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Sydney May Day march, May 6. Photos by Peter Boyle

May Day was celebrated in Adelaide on Saturday May 5 with a march through the city streets. A sizable Left Unity block marched down together from the Adelaide Activist Centre. They marched under a Left Unity banner, but also carried individual banners representing the participating groups. The Left Unity contingent included Socialist Alliance, Resistance, the Communist Party of Australia (CPA), the Industrial Workers of the World (Wobblies) Adelaide branch, along with other independent members of the left.

Activists in the biggest staff-student campaign to defend education seen in Australia for decades have won a partial victory against an attempt by the University of Sydney administration to cut hundreds of teaching and non-teaching jobs. The immediate job cuts have been reduced to 23 under pressure from the campaign. But staff and students are keeping up the fight. The photos below are of a rally and march of 500 people held on May 7, during which the administration called in the police and riot squad.

It would not come as a surprise to many activists, but a little of the close relationship between police and commercial interests has been revealed in the trial of 16 activists charged for taking part in a Palestine solidarity protest outside the Max Brenner chocolate shop in QV shopping centre in Melbourne’s CBD. The trial began on May 1 and is scheduled to last for two weeks.

As part of savage budget cuts, the Victorian Coalition government has slashed $300 million over four years of funding for the provider of public technical and further education, the state’s 18 TAFE institutes that teach about 400,000 students a year. Funding per student in 80% of courses has been cut from about $8 per training hour to as low as $1.50 - to a range meant to reflect labour market priorities. Trades apprenticeships, aged care and child care received some small increases.

For the past 12 weeks, students of Quebec’s colleges and universities have been on strike against Premier Jean Charest’s proposal to increase tuition fees by 75%. The indefinite strike involves more than 170,000 students and is now attracting high school students. Broad layers of the general public are sympathetic to the movement.  

The Ballroom at Melbourne Trades Hall was packed with about 130 people on May 4 for a public forum titled “Protest on Trial”. The event sought to build support for the “Max Brenner 19” — Palestine solidarity activists on trial for taking part in a protest outside a Melbourne Max Brenner chocolate shop last year. Speakers at the forum drew links between the violent attacks on Occupy Melbourne last year and the police repression of peaceful Palestine protesters outside Max Brenner.

“Stop more Stolen Generations, take back control of our lives” was the main theme of a rally and march held in Brisbane on May 2. About 50 Murris and supporters gathered at Roma Street Forum (Emma Miller Place) for a rally, then marched to the office of the Queensland Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services in George Street.

The fourth Climate Action Summit was held on the weekend of April 27 to 29 at the University of Western Sydney. This annual summit brings together climate activists and environmentalists from across Australia to discuss campaigns and issues relating to grassroots action on climate change.

The Australian Education Union (AEU) released the statement below on May 3. * * * The huge funding cuts announced by the Victorian government to its TAFE institutes will damage the TAFE sector in Victoria and the Victorian economy and community. They will also change the national Vocational and Education Training (VET) system forever. Late in 2011, the Victorian government ripped millions out of TAFEs budgets. Private providers were left largely untouched.

Footage from the 'Malaysian Spring': the inspiring 250,000-strong Bersih ('clean') rallies for free and fair elections in Malaysia plus from Australian support rallies in Melbourne (1200 people), Sydney (500) and Perth (400).

Armidale Action on Coal Seam Gas released the statement below on May 3. * * * A large crowd of close to 200 people turned out for a special coal seam gas forum at the Armidale Town Hall to hear from experts who talked about the risks to water, health and the environment from coal seam gas mining. “The great turn-out for the Forum highlights again the wide and growing community opposition to coal seam gas mining,” said Carmel Flint, spokesperson for Armidale Action on Coal Seam Gas (AACSG).