News

The tiny community of Bulga will continue their David and Goliath fight in the courts against a coalmine that threatens the very existence of their village. The decision to go back to court comes in the wake of the March 5 approval by the Planning and Assessment Commission (PAC) for the expansion of Rio Tinto’s giant Mount Thorley-Warkworth coalmine, despite two court decisions against the project.

Construction has begun on Australia’s first floating solar power plant. Designed by Infratech Industries, the plant will float on a wastewater treatment facility in the northern South Australia town of Jamestown. The solar panels will be kept cool by the water, helping prevent water evaporation by up to 90%, making them 57% more efficient than land-based solar farms. Director of Infratech Industries Felicia Whiting said: “It’s very much like a traditional solar array with the exception that it’s designed to float on the water.”

About 100 people gathered at the Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union hall in Lidcombe on February 27 to celebrate the release of the Cuban Five from prison in the US late last year, and to welcome the new Cuban ambassador to Australia, Jose Manuel Galego. The event was organised by the Australia-Cuba Friendship Society (ACFS).

Public housing residents in Millers Point facing eviction orders are so distressed that one of them committed suicide this week, Save Millers Point campaigner Barney Gardner told a public housing protest outside NSW Parliament on March 10. The protest united several campaigns against NSW government attempts to privatise public housing in Glebe, Millers Point and elsewhere in the state, to highlight public housing as an important election issue There has been at least one other Millers Point resident who attempted suicide earlier, Gardner told Green Left Weekly.

About 400 people turned out to celebrate International Women's Day in Melbourne on March 8.

On Wednesday March 11, members of the United Services Union (USU)at Liverpool City Council will stop work to discuss management’s attacks on members’ working conditions. The stop work is to take place in Bigge Park in the centre of Liverpool from 10am. The NSW government’s “Fit for the Future” process is requiring councils in Sydney to show significant cost savings or be amalgamated. Council’s senior management has used this process as a justification for mounting an attack on the conditions of its employees across the board.

About 30 people gathered in the Latin American Plaza, near Sydney’s Central Station on March 5 for a vigil to mark the second anniversary of the death of Venezuelan revolutionary leader Hugo Chavez.

On March 3, Resistance: Young Socialist Alliance members took part in the Market Stall Day as part of orientation week at Deakin University's Waurn Ponds Campus in Geelong, Victoria. Before the office hours of the event started, two Resistance members, both students at Deakin University, were told to change out of their T-shirts which displayed the classic feminist Rosie the Riveter image with the text “Up Yours Abbott”.

GREEK ELECTIONS REPORT BACK GLW correspondent Dick Nichols reported from Athens during the Greek elections and will speak on SYRIZA and the fight against austerity. Cairns: Saturday March 14, 2pm, Yungaburra Pub. Phone Jonathan 0437 790 306. Perth: Wednesday March 18, 12.30pm Hosted by Murdoch University Resistance club. Murdoch University. Phone Gavin 0451 919 680. Perth: Thursday March 19, 6pm, Perth Activist Centre, 15/509 Aberdeen St. $6/$4 conc. Phone 9218 9608 or email [email protected].

Every activist has at some point been told that activism is pointless today, that it achieves nothing and hasn’t since the ’70s. Others say that there’s no point to feminist activism in particular because we already have gender equality.

The internet will stay free and open thanks to a ruling by the Federal Communications Commission in the US on February 26. Internet activists waged a grassroots campaign to protect “net neutrality” and galvanised nearly 4 million submissions in support of the campaign to prevent internet service providers (ISPs) discriminating against particular websites.

Stop CSG Sydney released this statement on March 6. *** Stop CSG Sydney has welcomed the news that the NSW government has decided to cancel the coal seam gas licence covering most of metropolitan Sydney, known as Petroleum Exploration Licence 463. Now the water catchments need to be protected from CSG mining.