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The federal government’s $42 billion Nation Building and Jobs Plan stimulus package passed the senate on February 13 with the support of the Greens, Family First Senator Steve Fielding and independent Nick Xenophon.
The latest brutal attacks on Gaza have had a perverse effect on Israeli politics. Extreme right wing political parties have gained greater support in the recent Israeli elections.
In minutes released of its February 17 board meeting, the Reserve Bank of Australia flags that its cuts to official interest rates may slow. It seems that the financial gurus at the RBA are unhappy that their cuts to interest rates (passed on only in part by the banks to home-buyers, and even less to credit-card debtors), have failed to stimulate enough spending.
Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released on February 18 showed that retail sales increased by 0.8% (seasonally adjusted) in the December quarter.
Belching Out the Devil: global adventures with Coca-Cola
By Mark Thomas
Ebury Press, 2008
363 pages, $34.95 (pb)
On February 9, 40 students from Glasgow University occupied its computer science research building. This was just one in a series of university occupations by students across Britain — involving as many as 24 campuses at one point — in solidarity with the people of Gaza.
Resistance members set up an ‘Israeli military checkpoint’ outside Flinders Street train station to call on the state government to not renew Connex’s contract to run Melbourne’s train system.

As the world economy spirals down into its deepest crisis since the great depression, the writings of Karl Marx have made a return to the top seller lists in bookstores. In his native Germany, the sales of Marx’s works have trebled.

The key United Nations report used as the basis for climate change policies in many countries, including Australia, seriously underestimated the dangers of global warming, one of its leading compilers has warned.
The Last Albatross
By Ian Irvine
Simon & Schuster, 2008
383pages, $29.95
The below article is Abridged from . This strike action follows the successful actions of South African dockworkers, whose refusal to move Israeli goods resulted on February 6 in a ship carrying Israeli goods being unable to offload its cargo.
Warrick Jordan is a member of the Huon Valley Environment Centre in Tasmania and is one of the Triabunna 13 (13 forest activists being sued by logging giant Gunns' Ltd). Jordan spoke to Green Left Weekly’s Susan Austin about his activities and the relationship between forests and climate change.