Polly Bennett

More than 200 people, including local residents, packed a community hall in Footscray on November 6 to protest vice-chancellor (VC) Liz Harman’s announcement that 270 Victoria University (VU) staff will face the chop, most before Christmas.
In 1974 hundreds of people crowded into a room in the Carlton Pram Factory and hatched a plan to build a media outlet that would tell the stories of those neglected, marginalised and ignored by the mainstream media of the day. Two years later 3CR began transmitting the voices of trade unions, the working class, the Indigenous community, youth and students, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, peace and social justice activists, greenies, socialists, anarchists, lovers of jazz and nostalgia music, feminists, queers and people with disabilities.
RMIT University academic Robert Austin is facing the sack for rescheduling classes on August 10 so that students could attend a protest against the government’s “voluntary student unionism” (VSU) legislation.