News

  • Protests highlight key climate issues

    Activists marked World Environment Day (WED) — June 5 — with a protest in Bourke Street Mall that highlighted corporate plunder of the planet.

  • Demand justice on World Refugee Day

    World Refugee Day will be marked in Melbourne by a rally and march to demand justice for all refugees and the scrapping of the horrific new detention centre being built on Christmas Island.

  • Outrage greets Anvil Hill coalmine approval

    In what the superstitious might call nature’s revenge, wild seas caused a coal freighter to run aground in Newcastle on June 8, the day after the NSW Labor government approved the opening of a massive open-cut coalmine at Anvil Hill in the Hunter region.

  • 'Allow justice to prevail' in Hurley trial

    Hundreds of Aborigines and community supporters will wear bright yellow wristbands to the Townsville court on June 12. They will be gathering to observe the trial of Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley, who has been charged with the manslaughter and assault of Mulrunji Doomadgee on November 19, 2004, on Palm Island.

  • Activists condemn plan to make NSW a 'police state'

    Activists from the Stop Bush Coalition have condemned moves to make NSW into a “police state” during the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in September. The government introduced legislation into NSW parliament on June 7 that will give police extraordinary powers for two weeks around the time of the summit.

  • Socialist Alliance challenge to Rudd in Griffith

    The Socialist Alliance has decided to run long-time socialist activist Jim McIlroy in Labor leader Kevin Rudd’s seat of Griffith in Brisbane’s central-south in the federal election. Its nationwide election campaign themes are “People before profits!” and “Planet before profits!”

  • Community alliance to save Killalea

    On May 29, a public meeting was held at Shellharbour, south of Wollongong, to oppose the NSW Labor government’s plans to allow private development in the Killalea State Recreation Park. The meeting was attended by 160 local residents, unionists, environmentalists and Indigenous people, following a call by the South Coast Labor Council.

  • Student activists to target Bush, Howard

    A June 1 student conference held at Sydney University resolved to make George Bush’s visit to Australia and the September APEC summit in Sydney a focus for the anti-war and environment campaigns on campus.

  • FoE calls for big boost in climate change aid

    Friends of the Earth Australia has called on the Australian government to commit $1.8 billion a year in funding for adaptation to climate change following the release on May 29 of an Oxfam International report Adapting to Climate Change: What’s Needed in Poor Countries, and Who Should Pay.

  • Meeting calls for Connex's sacking

    On May 31, 300 people packed the Wesley Uniting Church in Melbourne’s CBD for a public meeting organised by the LinkUp Melbourne campaign for the city’s train and tram systems to be put back under public ownership when the contracts with the current private operators expires in November.

  • Bathurst turns its back on Howard

    More than 400 people protested against Prime Minister John Howard’s anti-union government outside Bathurst’s Carrington restaurant on May 25. Howard was in town to address a fundraiser, part of a desperate attempt to save Liberal MP for Macquarie Kerry Bartlett from likely defeat at the federal election.

  • Activists prepare to 'stop Bush'

    More than 55 people met at the University of Technology, Sydney on May 28 discuss the upcoming “Stop Bush!” demonstrations, which will be held during the September APEC summit in Sydney. The meeting was a promising sign that people believe APEC is an important opportunity to build the campaigns that can challenge Prime Minister John Howard and US President George Bush’s neoliberal agenda.