Tony Carvalho, an Australian Manufacturing Workers Union metal division shop steward sacked from the Altona Toyota plant, says that in the three months since he has been sacked, the use of outside contractors to work at the plant has increased dramatically. Speaking to 91自拍论坛 Weekly, Carvalho said the number of contractors who are being called in threatens full-time jobs at the plant.
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Starting with Melbourne University and spreading around the country like a fire in a library, universities have announced major cuts in arts and humanities departments.
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit could be the platform for Howard to announce a joint US/Australia nuclear action plan聰, Imogen Zethoven, an anti-nuclear campaigner with the Wilderness Society, told a 50-strong public forum on August 15 organised by the Sydney Nuclear Free Coalition.
The June 27-30 African National Congress (ANC) Policy Conference and the South African Communist Party聮s 12th Congress, held in July, confirmed what many political observers in South Africa have known for a long time: that the politics and practical work of the SACP and Congress of South African Trade Unions have become umbilically tied to the intensifying personal and positional power struggles inside the ANC-led Tripartite Alliance. The result is the paralysis of the SACP and COSATU聮s ability to organise and mobilise on a genuinely practical, working class/poor-centred basis.
Many working-class people in Western Australia are suffering the consequences of a 聯two-tier society聰 despite the state聮s booming economy, the Socialist Alliance candidate for Pearce, Annolies Truman, told the party聮s state conference on August 11.
On August 17, activists organising the September 5 national student walkout against US President George Bush聮s visit to Sydney launched a 聯Stop Bush Bag聰 containing items to help publicise the student strike.
A conference organised by Indonesian Solidarity, in association with the University of Sydney Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies聮 West Papua Project, was held on August 9-10, gathering West Papuan government and NGO representatives, academics and international solidarity activists to discuss the current obstacles to justice and prosperity faced by West Papua.
Popular resistance to neoliberal 鈥渞eform鈥 was the underlying cause of Peru鈥檚 July general strike. On July 5, public schoolteachers walked off the job over government plans to privatise education. Within days, discontented workers from other industries joined the embattled teachers. Before long, schools, mines, factories and construction sites were shut down as tens of thousands of striking protesters took to the streets of every major city demanding higher pay, improved conditions and revisions to the US-Peru free-trade agreement. Peasant farmers joined the mass mobilisation, closing roads and paralysing transport networks.
On August 6, East Timorese President Jose Ramos Horta appointed his predecessor, Xanana Gusmao, prime minister and asked him to form a government without Fretilin, the largest party in the parliament elected on June 30. Despite the constitutional legitimacy of this being unclear, Gusmao聮s government was sworn in on August 8. Since Ramos Horta聮s decision there have been outbreaks of rioting and arson, as well as protests that were tear-gassed by UN police and the Australian-led International Stabilisation Force (ISF).
On August 15, 150 of Western Australia聮s lowest-paid workers took strike action and rallied in a campaign to win better wages. Staff at the Royal Perth Hospital, including orderlies and kitchen staff, are seeking a $3 increase to their $16 hourly wage.
The Worst Jobs in History
Presented by Tony Robinson
Sunday, ABC 7.30pm
Presented by Tony Robinson
Sunday, ABC 7.30pm
In a new initiative for a political party in Australia, the Socialist Alliance is using the web to open up the organisation of its federal election campaign. Mainstream parties have generated a lot of media attention with their self-promotion on YouTube, MySpace and Facebook, but the alliance is enabling open access to the way its campaign is run.
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