News

  • Suburban actions for refugees' rights

    SYDNEY — The refugees' rights campaign came to the western Sydney suburb of Fairfield on June 15. Around 30 people took part in a march organised by the western Sydney Resistance branch to promote the June 23 National Refugee Week actions. In

  • Students 'too qualified', says CSU

    BATHURST — Communications students at Charles Sturt University's campus here are being taught too well — this is the university administration's justification for course and staff funding cuts. Students occupied the university's media centre on

  • Action updates

    CMG answers strike with lock-out ROCKHAMPTON — Workers at Consolidated Meat Group's Lakes Creek plant have been on strike since June 3. The workers are attempting to win back wages and conditions stripped from them after the arbitration

  • Caltex workers' victory

    BRISBANE — Maintenance workers at the Caltex oil refinery won an important victory against their employer, Transfield Services, on May 21 after nine weeks of industrial action. The dispute centred on the expiry date for the

  • Aboriginal ancestral remains returned

    HOBART — "Today we are welcoming home the remains of people who should never have been taken away", announced Tasmanian Aboriginal community leader Michael Mansell at the Hobart international airport on June 14. He was

  • Nurses act to end crisis

    BRISBANE — Queensland's nurses have begun a state-wide industrial campaign after rejecting a state government offer that was one-third of what the Queensland Nurses Union (QNU) has sought. Gay Hawksworth, QNU state secretary, said

  • Tariq Ali: 'This empire has to be fought'

    SYDNEY — Speaking to an overflow audience of 250 people at the Newtown Neighbourhood Centre on June 2, writer, film-maker and left activist Tariq Ali analysed the key issues in world politics after September 11. The meeting,

  • Rally to save Footscray pool

    MELBOURNE — On June 1, 100 Footscray residents protested outside the Footscray swimming pool against its closure. The rally was organised by the Footscray Community Association. The Maribyrnong City Council has recently decided

  • Nurses launch work-to-rule campaign

    HOBART — Public sector nurses are maintaining a work-to-rule campaign to win safer staffing levels in hospitals. Nurses are refusing to do unreasonable overtime and are making sure that meal breaks are claimed. They are also

  • Unions attempt to stop deportation

    PERTH — On June 1, Iranian asylum seeker Nader Sayadi Estahbanati was deported from Esperance in WA on the Iranian freighter Mazardaran. In 2000, Estahbanati and two friends stowed away on the Mazardaran to flee persecution in

  • Loose Cannons

    File management The June 9 email newsletter of Children Out of Detention (ChilOut) reports that immigration minister Philip Ruddock's email address has recently been disabled. This makes him Australia's only parliamentarian who cannot be contacted

  • APHEDA delegation returns from Palestine

    SYDNEY — The first Australian delegation allowed into the devastated Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank returned to Australia with emotional and harrowing stories. The delegation included union movement activists and a