News

  • UnionsWA bus to tour north-west

    PERTH — As part of the Australian Council of Trade Unions' Your Rights at Work campaign, Unions WA is undertaking a bus trip, beginning on August 5, through the north-west of Western Australia to build community support for the campaign against the

  • Students plan large sustainability conference

    Carey Hemingway, Brisbane The 15th annual Students of Sustainability (SoS) conference, the largest student-run environment conference in Australia, will take place in Brisbane on July 9-15. Ellie Smith, convenor of Queensland Environment Activist

  • Activists call for boycott of Connex

    Ema Corro, Melbourne In 2002, the French companies Connex and Alstom, international investors in Melbourne's Citypass Consortium, won a 30-year tender to operate a light-rail system between illegal Israeli settlements around Jerusalem. The contract

  • ACT schools hit in budget massacre

    Alison Dellit, Canberra On June 7, the ACT Labor government announced the closure of 39 schools (and the loss of 160 teaching jobs), the cutting of another 500 public service jobs and severe cuts to superannuation for the remaining workers, two new

  • Parramatta Your Rights at Work group launched

    Graham Matthews, Sydney On August 14, a Parramatta Your Rights at Work (YRW) group was launched at a Town Hall meeting attended by 30 people, including representatives from the Health Services Union, the NSW Teachers Federation, the Australian

  • Loose Cannons

    Glory for the few, poverty for the many "A quarter-century after Deng Xiaoping broke with communist orthodoxy, telling his countrymen 'To get rich is glorious', China has a burgeoning class of tycoons. The country has produced seven billionaires

  • Taxi drivers revolt against unsafe job conditions

    Dan Burke, Melbourne After blockading the streets of Melbourne's central business district on August 11, at least 600 taxi drivers held a rally at the Flemington Racecourse on August 15, where they confronted Victorian transport minister Peter

  • Occupy the world's biggest coal port

    A colourful flotilla will occupy and disrupt the world's largest coal exporting port — Newcastle Harbour — on June 5, World Environment Day. We want canoes, kayaks, surfboards, surf-skis, tinnies, rafts, floating banners, flags and people

  • Beaconsfield miners call for independent inquiry

    Duncan Meerding, Hobart A May 11 meeting of workers employed at the Beaconsfield goldmine in northern Tasmania called for an independent judicial inquiry into the rock fall in the mine on April 25 that resulted in the death of miner Larry Knight,

  • Campus forum on Lebanon war

    ADELAIDE — On August 17, 70 staff and students gathered in the Flinders University student union building for a forum on "The war in Lebanon — is peace possible?" The forum was addressed by David Palmer, senior lecturer in American Studies, and

  • Celebrating Jack Thomas's release

    MELBOURNE — Around 150 people attended a party at Trades Hall bar on September 8 to celebrate Jack Thomas' release from Barwon prison. Organised by Civil Rights Defence, the event also raised funds to help the Thomas family pay legal fees

  • Docked a week's pay for refusing overtime

    Tim Doughney, Melbourne The ugly face of PM Howard's new Australia has been exposed by the actions of Melbourne electrical parts manufacturer Heinemann Electric. The company is refusing to pay its workers for five days that the workers have already