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Anti-Muslim Riots in Australia
GUEST: Kuranda Seyit, Director of Forum on Australia’s Islamic Relations (FAIR)

Last Sunday a mob of about 5000 white youths, many drunk and wrapped in Australian flags, attacked people they believed to be of Middle Eastern origin, at a beach in Sydney, Australia. Hundreds of Lebanese and other Middle Eastern youths responded a day later, and now media are reporting the violence has spread to two other major cities. An emergency session of the New South Wales Parliament will give Sydney police new powers to crack down on the rioters. New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma described the riots as “the ugly face of racism,” and confirmed that white supremacists were involved. The incidents are being called the worst instance of race violence in Australia’s modern history. Tensions between youths of Arabic and Middle Eastern descent and white Australians have been rising in recent years with anti-Muslim sentiment apparently fueled by the Bali bombings in October 2002. Our next guest claims it’s also anti-Muslim media coverage that has contributed to racial tensions.

Pacifica and FSRN Coverage of WTO
GUESTS: Walden Bello, Executive Director of Focus on the Global South

Today is the first day of the 6th World Trade Organization Ministerial in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is a former British colony which returned to Chinese rule in 1997. The main issue at the meeting will be to reach an agreement on reducing agricultural trade protection, especially in the United States and Europe, which is hoped to lead to a broader global trade deal next year. Pacifica Radio and Free Speech Radio News are in Hong Kong and bring us an interview with Walden Bello, Executive Director of Focus on the Global South about why Hong Kong was chosen as a site for the WTO ministerial.

China and the WTO
GUEST: Michael Santoro, Associate Professor at Rutgers Business School, and a member of the Rutgers Center for Global Change and Governance, author of “Profits and Principles: Global Capitalism and Human Rights in China”

Four years ago China became the 143rd member of the World Trade Organization. According to the WTO Director General, Pascal Lamy, China has played an “important role in contributing to the expansion of the global economy.” China is the biggest member of the G20 group of developing countries, and it joins Brazil and India in pushing for richer countries to lower trade barriers to Third World agricultural goods. But the very concessions China made to join the WTO in 2001 included dramatically lowering its barriers to farm imports, which set China apart from many G20 members. China’s 900 million rural residents were promised that membership in the WTO would dramatically boost farm exports and raise rural incomes. Meanwhile there have been increasing numbers of social protests across China over recent years – the goverment estimates 74,000 riots and disturbances in 2004 alone. Last week at least 20 people were reportedly killed by paramilitary police in a fishing village near Hong Kong.

State Murder – the Morning After…
GUEST: Rev Fred Shaw, President of the Compton Branch of the NAACP

Early this morning the State of California murdered Stanley “Tookie” Williams after Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger denied him clemency. In a statement released by the governor’s office, Schwarzenegger noted that Tookie’s insistence of innocence in the crimes he had been convicted of illustrated the fact that he was not truly redeemed. Furthermore, the Governor also cited that Stanley Williams’ book “Life in Prison” included a dedication page listing Mumia Abu Jamal, Leonard Peltier, and George Jackson. The inclusion of “Soledad Brother” George Jackson was noted as a reason to have significant doubts regarding Tookie’s redemption. Thousands gathered outside San Quentin prison last night including Joan Baez, Angela Davis, Jesse Jackson and others. After Tookie was declared dead at 12:35, many outside the prison began openly weeping. Tookie’s case provoked more controversy than any California execution in a generation, and became a magnet for attention and media worldwide.

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day:

“Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.” – J. R. R. Tolkien.