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On January 12, community group Climate Action Hobart launched its document Ten Steps for a Safe Climate — Tasmania’s contribution to preventing dangerous climate change, which was developed over the previous year with input from industry experts, scientists, climate activists and the general community.

Howard Zinn, an activist and author for half a century and probably the best-known voice of the US left, died on January 27 at the age of 87.

Despite rumours of a council ban, the annual January 26 Invasion Day rally and march from Parliament House to Musgrave Park went ahead, as it has done for more than 30 years.
The following statement was released on January 26 by Civil Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), which is part of the National Resistance Front Against the Coup (FNRG), on the protests planned for the following day against the inauguration of “president” Porfirio Lobo Sosa. It is reprinted from Honduras Resists.

Alistair Hulett died at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow on January 28. The obituary published below was complied by Links, the international journal of socialist renewal. More information on Hulett and his career can be found at .

Rail commuters are the latest victims of the Anna Bligh state Labor government’s asset sale madness.
To give blood in Australia, it is first necessary to answer a lot of questions. Some make sense. They range from recent illness to cholesterol. Some are invasive and confronting. One question asks: “Within the past 12 months have you had male to male sex?”
The 157th anniversary of the birth of Cuban hero and independence fighter Jose Marti was celebrated on January 29 at an event organised by the Consulate General of Cuba.
Chain store Roger David has been selling offensive T-shirts with pictures of naked women bound or gagged with cloth over their mouths. Other shirts available for sale online have slogans on them such as “It’s not rape, it’s surprise sex”, and “Your princess is my little slut”.
On January 29, woodchipping giant Gunns Limited has dropped its law suits against the last four defendants in the “Gunns 20” case and agreed to pay the four $155,088 for legal costs.
Although New Zealand, like Australia, has not been as badly affected by the global economic crisis as the US or Europe, workers are facing hardship.
The Men Who Killed Qantas: Greed, Lies and Crashes and How They Destroyed the Reputation of the World’s Safest Airline By Matthew Benns, William Heinemann, 2009, 307 pp, $34.95 (pb)