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Only six months into her term as president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner faces a massive crisis following the decision by Vice-President Julio Cobos to vote against Fernandez’s proposed tax increases on food exports, breaking the senate vote deadlock in favour of the opposition.
On June 11, the axe of Nicaragua’s Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) came down on the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS) and the Conservative Party of Nicaragua (PCN).
Former employees of the sacked Wollongong City Council (WCC) are seeking to expose the culture of sexual harassment and bullying that they say existed in the council workplace for years.
The chainsaws are poised to enter Wielangta Forest in south-east Tasmania, despite ongoing community opposition and a long legal battle led by Greens senator Bob Brown.
“Member countries of Petrocaribe, the Caribbean energy integration organisation that Venezuela initiated in 2005, agreed Sunday to adjust the terms of financing for the purchase of Venezuelan oil in order to lower the impact of soaring oil prices on Caribbean countries”, according to a July 15 Venezuelanalysis.com report.
A Galaxy poll of 1009 people nationwide found that Australian workers want the hated Work Choices legislation abolished immediately rather than waiting until 2010, the date set by the federal ALP for the repeal of the laws.
The following letter was presented by Sam Watson on behalf of Brisbane’s Aboriginal Rights Coalition to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd during a protest outside Rudd’s electorate office on July 14.
The fact that the NSW Labor government’s World Youth Day laws — which would have made “annoying” Catholic pilgrims during WYD activities a crime punishable by fines of up to $5500 — was a failed attempt to silence criticisms of the Catholic Church was brought home when WYD organiser Bishop Anthony Fisher effectively dismissed criticism of the church’s handling of cases of child sexual abuse by clergy.
“As a product of four weeks of meetings between the different currents in the National Union of Workers (UNT), together with important union federations, we have democratically decided, in consultation with the grassroots, that [on September 19-21] we will hold a national congress.
Following an extended industrial campaign by the Victorian branch of the Australian Education Union for better wages and conditions including smaller class sizes, Victorian Premier John Brumby announced on May 5 that an agreement had been reached with the union. The deal, which was later ratified by union members, awarded vastly different pay rates to different groups of teachers and failed to address the key issues raised in the teachers’ campaign. The following is a response by AEU member and Teachers Alliance supporter Peter Curtis.
“We have escalated this dispute because the members are angry that no real progress has been made on our agreement after five months”, Peter Simpson, Queensland assistant secretary of the Electrical Trades Union, told Green Left Weekly on July 18.