News

  • Teachers demand pay rise, permanent jobs

    On March 3, 400 teachers rallied as part of the Australian Education Union’s campaign for improved wages and conditions. The AEU is calling for a 10% pay rise each year for three years to bring Victorian teachers’ wages in line with those of New South Wales teachers.

  • Push for local councils to be GM-free

    Mothers Against Genetic Engineering (MAdGE) and the Gene Ethics Network launched a campaign on February 28 for local councils in Victoria to declare themselves genetically manipulated (GM) food-free zones. The campaign, launched at a protest rally on the steps of the state parliament, is in response to the Premier John Brumby’s decision to end Victoria’s ban on GM canola on February 29.

  • 'Operation Iraqi Subjugation'

    As the Iraq war approaches its fifth anniversary on March 20th, it is important to remember why the war was started. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 the US has looked to find new ways to justify its military interventions in order to increase economic prosperity and further expand its empire.

  • Students to strike against Gunns

    On March 1, Students Against the Pulp Mill met to discuss the next steps in the campaign against Gunns Ltd's planned $2 billion Tamar Valley pulp mill. Attended by 40 students from across Tasmania, the meeting decided that SAPM would organise a

  • Catholic teachers take stopwork action

    Over 4000 Victorian Independent Education Union (VIEU) members from Catholic schools stopped work for 24 hours on March 7 in support of their enterprise bargaining agreement.

  • Company profile: ABC Learning

    The recent collapse in ABC Learning Centres’ share price generated a media frenzy. Director Eddy Groves was reputed to have lost $45 million in just two hours of trading. For a time it looked like many centres would close their doors.

  • Echoes of Stolen Generations as child taken

    The Melbourne Age reported on February 27 that child abuse charges against an Indigenous woman from the NT had finally been dropped after two years. The woman’s son has still not been returned to her by Family and Children’s Services Northern Territory (FACS), however.

  • Climate Change/Social Change conference agenda takes shape

    The April 11-13 Climate Change/Social Change conference being organised in Sydney by Green Left Weekly aims to promote recognition that radical social change is necessary to solve the global climate crisis. This is a crisis that at threatens to make the Earth uninhabitable for the vast majority of humans and other species.

  • Pilger addresses 200 in Katoomba

    Journalist and documentary filmmaker spoke at a public forum on March 7. Attended by 200 people, the forum was hosted by Pilger’s high-school friend, actor Jack Thompson, at his pub in the Blue Mountains town of Katoomba

  • Rudd's move to 'recognise' Israel's national day criticised

    As the horror of Israel’s recent attacks on Gaza spread, UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon could only describe Israel’s rocket launches as “an excessive use of force”. By contrast, he described a Palestinian homemade rocket, which killed two Israeli soldiers and one civilian, as a “terrorist” act.

  • Bill allows AWAs to continue

    Contrary to federal government rhetoric, research conducted into the new Labor government’s Forward with Fairness transitional bill has revealed that Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs — individual contracts), or their replacement clones, the Interim Transitional Employment Agreements (ITEAs), could continue well beyond 2010.

  • SA Unions oppose Labor attack on injured workers

    Janet Giles, secretary of SA Unions, South Australia’s peak trade union body, resigned on February 18 from the board of the state government’s WorkCover Corporation, stating that she could not defend the rights of injured workers while remaining on the board.