Victorian TAFE teacher and student Tashara Roberts released the open letter below on May 29.
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Dear Mr Baillieu,
I would like to tell you my story. I am of English, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent. I had an abusive childhood; my parents divorced when I was about 12 years old and we had moved around a lot until I was about 15. I went to 5 different primary schools and 2 different high schools.
Analysis
The Sydney Stop the War Coalition released the statement below on May 29.
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Foreign minister Bob Carr’s decision on May 29 to expel the Syrian Charge d’Affairs is lock step with NATO countries doing the same. It can only be read as the Australian government condoning steps towards overt foreign military intervention in Syria.
The open letter below was released on May 29.
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There have been many public statements made about WikiLeaks and its editor-in-chief Julian Assange that are factually inaccurate.
For example, Prime Minister Julia Gillard: "It's illegal." Attorney General Nicola Roxon: "He fled Sweden" and the media generally: "Assange is charged/facing charges" (in relation to Swedish sex allegations).
Australian Greens Senator Scott Ludlam released the statement below on May 31.
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Around the country today we’re coming together to demand action from the Australian government to protect an Australian citizen from prosecution and from persecution.
Yesterday’s verdict in the UK Supreme Court provides for another delay, another fortnight of legal limbo. It is another two weeks in which the important work of this publishing organisation stays on hold.
Who really runs this country? The announcement by the federal government that it has struck its first Enterprise Migration Agreement with the world's richest woman Gina Rinehart reveals just how eager our governments are to serve the mining millionaires.
Youth unemployment in Kwinana, in suburban Perth, is at 26.4%. So why the skills shortage?
The 2012 Resistance conference, in Adelaide July 20-22, will feature international guests including from CLASSE in Quebec (the largest and most radical student organisation leading massive student strikes); the Socialist Party of Malaysia (hugely involved in the Bersih democracy uprising); and from the brave Palestinian People's Party.
The Socialist Alliance released the statement below on May 29.
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Training for young people and permanent residency for migrant workers: Not the 457 visa rip off!
Socialist Alliance statement May 29, 2012
The announcement by Immigration Minister Chris Bowen on May 25 that the Gillard Labor government has struck its first Enterprise Migration Agreement with mining billionaire Gina Rinehart reveals just how eager this government is to serve the mining millionaires.
The Socialist Alliance Queensland state conference was held at the Brisbane Activist Centre on May 19, attended by more than 40 members and supporters. Themed "Towards a Socialist Australia", the conference discussed rebuilding the socialist movement in Australia and in Queensland, in the framework of a rise in international struggles for radical change.
Peter Boyle, SA national co-convenor, set the scene by challenging the movement to re-imagine socialism in the new period of international crisis, beginning with the polarisation in a Greece faced with economic disaster.
Planning has started for the Resistance National Conference, to be held this year in Adelaide, South Australia, over July 20-22 at the University of Adelaide.
With the Arab Spring in the Middle East, anti-austerity protests across Europe and the Occupy movement in the US, last year was a year in which people’s movements around the world stood up to take centre stage in world politics. The theme of this year’s conference, “A Time of Revolution”, was inspired by these uprisings.
Election pundit Peter "Mumble" Brent has accurately summed up Paul Howes as “not so much a person as an ever-evolving script”. He became chief of the right-wing run Australian Workers Union five years ago but clearly has much higher political ambitions.
A large public forum was held in Victoria’s Goulburn Valley on May 16 to officially launch a community cooperative that local people hope will become an example for the rest of the country.
The launch came almost a year since Heinz announced it would shut down its tomato processing plant in the nearby town of Girgarre. The closure left 146 workers without a job and affected about 600 people whose livelihoods depended on the factory.
Union activist Chris White has worked for several unions and for 17 years was assistant secretary, and then secretary, of the United Trades and Labor Council of South Australia. The article below is based on a speech he gave at a fringe event during the recent Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) Congress.
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Unionists need to organise for the right to strike, for the effective strike and for workers’ control.
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