Margarita Windisch

World Refugee Day comes amid reports of more deaths at sea, forced deportations to torture and execution, malaria in the offshore camps in Nauru and Manus Island, suicide in detention, babies imprisoned as security threats and revelations of refugees on bridging visas without food, housing or work rights.

A competition in cruelty

The rank and file “Clean Sweep” ticket won all contested positions of the Victorian Health Services Union (HSU) No 3 branch in elections held on November 26.

The HSU's No 3 branch covers 36 professions; from physiotherapists, radiographers, anesthetic technicians to occupational therapists, social workers, and medical illustrators. The No 3 branch is the smallest of the three HSU branches with a membership of about 3500.

West Papuans and their supporters rallied in Melbourne on December 1.

They raised the Morning Star flag, a symbol of independence, and demanded self-determination and an end to Indonesian occupation of West Papua. The rally was part of an international day of action.

The speakers addressed the brutal human rights violations committed by the Indonesian army and urged the Gillard government to break with over 40 years of successive Australian governments' support for the Indonesian occupation.

About 300 people rallied in Melbourne on November 24 to oppose the ongoing harassment of Fertility Control Clinic patients and staff by Christian fanatics.

The rally was organised by Melbourne Feminist Action (MFA), a new initiative campaigning for women's rights.

Even though Victorian women won the legal right to abortion in 2008, access remains difficult for many women. The clinic is picketed daily and anti-abortion crusaders march once a month after mass at St Patrick’s Cathedral to the clinic.

Pro-choice activist will be rallying outside the East Melbourne fertility control clinic on November 24, under the slogan “Our Clinic, Our Bodies, Our Choice”.

The rally is organised by Melbourne Feminist Action (MFA), an exciting new women’s rights collective.

MFA was initiated by Jacinda Woodhead and Stephanie Convery who work for literary journal Overland. They were motivated by what seems to be a growing and renewed public interest in women’s rights in Melbourne.

“TAFE cuts are Baillieu's form of class war,” Colin Long told an angry crowd on September 20. “Baillieu started the war, but we will finish it.” The Victorian National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) secretary was speaking to 2000 Victorian TAFE teachers, students and supporters at a rally in Melbourne.

All I really want to say is “thank you”. And there is plenty I want to thank you for.

I want to thank you for not cancelling your April 18 evening conversation with Martin Flanagan at the Melbourne Wheeler Centre to discuss your new book Am I black enough for you?

It was a very powerful and moving event to be part of; a reaffirming lesson of the importance of courage, humility and respect.

As we all found out, it was no easy decision for you to go ahead with the event.

Yes, I am a feminist and I will be joining the Melbourne “SlutWalk” on May 28, and I hope you will too!

And, yes, I still cringe every time I mention the infamous word SlutWalk and my desire of wanting to be there, right in the middle of it.

“Slut”, “bitch”, “whore”, “cunt” — how many women have had one or maybe all of the above words hurled at them in a terrorising fit of anger and aggression, at least once in her lifetime? Or maybe the word(s) was uttered silently, barely audible but with no less intent of humiliation, degradation and hurt?

One hundred activists of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) attended the Pushing the Boundaries climate change conference over April 28-29.

The two days of talks, vibrant debate and action-based workshops set a progressive agenda for ongoing union environmental activism and marked the NTEU as the left pole of the global warming debate in the union movement.

NTEU national president Jeannie Rea opened the conference by drawing attention to the special place of the NTEU in the debate about global warming.