anti-war

Anti-war campaigners held a vigil at the Elizabeth St entrance to Melbourne Central station during the peak hour rush this evening, holding banners reading "End the Afghanistan War" and "Hit the STOP Button on the Afghanistan War". Although most passers-by were obviously rushing to catch their trains, as can be seen in some of the accompanying photos, many took leaflets, and a few stopped to discuss the issues.

Wikileaks has released The Afghan War Diary ,2004-2010, which contains over 90,000 leaked secret files from the U.S. Military. The files outline how the U.S. and its allies have systematically under estimated civilian deaths, they describe the existence of a secret U.S. assassination squad, increasing use of remote drones by the U.S. and the increasing sophistication and deadliness of the Taliban insurgency. They even include reference to a cover up by Australian forces of the killing of an Afghan policeman.

Related: Australian Wikileaks founder targeted by the Pentagon | TED Video - Julian Assange on Why the world needs WikiLeaks

Mother’s Day has been reduced to a highly commercialised retail event but in 1870 in the US pacifist, abolitionist and sufffragette Julie Ward Howe wrote her “Mother’s Day Proclamation” which said women of the world should demand an end to war with the internationalist cry “We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."