A landmark Federal Court hearing for 96 Western Australian construction workers that begins on October 24 is the most dramatic demonstration yet of the impact of the Howard governments draconian IR laws.
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More than 400 people participated in around 65 workshops and 10 plenary sessions to discuss a myriad of national and international campaigns against imperialism and neoliberalism at the Latin America and Asia Pacific International Solidarity Forum held at Victorian Trades Hall and the RMIT on October 11-14. The participants included 33 activists and leaders from peoples movements and political parties in 20 countries, the most diverse left gathering hosted in Australia for years.
US President George Bush has opposed US Senate legislation to fund health care for the nuclear-test-affected Marshallese. Sixty-seven US nuclear bombs were detonated in the Marshall Islands between 1946 and 1958.
On October 12, PM John Howard announced his plan to hold a referendum to alter the preamble to the Australian constitution to include an acknowledgment of the original inhabitants of Australia. This is a departure from Howard’s historic position against “symbolic” gestures of reconciliation — a position that in the past has earned him the ire of Indigenous groups, who in 2000 literally turned their backs on Howard when he refused to apologise for previous governments’ complicity in the horrendous policies that led to the Stolen Generations.
Tasmanian high school, college and university students are planning to walk out of class on November 1 to protest federal environment minister Malcom Turnbull’s approval of the Gunns’ pulp mill.
In his frantic bid to secure a fifth consecutive election victory for the Coalition, Prime Minister John Howard has fired up the amp and is loudly proclaiming his message that growth and increased private wealth will solve all problems. Howard is presenting his message pump-primed by a lavish promise of personal tax cuts (largely for the already wealthy) and proclamations that economic growth can proceed unhindered (in spite of growing environmental concerns and increasing inequality) like a spruiker at a country sideshow: enjoy the fairy floss and dont mind the smell of bullshit.
Youre only killing a man, revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara said in a school in La Higuera, before he was shot. Forty years later, in that exact spot, among the fog of the Bolivian forest and darkness of night, flags representing social movements from all over Latin America waved in the wind and their bearers danced together until sunrise. That night of October 7 we remembered Che and the struggles of that time, through speeches and song, and we thought about the future as the continent turns red with the idealism, humanism, rejection of neoliberalism, and collective ownership of resources that Che had talked of and fought for.
Writing in an Age of Silence
By Sara Paretsky
Verso, 2007
138 pages, $39.95 (hb)
By Sara Paretsky
Verso, 2007
138 pages, $39.95 (hb)
On October 13, 450 supporters of the Burmese democracy movement, including members of Sydneys Burmese community, trade unionists, and members of the Greens and the Socialist Alliance, rallied in Martin Place.
Despite Chinas spectacular GDP growth of nearly 10% per year since 1978 and despite Beijings claim that the country remains on a socialist course in the eight years to 2005, workers wages as a proportion of GDP plunged from 53% to 41.4%.
On October 19 Students Against the Pulp Mill handed out fliers advertising a student walkout against the Gunns pulp mill. The fliers were handed outside Hobart ANZ bank , in Elisabeth Mall. Gunns is relying on ANZ to finance its pulp mill in Tasmanias Tamar Valley. The walk out is organised for November 1, will gather for a rally at 12.30pm at Parliament House lawns.
If you wish to get involved with the student walk out call Gabby on 0400 91 7753.
Sustainable Living for Dummies
By Michael Grosvenor
Wiley Publishing Australia, 2007
320 pages, $39.95 (pb)
By Michael Grosvenor
Wiley Publishing Australia, 2007
320 pages, $39.95 (pb)
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