News

  • S&S conference debates anti-corporate campaign

    The 2001 Students and Sustainability (S&S) conference, held July 2-6 at the University of Newcastle, attracted more than 500 student environmental activists. Much of the debate at the conference revolved around the significance of

  • 'Celebrations' on the GST's first birthday

    July 1 marked the first full year of the Goods and Services Tax but while most birthdays are occasions for great celebration, this was anything but. According to the June 7 Herald Sun, 56% of people feel worse off under the new

  • Forum discuss CPA history

    PERTH — Organisers of a June 30 forum on the history of the original Communist Party of Australia got a rude shock when participants were more interested in discussing the future of socialism than condemning CPA mistakes.

  • Workers call for strike for WorkCover

    SYDNEY — Twenty activists gathered on July 5 under the banner of Trade Unionists to Defend Workers' Compensation to call on the NSW Labor Council and affiliated unions to relaunch industrial action to defeat the state government's

  • Beattie forms CHOGM negotiating committee

    BRISBANE — Nervous about activist plans to protest at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Brisbane on October 6, on July 2 the state ALP government announced on July 2 a high level "mediation unit" to negotiate with

  • Rally condemns 'war on drugs'

    BY MEGAN WHITE-FOX BYRON BAY — US Independence Day (July 4) was marked here by the burning of a US "dollar signs and stripes" flag as part of a rally demanding drug law reform. The flag burning symbolised the US-led "war on drugs" that

  • Socialist Alliance on a roll

    Campaign launched to stop bank closure CANBERRA — The Socialist Alliance here has launched a campaign to stop a local branch of the Commonwealth Bank from closing. The group plans to leaflet and petition locals outside the branch, in Bunda

  • Unionist returns to work, triumphant

    ADELAIDE — "It's probably the first time I've ever really enjoyed a whole day at work", postal worker John McGill said of his first day back at Adelaide Mail Centre after winning an appeal against unfair dismissal on June 25.

  • CHOGM Action Network launched, plans march

    BRISBANE — Members of 20 organisations came together on June 26 to plan protests outside the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Brisbane. The meeting unanimously decided that a march "to the gates of CHOGM" on the

  • Bank staff stop work

    NEWCASTLE — The chief executive officers of Westpac, the National Australia Bank and ANZ earn between $1.6 and $2.4 million a year — but bank staff earn as little as $25,307 a year, or $12.76 an hour, and contribute between