746

Ten years on: MUA still fighting for justice

At 11pm on April 7, 1998, Patrick Stevedores locked 2000 waterside workers out of their jobs. Following months of speculation, the “leasing” of Webb dock in Melbourne to the National Farmers Federation in late January and the abortive “Dubai affair” — where former soldiers were trained in secret in Dubai as strike-breaking scabs — Patrick opted for a frontal assault on the workers and their union.

Bastards, the lot of them

Fridge Magnets are Bastards: An A-Z Rant About Annoying People & Useless Things in the Modern World
By Mark Dapin
HarperCollins, 2007, 262 pp, $24.99 (pb)

First Fossil Fools\' Day in Australia

Fossil Fools’ Day, an international day of action on April 1 around climate change, was marked by protest actions across Australia involving up to 500 young people demanding an end to the use of fossil fuels and an increase in renewable energy sources.

GLW publication schedule

We are taking a break from production to attend the Green Left Weekly Climate Change — Social Change conference (see ad on page 5). The next issue of GLW will be dated April 23.

Carbon offset schemes mostly hot air

A new British government “kitemark” suggests that most carbon offset schemes are flawed, but fails to address the more fundamental problem of paying others to clean up after us.

Venezuela: A party in transition for the transition to socialism

Venezuela will not be the same after the formation of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) — whose founding congress concluded in March. Nor will Latin America.

NSW teachers to take action against staffing plan

Canterbury-Bankstown public school teachers will demonstrate outside Premier Morris Iemma’s Lakemba office on April 10 to express their outrage at the state Labor government’s refusal to re-negotiate a state-wide schools staffing agreement.

Bolivia: Literacy drive progresses

According to a March 20 Prensa Latina report, Bolivia has honoured the second anniversary of the national literacy campaign that has so far taught 77% of its illiterate population to read and write, using the Cuban program \"Yes, I Can\". Since it

Peru: Arrests for participating in Bolivarian conference

Human rights group Rights Action, in a March 22 statement, said it was “extremely concerned about the current violations of fundamental human rights in Peru, particularly the right to freedom of opinion and expression and the right of peaceful assembly and association”.

NT intervention \'entrenching racism\'

At least 100 Indigenous people were arrested in Alice Springs during “military-style” police raids on the evening of April 3, according to an April 4 media release issued jointly by Vince Forrester, an elder of the Mutitjulu community at the base of Uluru, Greg Eatock from the Sydney-based Aboriginal Rights Coalition and Marlene Hodder from the Alice-based Intervention Rollback Working Group.

Chevron owes Ecuador billions for pollution

According to an April 3 Reuters report, an independent environmental expert told a court in Ecuador that US oil giant Chevron should pay US$7 billion to $16 billion in compensation for environmental damage in the country. The lawsuit, which peasants

CFMEU continues wage campaign

The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) campaign to secure wage rises for construction workers across the country has attracted fierce criticism from the federal government, which is demanding the union apply “restraint” in order to keep a lid on inflation.