News

Paul Oboohov, Canberra Sixty members and supporters of Save the Ridge blockaded tree-clearing machinery to prevent it leaving a fenced compound on the Bruce/O'Connor Ridge on June 18. They aimed to stop tree-clearing for the Gungahlin Drive

Following the 30,000-strong protests around Australia on July 22 against Israel's bombing of Lebanon and Gaza, anti-war actions continued last week, with plans for more during the next fortnight. Linda Seaborn reports from Hobart that 40 people

Sue Bolton, Melbourne The implications of the Howard government's draconian new workplace laws have dominated the airwaves over the last couple of weeks. You would therefore think that the decision by a meeting of 1800 union delegates to support a

Happy memories "In our subjective memory communism is a land of happiness: we had more money, security, friends, time and even a sense of purpose." — Comment by Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza, May 25, on the results of an opinion survey revealing

Jim McIlroy, Brisbane Around 60 members of the Aboriginal community and their supporters held an angry meeting at Jagera House on November 23 to discuss the increasing police harassment of Indigenous people in Musgrave Park and other areas of the

Jon Lamb, Darwin On September 2, a cross-union meeting of academic and general staff at Charles Darwin University voted not to accept the university's offer of a 10% wage rise, and discussed taking industrial action. Up to 1500 staff members may

SYDNEY — On March 20, the NSW Refugee Action Coalition held a forum about the 151 Chinese asylum seekers (of 245 detainees) being held in Villawood detention centre. Speakers included Mark Goudkamp from RAC NSW; Chin Jin from the Federation for a

Alex Bainbridge, Hobart Public sector nurses have won significant improvements in their pay and conditions after a hard-fought dispute with the Tasmanian government. The decision to accept the government's offer was made at mass meetings held

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

MELBOURNE — On August 17, a range of speakers addressed a public forum organised by the Darebin Ethnic Communities Council on the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the Darfur region of Sudan. Malcolm Witton, Victorian manager of World Vision,

Sarah Stephen On April 26, a team of Australian lawyers, including prominent Melbourne QC Julian Burnside and solicitor Eric Vadarlis, planned to challenge in a Nauruan court the legality of visas issued to 252 asylum seekers to keep them in

Sue Bull, Geelong Twenty trade unionists and their supporters held a protest on November 4 outside the Aldi Supermarket in Belmont, a residential suburb three kilometres south-east of Geelong, to highlight that Aldi compels all its employees on to