I had no intention of going to Ferguson, the flashpoint of the Black Lives Matter movement against police brutality. It was the United States鈥 dirty problem, not Australia鈥檚.
Then I read a piece about Black Lives Matter activists taking the mic from Bernie Sanders while he campaigned for Democratic presidential candidacy. Parts of the crowd booed.
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It has been a year since the death of Black teenager Michael Brown, a year since the rebellion in Ferguson, a year since the Black Lives Matter movement began to shift the conversation in just about every avenue of US life.
The Australian Labor Party鈥檚 (ALP) new higher education policy, announced on September 21, risks being indistinguishable from that of the Coalition under Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
That is because the new Prime Minister has signalled a departure from the bully-boy antics of former education minister Christopher Pyne, who had threatened to introduce his doomed education cuts a third time to the Senate this spring.
"This morning marks 50 days since the start of this important dispute," Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) Sydney branch assistant secretary Paul Garrett told 91自拍论坛 Weekly on September 25.
He was speaking at the community assembly outside the Hutchison Ports terminal at Port Botany, which was set up after the company's sudden sacking of 97 waterside workers by text and email on August 6.
A planned strike set for September 22 was cancelled when the tram and bus division of the Rail Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) struck a deal with Yarra Trams.
Workers had to take industrial action to win an agreement 鈥 they had non-uniform days, they banned short-running on tram routes and they had two four-hour strikes. They were about to go on strike again for four hours when the negotiations reached a resolution.
The Victorian Allied Health Professionals Association (VAHPA) has begun an industrial campaign with the current pay deal due to finish at the end of the year.
There are about 7500 VAHPA members in the public sector. Health professionals include physiotherapists, medical imaging technologists and social workers.
The union recently conducted a survey that found 49% of health professionals were considering leaving their current employer and almost 25% were actively seeking work outside the health sector.
Four big Australian musical acts have united to release two tracks in support of SOS Blak Australia's campaign to oppose the closure of dozens of remote Aboriginal communities.
More than 1 million people took part in a pro-independence march in Barcelona on September 11, Catalonia's national day.
A year has passed since the British establishment won the September referendum on Scottish independence with a final campaign week of blackmail, dirty tricks and multi-party sworn promises yet to be kept.
If you are reading this, you are clearly at high risk of 鈥渞adicalisation鈥 鈥 a budding violent extremist probably only a few Triple J Hottest 100 tracks away from blowing up Parliament House, or at least picketing the offices of a classic FM station.
The recent election of socialist MP Jeremy Corbyn as leader of Britain鈥檚 Labour Party has spurred a flurry of debate on the left, particularly after the failure of anti-austerity SYRIZA to live up to its promise of standing up to Europe鈥檚 imposed memoranda.
Regardless of where we stand on the Labour Party generally, there is no denying that Corbyn鈥檚 victory has generated huge excitement and mobilised thousands of young people new to politics and seasoned Labour members alike.
Tragic photos and videos of masses of asylum seekers and immigrants from the Middle East and Africa have recently shocked the world. But these ordeals have been going on for a long time.
Years of news of innocent people drowning by the thousands in the Mediterranean, suffocated by the hundreds in trucks smuggling them to 鈥渟afe zones鈥, were not enough to catch the world鈥檚 attention.
September 21 was declared International Peace Day by the United Nations.
This is an abridged version of a speech given by Pip Hinman on behalf of Sydney Stop the War Coalition to protest against the bombing of Syria at a rally on that day.
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Stop the War Coalition (STWC) adds its voice to those saying Australia should not join the latest 鈥淐oalition of the Killing鈥 and the disastrous bombing of Syria.
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