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May Day is international workers day. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the first May Day rallies in Australia. The traditional march in Sydney will begin at noon in Haymarket, corner of George and Hay Streets on Sunday 6 May. Gay and lesbian liberationists have taken part in May Day parades in Sydney since 1972. This year people from Gay Solidarity will be joined by Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and people from ACT UP. The struggles of the working class for freedom, such as in Eastern Europe. Central America, China or South Africa today, lead the way for greater freedom for all —women, national minorities, homosexuals. We urge everyone to come along, show support, determination, and anger against oppression. Help keep the May Day marches loud and colourful displays of strength and diversity.

April 27 saw the very welcome birth of ACT UP in Australia with over 100 women and men demonstrating outside the Sydney offices of the Commonwealth Health Department. We were demanding that the Australian Drug Evaluation Committee make the anti-viral drug, AZT (Zidovudine), available to people with HIV who are not ill but show signs of immune suppression in blood tests.

ACT UP, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, has groups across North America and Europe. ACT UP is "a diverse, non-partisan group of individuals united in anger and committed to direct action to end the AIDS crisis. We will meet with government and health officials, we will research and distribute the latest medical information. We will protest and demonstrate; We are not silent"

There is funding for AIDS in care, research and education, but it is not adequate to deal with the scope of the epidemic we are facing. AZT is available for some, but not all who want it. Placebo tests are still going on in Australia when in US Food and Drug Administration has approved its use for everyone with less than 500 T4 cells. Another antiviral, DDI, is still not available here. Those and other factors mean that many are dying without optimum treatment, and many are progressing from HIV infection to full AIDS faster.

We need ACT UP, and ACT UP needs you! Gay Solidarity strongly urges all supporters to become active in ACT UP. Attend the fortnightly open meetings. Ring 02 283 3550 for info, or write to PO box A1242 Sydney South 2000.

These last months have seen a significant rise in the number of bashings of gay men and lesbians. There have been different responses to them. The Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby (GLRL) have called for increased police street patrols, arguing that this would give us more protection.

The problem with this approach is that it places too much faith in tho police force — a short sighted and potentially dangerous policy. As long as we accept the status quo the police might not act with as much hostility as before... at least in NSW; other states don't seem to be as optimistic. But it does not take too much to rock the boat, and rock the boat we must!

We are still discriminated against — and the Equal Opportunity Tribunal hasn't exactly delivered the goods. Lesbians and gay men cannot adopt children. Its hard enough to hold onto our own kids. The age of consent discriminates against gay men, and people under 18 aro denied their sexual rights, the list goes on...

Our demands put us in conflict with a heterosexist society. Our liberation necessitates confrontation with the state and its institutions of class society, such as the courts, the church, the media, and the family.

The police exist to defend these institutions and tho system of private ownership. The police force is structurally, not incidentally, racist and sexist. When we push our demands forward, or when the political situation takes a more conservative turn, we, along with workers, ethnics, aborigines, students, women and others, will be among the victims of police harassment, something many in Sydney remember from the very recent past.

We should make use of police protection, but lets not fool ourselves that this is the solution to anti-gay violence. We need to organise our own defence. Michael S

The International Gay and Lesbian Association is holding an Asian regional meeting in Bangkok 24-26 August. The annual world conference of the ILGA is being held in Stockholm 1-7 July. People from the Gay and Lesbian Immigration Task Force and from GLRL in Sydney intend to participate.

The first conference on gay and lesbian issues anywhere in the territories that have constituted the Soviet Union will be held 28-30 May in Tallinn, capital of Estonia. Titled "Sexual Minorities and Society: the Changing Attitudes towards Homosexuality in 20th Century Europe, a scientific Conference", the gathering features leading lesbian and gay academics from across Europe. Groups in Australia will join with gay and lesbian organisations around the world in sending greetings, and in rejoicing in the new political freedoms in Eastern Europe that are allowing space for the development of our movement.

At this moment the Republic of Lithuania is fighting for its life against the might of Russian imperialism. For gays and anyone else who wants basic freedoms it is important that Lithuania wins its struggle. In Russia, homosexuality is a "bourgeois perversion" subject to imprisonment, or worse. Under Gorbachev, the KGB has actually increased its activities, and right wing Russian nationalists have been growing in numbers, harassing Jews and those who are "different". These are just a handful of reasons why we think tho Russian Empire should break up. We hope this break up starts here and now with the Baltic republics. David S.

In response to an appeal for solidarity, GSG organised a picket outside the Irish Tourist Board offices in Martin Place. The rally, with special songs from the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, was held on 17 March —St Patrick's Day, with the theme "Sexual and Reproductive Freedom In Ireland". Although the European Court ruled against the Republic's buggery laws in 1988, they still have not been repealed. Letters of protest were signed and sent off to the Irish Embassy in Canberra

Enola Gay/Lesbians and Gay Men for Nuclear Disarmament brought together the annual contingent for the Palm Sunday rally and march. We had a big turnout, 100 strong, including a strong showing by Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. As always, ours was tho liveliest, loudest and most colourful and militant contingent, replete with new ACT UP chants.

This year is the 21st anniversary of the Stonewall rebellion in New York, which heralded the rebirth of a revolutionary gay liberation movement. The anniversary has been markod in Sydney many times; In 1978 Gay Solidarity was formed to organise the first Stonewall events, which included Sydney's first Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. By coincidence, tho 28th June also marks the anniversary of the proclamation of the Nazi laws against homosexuality in 1935. GLRL has called for a street march this year, on Saturday 30 June. Stay tuned for details of the march and for the annual GSG dinner, and other commemorative events.

GLRL Is organising a conference to set an agenda for lesbian and gay rights, to be held at the Mardi Gras workshops on 19-20 May. For info write to GLRL. PO box 9 Darlinghurst 2010.

In recent months several people who contributed to the development of the gay communities and activism in Australia have died. In particular people in GSG wish to remember Terry Bell, Gary Pye and Brian McGahen.

Melbourne's monthly newsletter of lesbian and gay activism is available from PO box 108 North Carlton VIC 3054 for $13 ($5 concession) for one year.

GSG people are working on a four program series on the history of the interaction between Marxism and gay liberation. Stay tuned for details of when they will be broadcast. Gaywaves goes to air every Thursday night from 10pm to 1am on 2SER FM, 107.3.

CURRENT NEWSLETTER AND ARCHIVE OF PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS

Mannie has a personal web site: RED JOS: HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISM

Mannie's blogs may be accessed by clicking on to the following links:

MannieBlog (from 1 August 2003 to 31 December 2005)

Activist Kicks Backs - Blognow archive re-housed - 2005-2009

RED JOS BLOGSPOT (from January 2009 onwards)

This page updated 18 SEPTEMBER 2014 and again on 26 APRIL 2017

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