At last, the bill has been passed to enable Britain's health service, the envy of the world, to become more like the United States system, universally derided as a chaotic disaster. Now they can introduce bills to make our ferry service more like the one in Italy, and our record on child abuse more like that of the Vatican.
It takes inventive thinking to hear that in the US, drug companies spend twice as much on advertising as they do on research, and say, "That's MARVELLOUS, why can't WE do that"?
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Tens of thousands of students and their supporters marched in big Quebec cities on March 18 to oppose the Quebec Premier Jean Charest鈥檚 government鈥檚 promise to impose a 75% rise in post-secondary education fees over the next five years.
In Montreal, about 30,000 鈥渇ormer, present and future university students鈥 protested. The march stretched for more than 1.5 kilometres, newspaper Le Devoir said. Thousands more marched in Quebec City, Sherbrooke and Alma.
A Rose Loupt Oot
Edited by David Betteridge
Smokestack Books 2011
拢8.95, 64 pages
www.smokestack-books.co.uk
Last year marked the 40th anniversary of the work-in Upper Clyde Shipbuilders (UCS) in 1971, a campaign by Scottish workers that resulted in the reversal of the Conservative government鈥檚 decision to close down a number of shipyards on the River Clyde in Glasgow.
A Rose Loupt Oot is a collection of poems, songs and artwork marking the anniversary.
Hana Shalabi, a 30-year-old Palestinian woman, was close to death after being on hunger strike since February 16, .
Protest singers aren't always producing angry slogans to give their audience a sense of solidarity: there are some who can make you consider an issue in a new light by using well-constructed lyrics, a tuneful melody, humour, and a gently persuasive voice. Such a catalyst is Jez Lowe, a British singer/songwriter, who is touring Australia. Lowe writes specifically about life in his native north-east England, but there is such truth and universality in his writing that it appeals to audiences across the world. He is to folk song what British screenwriter Jimmy McGovern is to television.
A number of high-profile industrial struggles are unfolding in New Zealand.
About 1500 aged care workers, members of the Service and Food Workers Union, are taking part in rolling strikes against a 1% pay rise offer. About 750 meat workers have been locked out by their employer AFFCO and about 1250 workers are involved in rolling stoppages in solidarity. Striking Auckland waterside workers are also into their fourth week on the picket line.
What links all these struggles are pay and conditions 鈥 especially the fight against casualisation.
Last week I had a dream that my house in the western part of Tokyo was shaking violently around me. Then I woke up and discovered it wasn鈥檛 a dream at all. It was a 5.3 magnitude earthquake with its epicentre in nearby Saitama.
It was the second earthquake I had felt in less than a week following the March 11 anniversary of Japan's earthquake and tsunami disaster. It was a frightening and potent reminder of exactly why it is so important to rid Japan of nuclear power plants.
The Greens were dead against the former Rudd Labor government鈥檚 Carbon Pollution Trading Scheme (CPRS) in 2009 and voted it down in parliament. Today, the Greens are champions of the Gillard Labor government鈥檚 carbon price.
A says it only 鈥渉appened because of the Greens鈥.
The strangest thing is that the two carbon price schemes 鈥 Rudd鈥檚 and Gillard鈥檚 鈥 are mostly the same.
The Northern Territory鈥檚 peak doctors鈥 body says Darwin鈥檚 main hospital is struggling to cope with up to five refugees a day coming in for treatment for self-harm, mental illness and chronic anxiety.
Activists campaigning for stronger action to stop climate change often come up against pseudo-scientific arguments from climate change deniers.
Arguments put forward by misusers and abusers of the science such as Ian Plimer or 鈥淟ord鈥 Christopher Monckton have become mainstays of the deniers鈥 argument arsenal.
Below are three of the most common violations of science that are touted as evidence disproving the 鈥渢heory鈥 of anthropogenic (human-caused) climate change, and response to these arguments.
A lively picket was held outside Arrow Energy鈥檚 main Brisbane office on Albert Street on March 23.
Called by Socialist Alliance candidate for South Brisbane, Liam Flenady, the picket protested the recent revelations that , including the suburbs Pullenvale, Karara Downs and Moggill.
The federal immigration department said on March 20 that it would bring all asylum seekers under a 鈥渘ew single protection visa process鈥. From March 24, refugees that arrive by boat would be able to put their cases for refugee status to the same body 鈥 the Refugee Review Tribunal 鈥 as those who arrived by plane.
Since former Liberal prime minister John Howard excised large parts of Australia鈥檚 migration zone in 2001, asylum seekers that arrived by boat were taken to the Independent Merits Review (IMR) system.
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