Staffing cutbacks at DFACS

ADELAIDE — Sixty workers from the Department of Family and Community Services gathered in their lunch break on October 11 to protest against staffing cutbacks at DFACS. Public Service Association representative John McGuinness told the workers that there had been a 300% increase in demand for child support over the last three years and yet staffing levels were being cut back to 1980s levels. In some offices 60-70% of the demand for child support was not being met.

• Around 20 people gathered outside an American Express office here on October 8 to protest against increased US intervention in Somalia. Chanting "Hey Hey Ho Ho, US troops have got to go!" and " US here, US there, US out of everywhere!", picketers handed out leaflets to workers on their way home. The picket was organised by Resistance.
  

SYDNEY — On October 9 three protesters from the Boycott Mitsubishi Coalition handcuffed themselves to vehicles on display at the Mitsubishi stand at the Sydney Motorshow while another abseiled from the ceiling above the stand to display a banner reading "Please Consider the Rainforests — Boycott Mitsubishi". Other supporters revealed T-shirts bearing the Boycott Mitsubishi logo and chanted "Save the Rainforests — Boycott Mitsubishi". A large crowd gathered to watch the events and listen to the protesters' arguments for a boycott of Mitsubishi products. Security guards tried in vain to remove the protesters, who remained in the air and securely locked on to the vehicles for nearly an hour.

From GLW issue 119