Critical Mass blocks CityLink
MELBOURNE — Critical Mass activists targeted the hated CityLink freeway project and Domain tunnel for their monthly cycle protest on April 28. Two hundred cyclists rode onto the tollway, blocking all five lanes of traffic.
"The opening of the Domain tunnel, the next stage of Transurban's controversial CityLink project, is a testament to disintegrated transport and land use planning, only further reinforcing the urban sprawl that has plagued Melbourne over the past 50 years", Critical Mass's statement, "Citystink by Transevil — Unsustainable, unacceptable!", said.
Once on the tollway, cyclists rode through the Domain tunnel under the Yarra before exiting into South Melbourne. As the blocked traffic surged ahead, all the cyclists waved to the motorists to ensure there was no ill will. The consensus was that this had been the most exciting Critical Mass ever.
May Day in Toowoomba
TOOWOOMBA — Despite the cold and rainy weather, 200 people and 14 unions came out for May Day here, marching against job cuts to Telstra and for workers' rights.
At the Toowoomba Town Hall, marchers raised a Eureka flag to commemorate the struggle by workers at Barcaldine to protect their jobs, one of the first major labour actions in Australia, and heard a selection of poems from trade union militant Pat Menz.
Ian McLean, the state secretary of the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union, which covers Telstra workers, spoke against the further privatisation of the telecommunications giant but was challenged by the audience when he claimed that the only way to save Telstra was to vote Labor back into government. One worker reminded him of Labor's sell-off of Qantas.