Australia

  • Boycott Israel campaign starts in WA

    PERTH — Friends of Palestine WA (FOPWA) protested outside a function organised by the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce (AICC) on March 20.

  • Sack Connex! Boycott Israel!

    In 2002, the CityPass consortium was awarded the contract to build and run the Jerusalem light rail. Amnesty International, the Arab League, and unions, church and community groups worldwide have condemned this project as another step in Israel's annexation of Palestinian land.

  • Agriculture and climate change

    Australian agriculture both contributes to climate change and is adversely affected by it. Any campaign in to force urgent government action on climate change has to include a demand for the radical transformation of rural land use and farming systems to be ecologically sustainable.

  • Indigenous Australians speak out at WAC conference

    Mitch, an inspiring Arrernte/Luritja author, poet and artist, and an important voice against the NT Intervention, together with Sam Watson, well-known Aboriginal activist, Brisbane community activist and Socialist Alliance national spokesperson on Indigenous rights, will feature on a panel titled “From Invasion to Intervention: Indigenous Australians speak out”.

  • Mandatory sentencing push condemned

    The Western Australian Liberal government and sections of the corporate media have responded to the March 12 acquittal of three people charged with assaulting police, by mounting a populist campaign for mandatory sentencing of people convicted of assaulting police.

  • Justice for Africans

    Soubhi Iskander is a leading member of the Sudanese Australia Human Rights Association, a committee based in Sydney’s west, that campaigns for the rights of Sudanese refugees. SAHRA is also an affiliate of the Socialist Alliance.

  • New England discusses twin crises

    ARMIDALE — Thirty people discussed the economic and environmental crises at a public forum organised by the New England Socialist Alliance (SA) branch on March 12.

  • Gov't scapegoats migrants, cuts quota

    On March 16, federal immigration minister Chris Evans announced that the Rudd government would cut the skilled migration intake for the current financial year by 18,500. This, claimed Evans in a ministerial statement, would “protect local jobs”.

  • Rudd's education revolution… not

    The detail of PM Kevin Rudd’s election promise of an “education revolution” in higher education is finally coming to light: privatisation, deregulation and increased competition between institutions.

  • Stop the prison cell-off

    In the late evening of March 15, the NSW correctional services department used management personnel to transfer 107 prisoners from the Cessnock jail in preparation for its privatisation.

  • Unfair work bill passes senate

    The federal ALP government’s Fair Work Bill passed through the Senate on March 20 after intense wheeling and dealing with Family First Senator Steve Fielding and independent Senator Nick Xenophon.