On October 6, the Reserve Bank of Australia lifted the official interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 3.25%. Explaining the bank’s decision, RBA governor Glenn Stevens said “the risk of serious economic contraction in Australia” had now “passed”.
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Malaysia’s plantation sector should come under the ambit of the Rural and Regional Development Ministry and be accorded the same privileges and benefits that settlers covered by the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) enjoy, the Malaysian Socialist Party (PSM) said.
The flooding in the Philippines after Typhoon Ketsana has displaced hundreds of thousands. The left-wing Power of the Masses Party (PML) is calling for donations to help in relief work (see below for details).
Emory Douglas, former “Minister for Culture” in the US Black Panther Party, spoke at Brisbane's Institute of Modern Art on October 1. Douglas is now a part of the Artist Rights Society, and remains a committed activist artist and campaigner for social justice and empowerment.
Outspoken anti-war and democracy campaigner Malalai Joya was suspended from the Afghan parliament in 2007 for speaking out against corruption and the domination of the country by warlords. US current affairs weradio show Democracy Now has called her “the bravest woman in Afghanistan”.
Below is an abridged statement from Joya to Australian anti-war campaigners. The statement was read out at the national protests against the Afghanistan war on October 7.
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The rise of the religious right in Australia and New Zealand can be linked to the development of organisations in the United States that emerged in the 1970s.
The people of Honduras continue to demonstrate against the illegal coup that overthrew elected President Manuel “Mel” Zelaya on June 28. October 5 marked the 100th day of struggle and 100 days without Mel, the real president of Honduras.
Abortion is still a criminal offence in Queensland, but most Australians, including Queenslanders, are pro-choice.
You might be aware there has recently been a breakthrough in the treatment of cervical cancer, the second biggest cancer killer of women in the world. A vaccine has been developed that has the potential to save many lives, as well as reduce the dreadful suffering that cervical cancer causes women.
When Artem Samsurov first came to Brisbane in 1911, the Russian exile noted that the poor did not eat horsemeat like they did in his native country and he wondered whether this did indeed make it true that Australia was a “working man’s paradise”? A diet that was no stranger, however, to rabbit, and bread and lard, suggested otherwise.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reiterating Washington’s support on October 5 for the Arias Plan to resolve the Honduran crisis, which she hoped would “get Honduras back on the path to a more sustainable democracy”. But the plan would see Honduran President Manuel Zelaya return to his post and sit out the rest of his term without any real power.
The following statement is from the Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union (LHMU) Queensland.
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