For years now, off and on 鈥 as huge the financial crisis and spiking unemployment have given way to healthy corporate profits and a "recovery" characterised by a surge in low-wage job creation 鈥 the word has gone around that people are rediscovering Karl Marx's Capital.
Whether many have the stamina to finish its opening chapter, on the commodity form, may be doubted. (Over the years, I have been in at least three informal study groups that broke up before getting through the analysis of money in chapter three.)
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Hundreds gathered on May 6 to fill Adelaide's Tandanya National Indigenous Cultural Institute for the forum 鈥淎n Aboriginal Perspective on Inequality, the Intervention, Racism and Struggle鈥.
It was jointly organised by the South Australian Aboriginal Coalition for Social Justice, SIMPLA (Stop Income Management in Playford) and the Socialist Alliance. It explored a cross-section of the most pressing issues facing Aboriginal people in Australia, such as racism, the Northern Territory intervention, inequality, the need for struggle and youth activism.
The Coalition government plans to speed up the push to privatise remaining federal and state public assets in a massive program to help fund new infrastructure projects 鈥 mainly road developments 鈥 media sources reveal.
ABC radio's AM reported on May 8 that "an infrastructure package worth about $10 billion will be at the centre of the Abbott government's first budget.
About thirty scientists, engineers, mathematicians, PhD students and science advocates took to the steps of Sydney Town Hall on May 3 in defence of Australia鈥檚 research sector.
The 鈥淩ally for Research鈥 was organised by the Future Party to oppose the Coalition government鈥檚 plans to reduce the Australian Research Council鈥檚 funding by $133 million as well as cut up to 700 jobs from the CSIRO and 100 from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The rally also called for the government to reinstate the position of science minister.
I have recently celebrated my 69th birthday. I have three adult sons, six grand children and one great grandchild, all of whom I love dearly. Last December marked 51 years since I was married and next month will be 30 years since I finally left the marriage.
Despite the research I have done, together with almost five years of counselling, I still suffer from the impact of 20 years of domestic violence. I have been diagnosed as suffering from a form of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
鈥淭his will not be a budget for the rich or the poor; it will be a budget for the country,鈥 Prime Minister Tony Abbott said in his April 28 speech to the Sydney Institute, a privately funded 鈥減ublic affairs forum鈥.
He must think we are total fools.
Why else would a government that supposedly plans to introduce a budget that is 鈥渘ot for the rich鈥 ask Tony Shepherd, former president of the Business Council of Australia (BCA), to conduct a pre-budget 鈥渁udit鈥 of government spending?
Community anger at a proposal to cut the minimum wage from $16 to $12 an hour has fuelled large Labour Day turnouts across Queensland on May 4 and 5.
About 30,000 marchers from dozens of unions packed Brisbane streets, joining thousands of others in activities in Queensland cities and towns.
Queensland Council of Unions President John Battams said this week鈥檚 federal Commission of Audit recommendation to cut the minimum wage by 25% was a disgraceful attack on working people.
The federal Commission of Audit's proposal to cut the minimum wage would create an underclass of US-style "working poor" in this country, the Australian Council of Trade Unions says.
: "The plan to aggressively drive down the minimum wage would see its real value fall to its 1998 level of $12 an hour.鈥
About 10,000 workers walked off building sites in Brisbane on May 5 and rallied outside Parliament House. They were protesting against the Campbell Newman government鈥檚 changes to industrial legislation affecting workplace health and safety.
They also called for the return of the Labour day public holiday to May. The Monday after May 1 had previously been a public holiday celebrating workers' rights, but one of Newman鈥檚 first acts after being elected was to move the holiday to October.
It is utterly galling to hear the leader of the federal Labor opposition criticising the government for proposing a 鈥渘ew tax鈥 in the form of a modest and temporary 鈥渄eficit levy鈥 on taxpayers in the highest income bracket.
鈥淭ony Abbott, Australians do not want your tax increases full stop,鈥 at a May 7 press conference.
This was a speech given to a Refugee Action Coalition forum in Sydney on May 5.
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I am in Year 11 at a school in Sydney鈥檚 inner-west, and like many other high school students, I care about refugee and queer rights, as well as for the rights of women, the rights of Aboriginal Australians and the environment. I am also an activist for all of these things.
From what I've seen, many students support refugee rights and I've found few people my age who oppose them. But I've got into many stupid arguments about refugees with older people.
Well, here we are at the halfway mark. It鈥檚 been about eight weeks since Alcoa announced it was shutting up shop in Geelong and there鈥檚 a little over eight weeks before workers are tossed out the gate for good.
But where are the announcements from the state and federal governments or Alcoa about how they will address the economic black hole and job losses in Geelong?
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