91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳

With the Howard government gone, now is the time to remove Work Choices once and for all. Unfortunately, the new Rudd government has decided to maintain key 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ of the laws, such as maintaining Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs — individual contracts) and limiting unfair dismissal laws.

The November 27 decision by the Victorian Premier John BrumbyÂ’s Labor government to lift a moratorium on commercially-grown genetically-modified canola has drawn sharp criticism from scientific researchers and environmental activists. Labor MPs declared that the decision had been made secretly, and should have been open to debate.

Workers at the FosterÂ’s brewery at Yatala, south of Brisbane, have stepped up their campaign for a union agreement, following a victory over the latest attempt by the companyÂ’s management to impose a non-union agreement on the work force at the plant. Scott Wilson, Electrical Trades Union (ETU) organiser for the site, told 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly that the Yatala workers had voted by 154 to 120 to reject managementÂ’s third offer of a non-union agreement, which provides wages and conditions significantly below those of workers at other breweries in southern states.

This year marks the 90th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. In the years following the revolution, its leaders initiated the formation of the Communist (Third) International (Comintern), an international grouping of communist parties. In Venezuela, the leadership of the country’s unfolding socialist revolution have issued a call for a new international of Latin American left parties. This article, by John Riddell, is part of an ongoing series on the history of the Comintern.

In New South Wales
bridges tell the tale
of lifeÂ’s travail
for the not so beautiful elite @poetry = The homeless out of work
share a space of dirt
beneath your bridges
under the souls of your feet @poetry = ThereÂ’s no dreaming here
romance is out of date
beauty is the sadness
of a quintessential fate @poetry = Mums Â’n kids share
8 x 2 tin cans with lids
and wait for that day of the meek
but it wonÂ’t be this week @poetry = There communards
sleep by streets
on a park bench
where the soup kitchen meets @poetry = Real jobs have gone
old industries fled
and the rest of youse
have left us for dead @poetry = In New South Wales
histories tell the tale
of a social elite
with mud at their feet @poetry = and egos that never skip a beat