Self described “advocate for women and girls” Melinda Tankard Reist recently launched a defamation claim against blogger Jennifer Wilson for saying Reist is a Baptist. Wilson’s article, on her blog No Place for Sheep, criticised Reist’s anti-abortion stance.
Australia
Writer and Occupy Melbourne activist Wil Wallace took part in a March 1 protest against the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, a new free trade agreement currently under negotiation between nine nations, including Australia and the United States. Wallace’s account of the protest is below.
* * *
There is a growing disconnect between the official rosy picture of the Australian economy and mounting public anxiety about job insecurity. The latest official unemployment rate (January 2012) was steady at 5.2% and Treasury secretary Martin Parkinson insists there is no reason to worry. Australians, he said, should shake off their misplaced “boom with gloom” attitude.
The South Australian government has produced an “anti-binge drinking” ad that targets young women. It features a young woman slumped in a dodgy club toilet while someone else points her finger accusingly.
The tagline reads: “Drink too much, you’re asking for trouble.”
Journalist Catherine Deveney described the ad on Twitter as amounting to government-funded “slut-shaming”.
The House of Representatives narrowly passed changes on February 16 to the undemocratic building industry laws that target building workers.
The Building and Construction Industry Improvement Amendment (Transition to Fair Work) Bill, which will replace the Building Industry Improvement Act, was narrowly adopted by a margin of one vote. The bill is now before the Senate.
How would you feel if you woke up to the breakfast radio news announcing that Green Left Weekly had just published its last issue?
The left in Spain had that experience on February 24, when we learned that this would be the last day the progressive daily Publico appeared on the country’s newsstands (the online version continues).
With international condemnation of Australia’s approach to asylum seekers and the intervention in the Northern Territory, Prime Minister Julia Gillard may not be well known for her support for human rights. Still she agreed to the Greens’ request for recognition of Indigenous peoples in the Australian constitution.
Melbourne activists gathered at Federation Square in the city centre on February 28 to voice their support for the All India General Strike. As many as 100 million workers had walked off the job in India to protest against low wages and poor working conditions in what is most likely the largest ever strike in human history.
As the crowd unfurled banners and flags, visiting US activist-musician George Mann and friends played unionist songs. The music got the protesters in the mood to hear addresses from members of the various labour organisations.
The Socialist Alliance Queensland released the statement below on March 2.
* * *
The three Socialist Alliance candidates in the March 24 Queensland state election, two of who are former Labor Party members disgusted at Labor's betrayals of public interests, have called for a new trade union and community campaign to reverse the privatisations of the major parties.
The Australian Nurses Federation (ANF) Victorian branch released the statement below on March 1.
* * *
Private conciliation resolved disputes in 1997, 2001, 2004 and 2007 and can resolve 2012.
The Baillieu government has spent more taxpayer money on lawyers — this time to prevent nurses and midwives from freely using social media to discuss the dispute.
Baillieu government-paid lawyers wrote to ANF solicitors last night demanding the ANF delete nurses’ and midwives’ posts from the Facebook campaign page at www.facebook.com/respectourwork
Chanting “no cuts, no way, this is what the staff say”, 200 staff and student supporters defied rain to march through the University of Sydney on February 29 to protest against the university management’s move to axe 340 university staff.
The rally, organised by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), took place on the first student orientation day.
What with the whole Rudd debacle, sparked by the whole Gillard debacle, Labor has been staggering from one crisis to the next. Time for some fresh and bold thinking!
- Previous page
- Page 765
- Next page