A group of community activists marked Earth Hour with an occupation of the Hazelwood Power station in Victoria聮s Latrobe Valley on March 28.
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On April 3, in its second major symbolic act in the area of Indigenous affairs, the federal Labor government officially endorsed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
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It has become common practice for many bosses to tell potential employees they must have an Australian Business Number (ABN) to secure a job.
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Workers and the community will march on May Day this year under the banner 鈥淧ut jobs before profits鈥.
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The Dump Connex campaign was launched on March 30, Palestinian Land Day. It was initiated by the Coalition of Palestine Support Organisations, which organised the Melbourne protests against the Israeli assault on Gaza in January and February.
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More than 3000 workers, organised by the Public Service Association, marched on NSW Parliament House on April 2 to oppose the planned privatisation of the Goulburn and Cessnock jails.
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The Socialist Alliance has announced Sam Wainwright as its candidate for the May 16 Fremantle by-election. Wainwright, aged 38, is a wharfie, member of the Maritime Union of Australia and activist in the Fremantle Community Solidarity group.
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If Lewis Carroll鈥檚 Alice were to suddenly come to life in Australia today, there鈥檚 one place she find familiar 鈥 the Wonderland world of industrial relations minister Julia Gillard鈥檚 Fair Work Act (FWA).
News
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Three young Tamil Australians began a hunger strike on April 11 to demand that the Australian government press for a permanent ceasefire by the Sri Lankan Army. The SLA is carrying out a brutal military offensive against the Tamil people in the
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On March 30, a Federal Court hearing at Nepabunna gave a consent determination finally confirming the Adnyamathanha people聮s native title rights over their traditional lands.
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A forum held by the University of Sydney environment collective and the Political Economy Students聮 Society attracted 70 people on March 31.
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As capitalism sinks into a growing crisis of war and economic meltdown, people around the world are waking up to the fact that something is drastically wrong with the system that is throwing millions into poverty, wrecking our climate and turning entire countries into battlefields.
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Members of the Aboriginal community were joined by construction and manufacturing unionists at a 350-strong protest on April 3 to bring an end to deaths of Aboriginal people in custody.
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As part of Palestine Solidarity Week 聴 March 30 to April 3 聴 renowned Jewish author Antony Loewenstein spoke at campus meetings at La Trobe University, Monash University and the University of Melbourne on April 1. The public lectures were organised by Students for Palestine.
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According to a 2008 report by UN agencies UNAIDS and the World Health Organisation, an estimated 1.9 million people were newly infected with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa in 2007, bringing the number of people living with HIV in the region to 22 million.
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Omar Hassan is the Education (public affairs) officer for Monash University聮s student union. He is also a member of Students for Palestine. On March 31, the Monash Student Council (MSC) sanctioned Hassan for his involvement in the group.
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In the biggest shake-up of job centres since the Howard government聮s replacement of the Commonwealth Employment Service (CES) with the privatised Job Network in 1998, the federal Labor government has created a new Job Services Australia (JSA) network. It halves the number of not-for-profit agencies involved and cuts thousands of jobs.
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Qantas workers at Sydney Airport struck for four hours on March 30. Workers held a mass delegates聮 meeting to respond to plans to outsource jobs at Sydney, Launceston and Hobart airports. Baggage handlers, ramp, fleet and catering staff at airports in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth also took industrial action.
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Leader of the International Socialist Organisation Zimbabwea and former MP for Highfield in Harare, Munya Gwisai, along with two representatives of the external relations committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Le Vinh Thu and Le Gia Kien, are the latest additions to the growing international speaker line-up at the World at a Crossroads conference.
Analysis
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As the only weekly newspaper in Australia to regularly house news, discussions and debates on capitalism聮s crises and socialist solutions, 91自拍论坛 Weekly is proud to be hosting the World At A Crossroads conference, to be held at Sydney Girls High, over the Easter weekend (April 10-12).
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It is with sadness that we inform you that long-time left-wing Alistair Dickinson passed away on March 13. Dick was 75 years old. He had fought hard for some months against cancer.
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鈥淚鈥檓 a huge supporter of the civil society and the internet is the Wild West at the moment鈥, federal communications minister Stephen Conroy told SBS鈥檚 Insight on March 31. Conroy and the Labor Party remain determined to fence the internet in, joining a short list of countries that attempt to censor it.
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This article is based on a speech given by Jay Nathan, a young Tamil activist, at a rally protesting the Sri Lankan genocide against the people of Tamil Eelam, in Sydney on March 28.
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The Building Industry Group (BIG) unions have decided to up the ante on the campaign to abolish the undemocratic Australian Building Construction Commission (ABCC).
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British Prime Minister Gordon Brown proclaimed at the conclusion of the London G20 summit: 鈥淲e have resolved that from today we will together manage the process of globalisation 鈥 We have agreed that in doing so we will build a more sustainable and more open and fairer global society.鈥
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As the economic crisis continues to worsen, with capitalism unable to stop the spiral towards a global depression that will plunge millions into poverty, women will experience the negative consequences more rapidly and with more severity.
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The federal government is hoping those who receive their $900 聯stimulus package聰 payment from April 6 spend and spend big.
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Labor governments at state and federal levels are persisting with two unpopular proposals for education in remote Aboriginal schools 鈥 the scrapping of bilingual education and the linking of welfare payments to school attendance 鈥 despite opposition from communities and educators.
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91自拍论坛 Weekly鈥檚 Simon Butler spoke to Karen Cieri, one of the founders of Top End Transition group based in Darwin.
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A number of Climate Action Groups (CAGs) in NSW held a series of actions at federal MP offices on March 27.
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In 2005, anti-dredging campaign group Blue Wedges joined Somali pirates, Peruvian raiders and Gulf terrorists on the US Office of Naval Intelligence聮s international threat list as a credible threat to international shipping.
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The struggle against the privatisation schemes of the NSW government is beginning to revive. On April 2, an angry demonstration of prison officers besieged parliament house, protesting against prison privatisation plans.
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The federal government鈥檚 report on the future of the Australian Building Construction Commission (ABCC), released on April 3, was met with disappointment by unionists.
World
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Israel鈥檚 High Court ruled to allow leaders of the extreme right to march bearing Israeli flags through the Palestinian majority town of Umm al-Fahm, near Haifa, on March 24.
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Teachers鈥 salaries in Venezuela have increased 550% since 1999, education minister Hector Navarra said on March 23, according to the March 24 Diario Vea.
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The article below is by Peter Boyle, the national secretary of the Democratic Socialist Perspective, which is a Marxist tendency in the Socialist Alliance. Boyle attended the founding congress of the new mass-based left-wing Power of the Masses Party (PLM) in Manila in February. He also met with military rebels, some supportive of the PLM, currently in prison for trying to overthrow the corrupt, neoliberal government of President Gloria Arroyo. A longer version of this article can be found at the socialist e-journal Links, .
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International human rights group Amnesty International issued a report on March 30 accusing the Greek police of widespread abuses during the wave of street protests that shook the country late last year. The report claimed police conducted arbitrary arrests, physically abused detainees, and disproportionately targeted immigrants.
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鈥淵ou want to haul us out to jail? Fine. Let the world see how government has been ineffective鈥, Bertha Lewis, chief organiser for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), told the February 17 New York Times.
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The article below is by Salim Vally, a leading member of the Palestine Solidarity Committee in South Africa and a veteran anti-apartheid activist. A longer version is posted at . Vally will be a featured guest at the World at a Crossroads conference, in Sydney, April 10-12. For more information, or to register, visit .
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A new left alliance has formed in Britain to stand in the European Union elections set for June 4.
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Speaking on March 30 in Qatar, the day before the two-day summit of South American and Arab countries, Venezuela President Hugo Chavez said the meeting represented the 鈥渃oming together鈥 of two regions that have experienced 鈥渃enturies of struggle against colonialism鈥.
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The combination of a ten-year long 鈥減eople鈥檚 war鈥 waged by the People鈥檚 Liberation Army (PLA), and a pro-democracy uprising in 2006 overthrew the centuries-old Nepalese monarchy and paved the way for elections to a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution. Elected last year, the largest number of seats are held by the United Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist, which is aligned with the PLA and currently heads a coalition government.
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鈥淭he trouble makers are out in force again鈥, George Monbiot wrote on April 1 in the Guardian Online.
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Nearly 700 people marched on March 29 from a Baptist church to the courthouse of rural Powhatan County, Virginia.
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Senator Humaira Namati, a member of the upper house of the Afghan parliament, said the new law that has been signed by US-backed President Harzai Karzai was 鈥渨orse than during the Taliban鈥, the March 31 British Guardian said.
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Some 200 workers occupied the Visteon car parts plant in Belfast in Ireland's north in response job cuts on March 31. The workers acted after the bosses summarily announced the closure of the plant with the loss of all jobs. Visteon took over the plant from Ford in 2000. All plant makes parts for Ford.
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The Iraqi Teachers' Union is under attack from the Iraqi government. The government has authorised an official body to take over the union with the pretext of forcing the union to hold elections. It is worth noting that the ITU has already held several national conferences since 2003 and had elected an ITU leadership openly and democratically.
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The article below is abridged from a March 31 Ma聮an News Agency report.
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The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), the party led by Chavez that has almost 6 million aspiring members, has also produced a document analysing the global economic crisis and the tasks for revolutionary socialists for discussion in its branches across the country. A translation of the document can be read at the socialist e-journal, Links ().
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In a disturbing development, US President Barack Obama has announced that Pakistan is now a main focus for the 鈥渨ar on terror鈥 鈥 foreshadowing an increasing expansion of the US-led war in Afganistan across the border.
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A March 27 ACN article reported that former Cuban president Fidel Castro has been awarded the Order of the Companions of O.R. Tambo, South Africa鈥檚 highest distinction. South African President Kgalema Motlante handed over the order to the Cuban ambassador, Angel Fernandez.
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Bolivian President Evo Morales denounced the decision of the April 2 G20 summit to inject more than US$1 trillion into the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a means of combating the economic crisis, comparing it to leaving a wolf to care for a flock of sheep, according to an April 3 AFP report.
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The unemployment rate jumped to 8.5% in March as the economy shed another 663,000 jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. With the job loss reported for March, and upward revisions of 84,000 for the prior two months, the economy has lost an average of 684,000 jobs per month since November 2008.
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The Group of 20 meeting of leaders of the world聮s biggest economic powers was marked for failure even before it began on April 1.
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The Victorian ALP state government has cynically tried to dress up its attack on public sector workers as an attempt to save jobs. Public sector workers will have their wage rises slashed from 3.25% to 2.5% annually.
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The article below is by Brian Senewiratne, who is from Sri Lanka聮s Sinhalese ethnic majority and a long-time Tamil rights activist. For his uncompromising stance against the long-term oppression, and current brutal military offensive, against the Sri Lanka聮s Tamil minority by the Sinhalese chauvinist regime, he was recently barred from entering Malaysia and was singled out and victimised by Canadian and Australian immigration officials.
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Kavita Krishnan is the national secretary of the All India Progressive Women's Association and a former president of the All India Students' Association. She is also a central committee member of the Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist (CPI-ML) and editor of Liberation magazine. Krishnan will be an international guest at the World at a Crossroads conference in Sydney, April 10-12. For more information, or to register, visit .
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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez argued on March 27 that the economic measures his government has adopted, to confront the global economic crisis, contain 鈥渘ot one neoliberal element鈥, unlike those adopted by the previous governments.
Culture
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Visual artist Van Thanh Rudd created a stir in Melbourne with his installation 聯Economy of Movement 聴 A Piece of Palestine聰. Rudd was invited to exhibit at an art space called the Platform, in the group show Resisting Subversion of Subversive Resistance. The Platform is situated directly beneath Melbourne聮s Flinders Street train station.
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The Great Financial Crisis: Causes and Consequences
By John Bellamy Foster and Fred Magdoff
Monthly Review Press, 2009
160 pages, $25
Available from -
The (International) Noise Conspiracy (T(I)NC) formed in Sweden in 1998. It鈥檚 well known for its strong political stance on many progressive issues. The band will be touring Australia until May 29. Dates are available at .
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A necessary part of life new life wakes me: a tiny sun with roots I must water daily encouraging them to plan their own attack upon discord. Poor little bread of solidarity, banner against the cold, fresh water for all the