Peter Boyle

Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s imminent $90,000 pay rise is more than twice the estimated median wage of all Australian full-time or part-time employees, aged 15 years or over. More than half of all Australian workers have a yearly pay packet smaller than the PM’s expected pay rise. The $40,000 pay rise expected for backbenchers will also be more than the total wage of many Australian workers.

Protesters gathered outside the annual general meeting of Australian mining company Lynas Corporation in Sydney on November 30. Lynas is building a rare earths refinery in Kuantan, Malaysia, which will dump toxic and radioactive waste near a highly populated area. Local residents have been campaigning against the refinery. Greens senator Lee Rhiannon addressed the protest. Three activists attended the AGM and criticised Lynas's rare earths refinery before shareholders, CEO Nicholas Curtis and directors.

Green Left Weekly's Peter Boyle spoke to Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon outside Lynas Corporation's annual general meeting on November 30 about Lynas's plan to build a rare earths refinery in Malaysia.

Paul Benedek of the Socialist Alliance (Australia) gives a message of solidarity to the Egyptian Revolution at a rally outside the Egyptian Consulate in Sydney on November 26, 2011.

Tahrir (“Liberation”) Square in Cairo was the birthplace of hope for millions if not billions of people this year. It was here that the Egyptian people launched a mighty democratic revolution, writes Peter Boyle.

After months of relentless propaganda by mining companies and the corporate media, the idea of taxing the super profits of the big mining companies remains a popular measure. Recent Essential Research polling said 51% support such a tax (up from 50% since July 2010). Opposition to it rose from 28% to 33%.

Trade unionists from the Transport Workers Union, the National Tertiary Education Union and the Maritime Union of Australia joined Occupy Sydney activists in a protest on November 22 outside Angel Place Recital Hall, where the union-bashing CEO of Qantas Alan Joyce was addressing a forum.

A Corporate Greed Tour, organised by Occupy Sydney, took place in Sydney on November 19. The tour targeted several greedy corporations, including the Coles supermarket chain in solidarity with striking Baiada Poultry workers in Victoria. Baiada is a major supplier of chickens to Coles.

Protesters gathered in Waterloo on November 17 to mark the national day of action against Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. The protest took place spot where 17-year-old TJ Hickey was killed during a police pursuit in 2004.

I will come straight to the point. We are rapidly coming to the end of the year and we still need to raise $59,536 to meet Green Left Weekly’s $250,000 Fighting Fund target for the year. Our supporters have raised $190,424 so far this year, but we need an extraordinary effort in the rest of November and December to make our target. GLW is a people-powered independent media project. We go against the stream in a society where public debate is dominated by the slick, self-serving corporate media.

Don’t be fooled by their smiles. Ignore the trivia about “best friends” and crocodile insurance. This is about guns and money, about preserving the “right” of the richest 1% to exploit the world.

Nurses in Victoria are being threatened with an Alan Joyce-style lockout because they have campaigned for a modest 3.5% pay rise (just to keep up with the rising cost of living), superannuation and overtime improvements, and keeping patient-to-nurse ratios. Australia’s four big banks, meanwhile, have announced a combined annual profit of $24.4 billion, up 12% from $21.7 billion a year ago. This speaks volumes about the grossly distorted priorities in our society.