699

“I voted yes and will always vote yes”, Reuters quoted Laurinda Duarte as saying. “Abortions will always take place so why not vote to allow women to carry them out under decent conditions? I am a Catholic but that does not mean I am not free to vote.”
At a meeting in Melbourne on February 8 journalist and film-maker John Pilger hailed Shirley Shackleton as one of Australia’s “heroes”. He praised her tireless dedication, since 1975, in exposing the genocide in East Timor and in pursuing the truth about the death of five journalists in Balibo, East Timor. One of the journalists killed was her husband Greg Shackleton.
"Twenty-five and 30 years ago, like a lot of other Australians I was involved in actions and activities across this country [against US bases]. Of course you change your mind about some things over time, no one listening to this interview would
BRISBANE — On February 13, 600 people attended a public meeting at the Brisbane Institute to hear Canberra-based Australia Institute executive director Clive Hamilton speak on the recently published book Silencing Dissent: How the Australian government is controlling public opinion and stifling debate, which he co-edited with UNSW politics lecturer Sarah Maddison.
The following article was submitted by members of the Ongoing G20 Arrestee Solidarity Network: Last November 18, approximately 40 men met at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Melbourne. The discussions of the G20 finance ministers took place behind barricades and high fences to, as Treasurer Peter Costello argued, create a space conducive to free and frank dialogue.
The Howard government’s Work Choices laws are not bringing about “a more flexible, simpler and fairer system of workplace relations for Australia”, as the Howard government likes to argue, according to two recent damning research papers. The studies also disprove Canberra’s claim that the laws have improved productivity, increased wages, balanced work and family life and reduced unemployment.
“We, and millions of people around the world … believe another world is possible, a world free from war, poverty and hunger. Here in Venezuela the [government of socialist President Hugo Chavez] along with the majority of the people in our country are fighting hard to build this new world, despite the attempts of the old elite and the US government to prevent us from succeeding.” This is what 25-year-old university student Germania Fernandez told Pablo Navarrete, according to a December 1 article on Venezuelanalysis.com.
The Australian Youth Climate Coalition was launched around the country on February 16, World Kyoto Day. In Sydney, activists gathered at the Bondi office of federal environment minister Malcolm Turnbull to deliver the AYCC’s declaration.
US vice-president Dick Cheney, about to visit Sydney, is not welcome.
A disturbing trend is spreading across Australian universities — some universities have begun barring political groups from orientation week (o-week) events.
Two months before the Howard government’s draconian Welfare to Work package went to federal parliament, Labor’s spokesperson for employment and workplace participation Penny Wong argued that the proposals were “the most extreme attack on the social security system in history”.
Over the February 3-4 weekend, 60 people participated in a conference on European anti-capitalist left unity projects organised by left-wing Swiss party SolidariteS. Held in the border town of Le Locle in the Neuchatel canton, the conference attracted mainly SolidariteS members and supporters, but members of the French Ligue Communiste Revolutionnaire (LCR) also attended.