Telstra has once again started to sack staff. The communications union fears up to 2000 workers will be let go by mid-year. This makes a total of close to 12,000 job losses over the four years since CEO Sol Trujillo took the helm.
Analysis
The successful April 18 Stop the Sell-Offs! public meeting of the Sydney Power to the People coalition (pictured) gave the campaign against the privatisation of NSW public services a strong boost.
On April 21, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd finally conceded that “it’s inevitable that Australia … will be dragged into recession”.
When an asylum seeker vessel exploded on April 16 while being taken to Christmas Island, killing five people, many of the critically injured were first transported to an offshore oil rig before being transferred to hospitals on the mainland.
An April 28 mass protest called by six national building industry unions against the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) in Melbourne has received full support from the Victorian Trades Hall Council (VTHC).
The following article is abridged from a speech given by Ian Angus, associate editor of Socialist Voice www.socialistvoice.ca in Canada, and founding member of the Ecosocialist International Network.
The speech was delivered at the final session of the World at a crossroads Conference in Sydney, Australia, April 12.
Sometimes you have to hand it to capitalism. It’s sheer magic the way the system takes promising concepts, hands them over to the market and turns them into howling social and environmental disasters.
On June 13, rallies around Australia will launch a new grassroots climate campaign for 100% renewable energy by 2020.
The article below is abridged from the speech delivered by M. Saraswathy, deputy chairperson of the Socialist Party of Malaysia, to the final plenary of the World at a Crossroads conference. The conference, hosted by Green Left Weekly, was held in Sydney over April 10-12.
A medical professional from the Sunrise Health Service has attacked the Rudd government for continuing with the NT intervention policy. Instead of closing the gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal health outcomes, the intervention has made Aboriginal people less healthy, she says.
Every week it seems as if a new law in NSW is passed which rolls back civil liberties. This time it is “anti-bikie” gang laws which, despite assurances, can be used against any sort of organisation, including activist or pressure groups. Other states have said they may copy the laws.
At an April 7 combined delegates and shop stewards meeting, 500 members from the Building Industry Group (BIG) unions decided in a unanimous vote to hold a mass protest on April 28.
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