Debbie Brennan

On March 29, pro-choice protestors gave Melbourne City Council (MCC) a clear message: don’t mess with our free speech rights! Councillor Cathy Oke tabled a bulky tome — nearly 600 statements signed by individuals and organisations, telling the council to uphold the right to protest and stop using local laws against pro-choicers defending the Fertility Control Clinic in East Melbourne against anti-abortion harassment. From the public gallery, placards demanding “Make Melbourne a free speech city!” underscored the message.

When the Victorian Parliament decriminalised abortion two years ago, the battle was finally over, right? Then why is the Fertility Control Clinic in East Melbourne still targeted by anti-abortion zealots? And why, after five years, has Melbourne City Council started harassing clinic defenders, potentially handing a victory to those same zealots?

As Victoria’s parliamentary debate on abortion decriminalisation nears, pro-choice activists are stepping up their clinic defence against anti-abortion zealots. On the fourth Saturday of every month, pro-choice activists stand outside Melbourne’s Fertility Control Clinic to keep anti-abortionists on the other side of the street.

Delia Maxwell, socialist feminist fighter and a member of Radical Women and the Socialist Alliance, lost her battle against cancer on November 2. Born in 1932, Delia's life spanned much of the turbulent 20th century.

The New South Wales Asbestos Ex-Miners Aboriginal Corporation has waged a five-year fight to take James Hardie Industries to court with a community-based compensation claim for asbestos-related diseases and death. It is now

The survivors of an industrial disaster are now fighting for compensation and medical treatment for diseases contracted over decades. The Baryulgil catastrophe was a creation of asbestos mining companies, which needed