Coup d'etat in Ecuador
The most retrograde forces of Latin America are trying to steal power from the people again. Honduras yesterday, Ecuador today. No more coup d鈥檈tats! Democracies exist only through the will of the people and these crimes bring pain and suffering to all of us.
Yvonne Francis
Apollo Bay, Victoria
Burqa I
856
One hundred activists protested on the steps of the Victorian parliament on October 6 to demand the Victorian desalination plant at Wonthaggi be scrapped.
Stephen Cannon of Watershed Victoria, which organised the protest, said the Brumby government had provided no reliable costing of the project.
Cannon said users could be paying six times the cost of ordinary water if the project went ahead. The project would line the pockets of corporations for generations at the expense of the people of Melbourne.
The October 3-14 Commonwealth Games being held in Delhi have proven a disaster for India鈥檚 poor 鈥 economically and socially. Even before the games opened, 47 workers had died working on sites linked to the games, MSNBC.com said on September 23.
The September 23 Financial Times said working conditions were so bad that the People鈥檚 Union for Democratic Rights and other labour rights鈥 activists 鈥渇iled a lawsuit in Delhi high court this year, claiming that workers on games sites faced unsafe conditions and rampant violation of a wide range of labour laws and standards.
There is something rotten in the state of Victoria. The legacy of secrecy in government reached a high point under Jeff Kennett鈥檚 Coalition state government in the 1990s. It continued under the Bracks Labor government and the current John Brumby Labor government. The main reason for this was widespread privatisation and the policy of funding infrastructure projects through public-private partnerships (PPPs) 鈥 a policy begun by the Kennett government and continued by Labor.
In September, I spent two weeks on a solidarity brigade in Venezuela. The brigade participants were able to witness the September 26 National Assembly elections and get a first hand view of the revolutionary changes taking place across the country.
The brigade was organised by the Australian Venezuelan Solidarity Network (AVSN), and included political activists and enthusiasts from Ausstralia, New Zealand, Bulgaria, Britan, Canada and the United States.
I would thoroughly suggest this experience to anyone interested in the Venezuelan revolution.
October 15 is Wear It Purple Day. Please make and wear a purple armband to show support for queer teens at risk of suicide.
For young Australians, suicide is the second most common cause of death after traffic accidents. There is evidence that 30% of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender teens in Australia attempt suicide. This is a shocking statistic and a disgraceful state of affairs.
To meet our $300,000 91自拍论坛 Weekly fighting fund target this year, we need less than half of what Commonwealth Bank CEO Ralph Norris gets paid in just week.
GLW supporters have raised $165,406 so far this year. To make the target, we need to raise a further $134,594. Every fundraising dinner, harbour cruise, jumble sale or fundraising barbeque will count in the dash to the finish. Week after week, we will ask our supporters for donations.
It will be a struggle to raise $134,594.
About 25 people attended an October 5 91自拍论坛 Weekly forum on "The Fight for Refugee Rights".
Paul McKinnon, convenor of the Refugee Action Collective, said: 鈥淲hile the refugee rights movement is still not up to the strength it was three years ago, the achievement of the earlier movement didn't disappear. There is a large reservoir of largely passive support for asylum seekers, which needs to be mobilised.鈥
It鈥檚 close to an article of faith among environmentalists that using less energy is a big part of the solution to climate change. Energy efficiency is often said to be the 鈥渓ow hanging fruit鈥 of climate policy.
On face value, the benefits seem obvious.
The knowledge needed to make big gains in efficiency already exists. Using less energy will save consumers and industry money, whereas other policies will be costly. And most importantly, lower energy use could make a big dent in global greenhouse gas emissions.
What is most interesting about Newcastle鈥檚 annual This Is Not Art (TiNA) festival, is that what started 12 years ago as a community festival of independent, emerging art and culture, is still a community festival of independent, emerging art and culture.
In an era when it鈥檚 not uncommon for even the most intimate art show to be sponsored by a massive alcohol company, the non-commercial nature of TiNA is remarkable.
Australia is being hit by a relentless, daily gauntlet of live music and art festivals, but TiNA retains a truly artist-run schedule of events.
The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) has vowed to fight the imposition of a 鈥渟ub-standard鈥 enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA) after a majority of general staff voted in favour of the agreement in a September 29-October 1 poll.
The agreement fails to meet award protections that limit the use of fixed-term employment, allowing for further deregulation of the workforce. It also reduces flexibility on annual leave entitlements and allows for forced redeployment within the university.
Seven refugee rights activists were forced out of Sydney鈥檚 Villawood Immigration Detention Centre on October 4. Two days later, another refugee advocate, Rosalie Scolari, was banned from Maribyrnong detention centre in Melbourne.
Private prisons operator Serco runs both detention centres.
Scolari was trying to visit gay Tamil detainee Leela Krishna, who was recently moved from Villawood to Maribyrnong. He has spent more than 12 months imprisoned and a community campaign has called for his immediate release.
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