"One year after Hugo Chavez's death: Eyewitness reports from Venezuela," was the title of a public forum organised by the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network (AVSN) at the Resistance Centre on February 4.
More than 40 people attended the forum, which heard a panel of speakers discuss issues facing the Bolivarian revolution today.
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Beloved Land: Stories, Struggles & Secrets From Timor-Leste
Gordon Peake
Scribe, 2013
250 pages, $29.95 (pb)
East Timor is a tale of two statistics, says Gordon Peake in Beloved Land, his engaging blend of history, memoir and travelogue about the former Portuguese and Indonesian colony.
One of the world's poorest nations, East Timor ranks a lowly 120th of 169 countries on the United Nations Human Development Index, but scores high on corruption at 15th on the World Bank鈥檚 business transparency report.
In the third attack on the ABC by a government minister in the last month, Defence Minister David Johnston said on February 7 that reports that asylum seekers had their hands burned by navy personnel warrants an investigation into the national broadcaster.
"If ever there was an event that justified a detailed inquiry, some reform, an investigation of the ABC, this event is it," he said.
This follows comments by Prime Minister Tony Abbott on January 29 when he said the ABC 鈥渁ppears to take everyone鈥檚 side but Australia鈥檚 and I think it is a problem鈥.
More than 100 people from Mackay, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney joined local activists in Maules Creek, NSW last week to bring attention to a battle that goes to the heart of Australia鈥檚 confrontation with climate change.
Maules Creek is the site of a proposed new coalmine to be operated by Whitehaven Coal. The proposal to build this mine has been the subject of dispute since its inception, but came to prominence in January last year as a result of a hoax press release.
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA)聽has approved plans to dump 3 million cubic metres of sand and mud in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.
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This waste will come from dredging the sea floor during construction of the Abbot Point coal terminal near Bowen and will be dumped about 25 kilometres away within the boundaries of the marine park.
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Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt initially approved the proposal, before passing it on to the聽GBRMPA聽to make the final decision.
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The Refugee Action Coalition released this statement on February 5.
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The daily protests by hundreds of asylum seekers on Manus Island that began on January 25 have now spread to all four compounds inside the detention centre.
Since January 25, up to 500 asylum seekers in the Oscar compound, the most deprived of the compounds, have been staging daily protests.
On January 30, the protests extended to Mike compound. And on January 31, hundreds more asylum seekers were in involved in protests in all four compounds.
The decision of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) to cut ties with the ruling African National Congress (ANC) has been badly analysed.
Comment has tended to focus on the possibility of a new political party in 2019, or whether suspended general secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) Zwelinzima Vavi will get his job back.
But the greater significance of the biggest trade union in the country throwing in its lot with a growing movement in opposition to the neoliberal order, and thus to the left of the ANC, is being missed.
It's celebrity time again. The Golden Globes have been, and the Oscars are coming. This is a 鈥渧intage year鈥 say Hollywood's hagiographers on cue. It isn't.
Most movies are made to a formula for the highest return, money-fuelled by marketing and something called celebrity. This is different from fame, which can come with talent. True celebrities are spared that burden.
鈥淭he age of entitlement is over,鈥 Treasurer Joe Hockey has bluntly told the Australian people. Hockey, entitled to a six-figure pension every year when he retires, suggests we must learn to get on with less.
The West Papuan independence movement's hopes of of gaining a foothold in the international community were set back when foreign minsters visiting West Papua pledged non-interference with Indonesia.
Last June, the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) Leaders Summit met in Noumea, New Caledonia, and discussed a membership application from the West Papua National Council for Liberation (WPNCL). The summit postponed the decision until a ministerial delegation visited West Papua to determine the legitimacy of the group and to assess the situation in the occupied country.
A New Zealand newspaper has sparked outrage after declaring 鈥減rotest-free news鈥 and printing a white power symbol to mark the country's official founding as a European colony.
The New Zealand Herald drew ire from readers over its outspoken refusal to cover otherwise high-profile protests by indigenous Maori on Waitangi Day. Commemorated on February 6, it is a state holiday marking the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi between the British crown and tribal delegations.
The growing ecological crisis and impending environmental catastrophe is leading more on the left to recognise that we need both red and green in our politics 鈥 we have to be ecosocialists. One without the other is not going to work.
That is the strong message from the French Left Party, which has called for the founding of a European network, opposing the environmental degradation caused by capitalism鈥檚 relentless drive for profit.
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