News

While Qantas workers’ job security remains uncertain if the proposed Airline Partners Australia (APA) $11.1 billion takeover bid for Qantas eventuates, executives at the national carrier stand to pocket millions.

Pot calls kettle black "Their [the Islamists] goal in the broader Middle East is to seize control of a country, so they have a base from which they can launch attacks against governments that refuse to meet their demands." — Lord Darth Cheney,

Angry at the brutal occupation of Iraq and the inhumane treatment of David Hicks, university students are joining anti-war and radical groups such as Resistance at orientation weeks in bigger numbers this year. The first revolution of the 21st century, in Venezuela, is also attracting a lot of interest.

The spirit of the radical movements of the 1960-70s was reignited at the Socialist Alliance’s “Stand up for your rights” election campaign concert on March 24. Performing classic hits from artists such as Bob Marley and John Lennon, plus original music and songs, a swathe of musicians and five of the Socialist Alliance candidates in the March 24 NSW election called for a united struggle against corporate greed and exploitative governments.

On February 23, representatives of the Murray and Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations (MLDRIN) and the NSW National Parks Association (NPA) signed an agreement for shared protection of the ecology of the Murray and Lower Darling areas.

Underneath the enormous conveyor belts at the back of the Yallourn power station, 49 metalworkers from MEC Engineering, which is part of the Eliott group, have maintained a six-month “protest embassy” to win their jobs and entitlements back.

The NSW Public Service Association and Unions NSW have called a rally on March 15, in the lead-up to the NSW elections, against job cuts. The PSA is highighting Liberal leader Peter Debnam’s threat to cut 20,000 public service jobs if elected, and is circulating a petition calling on all candidates to “maintain public sector job levels in real terms as at 2006 state budget levels”.

Gippsland power industry unionists met on February 20 to discuss a plan for rescuing the industry’s occupational health and safety (OHS) standards after two deaths and one serious injury in the power industry late last year.

The people in Baghdad don't count "I concluded that to step back from the fight in Baghdad would have disastrous consequences for people in America." — Emperor George Bush II, February 14, defending his decision to send an extra 21,500 US combat

At 8am on February 16, police served writs citing a court injunction from Forestry Tasmania on three Huon Valley Environment Centre (HVEC) office-bearers, according to the February 17 Hobart Mercury. The court order was to stop a “walk-in” planned for the following day in the Weld Valley exclusion zone to highlight the ongoing logging of old-growth forests.

On February 24, the Refugee Council of Australia called on PM John Howard’s government to grant “full and fair hearing” in Australia to any claims for asylum by a group of 83 Sri Lankans rescued off Christmas Island by an Australian naval ship.

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