Attn: folks in VIC, Australia! Loophole Community Centre has been given one month to vacate

extendedmetaphor:

Basically the landlords have given us an eviction notice and we have to be out by June the 11th.

Watch this space for some more news and also for how you might be able to help, folks are currently drafting a letter for what’s happened and what we will be doing/what you can do so I’ll post that later tonight or tomorrow. Also, if anyone knows of a shopfront space currently vacant around Melbourne going for cheap, let us know!!!

link for the site here: [link]

(via januarydaze)

forestfungus:

Loophole Community Centre in Thornbury (Melbourne) has been served an eviction notice. There is a meeting for all interested parties at 3pm today, at the centre. Loophole is home to Barricade Infoshop, Loophole Radical Community Library, bike workshop, Food Not Bombs kitchen, community space and gardens, and the caretakers who live there…and much more! Please support Loophole if you can. You can donate to Loophole here.

forestfungus:

Loophole Community Centre in Thornbury (Melbourne) has been served an eviction notice. There is a meeting for all interested parties at 3pm today, at the centre. Loophole is home to Barricade Infoshop, Loophole Radical Community Library, bike workshop, Food Not Bombs kitchen, community space and gardens, and the caretakers who live there…and much more! Please support Loophole if you can. You can donate to Loophole here.

LOOK WHAT I’M WEARING RIGHT NOW.  if this isn’t the best hoodie you’ve ever seen I wanna live in your world.  that is a RAISED GOLD GLITTER ink on that print by the way.  design is by local artist Marisa Lai!  
anyway, these are being sold for AU $50 as a fundraiser for Hip Sista Hop and 3CR Community Radio 855am. Hip Sista Hop airs every Monday from 1-2 pm AEST (streaming live at 3cr.org.au for listeners outside Melbourne) and showcases primarily women’s and indigenous hip-hop music and culture, it’s a great program that plays awesome music.  you should check out their facebook page as well. 
the parent station, 3CR, is a radical left-wing community radio station that’s been on air since the 70s.   they do a really good job of practising what they preach and not just being a voice of the latte left — the station broadcasts an amazingly eclectic mix of unionists, Indigenous activists, community language broadcasters, motley queers, young people, the very old, and music nerds, plus a majority of programmers and all senior staff are women.  not every show is explicitly political — the station’s ethos of actively providing a platform for voices that aren’t heard in the mainstream media runs through everything they do, but what people do with that platform is up to them.  it’s really respectful and hands-off.  they also train more people in radio production than anyone else in Australia.  there are as few barriers as possible to participation in 3cr. 
what I’m saying is that you should send me a message about buying a hoodie.  there’s also another design which is really good, a more old-school hip hop aesthetic with graf lettering, but I don’t have a picture of that one. the hoodies are really warm and high-quality and are made by Qualitops sweatshop-free labour right down the road from the 3CR offices.  you can also possibly get other colour combinations if you order fast.  I’d say sizing runs small, considering a hoodie should be slouchy, and I would suggest that women order men’s sizes unless you’re very short or very thin — I’m wearing a men’s S and I would normally wear an AU women’s 14/L, if that’s helpful.  IT’S SO WARM.  I’M SO HAPPY TO OWN THIS MAGNIFICENT ITEM. 
ETA: this print run is almost completely SOLD OUT, they’re doing another one, if you let me know what size and colour you want ASAP then I can pass on the info and you can probably get a custom order with the new print run.  there will defs be more gold and black men’s XS/S/M though. 

LOOK WHAT I’M WEARING RIGHT NOW.  if this isn’t the best hoodie you’ve ever seen I wanna live in your world.  that is a RAISED GOLD GLITTER ink on that print by the way.  design is by local artist Marisa Lai! 

anyway, these are being sold for AU $50 as a fundraiser for Hip Sista Hop and 3CR Community Radio 855am. Hip Sista Hop airs every Monday from 1-2 pm AEST (streaming live at 3cr.org.au for listeners outside Melbourne) and showcases primarily women’s and indigenous hip-hop music and culture, it’s a great program that plays awesome music.  you should check out their facebook page as well. 

the parent station, 3CR, is a radical left-wing community radio station that’s been on air since the 70s.   they do a really good job of practising what they preach and not just being a voice of the latte left — the station broadcasts an amazingly eclectic mix of unionists, Indigenous activists, community language broadcasters, motley queers, young people, the very old, and music nerds, plus a majority of programmers and all senior staff are women.  not every show is explicitly political — the station’s ethos of actively providing a platform for voices that aren’t heard in the mainstream media runs through everything they do, but what people do with that platform is up to them.  it’s really respectful and hands-off.  they also train more people in radio production than anyone else in Australia.  there are as few barriers as possible to participation in 3cr. 

what I’m saying is that you should send me a message about buying a hoodie.  there’s also another design which is really good, a more old-school hip hop aesthetic with graf lettering, but I don’t have a picture of that one. the hoodies are really warm and high-quality and are made by Qualitops sweatshop-free labour right down the road from the 3CR offices.  you can also possibly get other colour combinations if you order fast.  I’d say sizing runs small, considering a hoodie should be slouchy, and I would suggest that women order men’s sizes unless you’re very short or very thin — I’m wearing a men’s S and I would normally wear an AU women’s 14/L, if that’s helpful.  IT’S SO WARM.  I’M SO HAPPY TO OWN THIS MAGNIFICENT ITEM. 

ETA: this print run is almost completely SOLD OUT, they’re doing another one, if you let me know what size and colour you want ASAP then I can pass on the info and you can probably get a custom order with the new print run.  there will defs be more gold and black men’s XS/S/M though. 

AS THE state government prepares to restructure public housing, feedback surveys given to tenants this month are available only in English, a foreign language for about half of residents.


Mere-Paore Epere, chairwoman of an inner-suburban tenants’ group, said the survey is a mystery to many residents. Ms Epere said the 4000 tenants represented by her group included African, Arabic, Chinese, Greek and Turkish speakers.


When she rang a contact number supplied with the document to ask if the survey had been translated Ms Epere was told it was available only in English. ”They said to get a friend of a friend to translate the questions, or a family member.”


While the 12-page survey is in English, it strays into a form of the language that might be described as bureaucratic gobbledegook, with questions such as: ”How can good tenant behaviour and mutual obligation be incentivised?

“incentivised”, for realsies? omg

"

VICTORIA Police has made secret payouts totalling tens of thousands of dollars to immigrant youths in Melbourne who have accused officers of physical brutality and racism.

The Age has learnt of confidential settlements between the police force and four African-born men and one Afghan who claimed they were beaten, falsely imprisoned or racially abused by officers in northern and western suburbs.

The financial settlements mean the allegations will never be heard in court.

"

Police pay cash to bash victims

”If you want to f—- around with the police, this is what you get you f—-ing black c—-,” Abdi alleged he was told. ”I’ll f—-ing shoot you, you black c—-.”.

Mr Abdi claimed he was repeatedly punched and kicked, racially abused and held at Moonee Ponds police station for 11 hours without charge. His friend, Robert Koua, alleged police beat him with a torch and sprayed him with capsicum while he was handcuffed. The third youth, Jibril God, claimed

he was hit with a torch and called a ”black c—-”.

Actions brought by other African youths are still outstanding, including one in which Zacharia Matiang claims police came to his Williamstown home in April 2009 and accused him of stealing corn chips and salsa worth $10.60 from a shop.

Mr Matiang claims he was sprayed with capsicum and called a ”black c—-”, while his friend, Kot Gatlwak, was told by police: ”Get on the floor, you f—-ing black c—-. You black c—-s are all criminals. Go back to your own country.”

I hate everything today.

(via monsterpussy)

collingwood public housing estate residents, you do not fuck around
(photo from the neighbourhood action plan, of all things)

collingwood public housing estate residents, you do not fuck around

(photo from the neighbourhood action plan, of all things)

AT 2pm on Thursday, July 7, last year, a fisherman saw a body floating on the Maribyrnong River near the Raleigh Road pontoon and called the police. The body was that of 22-year-old Michael Atakelt, who arrived in Australia from Ethiopia in 2006. He he had been staying with a friend in Footscray while he studied English at Victoria University. He had been missing for 11 days since being held in police custody overnight. At the scene, the homicide squad determined that the circumstances were not suspicious, and local police were assigned the investigation.

I began researching this story in mid-August. At the time, Atakelt’s family and the Ethiopian community were expecting the autopsy results within weeks. But they did not arrive.

(Source: upmountains)

Autism is estimated to affect one in every 160 students in Australia. The number of students with autism in Melbourne’s western suburbs alone has jumped from 391 in 2006 to 6855 in 2010. But the western suburbs is one of the few regions in Melbourne without a dedicated autism school for students from prep to year 12. This means families with children at the Western Autistic School are forced to make the difficult, sometimes agonising, decision about where to send their child after year 3.

A review of autism education in Melbourne’s western metropolitan region last year found families want the choice of a local mainstream school where their children can socialise and learn with their peers. This is what is known as ”inclusion”, an educational philosophy that students with disabilities should not be separated from other children.

However, the independent report, commissioned by the Education Department, found many families believe mainstream schools are unwilling, or unable, to cater for students with autism. They worry their children will be bullied and unable to cope with the sensory overload of big groups, particularly given the trend towards larger, open-plan classrooms.

Almost half the students at Western Autistic School end up going to a special school that caters for students with intellectual disabilities. But to get in, students must have an IQ lower than 70. Inevitably there are some who fall through the cracks.

”Many parents report a perceived lack of choice when their child leaves Western Autistic School,” the review says. ”They express concern that they will be unable to access appropriate and intensive support for their child without an (autism) specific school.”