Pip Hinman
What a momentous week we have come through! The biggest workers' rights protest in Australian history — nothing less! On November 15, at least 600,000 workers around the country took part in mass meetings, rallies and marches against
-
-
My first demonstration was an anti-Vietnam war march, but this one [on November 15] was the biggest I've ever seen. It wasn't just a union rally, it was a community rally. It reminded me of the 1970s before [former Labor Prime Minister Gough] Whitlam
-
Chris Spindler On November 15 we witnessed one of the biggest mobilisations of workers and their communities, supporters and families. At least 200,000 participated in the Melbourne rally and march against PM John Howard's IR laws, certainly the
-
Graham Matthews "We're very, very pleased at the turn out. You don't get those sorts of numbers unless there is a really deep concern in the community about what the government is proposing to do", George Wright, ACTU policy and communications
-
Robert Alcock, Sydney Thank you, thank you John Howard and Philip Ruddock for the new sedition laws that became the target of ridicule on November 13. Tears rolled — not from fear but from laughter — at the performances by some of the country's
-
The November 15 mass protest of hundreds of thousands of people at more than 300 venues around the country revealed the overwhelming opposition to the federal government's attacks on working people and trade unions — and that large numbers of
-
"The mood was excellent, and there's a much greater understanding out there about the issues than some people think. We need to put more industrial pressure on, have more demonstrations like this one, ongoing action to hit the bosses and the members
-
On November 28, 1820, Frederick Engels was born in Barmen-Elberfeld (now Wuppertal, Germany). The young Karl Marx's interest in political economy was sparked by reading Engels' 1843 work Outlines of a Critique of Political Economy. Engels and Marx
-
"November 15 revealed just how deep the concern about the government's anti-union laws is — not only among workers, but also among young people, the unemployed, pensioners and people on welfare. Millions are scared of what the Australian workplace
-
Dale Mills The charges against the terrorist suspects have nothing to do with the terror legislation that was rushed through parliament on November 3. Rather, the legislation gives the police greater scope to lay charges. According to the
-
Sue Bull, Geelong Nobody in Geelong can remember a rally that was bigger than the one on November 15. The unions estimate that up to 30,000 people rallied — that's one in seven Geelong residents. Every building worker and metalworker was there,
-
Sarah Stephen Addressing a Queensland state council meeting of the Liberal Party on November 12, PM John Howard said: "It is the responsibility, particularly of the leaders of the Islamic community, to ensure as best they can, with our cooperation,
-
John Pilger I was dropped at Paradiso, the last middle-class area before barrio La Vega, which spills into a ravine as if by the force of gravity. Storms were forecast, and people were anxious, remembering the mudslides that took 20,000 lives. "Why
-
We were pleased with our members' turn out on November 15. Not only the well-organised areas came out; there were contractors, retail workers and mail officers, and night shift workers who came straight from work to the rally, and they were still
-
Christine Rau I wasn't involved in the asylum seeker debate in 2001 when the government's actions on Tampa were, in their opinion, decisive in getting them re-elected. It was an accident of circumstance that my family was given a voice this past
-
Sedition It's all about choice, the multi-million dollar advertising tells us. Bargain with your employer, he will give you an interview and listen sympathetically to your pleas. You and the other several hundred of your comrades individually. He
-
Zoe Kenny Young people joined the November 15 national day of action against the industrial relations laws determined to not only lampoon PM John Howard, but also highlight that young workers will suffer under these laws. The socialist youth
-
The tremendous display, on November 15-16, of mass opposition to the Howard government's attacks on workers and trade unions showed the deep desire of working people across the country to resist — and stop — the Coalition's attacks. Up to
-
Sue Bolton, Melbourne In the largest nationwide demonstration for workers' rights, up to 600,000 people mobilised across the country on November 15 to oppose the federal government's unprecedented attack on the entire work force. The following day,
-
Doug Lorimer In an opinion piece in the November 14 Sydney Morning Herald, federal Attorney General Philip Ruddock made an attempt to defend his government's new sedition laws. These have been included as a series of proposed amendments to the
-
"This protest, with its terrific turn out, was a huge slap in the face to Howard. The solidarity among unions and with community organisations was inspiring, and on the basis of that solidarity Howard can be defeated. "The turnout by WA Maritime
-
Sarah Stephen Following the November 8 arrest of 18 men accused of "conspiring to do an act in preparation for a terrorist act", the media campaign against them has escalated to a witch-hunt. Fairfax columnist Peter Hartcher declared in the
-
Karen Fletcher, Melbourne Five cramped busloads of workers from the Ford factory at Broadmeadows were among the quarter of a million people who flooded inner-city Melbourne on November 15 to rally against the federal government's radical attack on
-
Anna Migdal From November 28 to December 9, the first meeting of the 154 signatories to the Kyoto Protocol will take place in Montreal, Canada. Prime Minister John Howard and US President George Bush, who will not commit to reducing fossil fuel
-
Jon Lamb On October 15, a band of angry villagers and former pro-integration militia from East Timor crossed the border from the Indonesian province of West Timor into the East Timorese province of Oecuessi and attacked two startled East Timorese
News
-
Barry Healy, Perth A Perth demolition company has been fined just $40,000 in the case of an industrial accident that left a young worker permanently paralysed. In November 2003, a director of Murphy Demolition cut a safety pin off a "quick hitch"
-
Leslie Richmond, Adelaide On November 17, protesters rallied against the visit to Adelaide of US war secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who arrived to attend the annual Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN). The AUSMIN talks, at
-
Doug Lorimer The Australia West Papua Association (AWPA) has called on the Australian government to follow the Dutch government's example and commission a study into Australia's involvement in the 1969 UN-organised "act of free choice" in West
-
How true "And so I want to thank you for being a good host. It's not easy to host all these countries, particularly not easy to host, uhh, perhaps, me." — Emperor George Bush II, speaking at the Summit of the Americas, in Buenos Aires, November
-
Sue Bolton New Zealand unionists in Auckland and Wellington joined unionists in 22 other countries on November 15 to protest outside Australian embassies against the Australian government's attacks on workers. Two Unite organisers, Simon
-
Kerry Smith, Sydney The Australian Capital Territory Network Opposing War (ACTNOW) has called a protest rally in Canberra on November 28, the day the Howard government's Anti-Terrorism Bill is expected to be passed by the Senate. Endorsing the
-
SYDNEY — NSW Police has had to introduce new methods to control their officers during high-speed car chases, according to the November 11 Sydney Morning Herald. An investigation by the newspaper found that 62 people have died since 1994 as a
-
Kamala Emanuel, Hobart "No police state" and "No to Howard's terror laws" were the mobilising slogans of a civil liberties rally held on November 12 and attended by 800 people. Organised by the Tasmanian Council of Civil Liberties, the rally was
World
-
Bernie Stephens, Harare Army troops were used to retain control of streets of central Harare after demonstrators mobilised in support of a Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) day of action against poverty on November 8. Police were taken off
-
Rohan Pearce "Tonight, Iraqi security and coalition forces kicked off offensive operations to eliminate the terrorist and insurgent safe haven in Fallujah and to restore control to the Iraqi government", US General George Casey told a press
-
Federico Fuentes Opening a newspaper or turning on the TV, it is not hard to understand why many Venezuelans talk about the ongoing "media war" in their country. If you believed everything the media said you would think the Venezuelan president was
-
On November 3, Friends of the Earth (FoE) responded to the Company Law Reform Bill, tabled in the House of Lords the previous day, by accusing the government of putting the interests of big business before those of people and the environment. FoE,
-
Margarita Windisch, Caracas Marcela Maspero, national coordinator of the National Union of Workers (UNT), told national newspaper Dario Vea that the UNT has reached consensus on reactivating 700 closed enterprises across Venezuela as part of its
-
International trade union solidarity website Labourstart.org has just launched LabourStart TV. The website offers TV news and videos on union struggles across the globe. Coverage of Australia's November 15 protest actions against the federal
-
Doug Lorimer A claim by US intelligence officials that they possess "strong circumstantial" evidence that Iran has a secret nuclear weapons program were dismissed on November 14 by US nuclear weapons expert David Albright. According to the
-
The Venezuelan-owned and US-based fuel refiner and distributor Citgo will begin distributing discounted heating oil to poor US communities next week. Rafael Ramirez, Venezuela's minister of energy and petroleum, made the announcement yesterday,
-
Max Lane The Indonesian government's policy, announced last month, of giving a A$40 handout to people on an income of less than $25 per month as compensation for rises in fuel prices was only due to last for a few weeks, yet was supposed to help
-
Graham Matthews Sun Xiaodi, a former miner at the Gansu No. 72 Uranium Mine in Chinese-controlled Tibet, remains "missing" over six months after he was abducted, following an interview with an AFP journalist in Beijing on April 28. Sun had
-
Raj Patel, Durban It was an ordinary mugging. The bastard had a gun, a swagger, a gang and didn't seem to want me to take his photo when he was roughing someone up. So he came up to me and told me to hand over the camera. Timid as I am, and not
-
Margarita Windisch, Caracas Three months after the takeover of the local metropolitan police station by the poor community of 23 Enero, in the west of Caracas, the place is as busy as a beehive. The Coordinadora Simon Bolivar (CSB), a militant
-
Speaking to a meeting at the Havana University on November 17, Cuban President Fidel Castro rejected allegations of Cuban involvement with Iran in the alleged manufacturing of nuclear and biological weapons. He said Cuba is not interested in
-
The word "McLibel" has been added to Macmillan's online dictionary, defined as "a British court action for libel (the illegal act of writing false statements about someone) filed by the McDonald's corporation against environmental activists". In
-
Kim Bullimore On November 17, an Israeli military court acquitted of all charges the captain accused of the manslaughter of 13-year-old student Iman Al-Hams. Captain R, whose identity was suppressed by the Israeli military, was also charged with
Culture
-
Founding Myths: Stories that Hide Our Patriotic PastBy Ray RaphaelThe New Press, 2005354 pages, $51 (hb) REVIEW BY PHIL SHANNON Paul Revere must be the most important person in the history of the United States. His midnight ride from Boston in
-
city of the long weary revolutioncity with much bread and no brickscity of dancing torsos and all night communistsof police who read and kiss on dutya place where children form conga linesin liberated palaceswhere millions chanted dancedalong the
-
The Secret Inquisition: Guardians of the Church — Looks at the Catholic Church's controversial positions on communism and AIDS. SBS, Friday, November 25, 2pm. Message Stick: The Future of the Tent Embassy — Set up in 1972, what does the future
-
Hard Ground: Unions in the PilbaraBy Bradon EllemPilbara Mineworkers Union, 2004Available from the CFMEU mining and energy division, Sydney79 pages, $20 (pb) REVIEW BY JIM MCILROY As the federal Coalition government prepares to launch the biggest
-
Amendment to TerrorWritten by Kevin SummersDirected by Bec RussellStarring Fabienne Parr, Nigel Johnston, Matthew Molony, Felicity Soper & Christopher ElliottLa Mama, Carlton Courthouse, MelbourneWednesday-Saturday, November 30-December 17Email
-
Resistance Art in Canada has dedicated its 2006 calendar to the memory of Jabra Ibrahim Jabra (1920-1994), the pioneer Palestinian artist, novelist, poet and critic. The calendar includes 12 artworks by Palestinian artists from different corners of