One year ago 43 West Papuan asylum seekers arrived in North Queensland fleeing Indonesian government oppression. Today in West Papua, the oppression continues, the Australia West Papua Association (AWPA) said in a January 18 media release.
695
Cochabamba is a city with a history of struggle. In April 2000 the people stood up against the privatisation of their water supply, threw out the multinational Bechtel and retook control of the local water company. In October 2003 they joined the thousands of people on the street in El Alto, La Paz and other cities to defend the right of the people to nationalise the country聮s gas reserves, effectively forcing, then president and champion of the neoliberal economic model Gonzales Sanchez de Lozada to flee the country.
After comparing data from the Office of the Employment Advocate (OEA) on pre- and post-Work Choices agreements, Professor David Peetz from Griffith University revealed last December that 63% of Australian Workplace Agreements (individual contracts 鈥 AWAs) remove workers鈥 entitlement to penalty rates, with these being 鈥渁bsorbed鈥 into hourly rates of pay. As well, 64% of AWAs remove workers鈥 annual-leave loading and 54% include no shift loadings.
Security giant Group 4 Securicor has sacked 40 of its workers after they protested the transfer of hundreds of workers to a different corporate entity, which resulted in many long-term workers losing benefits. Last year, Group 4 Securicor attempted similar attacks on its workers in Jakarta, but after security guards who were illegally sacked camped outside the company聮s headquarters and thousands of people around the world sent messages of protest, Group 4 Securicor was forced to rehire the workers. Demand justice for the Panama workers 聴 visit < http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-A href="mailto:bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=182"><bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=182> to send your protest letter to Group 4 Securicor.
The Australian writer Donald Horne meant the title of his celebrated book, The Lucky Country, as irony. 聯Australia is a lucky country run by second-rate people who share its luck聰, he lamented in 1964, describing much of the Australian elite as unfailingly unoriginal, race-obsessed and in thrall to imperial power and its wars.
On January 15, Pedro Zamora, the general-secretary of the dock workers聮 union STPEQ was murdered by armed assassins, who sprayed more than 100 bullets at his car. Zamora had been leading a campaign against the privatisation of the Quetzal port. Zamora聮s 3-year-old son was injured in the attack. In a January 17 statement issued by the International Trade Union Confederation, ITUC general secretary Guy Ryder said: 聯This gruesome killing recalls the darkest days of Guatemala聮s decades of civil conflict, and the country聮s reputation will continue to suffer unless action is taken to root out and punish those who commission and perpetrate intimidation and murder. This murder was planned and premeditated, and appears designed to send a message to those who dare to stand up for fundamental rights.聰 For information on the ITUC聮s international campaign to demand justice, visit < http://www.ituc-A href="mailto:csi.org"><csi.org>.
Sheikh Isse Musse, Imam of the Virgin Mary Mosque and spiritual leader of Melbourne鈥檚 Horn of Africa Muslim community, condemned the US bombing of his native Somalia and its instigation of the invasion by Ethiopian troops inlate December. He also expressed hope that out of the current conflict Somalia might regain its sovereignty and national unity after years of anarchy and violence.
On January 18, the Australian ran a story on a leaked report commissioned by the Peter Beattie Labor state government on the shocking living conditions for Aborigines in Queensland (see accompanying article). 91自拍论坛 Weekly asked Sam Watson, Murri leader and member of the Socialist Alliance, about this and the ongoing struggle for justice for Indigenous people in Australia.
聯I look on the blacks as a set of monkeys, and I think the earlier they are exterminated the better.聰 So said a juror during the 1838 Sydney trial of settlers accused of the Myall Creek massacre of 28 Aborigines.
A confidential report titled Partnerships Queensland was drafted last year by the Queensland Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy. The report 聴 which found there was an urgent need to improve the standard of living for Indigenous people and take 聯immediate and sustained action聰 聴 was withheld from public release before the September state election. Premier Peter Beattie聮s government abolished the department after Labor聮s re-election.
On January 15, Ecuador鈥檚 new president, Rafael Correa Delgado, was sworn in, promising to build 鈥渟ocialism of the 21st century鈥 to overcome the poverty and instability of the small Andean country.
The decision by a full bench of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) on appeal to deny a Victorian cinema manager access to unfair dismissal laws because he was sacked for 鈥済enuine operational reasons鈥 is another blow to attempts to hold unfair employers to account.
- Previous page
- Page 3
- Next page