Naarm/Melbourne

  • Unionists protest at AIRC

    MELBOURNE — On October 5, 80 people from a range of trade unions protested outside the new Australian Industrial Relations Commission headquarters in Exhibition Street. The opening was attended by federal workplace relations minister Kevin Andrews. Protest organiser Dave Kerin from Union Solidarity told the rally that workers will fight the Howard government’s unfair laws all the way, and that bad laws needed to be broken.

  • Teachers challenge union leaders

    Members of the Victorian branch of the Australian Education Union (AEU) will have a choice in this month’s union elections. The current leadership is being challenged by the Teachers Alliance.

  • Ocalan abduction set precedent for CIA

    The 1999 abduction of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan by Turkey’s National Intelligence Agency (MIT) while he was in Kenya set a precedent for the CIA’s post-9/11 practice of “extraordinary rendition”, Ocalan’s lawyers told the first Australian Conference on the Political and Human Rights Dimensions of the Kurdish Question, held in Melbourne on October 3.

  • Anti-war rally

    Around 250 people gathered on September 23 to voice their anger at the ongoing occupation of Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon by the imperialist “coalition of the killing”. A letter to the crowd on behalf of Jack Thomas’s family said: “If Jack had not been targeted it would be someone else. This is why solidarity with the Muslim community is so important right now.” The rally marched to Trades Hall, where a fundraiser for Doctors for Iraq and Human Appeal International was held later that afternoon.

  • Book ban

    Academics may be given limited access to books banned under anti-terrorism laws, federal attorney-general Philip Ruddock said on October 2. His comments came after University of Melbourne vice-chancellor Glyn Davis wrote to Ruddock seeking clarification on the laws.

  • Venezuela envoy urges resistance to 'the empire'

    Nelson Davila, Venezuela’s charge d’affaires in Australia, addressed a 100-strong meeting on September 22 organised by the Socialist Alliance and the Lebanese Communist Party in Australia (LCPA), held at the Lebanese Cultural Centre in Brunswick.

  • FMLN activist speaks

    On September 23, Jayme Magana, a young activist in El Salvador’s Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, addressed a community meeting about the oppressive conditions in El Salvador. A short documentary by Salvador Castro about political struggles in the country was also shown.

  • Academic threatened with the sack

    RMIT University academic Robert Austin is facing the sack for rescheduling classes on August 10 so that students could attend a protest against the government’s “voluntary student unionism” (VSU) legislation.

  • Call to close Hazelwood power station

    On August 19, young environmental activists led a different sort of demonstration against global warming. Juliana Qian and Lachlan Campbell-Type, with a small group of supporters, thanked commuters at train stations for using public transport.

  • ACTU changes date for national day of action

    At its August 24 executive meeting, the Australian Council of Trade Unions decided to postpone the planned national day of action against the federal government's anti-union laws to November 15.

  • Student anger strikes Melbourne

    Up to 4000 predominantly high school students careened through the streets of Melbourne in a chaotic and energetic display of anger over the war on Iraq on March 26. Even before the speaking platform began the

  • RMIT M1 activists target Shell

    On Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology's city campus, the Global Action club, which is building the May 1 (M1) protest at RMIT, is campaigning against the corporatisation of education.