Yearly Archives: 2016

This week, the trial against labour rights researcher Andy Hall will begin in a Bangkok Criminal Court. Andy is facing criminal defamation and computer crimes charges. These arise from three years ago after Andy had exposed the brutal exploitation practices of the Natural Fruit Company, especially against its migrant Burmese […]

The murder of Khurram Zaki this week, in the southern city of Karachi, is the latest murder in a continuing campaign by Islamist reactionary forces against left wing activists. A journalist was also killed at the same time as Khurram. This murder reinforces the climate of repression and intimidation that […]

Since late last year, Korean workers have been under sustained attack, with the government and the companies weakening workers’ power through legislative attacks on union rights and workers’ rights to secure employment. Choi Jeong-myeong and Han Gyu-hyeop are two workers from Kia Motors who have been atop a billboard for […]

Around 50 workers employed at the Bitzer cooling equipment plant in the west of Melbourne, Australia are now on their 6th week of their indefinite strike. They have taken action to resist the company’s attempts to reduce leave days, reduce redundancy payouts, and introduced differing rates of pay for workers […]

Earlier this week, eight human rights activists were arrested by police in Phnom Penh. All eight of them were attempting to join a demonstration that had been organised to protest against earlier arrests of human rights activists. These latest arrests continue the government crackdown on dissent and on the ability […]

The long running strike by the workers at Seung Yeun Technology (SYTIC), located in the Cavite Export Processing Zone in the Philippines, came to an end this week. An agreement was worked out between the company and workers representatives regarding rehiring and termination payments. The actions by workers last week […]

More than 200 garment workers were arrested and are currently in prison for a massive protest in Bangalore that brought the city to a standstill in April this year. The trumped up charges against the workers include offences such as rioting, violence, and attempted murder.  Because of the severity of […]

AAWL is screening the award-winning film, The Act of Killing, by film maker Joshua Oppenheimer. The film exposes the horrifying mass executions of accused communists in Indonesia in 1965 and those who are celebrated in their country for perpetrating the crime. Friday 13 May at 6pm LongPlay, 318 St Georges […]

Almost 1700 West Papuans were arrested by Indonesian security forces on 2 May 2016 ahead of and during mass demonstrations on the anniversary of the transfer of administration to Indonesia in 1963.  This is the biggest clamp down on the pro-democracy movement by Indonesian police in over a decade.  Although […]

Australia’s minister for immigration Peter Dutton, has stooped to a new low.  He tried to arrange an abortion in PNG for an asylum seeker that was raped in Australia’s concentration camp on Nauru.  Abortions are illegal in PNG. The Australian Federal Court has ordered that Peter Dutton cannot organise the […]