ADELAIDE With just two days' notice, 80 people gathered on October 7 to voice their opposition to federal environment minister Malcolm Turnbull's approval of the Gunns pulp mill in Tasmania's Tamar Valley. The rally, called by the Greens, was addressed by Sarah Hanson Young, the Greens' lead Senate candidate in South Australia. Greens MLC Mark Parnell also spoke, condemning the South Australian Rann Labor government for its failure to perform an environmental impact study for a new pulp mill at Penola in the state's south-east. Kris Hanna, independent MLC, and Ruth Russell of the Democrats also spoke. Socialist Alliance activist Ruth Ratcliffe called on those present to continue the campaign against the pulp mill and for a massive turnout at the Walk Against Warming protests.
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GLW #727 reported that 120 people marched in Cairns in solidarity with Burma on October 3. The protest took place on October 4.
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%.
Claims by immigration minister Kevin Andrews that African refugees are less capable of resettling in Australia than other migrant groups have been met with widespread condemnation by welfare, community and human rights organisations.
Andy Newman, an editor of British blog Socialistunity.com, spoke to Salma Yaqoob for Green Left Weekly. Yaqoob is the national vice-chair of anti-war coalition Respect the Unity Coalition, as well as a leader of Birminghams Stop the War Coalition and a Birmingham city councillor.
On October 9, Prime Minister John Howard declared that David Pearce, an Australian Army trooper killed by a Taliban-planted roadside bomb in Afghanistan, had died for a just cause while fighting brutal terrorism. Pearces death was only the second combat loss for the 950 Australian soldiers participating in the US-led occupation of Afghanistan. A Special Air Service sergeant died in Afghanistan in February 2002 when his vehicle hit a landmine.
In an opinion piece printed in the October 16 Washington Post, 12 former US Army captains who served in Iraq between 2003 and 2006 argued that the US should either reinstate compulsory military service the draft or immediately withdraw all its troops from Iraq.
During the upsurge of working-class and liberation struggles that followed the 1917 Russian Revolution, socialists from all continents joined in founding a world party, the Communist International, or Comintern.
Some 130,000 post office workers in the Communication Workers Union (CWU) have brought mail deliveries in Britain to a standstill by holding two 48-hour strikes over pay and working conditions. The strikes, which began on October 5 and October 8 respectively, are over management plans to axe 40,000 jobs, to close workers’ final salary pension scheme, to offer a below inflation pay rise, and to tear up all existing national and local agreements on working hours.
Domestic fallout managed by ASIO/FBI -Australian Government interference with analyst’s economic means, privacy, family, home, and correspondence.
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