Resistance has been actively challenging PM John Howards agenda at every step along the way from protesting his racist attacks on refugees and Muslims to leading student walkouts against the Iraq invasion in 2003 and the introduction of Work Choices in 2006. A defeat for the Howard government on November 24 will be a victory for all the movements that have defended workers rights and the environment and stood up to his pro-war policies.
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We have a plan to withdraw from Iraq, while Mr Howard doesnt with these words on October 14, ALP leader Kevin Rudd described the war on Iraq as one of five critical areas where the difference [between Labor and the Coalition] couldnt be clearer. He then went on to virtually ignore the Iraq war throughout the rest of the election campaign.
A lot of workers would have been shocked to read the report in the November 14 Melbourne Age about the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) ordering construction companies to remove union posters and signs and anything with the Eureka flag on it.
Climate change is the challenge of our generation and we need to do everything we can to stop it. What is our role as young people? How can we be most effective? After the Walk Against Warming rallies around the country, where young people came together in youth contingents, where to next for the youth climate movement?
Twenty-year-old Lismore resident Ben Cooper was awarded a Kids in Community award in June, for his work as a queer activist in the community. Cooper organised two equality rallies in Lismore for the same-sex marriage National Days of Action and is the founder of Lismore Activists for Same Sex Equality (LASSE). LASSE has recently been involved in a campaign against Regeneration, a Lismore Baptist church group that aims to convert young gays to heterosexuality.
History is in our hands
Climate change isn't going to go away — not after this election, and certainly not before I get the chance to vote! It is an issue of the future.
We have forced our government to acknowledge that climate change is a
Stuart Baanstra, a Community Action Against Homophobia (CAAH) activist, is going to court over refusing to sign the 2006 Census. His first hearing on November 6 resulted in a rescheduling of the hearing until November 27.
The Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC) aims to bring together existing social justice and environment groups to work cooperatively on climate-change activism. The hope is that a coherent and united youth voice on climate change will emerge.
Community concern over the Victorian state governments plan for a $3.1 billion desalination plant at Wonthaggi is growing following reports that the Labor government is forcibly acquiring properties around the proposed site. The local community and environmentalists have opposed the proposal as being environmentally damaging and the wrong solution to tackle water shortages.
There is no time to waste in the fight against climate change. The national Walk Against Warming (WAW) protests on November 10-11 mobilised thousands of people. In most major cities they were joined by sizeable youth blocs.
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