Below is the text of the resolution of the
National Coalition for Change (CONALCAM) meeting held in Cochabamba on August 22-23. It is reprinted from Bolivia Rising, &http://bolivirarising.blogspot.com.
CONALCAM brings a together the United Union Confederation of Peasant Workers of Bolivia; the Confederation of Indigenous Peoples of Bolivia; the National Federation of Cooperative Miners; the Federation of Neighbourhood Councils of El Alto; the National Council of Ayllus and Markas of Qullasuyu; the National Federation of Bolivian Peasant Women Bartolina Sisa; and the National Confederation of Small and Micro Businesses.
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The University of Western Sydney Student Association (UWSSA) has launched a new campaign for better quality education, with speak-outs, information stalls and open forums that are drawing many students into action.
People are eating mainly bread, flour, milk powder and sugar, and deriving a huge proportion of their energy from these foods that cost the least but are going to fill people up and divert hunger, Julie Brimblecombe told ABC Radio Nationals The World Today on August 25.
On August 21, deputy PM Julia Gillard announced that the federal government would change how student services at universities are funded. However, there appears to be no intention to abolish the Voluntary Student Unionism (VSU) laws introduced by the former Howard government.
A Rudd government plan to punish parents dependent on welfare with up to three months loss of income if their children play truant has been condemned as elitist and out of touch by Tasmanian Aboriginal leader Michael Mansell.
Students from Melbourne’s Collingwood College protested on August 21 in defence of a student who was threatened with suspension for wearing a "Free Tibet" T-shirt.
Announcing on August 29 a decree to organise a referendum to be held on December 7 on the proposed new constitution, Bolivian President Evo Morales declared: “We must advance in the re-founding of Bolivia to guarantee a state for multiple ethnic groups.”
Among the crowd of some 2000 protesters in front of South Australia’s Parliament House on August 1, eco-activists in jeans and windcheaters mingled with people in Akubra hats and Driza-Bone jackets. Mentions of Labor Party Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, federal water minister Penny Wong and South Australian Premier Mike Rann drew sustained jeers.
An international campaign is underway in defence of 21 workers facing trial for their involvement in a labour dispute following the unfair dismissal of nine workers at the Fundimeca fan assembly plant in Valencia.
Peruvian President Alan Garcia suffered a major political setback on August 22 after Congress voted 66-29 in favour of repealing controversial presidential decrees that would have facilitated the privatisation of communal indigenous lands.
Teachers in Victoria have been dealt another blow, with greater powers being handed to the Victorian Institute of Teaching as part of a review of the VIT launched mid-2007.
The Queensland branch of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union has called statewide stop-work actions and rallies on September 12, the day Victorian CFMEU official Noel Washington faces an initial hearing in Geelong over charges brought by the Australian Building and Construction Commission.
On August 20, Uruguays sole union confederation, the Inter-union Plenary of Workers–National Convention of Workers (PIT-CNT), organised its first 24-hour general strike since the centre-left President Tabare Vasquez, from the Frente Amplio (FA), was elected in 2005.
Journalists at Fairfax publications walked off the job after mass meetings on August 28. The journalists, members of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA), struck for a pay increase and against the announced sacking of 550 staff from Australian and New Zealand Fairfax operations.
Under pressure from Iraqis opposed to the ongoing occupation of their country, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamil al Maliki released a statement on August 25 calling for the complete withdrawal of all foreign forces from Iraq by 2011.
In a breakthrough for the WA anti-uranium movement, Premier Alan Carpenter has promised to legislate to ban uranium mining in the state if his government is re-elected at the September 6 state poll.
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