The self-immolation of Tunisian Mohamed Buazizi in December triggered off protests that brought down a 24-year-old dictatorship in that country and inspired similar protests in neighbouring countries.
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Mining company BHP Billiton鈥檚 whopping $10.5 billion profit for the second half of 2010 highlights the shameless greed of those making a fortune out of Australia鈥檚 valuable resources.
Remember the tantrum thrown by BHP, Rio Tinto and Xstrata less than a year ago after then-PM Kevin Rudd proposed the Resource Super Profits Tax (RSPT)?
The RSPT wasn鈥檛 a radical proposal. Part of the revenue from the modest 40% tax would have been returned to the corporate sector, helping to fund a cut in the already low corporate tax rate and various subsidies to mining.
ASIO has delayed the release of 900 refugees from immigration detention because it had not carried out security checks, a Senate estimate hearing on February 24 revealed.
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Refugees can be held indefinitely after their visa approval until checks on their background, family networks and 鈥渞isk鈥 level are complete.
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Lateline said on March 1 that it took an average of 66 days to process one person. But some refugees have been held for 12 months or longer.
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Folk music legend Pete Seeger has come out in support of the growing Palestinian movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel and in support of justice for Palestinians and a route to peace in the Middle East.
Seeger, 92, took part in last November鈥檚 online virtual rally 鈥淲ith Earth and Each Other鈥, sponsored by the Arava Institute, an Israeli environmental organisation, and by the Friends of the Arava Institute.
The released the statement below on February 26.
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The Socialist Alliance extends its full solidarity to the people of Libya now being brutally repressed for demanding an end to the corrupt and unjust regime of dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
Their courageous struggle, launched on February 15, for democracy and economic and social justice, has resulted in hundreds, if not thousands, of people being killed.
Ireland鈥檚 governing Fianna F谩il (FF) party and its Green Party coalition partner were massacred in a general election revolt on February 26. The most successful establishment party in Western Europe for the past 80 years, FF was demolished 鈥 reduced from 77 to only 20 seats on the back of public outrage over austerity measures and social spending cuts.
National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) members at Macquarie University in Sydney took rolling industrial action across four faculties during the first teaching week of semester.
The industrial action was part of a campaign for a new collective agreement for academic staff.
Three hundred staff and students rallied on March 3 to hear about the bargaining impasse. Issues of concern for staff include overcrowded classes, lack of facilities, workloads, budget cuts and job security.
Many millions of tonnes of coal have been exported since activists dubbed the Rising Tide Seven temporarily shut down coal loaders in Newcastle in September last year.
They were convicted on January 31 of 鈥渞emaining on enclosed lands鈥. Each was fined $300, plus $79 in court costs.
However, on March 3, they were vindicated when magistrate Elaine Truscott rejected the Port Waratah Coal Services鈥 (PWCS) $525,000 鈥渃ompensation鈥 claim.
US-backed dictators have 鈥榤oral scruples鈥
鈥淸P]ro-American dictatorships have more moral scruples. The comparison is akin to what happened in the 1980s when U.S. allies led by authoritarians fell peacefully in the Philippines, South Korea and Taiwan, even as Communist regimes proved tougher.鈥
鈥 February 16 WSJ editorial.
Supporting its dictators
鈥淭he [Obama] administration has submitted a proposed budget for fiscal 2011 that included military assistance increases for Bahrain, Libya, Morocco, Oman and Yemen.鈥
The Global Economic Crisis: The Great Depression of the 21st Century
Edited by Michael Chossudovsky & Andrew Gavin Marshall
Global Research, 2010
The Centre for Research on Globalisation (CRG), based in Montreal, runs a website that publishes in-depth analysis of economic and strategic issues aimed at countering that offered by the mainstream media.
HOBART 鈥 About 20 people attended an Aboriginal rights forum organised on February 24 by the Socialist Alliance.
The forum heard from a panel of representatives from the Tasmanian Aboriginal community and explored a range of issues they are campaigning around, including the Brighton Bypass, heritage issues and the NT intervention.
The Greens candidate for Heathcote in the NSW elections, Phil Smith, has renewed his party鈥檚 call for a moratorium on coal seam gas mining in the state.
He said gas extraction poses real risks for communities throughout the Heathcote electorate, a seat that spans from southern Sydney to the northern Illawarra.
The Labor state government recently approved 15 coal seam gas wells in the northern Illawarra region.
鈥淭he Greens are leading the call for an immediate moratorium,鈥 Smith told 91自拍论坛 Weekly.
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