Naarm/Melbourne

  • Indigenous childcare service fights for survival

    Yappera Children’s Services Co-operative, an Indigenous childcare and pre-school centre in Thornbury, faces closure due to the state and federal governments’ refusal to provide the $150,000 required for essential plumbing repairs.

  • Students demand sacking of VC

    On July 26, around 200 angry students and staff from the University of Melbourne (MU) arts faculty and the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) protested the university’s butchering of its arts courses. The protest was in response to the university’s decision to ram through the “Melbourne Model”, an elitist, US-style graduate system aimed at reducing student/staff numbers and subject choices, which would create a two-tiered education system.

  • Tamil 'terrorism' suspects granted bail

    Two Tamil men, Sivarajah Yathavan and Aruran Vinayagamoorthy, who were arrested in Melbourne in May under the “anti-terrorism” laws, were granted bail by Justice Bernard Bongiorno on July 17.

  • Labour conference discusses mobilisation

    The 10th national Labour History Conference on June 4-6 delved into the labour movement’s past, but also featured interesting debates about present-day concerns.

  • AMWU elections: the left cleans up

    In last month’s elections in the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU), the Workers’ Rights team took all positions against a ticket led by an alliance between the union’s print and vehicle divisions. Some Workers’ Rights candidates received over 80% of the vote. In the Victorian branch, where most positions were strongly contested, 40% of members voted.

  • Dean Mighell: Workers need the right to strike

    Electrical Trades Union Victorian secretary and union militant Dean Mighell was forced to resign from the ALP after a tape recording of an internal union meeting became public. Labor leader Kevin Rudd and his industrial relations spokesperson Julia Gillard slammed Mighell as a union “thug” for swearing about bosses and talking up a pattern-bargaining agreement in which ETU members received a particularly good deal. Green Left Weekly’s Sue Bolton spoke to Mighell about Labor under Rudd, its backflips on IR and how the unions can defend workers’ rights.

  • Meeting rejects US military exercises

    On June 6, 120 people attended a public meeting, organised by Peace Convergence Melbourne, against Talisman Sabre 2007. Involving 14,000 US and 12,000 Australian troops, Talisman Sabre will be the largest joint military training exercise in Australia’s history. Areas in central Queensland and the Northern Territory (including the Great Barrier Reef and Indigenous heritage sites) will be centre stage.

  • Demand justice on World Refugee Day

    World Refugee Day will be marked in Melbourne by a rally and march to demand justice for all refugees and the scrapping of the horrific new detention centre being built on Christmas Island.

  • Protests highlight key climate issues

    Activists marked World Environment Day (WED) — June 5 — with a protest in Bourke Street Mall that highlighted corporate plunder of the planet.

  • Israel's deadly weapons keep killing in Lebanon

    A new report on the effects of the cluster bombs used against Lebanon by Israel during its July-August invasion last year was launched at the Northcote Town Hall on May 29. Around 100 people attended, including members of the Lebanese community, politicians, local councilors and activists.

  • Meeting calls for Connex's sacking

    On May 31, 300 people packed the Wesley Uniting Church in Melbourne’s CBD for a public meeting organised by the LinkUp Melbourne campaign for the city’s train and tram systems to be put back under public ownership when the contracts with the current private operators expires in November.