As expected, the major banks are preparing to launch a media war against the Turnbull government鈥檚 proposed $6.2 billion bank levy, as outlined in Treasurer Scott Morrison鈥檚 May 9 federal budget speech.
Australian Bankers鈥 Association head Anna Bligh was furious. She said a campaign was being considered, claiming the government was playing 鈥渇ast and loose鈥 with the nation鈥檚 financial system.
The Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) dropped its landmark case against the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) and seven crew members of the Tandara Spirit on May 15.
The case related to alleged breaches of the Fair Work Act when the MUA and the seafarers failed to comply with orders from the Fair Work Commission in late 2014.
MUA national secretary Paddy Crumlin said the FWO pulled its investigation after wasting the time and resources of the union and putting the workers through unacceptable stress and anxiety.
A maternity hospital in Venezuela's Miranda state was attacked on May 17 as the death count in ongoing violent anti-government protests rose to 53.聽
The attack comes as violent opposition protests demanding early presidential elections enter their seventh week, with new deaths being reported as opposition supporters clash with authorities, attack public institutions and state security personnel, and blockade roads nationwide.聽
The Transport Workers鈥 Union (TWU) has called for jail terms for employers who deliberately underpay their staff.
TWU national secretary Tony Sheldon said this was 鈥渨age theft鈥 and it was time to treat bosses with the same rules as employees.
The call follows a string of scandals at franchise operators 7-Eleven, Caltex, Domino鈥檚 Pizza and Pizza Hut, where employees have been underpaid by tens of millions of dollars. 7-Eleven has so far paid out $90 million for non-payment of wages while Caltex has set up a $20 million fund to repay their workers.
Artist and activist Benny Zable has been wearing a mask at protests throughout Australia for more than 30 years.
His distinctive skull-like gas mask and painted death-bringer costume, atop large black radioactive drums has become an icon of peace, anti-nuclear and environmental movements throughout the country. He is a performance artist who uses his art form to depict a chilling prophesy of nuclear and environmental catastrophe.
In these almost two years of socialist government, it has been possible with the support of the left-wing parties, to reverse privatisations in public transport, restore four previously eliminated national holidays, reverse salary cuts for public sector workers, reduce the working week in the public sector to 35 hours, eliminate the surcharge on individual income tax and increase the supplementary solidarity payment for the elderly as well as family allowances and other social subsidies.
However, despite this progress, the current and future situations is not without cause for concern.
We live in strange times. A white, nationalist, billionaire businessperson has been elected president. His 24-member cabinet is made up primarily of wealthy white men, many former Goldman Sachs executives, who US President Donald Trump鈥檚 most extreme nationalist ideologues call 鈥淣ew York liberals.鈥 Trump has appointed the fewest number of women and minorities to his cabinet since Ronald Reagan.
The mood in Turkey is low, and not just among those who oppose President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP). Even some of his supporters are disoriented by developments in the country.
In the aftermath of the failed coup of July 15 last year, Erdogan orchestrated the dismissal of tens of thousands of government employees. The figures from the ongoing Turkish purges are startling.
The Bolivian government has proposed a bill that would allow workers to take over the private companies they work at if they go bankrupt, and convert them into 鈥渟ocial companies鈥 to stimulate production and address unemployment, Pagina Siete reported on May 16.
The government justified the measure as part of the state's duty to protect labour rights and generate job opportunities while improving the productive apparatus of the country.
Thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets of Caracas on May 9 to rally in support of the country鈥檚 commune movement.
Socialist revolutionaries from across the country joined the march, calling on the government of President Nicolas Maduro to endorse a proposal to provide constitutional recognition of communes.
A day before whistleblower Chelsea Manning's release from military prison on May 17 after seven years behind bars, WikiLeaks announced it had set up a "Welcome Home Manning" fund and asked people to donate Bitcoin鈥檚 in support of the soldier imprisoned for leaking hundreds of thousands of classified military documents.
Manning walked free from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, after former US President Barack Obama granted her clemency in January, saying she had taken responsibility for her crime and her sentence was disproportionate to those received by other whistleblowers.
A year on from the parliamentary coup that ousted former聽Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Brazil has become a neoliberal disaster and approval ratings for the incumbent right-wing聽government have slumped to record low levels.
The democratically-elected president was ousted in May last year without any proof of wrongdoing. Michel Temer, who then served as vice president, was installed as interim president.聽On August 31, Rousseff was formally removed from office.