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The movement for Australian union action against Israel is gaining strength after the apartheid state鈥檚 latest murderous attack on the unarmed aid flotilla to Gaza. The South Coast Labour Council (SCLC) and the New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory branches of the Australian Services Union have joined the Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union in committing to the international boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against the aggressive Israeli state. Australian unions and peak bodies have also called on members to attend the many protest actions.
This must be a momentous occasion. According to the May 22 Sydney Morning Herald, the Dalai Lama 鈥 a major leader of a major religion 鈥 has declared himself 鈥渉alf Marxist half Buddhist鈥. First we must ask questions about Buddhism itself. Is Buddhism a single religion, or even a religion? Would the two main streams constitute a schism? The Dalai Lama is the largely undisputed global figurehead of Mahayana Buddhism. There is no equivalent figurehead in the other dominant stream, Theravada, which stretches from South Asia to South-East Asia.
The Electrical Trades Union (ETU) has banned its members from working in uranium mines, nuclear power stations or any other part of the nuclear fuel cycle, AAP said on May 31. The union says uranium is the new asbestos in the workplace. The ban will apply to ETU members in Queensland and the Northern Territory and breaching it could lead to expulsion, said ETU Qld secretary Peter Simpson.
Sydney-based journalist and author Antony Loewenstein is an outspoken critic of Israeli policies and author of the best-selling 2006 book My Israel Question. He is the co-founder of advocacy group Independent Australian Jewish Voices and is a board member of Macquarie University鈥檚 Centre for Middle East and North African Studies. Articles and commentary by Loewenstein can be found at .

In July 2009, members of the Alyawarr people in the township of Ampilatwatja, approx 350 kls north east of Alice Springs in Central Australia, after sewerage flowed into their backyards, walked out of the government proscribed area into the desert and set up a protest camp.