If you have consulted Karl Marx for an answer to the recent global economic crisis, you are not alone. Google has confirmed the popularity of Marx鈥檚 writings is booming as people around the world try to make sense of increasingly harsh economic conditions.
The phenomenon was reported in an article posted at Time.com by Rana Foroohar, who said: 鈥淚 consulted Google to see if the term 鈥楳arxism鈥 was trending upward. It was and has been ever since the end of December.鈥
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The article below is based on a December 16 speech by Canberra-based freelance historian Humphrey McQueen. McQueen spoke at a Canberra rally organised to defend WikiLeaks and its editor-in-chief Julian Assange.
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By what right are we here today? Why are we confident that we can protest and not be shot at by the political police on the fringes of this crowd?
We take it for granted that we won鈥檛 be arrested as we leave. We do not expect to lose our jobs by speaking out for WikiLeaks.
NSW nurses have voted to accept the state government鈥檚 wages, conditions and ratios package. Anecdotal reports indicate that 90% of the branches voted in favour of the package, but the head office of the NSW Nurses Association (NSWNA) has not released official figures.
Popular uprisings in the Arab world have challenged a political landscape dominated by undemocratic regimes and fronted by dictators, a panel of academics and journalists said at a Sydney University forum on February 15.
Speakers discussed the regional and international ramifications of the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt as part of the forum on people's power and change in the Arab world.
In the previous issue of 91自拍论坛 Weekly, I wrote about how the federal Coalition had resurrected the ghost of Pauline Hanson with its cynical plan to exploit the racist fear of Australia鈥檚 Muslim minority communities.
But since then, there has been a parade of political ghosts.
The first to emerge was the former Victorian Liberal premier Jeff Kennett, who chose to give some public advice to aspiring NSW Liberal premier Barry O鈥橣arrell.
Killalea State Park again faces the threat of overdevelopment, says Peter Moran, the Greens candidate for Shellharbour in the NSW state elections.
Community members organised in the Save Killalea Alliance (SKA) claimed a victory in May last year when a $35 million development proposal backed by investment firm Babcock and Brown was scrapped.
The proposal would have allowed 106 accommodation lodges to be built on the pristine site. Developers had made an earlier proposal to build 202 residential lodges, pools, tennis courts, restaurants and a conference centre.
More than 300 people attended an 鈥淓xperience Palestine鈥 event organised by the Federation of Australian Muslim Students and Youth (FAMSY), at Coburg Town Hall on February 19.
They were greeted by mock Israeli 鈥渂order guards鈥 and questioned about their identity and right to enter the premises.
Once they had passed through the wood and wire 鈥渃heckpoints鈥, visitors listened to guest speakers on Palestine and life under occupation before having a break to wander about the different exhibits.
Landlord and tow truck operator Frank Cassar owns rental properties and rooming houses around Fitzroy, Clifton Hill and Elsternwick.
He has ignored dozens of fines and orders imposed by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal and the Magistrate鈥檚 Court since 1999 for his flagrant violation of the Residential Tenancies Act 1997.
Consumer Affairs Victoria, the government body with the power to prosecute, has vowed to take him on. But so far, there has been no action.
With revolts taking place in 15 countries across the Arab world, those with stakes in maintaining the status quo 鈥 especially the United States 鈥 are getting worried. From Morocco all the way to Iran, people are standing up for their long-denied rights.
Don鈥檛 believe the hype. The carbon price deal announced by Labor and the Greens on February 24 is not a breakthrough and does not set Australia on a path to a zero-carbon future.
Rather, it entrenches a framework that puts market forces at the heart of Australia鈥檚 response to the climate emergency. It鈥檚 a step in the wrong direction.
The full details of the deal 鈥 including the price and compensation measures 鈥 are yet to be finalised. But the agreement made clear the scheme will begin by mid-2012 and become a fully-fledged emissions trading scheme three-to-five years later.
Labor, Liberal and National MPs lined up to pass the Labor government's National Radioactive Waste Management Bill through the House of Representatives on February 23.
Greens MP Adams Bandt and independents Andrew Wilke, Rob Oakeshott and Bob Katter did not support the bill.
If passed in the senate, the bill will pave the way for the construction of a national nuclear waste dump at Muckaty, north of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory.
The legislation overrides NT legislation designed to ban nuclear waste dumps in the territory.
In Australia, a society created on the basis of racial division and superiority, the ugly face of prejudice and discrimination is, unsurprisingly, still very evident today.
Regardless of the often mentioned idea of a 鈥渕ulticultural鈥 Australia, there seems to be a strong campaign to stigmatise, reject and isolate Muslims from mainstream values and norms.
Through recent comments and initiatives taken by several Liberal and Labor party politicians, the overt nature of anti-Islamic discrimination in Australia is as obvious as it is disgraceful.
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