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Some 100,000 protesters flooded Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square on May 3 to call for the ouster of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. But after surviving three no-confidence votes in parliament a few days later, it appeared that Olmert would hang on.
Well-known left-wing academic Dr Gary MacLennan and his Queensland University of Technology colleague John Hookham are facing possible suspension or dismissal without pay on charges of “straight misconduct” over their public criticism of a PhD project approved of by the QUT ethics committee.
The National Emissions Trading Taskforce is due to present some sort of design scheme for an Australian national emissions trading scheme in the second half of 2007, and PM John Howard has announced a task group to look at how Australia could participate in the global market.
Nine hundred police were used in simultaneous raids across Berlin, Hamburg, Bremen and other cities on May 9 as part of a pre-emptive strike against anti-G8 protests planned for June 6-8. Some 100,000 protesters are expected to demonstrate against the summit, which will be held in the northern seaside resort of Heiligendamm. The G8 draws together eight of the world’s largest industrialised powers — the US, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Russia and Canada.
“Anyone who says this camp is being built for refugees is talking nonsense”, union activist and former leader of the 1985 SEQEB dispute Bernie Neville told a Socialist Alliance meeting of around 25 people on May 9. Neville recently returned from working on the construction of the secret new detention centre on Christmas Island, dubbed “Australia’s Guantanamo Bay”.
The proposed Anvil Hill coalmine in NSW is rapidly becoming a central battleground in the fight against climate change.
Max Lane spoke to Avelino Coelho, general secretary of the Socialist Party of Timor (PST) about East Timor’s presidential election, the second round of which was held on May 9.
The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) will be holding a trivia competition at 7pm on June 1 at its Lidcombe offices (12 Railway Street) to raise funds in support of sacked union delegate Barry Hemsworth.
As PM John Howard prepares to host the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit (APEC) in Sydney in September — to which US President George Bush and around 21 world leaders have been invited — a debate has opened over tactics for protests against the summit.
In the May 3 elections to the Scottish parliament, the Scottish National Party (SNP) won 47 seats out of a total of 129 — a rise of 20 seats compared to the 2003 election. Labour lost four seats, emerging with a total of 46; the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats lost one seat apiece, winning 17 and 16 seats respectively. The results mean that for the first time in Scottish political history, the SNP won more seats that any other party, although not enough to command a working majority in parliament.
A high-speed rail network powered by 100% renewables would eliminate greenhouse gas emissions produced by long-distance air travel in eastern Australia. Based on a rapid implementation of the French TGV system, Matthew Wright from Beyond Zero Emissions, wants Adelaide, Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane to be linked in this visionary project.
On April 29, eight solidarity groups from across Europe adopted a Public Appeal of International Lawyers issued in December that calls on the US government to honour its responsibility towards the Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange. Used during the Vietnam War, this dioxin-rich defoliant is still seriously contaminating pockets of Vietnam’s environment and food chain, with devastating human consequences.