News

Sue Bolton The Western Australian branch of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union is organising a solidarity protest in Perth on September 28, when 40 metalworkers first face the federal court to fight fines of up to $28,600 each. The AMWU is

Rachel Evans, Sydney On July 17, 60 environmentalists heckled PM John Howard at Sydney's Convention and Exhibition Centre where he told the Committee for Economic Development of Australia conference that Australia was to become "an energy

On January 29, John Kobelke, minister for Consumer and Employment Protection, released Restoring Fairness, Balance and Certainty: Workers' Compensation Reforms. The document's introduction states that it is the final stage of checking before the legislation is submitted to parliament.

Nick Fredman, Lismore Following a successful tour last September, Unions NSW has again decked out a bus in orange and the Rights at Work logo and taken the campaign against the federal government's Work Choices legislation to regional NSW. Many of

On September 13, the Australian Law Reform Commission released a report criticising the federal government's sedition laws. ALRC president Professor David Weisbrot said: "We found that there is a real problem in the current law's continued use of the

Annolies Truman, Perth On July 26, a union community solidarity group was launched in Mandurah, a city with 50,000 residents situated 60 kilometres south of Perth. Attended by 26 people, the meeting was organised by Ian Bray, assistant secretary of

Peter Boyle Michael Gerson, US President George Bush's chief speechwriter for the past seven years, is retiring from the White House. Someone else will have to come up with phrases like "axis of evil", "the soft bigotry of low expectations" and

SYDNEY — Forty members of the Asbestos Diseases Foundation and supporters from the union movement protested outside the James Hardie shareholders' meeting on September 19. "It's outrageous that we're still asking James Hardie Industries to pay

Pip Hinman Refugee-rights campaigners and supporters of a free West Papua welcomed the Refugee Review Tribunal's (RRT) ruling on July 31 to overturn the government's decision not to grant a temporary visa to the last of the 43 West Papuan asylum

MELBOURNE — Thousands of people marched on June 4 to mark World Environment Day and call on the state Labor government to protect Victoria's old-growth forests. The world's largest "tree hug" took place when a 70-metre-long banner, representing the

MELBOURNE — Fifty people attended a "Noise for Darfur" rally on September 18 to call for an end to the war in Sudan. Since 2003, thousands of people have been killed and millions have been displaced by the fighting. The rally was organised by the

SYDNEY — "Viva Fidel" was the sentiment of the night as 350 people took part in a solidarity fiesta in support of the Cuban Revolution and its central leader Fidel Castro on August 13 — Castro's 80th birthday. Cuba solidarity activist and NSW