Palestinian land and the brutality of the Israeli military. 6pm. Bourke St, Mall. For more info visit Students for Palestine or ph 0410 513 302.

Rally: Occupy Melbourne: Occupy Fridays! 10am-10pm. City Square, cnr Collins & Swanston Sts, City. For more info visit Occupy Melbourne.

Concert: The Decline (WA) & Hightime (SA) Melbourne launch. The Decline launch their second album full of humourous socio-political punk tunes. 7:30pm. The Tote, 71 Johnston Street (cnr Wellington St), Collingwood For more info visit The Decline.

Saturday, February 11

Rally: Stop Aboriginal deaths in custody. Death in custody of Terrance Briscoe, Alice Springs (January 5, 2012); 4th anniversary of the death of Mr Ward (January 27); 5th anniversary of Queensland Police officer, Chris Hurley, being forced to front the Supreme Court charged with manslaughter and assault (February 5); 8th anniversary of the death of TJ Hickey (February 14). Stop Aboriginal deaths in custody: implement all 339 recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. End privatisation of custodial services: cancel all contracts with G4S, SERCO and other profiteers from incarceration. 11am. Old GPO, cnr Bourke & Elizabeth Sts, City. Organised by Indigenous Social Justice Association. For more info ph 9388 0062.

Public meeting: Victorian Climate Action Convergence. (Note change of date). You're invited to join with Victorian climate action, fossil fuel and energy campaigners for a day of ideas and planning for Victoria's climate campaigns of 2012. Exciting plenary speakers will kick off the day, then campaigners from across Victoria will talk about what they are doing this year. You can also propose your own work shop for an Open Space. Entry by donation (to cover venue hire). 9am-5pm. South Melbourne Commons, 217-239A Montague St, South Melbourne. For more info email Brett.

Think tank: Next steps for the refugee movement in 2012. Organised by Refugee Action Network (RAN). Agenda: 1. Short introduction of what RAN has done over the last 12 months. 2. The year in retrospect. Guest speakers to open a discussion about the current situation for refugees given the legal challenges and the government's announcements in 2011. 3. Campaign actions & priorities for 2012. 4. Role & focus of RAN. 11am-4pm. Multicultural Hub, 506 Elizabeth St, City (opposite Victoria Markets).

Indigenous rights film festival. Featuring: The Coolbaroo Club (about racial apartheid in Perth in the late 1940s and fifties); The Tall Man (deals with the killing of Cameron Doomadgee on Palm Island in 2004); Ningla A-Na [Hungry for our land] (documentary about the establishment of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra in 1972); BarbaKiueria (satirical film about race relations in Australia). Starts 3pm. See display advertisement above for full details. Resistance Centre, level 5, 407 Swanston St, City (opposite RMIT). Organised by Green Left Weekly & Socialist Alliance. For more info ph 9639 8622.

Sunday, February 12

Festival: Anatolian Peace & Friendship Festival. Celebrating the rich history of Anatolia and the diversity it brings to Australia. The festival will provide diverse music and performances on stage all day as well as home-made Turkish food stalls, rides and entertainment for the kids and an atmosphere of peace and friendship. 11am till 6pm. Coburg Lake Reserve, Coburg North.

Zine fair: Festival of The Photocopier. Sticky Institute will be moving their annual zine fair to the biggest room inMelbourne, having well and truly out-grown Degraves Subway (that bit outside the shop). 12 noon-5pm. Melbourne Town Hall, 90-120 Swanston Street, City. For more info visit Sticky Institute.

Tuesday February 14

Public meeting: MAPW dinner report-back from Yokohama & nuclear industry update. Guest speaker Dr Margaret Beavis, who has just returned from the massive global conference on nuclear power in will update us on both Japan and the global movement. La Notte, 140 Lygon Street Carlton. $30 fixed price menu, plus a voluntary donation to cover any student members who pay $15. Organised by Medical Association for the Prevention of War. All welcome. RSVP toCarole Wigg or ph 9439 7272.

Wednesday, February 15

Public meeting: LASNET 2012 annual get-together meeting. The main purpose of this meeting is to plan and delegate tasks for the projects we are committed to undertaking this year. Agenda: Introduction, LASNET background; Main commitments, Campaigns, our priorities; Solidarity delegation to Colombia; International multinational monitor; International visitors for 2012 from Chile (one of the president from CONFECH for April), a Colombian union leader from SINALTRAINAL for May; Possible gathering/conference for end of the year; Our publication, The Spectre. 6:30pm. LASNET Space, Trades Hall Basement, cnr Lygon & Victoria Sts, Carlton South. For more info email LASNET.

Friday, February 17

Rally: Occupy Melbourne: Occupy Fridays! 10am-10pm. City Square, cnr Collins & Swanston Sts, City. For more info visit Occupy Melbourne.

Outdoor film screening: 'Our Generation' plus short films about the struggle for the Kimberley. An evening of film, live music featuring Richard Frankland and speakers with a focus on issues affecting indigenous communities in northern Australia. Our Generation is a powerful and upfront documentary on the Aboriginal struggle for their land, culture and freedom, a story that has been silenced by the mainstream media. Money raised by film ticket sales will go to community projects in Arnhem Land and Kimberley campaigners. Doors 6pm. Food & bar from 6:30pm. Speakers and live music from 7pm until dark.Feature starts at 9pm. CERES Community Environment Park on the Village Green, cnr Roberts & Stewart Sts, Brunswick East. $20/$16. Bookings Ceres or ph 9389 0100.

Friday, February 17-Sunday, February 19

Festival: Sustainable Living Festival 2012. Federation Square & Birrarung Marr Event Park, near cnr Swanston & Flinders Sts, City. For more info visit SLF.

Sunday, February 19

The 'Please resist me' poetry slam tour Melbourne launch. Hosted by esteemed poet and rapper Omar Musa (Moneykat). 6:30pm. Performance Revolt, 12 Elizabeth St, Kensington. $18/$15. Organised by the Centre for Poetics and Justice. For more info visit CPJ.

Wednesday, February 22

Public meeting: Come the Revolution: A Memoir. A talk with the author Alex Mitchell, veteran journalist and one-time editor of the UK Trotskyist daily newspaper The Workers Press. In this role he travelled to the Middle East and interviewed Yasser Arafat, Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi. 6:30-7:30 pm, New International Bookshop meeting room, Basement, Trades Hall, Carlton. Entry by gold coin donation. Drinks and snacks available.

Friday, February 24

Rally: Occupy Melbourne: Occupy Fridays! 10am-10pm. City Square, cnr Collins & Swanston Sts, City. For more info visit Occupy Melbourne.

Tuesday, February 28

Rally: India's general strike: Melbourne supports the world's largest ever strike. On February 28, over 100 million Indians will join together and walk off the job in what is likely to be the largest strike of workers the world has ever seen. The different labor unions have specific demands that they want to achieve with the strike. These include bringing contract workers up to the same level of employee protections as permanent workers, extending the minimum wage to cover the entire population, and countering the attacks on unions. Workers around the world will be standing in solidarity with those fighting for economic justice in India. 5:30pm. Federation Square, City. For more info visit Workers' Solidarity Network.

Saturday, March 3

Fest La Frog: Urban eco fest. Showcasing sustainable and organic, music and art, this event will be even bigger and better than last years. Fest La Frog is paving the way for the future of festivals by using solar-powered stages, local artists, solar boosted organic food and beverages. Fest La Frog has a zero waste policy and last year 650 people onsite created only a handful of landfill and half a recycling bin worth of packaging! 1:30-10pm. CERES Community Environment Park, cnr Roberts & Stewart Sts, Brunswick. For more info visit Fest La Frog.

Sunday, March 4

Festival: Join the Socialist Alliance stall at Sydney Rd Festival. 12 noon-7pm. For more info ph 9639 8622.

Thursday, March 8

Public meeting: The Occupy movement: An infantile disorder? Melbourne University Graduate House, 220 Leicester St, Carlton. For more info visit The Monthly Argument.

Sunday, March 11

Rally: Commemoration of Fukushima nuclear disaster. Part of international day of action. 1pm. State Library, cnr Swanston & Latrobe Sts, City. Organised by MAPW, ICAN, Japanese for Peace and others. For more info visit 11 March.

Friday, April 6

Canberra Rally: Easter convergence on Darwin 2012. Free the refugees, end mandatory detention. Marks 10 years since the refugee rights movement's first Easter convergence at Woomera 2002, when busloads of protesters from across the country met magnificent protests by detainees, many of whom leapt through the fence and literally into the arms of the movement. Darwin is rapidly becoming Australia's detention capital. Chronic levels of self-harm and protest have put the Northern Immigration Detention Centre (NIDC) in a state of perpetual crisis. 341 continue to languish at NIDC, with scores more at the Darwin Airport Lodge. For more info visit RAC.

Saturday, May 12

Rally: National rally for marriage equality. 1pm. State Library, cnr Swanston & Latrobe Sts, City. Organised by Equal Love.

Campaign committees

Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective. (MAIC) meets meets on the first and third Monday of each month, 6.30pm on Level 4 of the rear building at Trades Hall, Lygon & Victoria Sts Carlton. For info, ph 0431 311 520 or visit MAI Collective.

Refugee Action Collective (RAC). For more info ph 0413 377 978 or visit RAC.

Quit Coal: No New Coal Power for Victoria. Aa Melbourne-based collective which campaigns against expansion of the coal industry in Victoria. We believe this is important because building new coal infrastructure locks in decades of dirty, old technology, when we should be moving towards clean, renewable energy. For more info visit Quit Coal or call 0402 337 077.