A workshop involving trade unionists from around Australia is being held in Geelong on October 28 from 1pm. Socialist Alliance initiated the workshop because union activists are telling us that there are many issues in the campaign against Work Choices that aren聮t getting discussed.
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On October 15, more than 1500 people, including survivors, attended a memorial event on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin to mark the tragic sinking of the SIEV-X on October 19, 2001, in waters between Indonesia and Australia. The event featured Arnhem logs decorated by more than 260 school, church and community groups from around Australia to signify and honour the 353 Iraqi and Afghan asylum seekers who drowned. Organisers had hoped to display the logs for three weeks as a step towards establishing a permanent memorial to the worst maritime disaster in the region since World War II. Despite negotiating with the National Capital Authority since 2003 to ensure the project went smoothly, however, the NCA refused permission less than two weeks before the event. To support the campaign for a permanent memorial, visit .
News
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Welcome to the new 91自拍论坛 Weekly website. GLW is taking a one-week break 鈥 our next issue will be dated November 8.
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On October 13, 50 people from the local Your Rights at Work campaign group protested outside a real estate agent聮s office over his attempt to pressure Gail Austin, a long-term employee, to sign an Australian Workplace Agreement (individual contract) that 聯would have slashed [her] income by $30,000聰, according to Workers Online. Austin said that she was told to sign the agreement or quit. Mark Ptolemy from the Your Rights at Work group said: 聯This company has done nothing illegal, but that doesn聮t mean its actions are not highly immoral.聰
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No full-medal jacket 聯As the American-led Coalition of the Willing prepared to storm Baghdad 3陆 years ago, some of our Army聮s top brass were privately condemning Australia聮s involvement as a contemptible waste of money and effort. Not because some were quietly warning, presciently as it transpired, that Australia would be committing to a war without apparent end聟 No. They were angry that Canberra was willing to commit so much military capital (more than $1.6bn so far) to a war for which the Australian Army would receive precious little recognition.聰 聴 September 27 Bulletin magazine.
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On October 16, 250 people attended an early morning community picket outside Botany Cranes to support sacked delegate Barry Hemsworth. Sixty picketers returned the following day, blocking cranes from leaving the company鈥檚 yard until they were moved on by police.
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On November 18-19, Melbourne will host some of the world聮s most brutal warmongers and economic rationalists. They will be meeting under the auspices of the G20, with this year聮s meeting chaired by Treasurer Peter Costello. A chief architect of the US war on Iraq, Paul Wolfowitz, will also be present, in his capacity as World Bank president.
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Around the country, campus and high-school environment activists are focusing on getting young people to participate in the November 4 Walk against Warming international day of action on climate change.
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Youth Rock the Block, held in Redfern on October 14, featured young community performers expressing their culture and raising money for a local women and children dance studio. The day included singing in the Indigenous Darug language, original dance pieces, renditions of well-known Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal pop songs and hip-hop.
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On October 20, 65 people attended a public meeting to discuss the campaign to make the Newnes Plateau and other areas around the Gardens of Stone National Park, on the western edge of the Blue Mountains, a state conservation area. David Brazil from the Colong Foundation explained that the area has the highest density of rare plants in the Blue Mountains, contains important sites of Aboriginal heritage and provides a refuge for cool-climate species as global warming increases.
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鈥淚 want to switch the lights on. I want people to see that there is a chance for a change.鈥 This is how Aboriginal rap artist and social justice campaigner Jakalene X-treme describes what she wants to get out of the Socialist Alliance campaign for the March 2007 NSW state election. Jakalene was selected as an upper house candidate at the Socialist Alliance state conference on October 7.
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In a referendum held on Sydney University on September 20-21, 90% of the 3000 participating students voted for the university to reduce its contribution to climate change by purchasing a minimum of 20% clean, renewable energy. Currently the university uses 52 million kWh of electricity each year, all of which is generated by coal-fired power stations.
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CBD office cleaners in cities across Australia and New Zealand staged protests on October 18 as part of the Clean Start: Fair Deal for All Cleaners campaign. About 70 cleaners and their supporters rallied outside the Tasmanian parliament marching to the Town Hall to present a letter to the city council.
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Peter Bray from Rising Tide has questioned the independence and make-up of the 聯independent expert panel聰 set up to assess the proposed coal export terminal in Newcastle, branding it a 聯coal-dependent export panel聰 designed to ignore climate change.
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According to an October 19 media release from the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), workers under the age of 15 are now signing Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs 聴 individual work contracts) under the Howard government聮s Work Choices legislation, which came into effect at the end of March.
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Union Solidarity-led community picketers halted the construction of the Otway gas plant for a day on October 20. The picketers came from Melbourne, Geelong, Warrnambool, Hamilton and Portland to support the workers at the site. For two years, construction at the site has proceeded without a single day of industrial action. In June, a site agreement was negotiated between unions and the construction company, Technip.
Analysis
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Ever since the federal Coalition government introduced Work Choices, the trade union movement has been united behind the demand that the legislation be repealed. The debate has been over what alternative industrial relations system the movement should advocate.
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Melbourne聮s public transport system is in crisis 聴 despite a huge increase in subsidies since privatisation. Delays, cancellations and standing room only 聴 this is the reality for passengers across the system. And on top of the bad service, Melbourne has the most expensive fares of any Australian capital city.
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Almost four decades later, the image can still make hairs rise on unsuspecting necks. It聮s 1968, and 200-metre gold medalist Tommie Smith stands next to bronze winner John Carlos, their raised black-gloved fists smashing the sky on the medal stand in Mexico City. They were Trojan Horses of Rage 聴 bringing the Black revolution into that citadel of propriety and hypocrisy: the Olympic games. When people see that image, their eyes are drawn like magnets toward Smith and Carlos, standing in black socks, their heads bowed in controlled concentration.
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Bernadette Peters is a part-time cleaner and a full-time activist. She is also the partner of Mal Peters, one of the 聯Leighton Kumagai 107", who were fined $22,000 by the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) for a strike in February in defence of a sacked health and safety delegate.
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At a Just Peace meeting on October 20, it was proposed by Wade McDonald, a leader of the International Socialist Organisation, that all 聯paper selling聰 be banned outside an upcoming forum on Islamophobia co-hosted by Just Peace.
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If the 91自拍论坛 Weekly Fighting Fund is going to make its target of $250,000 by the end of this year we will have to raise $95,000 over the next 10 weeks. That is a challenge, but we聮ve made this sort of dash before and we can do it again.
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Caroline Lund, a lifelong fighter for socialism, workers鈥 rights and women鈥檚 liberation, died at her home in Oakland, California, on October 14, aged 62. She will be sorely missed by her friends and comrades in the US and around the world, especially her lifelong partner and comrade Barry Sheppard.
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Millions of people on low-lying islands and lands in the Asia-Pacific region will become refugees in the next 40 years due to rising sea levels induced by climate change, according to a CSIRO report issued on October 8. The report was written by scientists with CSIRO聮s marine and atmospheric research division, and was commissioned by aid and conservation agencies forming the national Climate Change and Development Roundtable.
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On October 27, women and their supporters will rally in many cities, towns and rural areas around the world to protest against sexual violence against women and children. Over the past 28 years, Reclaim the Night rallies and marches have encouraged women to protest against violence and sexual assault.
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Why did PM John Howard pre-empt his own inquiry, and a universal Australian corporate view that it makes no economic sense, to declare himself 聯very strongly聰 in favour of nuclear power last week?
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In October, ALP leader Kim Beazley sent a letter to households that expressed his support for the withdrawal of troops. Below is Beazley's letter and a reply by anti-war campaigner Pip Hinman, who argues that Australian troops shouldn't be taken out of Iraq just to be re-deployed to Afghanistan.
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Al Gore聮s documentary An Inconvenient Truth has helped focus attention on the threat posed by fossil-fuel driven climate change. Gore聮s film was met with a predictable barrage of criticism by right-wing pundits. For example Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt wrote in a September 13 article that the 聯former US vice-president聮s ludicrous scaremongering contains exaggerations, half-truths and falsehoods聰.
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Biofuels such as ethanol have been presented by alternative energy entrepreneurs and many environmentalists as a 聯clean, green聰 alternative to fossil fuels. But recently a growing chorus of scientists have warned of the dangers of biofuels.
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Tamil struggle I The article "SRI LANKA: Tamil struggle born from oppression" by Chris Slee (GLW #685) was well written and well researched. He does not feel threatened by any parties when he calls a spade a spade. He is exactly right when heTamil struggle I The article "SRI LANKA: Tamil struggle born from oppression" by Chris Slee (GLW #685) was well written and well researched. He does not feel threatened by any parties when he calls a spade a spade.
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鈥淟iberal Senator Gary Humphries has attempted to reignite a 50-year-old political fear of reds under the bed鈥, reported the Canberra Times on Thursday October 12. The article was referring to an October 10 speech in the Australian Senate, during which Humphries launched an attack on socialist Cuba and Australian supporters of the Cuban Revolution.
World
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On October 16, the Mexico聮s national ombudsman, Jose Luis Soberanes Fernandez, delivered the recommendations of his report into the killing of two young men and the detention of another 207 people by municipal, state and federal security forces on May 3 and 4 in the municipalities of Texcoco and San Salvador Atenco. The clashes were sparked by attempts to remove flower venders without licences from a market.
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Thousands of people flocked to the La Rinconada area, south of Caracas, on October 15, to hear socialist President Hugo Chavez inaugurate the new 聯Ezequiel Zamora聰 train line from Caracas to Cua, in the Valles del Tuy 聴 the first new above-ground train line constructed in Venezuela for more than 70 years.
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聯We guarantee that all Venezuelans will receive free education, to the highest level, as a promise of the revolutionary government. This [event] demonstrates the importance that the [Bolivarian] revolution gives to education聰, Hugo Chavez declared on October 8. The Venezuelan president was officially re-opening the Andres Bello high school, situated in the metropolitan centre of the Caracas. The high school has been extensively renovated and upgraded to provide for a student population of 1700, the October 9 Ultimas Noticias reported.
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At an October 6 public meeting in Boston, US dissident intellectual Noam Chomsky gave the following remarks on the threat posed to the radical governments of Venezuela and Bolivia by Washington in response to an audience member聮s question.
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On October 15 Ecuador went to the polls. Having seen eight presidents in 10 years, three of whom were overthrown by a population frustrated by the corruption, ineptitude and nepotism that characterise Ecuador鈥檚 elite, the chances of any government lasting out its mandate seem pretty slim. However, the challenge could be in getting one of the pool of 13 presidential candidates even legitimately elected.
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In a further assault on the sovereignty of the Solomon Islands, its Australian-appointed police commissioner, Shane Castles, had Solomons immigration minister Peter Shanel arrested on October 17 over the alleged illegal entry of Fiji-born Australian lawyer Julian Moti.
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On October 17, a US federal appeals court upheld the US State Department鈥檚 2004 designation of Kahane Chai, an Israeli-based spin-off of US ultra-Zionist Rabbi Meir Kahane鈥檚 Jewish Defence League (JDL), as a 鈥渇oreign terrorist organisation鈥.
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The United Nations Independent Special Commission of Inquiry released its report on October 17 into the violent conflict in April and May in East Timor. The 79-page report found that the 聯frailty of state institutions and the weakness of the rule of law聰 were to blame for the conflict that erupted following the sacking of almost 600 soldiers from the Timorese Defence Force.
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The 鈥淲hat we think鈥 column from the US Socialist Worker, newspaper of the US International Socialist Organization, argues that although the Republican Party stranglehold on the US Congress may end in the November 7 elections, the Democrats have an abysmal record of trying to 鈥渙ut-Bush鈥 the Republicans.
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On October 16, the UN Office of Humanitarian Assistance聮s IRIN news service reported that electricity and clean water are now 聯luxuries for most Iraqis聰. For example, Baghdad, a city with 6 million residents, gets no more than four to six hours of electricity a day.
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October 12 was marked in Venezuela as the 聯Day of Indigenous Resistance聰 to the arrival of Spanish colonisers. On October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus first landed in South America, beginning more than 500 years of genocide and oppression of the continent聮s indigenous inhabitants. The day is a national public holiday in Venezuela and was previously designated Christopher Columbus Day.
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On October 14, five days after North Korea announced that it had carried out its first nuclear weapons test, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution imposing a ban on trade with North Korea in 聯luxury聰 goods, some conventional armaments, and materials 聯related聰 to its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.
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On May 1, the day the Bolivian government announced the 聯nationalisation聰 of the country聮s vast oil and gas reserves, I went out to witness the symbolic takeover of a former Bolivian refinery that was privatised in the late 聮90s.
Culture
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Marx鈥檚 Das Kapital: A Biography
By Frances Wheen
Allen & Unwin 2006
130 pages $22.95 -
Mary River - childhood home
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The climate is changing. The time for squabbling and petty excuses is over. Now is the time for governments to take urgent and serious action to reduce greenhouse pollution and create a clean-energy future.
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In the Shadow of the Palms
Produced and Directed by Wayne Coles-Janess
In selected cinemas now -
Nearly 40 years after his death, John Coltrane remains one of the most important figures in jazz history.