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Intimidation of trade unionists escalated during February after union leaders protested the abduction early that month of three workers involved with railway workers’ union newspaper Akuna. One of the three was Sisira Priyankara, the paper’s editor, who had been involved in lodging complaints by unionists to the courts against salary hikes for senior government figures. Following the protests, the government announced that the three unionists were in custody and were being interrogated over suspicions of links with insurgents. Since then, posters targeting union leaders who protested the abductions have appeared in public places across the country, branding them terrorists and calling for their arrests. The International Trade Union Confederation is demanding an end to the harassment of and attacks on unionists. For more information visit < http://www.ituc-A HREF="mailto:csi.org"><csi.org>.
A United Nations children’s fund (UNICEF) report released in February reveals that Australia’s economic growth over the last decade has done little to benefit the poorest sections of society, particularly young people. Indeed, in Australia and across the developed world, child poverty has increased in the last 10 years.
Four Queensland University of Technology students were arrested on March 1 for expressing their political opinions on campus.
British band Ugly Rumours (named after PM Tony Blair’s college band) has released a cover of War (What is it Good For?) (originally made famous by Edwin Starr). The single, which is performed by “Tony Blair” in an accompanying video clip, reached number six in Britain’s singles chart by March 1 and was expected to go all the way to the top. Profits go to help the Stop the War Coalition. The Respect coalition reported on its website on March 1 that the song had been banned by the BBC. “The BBC Radio One Newsbeat programme was due to record a package about the single today, but pulled out at the last minute, claiming that the record was ‘not newsworthy’. However, sources at the highest level within the BBC have privately confirmed that a banning order has been instituted.” The song is being distributed at <http://www.indiestore.com/uglyrumours/tracks?trackID=-12189>
On February 24, 200 people rallied at the Esplanade Lagoon despite tropical rain to oppose a proposed resort and housing complex at False Cape on the coast south of the city. Until now, this side of Trinity Bay has provided Cairns with a natural setting visible from its centre.
Strange times What strange times we live in. In the 1970s, I disagreed with Malcolm Fraser's ideas and opposed his conservative government's policies. In the 1980s and '90s I agreed with Peter Garrett on a range of political and environmental
Chanting “ALP’s hands are black, we want our future back”, members of the Rising Tide environment group protested outside the ALP’s NSW head office on February 27 against a proposed new coal export terminal in Newcastle.
The following letter was sent by Cuban consul-general Nelida Hernandez Carmona in response to Sydney Morning Herald columnist Miranda Devine’s claim that, “You know Australia has lost its mind on the green front when the conservative Howard government starts emulating the communist dictatorship of Cuba”. Devine (the SMH’s resident right-wing ranter) argued that while “federal environment minister Malcolm Turnbull’s plan, foisted without warning on the nation last week, to ban incandescent light bulbs from 2010 and force us to replace them with more energy-efficient fluorescent ones” was presented by the government “as a world first, the Associated Press soon pointed out that Cuba’s dictator Fidel Castro launched a similar program two years ago… His protege, Venezuela’s socialist president Hugo Chavez, soon followed suit. You might say Turnbull, Castro and Chavez are the three amigos of the climate change nanny state.”
This year’s annual International Women’s Day rally in Melbourne is being organised by the Victorian Trades Hall Council. To be held at the GPO at noon on March 8, the rally will focus on protesting against PM John Howard’s legislative attacks on the wages and working conditions of women workers.
China’s much increased economic activities in Africa in recent years — investments in energy and natural resources extraction and loans to African governments — have provoked accusations that it is becoming a new neocolonial power in the continent.
On February 23, representatives of the Murray and Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations (MLDRIN) and the NSW National Parks Association (NPA) signed an agreement for shared protection of the ecology of the Murray and Lower Darling areas.
Since the Howard Coalition government was elected in 1996 record numbers of women have entered parliament, yet women’s rights are under massive attack without so much as a murmur of opposition from the female Coalition MPs and very little outcry from the ALP.