GLW issue 825, published 2010-02-10.

Fast food workers under attack

Fast food workers have lost a promised rise in Sunday penalty rates, and nightly overtime for retail staff will be cut, after a ruling by Fair Work Australia.

Defend free speech on the internet — block the filter

The South Australian government recently passed laws requiring anyone wanting to make a comment about the upcoming state election on the internet to publish their real name and postcode. This strikes a bold blow against the right to anonymity.

Star City workers strike for wage justice

SYDNEY — Workers at the Star City Casino continued their campaign for wage justice by striking over January 30–31. The workers have now voted against accepting the casino’s paltry 2% pay rise offer three times.

Socialist councillor launches Freo Report website

PERTH — Socialist wharfie Sam Wainwright, elected in October to the Fremantle council, has launched a website to keep residents up to date about the key issues facing the council.

Further

Australian News

Geelong socialist: council should protect workers' rights

Bronwyn Jennings, Geelong teacher and community campaigner, is the Socialist Alliance candidate in the Cowie ward by-election for the Geelong City Council, which is currently underway by postal vote.

Illegally wed in Sydney's bushland

I had the good fortune to attend a lesbian wedding in Sydney’s Waterfall National Park on January 10. Activist Georgina Abrahams married Journey, her partner of five years, in a ceremony conducted by a monk, Dada Prana, and a nun, Didi, of the Ananda Marga.

Further Australian News

International News

Vancouver Winter Olympics — A festival of corporate greed

On February 12, the corporate sporting behemoth known as the 21st Winter Olympic Games will open to great fanfare here. In a time of economic hardship and government cuts to social programs across Canada, huge sums of public money have been spent to stage this uber spectacle.

El Salvador: Mining giant sues entire country

Pacific Rim are a Canadian multinational firm seeking to exploit the “El Dorado” gold deposits in El Salvador's rural north.

Further International News

Comment and Analysis

Pressure on living standards growing during 'recovery'

Increased interest rates, declining working hours and stagnating wages are still chipping away at working people’s living standards, despite small falls in the official unemployment rate in November and December.

Abbott's climate policy: let the polluters play

On February 2, opposition leader Tony Abbott released the Liberal-National Coalition’s climate policy. For the Coalition, just as for the Rudd government, there’s one thing that’s irrelevant to climate policy — climate science. In Abbott’s 30-page document, the global warming crisis doesn’t rate one mention.

Further Comment and Analysis

Letters

Write on

Optimistic about Cuba Cuba is supposed to be a dangerous communist country. I spent January in this Caribbean island about the size of Victoria and suffering a trade embargo. My mobile phone stopped working at the US border. What about climate

General

Green Left Weekly fighting fund: The Packer name to live on — thank god!

James and Erica Packer have just had a baby. Luckily this time it's a boy.

Resistance!

Defend free speech on the internet — block the filter

Fast food workers under attack

Fast food workers have lost a promised rise in Sunday penalty rates, and nightly overtime for retail staff will be cut, after a ruling by Fair Work Australia.

Cultural Dissent

Leninism for the 21st century

Lenin Rediscovered: What Is To Be Done? In ContextBy Lars T. Lih, Haymarket Books, Chicago 2008840 pp., $89:95 pb.

Boring jobs and overbearing bosses

In & Out of the Working Class Michael D. Yates Arbeiter Ring Publishing, 2009 217 pp, $19.95.

Further Cultural Dissent

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