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Chants of, “Hey Brisbane, listen up; the cleaners are standing up!” and “Caruso workers´ rights, worth fighting for!” rang through the Brisbane CBD on June 15, as 60 cleaners, members of the Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union, marched from the LHMU office to the offices of Caruso Cleaning.

On June 13, 100 students and staff rallied in front of the administration building at Queensland University of Technology’s Gardens Point campus to protest the suspension of two QUT academics, Dr Gary MacLennan and Dr John Hookham, on charges of misconduct.

LaborStart.org reports that on June 7 Mikhail Chesalin, chairperson of the local Dockers Union of Russia in Kaliningrad, was savagely stabbed and beaten outside the union office. He was stabbed numerous times in the spine and severely beaten about the head. His assailants left him lying face-down, unconscious, in a pool of blood. Chesalin’s colleagues believe that the attack was orchestrated by Vladimir Kalinichenko, the general director of Kaliningrad Sea Commercial Port, where the dockworkers’ union is currently running an organising campaign. Kalinichenko has tried to break up union events by sending his personal “security” forces, together with local thugs, to spy on and intimidate workers. Visit http://www.labourstart.org for more information.

Wherever President George Bush went in Europe this June, whether he was meeting with G8 leaders, Pope Benedict, presidents or opposition leaders of NATO allies, or rightist officials in the former socialist countries, he provided an excellent reason for the people to come out in the streets, often in massive numbers.

The recent storms that devastated much of the NSW Central Coast and the Hunter Valley were described by some as a mini cyclone. The fierce gales led to dramatic floods — the most severe since the 1970s, the deaths of several people and the beaching of a coal freighter on a Newcastle reef.