The stout, broadly smiling chief editor ushered me into his small office. From the wall, the face of forbidden fruit stern theoretician, military leader and organiser of the Red Army, sorcerer Leon Trotsky stared defiantly down at me.
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Melbourne-based human rights group Civil Union Action! held a snap action on October 6 outside the Victorian ALP headquarters to denounce Premier Steve Bracks' confirmation that the state government opposes civil unions for same-sex couples. The Labor government has ruled out a debate before the November 25 state election on independent MP Andrew Olexander's civil unions bill.
The third annual national gathering of the Australian Coalition of West Papua Support Groups on September 16-17 affirmed the right of the people of West Papua to self-determination and decolonisation.
On October 4, student anti-war campaigners were threatened by security guards with being kicked off the University of Technology Sydney campus.
Nelson Davila, Venezuelas charge daffaires in Australia, addressed a 100-strong meeting on September 22 organised by the Socialist Alliance and the Lebanese Communist Party in Australia (LCPA), held at the Lebanese Cultural Centre in Brunswick.
Debts owed by students for university fees are growing by about $2 billion a year, according to the federal education department. Reporting the finding, the September 13 Melbourne Age observed that if the debt rise “continues at this rate, the amount owed will double in six years, from $10.2 billion in 2003-04 to more than $20 billion by 2009-10".
A strong majority of Iraqis want US-led military forces to immediately withdraw from the country, saying their swift departure would make Iraq more secure and decrease sectarian violence, according to new polls by the State Department and independent researchers, the September 27 Washington Post reported.
The 1999 abduction of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan by Turkeys National Intelligence Agency (MIT) while he was in Kenya set a precedent for the CIAs post-9/11 practice of extraordinary rendition, Ocalans lawyers told the first Australian Conference on the Political and Human Rights Dimensions of the Kurdish Question, held in Melbourne on October 3.
A group of Aboriginal leaders supported by the West Australian Social Justice Network has initiated a campaign in the wake of what appears to be an orchestrated attack by the federal government and sections of the media on Aboriginal culture and leaders.
Walk against Warming is an international day of action to bring the issue of global warming to the attention of governments. This year it is happening on November 4 and rallies will be held around Australia demanding: more support for renewable energy, no nuclear and no new coal-fired power; better public transport; and that the Australian government ratify the Kyoto protocol.
The Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network national consultation decided to support the relaunch of an Australian campaign in support of the Cuban Five - five Cubans convicted in the United States in 2001 on charges ranging from conspiracy to commit murder to endangering the security of the US. The Cuban Five are being held in maximum security prisons across the US.
ACT government ACTION bus drivers held a snap strike on September 20 to protest against service cutbacks that would reduce some drivers extra shifts and pay. The action was taken following the failure of negotiations with the ACT governments municipal services department and despite a Transport Workers Union warning that the strike would be illegal and could result in fines of $4000 for each worker.
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