MELBOURNE鈥 Locked-out Hazelwood power station workers and supporters staged a protest outside International Power鈥檚 offices on July 31. The Latrobe Valley emergency service officers employed by contractor Diamond Protection, were locked out after taking industrial action over a claim for pay parity.
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Socialist Alliance member Fred Fuentes is currently working in Caracas, Venezuela. Last week, he wrote back on the political situation there.
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MELBOURNE鈥 On July 29, 40 supporters of Aboriginal rights gathered in front of the ALP Victorian headquarters in West Melbourne. They protested against the federal ALP government鈥檚 planned takeover of the Alice Springs town camps.
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MELBOURNE 鈥 Eighty-eight workers from five 7-Eleven stores in the CBD will be reimbursed $112,000, and a sixth store has been instructed to credit 1000 hours of annual leave to workers who should have accrued the entitlement but didn鈥檛.
News
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On July 31, Wollongong's satirical 鈥楤illionaires for Coal鈥 group rallied outside the ALP national conference in Sydney to congratulate the party on a 鈥渏ob well done鈥.
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鈥淗elp us, do something for us 鈥 but the way we want them to be done. Talk to us鈥, Alice Springs town camp resident Audrey McCormack pleaded of ALP conference delegates.
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Victoria鈥檚 record six-month dry spell has raised fears that the summer of 2009-10 will be worse than last year, when hundreds died in the Black Saturday bushfires and the record-breaking heatwave that preceded them.
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The Tasmanian Labour Party held its state conference in Hobart on July 26. It adopted a new policy in support of same-sex marriage after a close vote.
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Speakers from Micronesia, Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Torres Strait Islands described how climate change affects their everyday lives at meetings of 180 people in Brisbane on July 28 and 170 people in Melbourne on July 30
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The Tasmanian Liberal Party, now in opposition, is running with a new youth-bashing policy in the lead-up to the next state election. The election will take place early next year.
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Environment groups are organising a 鈥減eaceful community mass civil disobedience鈥 at the Hazelwood coal-fired power station in the Latrobe Valley on September 13.
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The Palestine solidarity group Students for Palestine organised a successful fundraising dinner at the Rockdale Town Hall in Sydney鈥檚 south on July 24. Indigenous activist Jenny Munro delivered a welcome to country to kick off a fabulous night of entertainment, food, culture and fundraising.
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On August 1, thousands of supporters of same-sex marriage rights rallied around the country demanding equal rights for gay and lesbian relationships. On the same day, the ALP national conference passed a policy motion supporting the recognition of same-sex relationships but opposing gay marriage.
Analysis
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More than 200 council workers and their supporters joined sacked council workers Mick Van Beek and Peter Anderson in Johnston Park, Geelong on the morning of July 28.
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Five Filipino workers holding 457 visas, who were employed at a Fletcher International abattoir near Albany, were made redundant and given 10 weeks鈥 entitlement pay on June 2.
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To win the battle to stop climate change, climate activists in Queensland have an important part to play. The Queensland ALP government is a strong backer of Australia鈥檚 biggest polluters.
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The following article was submitted by Jane Addison as part of an ongoing debate around population and climate change. Addison is a member of Sustainable Population Australia. The article is written in a personal capacity.
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If the rhetoric of the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission鈥檚 report on Australia鈥檚 health system is taken at face value, health care in Australia will get an impressive overhaul courtesy of the federal government.
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鈥淲e've had the gun at our head.鈥 This is what William Tilmouth, Tangentyere Council CEO, said in response to Aboriginal affairs minister Jenny Macklin's triumphant July 29 announcement that the council had agreed to lease Alice Springs town camps to the federal government for 40 years in exchange for $135 million in housing upgrades
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Construction giant John Holland was the first employer to lodge an application with Labor鈥檚 new Fair Work Australia industrial umpire. It asked FWA to rule on which union has coverage at its controversial West Gate Bridge site in Melbourne.
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Canice Lynch was sacked from his job at the West Gate Bridge strengthening project on July 24. Lynch was the Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union (CFMEU) shop steward at the site.
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鈥淚f you are still in the Labor Party today, you should be ashamed of yourself鈥, 71-year-old Aboriginal activist Pat Eatock called out to delegates entering the stage-managed proceedings of the first day of the ALP national conference.
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鈥淭he system here in Victoria for delivering quality training to both domestic students and international students is working very, very well鈥, Jacinta Allan, Victorian skills and workplace participation minister told ABC Stateline on July 24 in response to criticisms of Australia鈥檚 international education market.
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Former Queensland Labor cabinet minister Gordon Nuttall was sentenced to seven years jail on July 17. He was found guilty of corruptly receiving secret payments from two Queensland businessmen.
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Australian Coal Association (ACA) executive director Ralph Hillman believes the industry doesn鈥檛 want special treatment from the Rudd Labor government. It just wants the same 鈥渇air treatment鈥 given to other big polluters under the proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS).
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We鈥檝e heard it all before 鈥 especially those of us who can remember the rhetoric of the Hawke and Keating governments. A little pain now and everything will be much better for everyone in the long run.
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The national ALP Conference was held in Sydney from July 30 to August 1. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd鈥檚 speech on the opening day of the conference was full of congratulatory remarks about the greatness of his party and the way the ALP federal government had handled the economic crisis.
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I met Eddie Spearritt in the Philharmonic pub, overlooking Liverpool. It was a few years after 96 Liverpool football fans were crushed to death at Hillsborough Stadium, Sheffield, on April 15, 1989. Eddie鈥檚 14-year-old son, Adam, died in his arms.
World
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Months after the murder of prominent journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge in Sri Lanka, more journalists have been attacked as part of the Sri Lankan government鈥檚 war on free speech.
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Siddique Abdullah Hasan is on death row in Ohio. He is one of the Lucasville Five, prisoners railroaded onto death row after a 1993 prison rebellion against abuses by prison authorities. Below, he writes about the July 21 execution in Ohio of Marvallous Keene 鈥 the 1000th prisoner to be executed by lethal injection in the US since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.
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Right-wing, religiously driven sex education policies introduced by the administration of president George Bush Jnr have had disastrous results for the sexual and reproductive health of US youth, a July 17 report by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said.
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The eyewitness account of events in Honduras on July 30 is by Al Giordano. It is abridged from Rightsaction.org. Hundreds of activists have been arrested by the illegal coup regime that overthrew Honduran President Manuel Zelaya on June 28 and an unknown number assassinated.
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Much of the debate about US President Barack Obama鈥檚 push for Middle East peace resembles the proverbial argument about whether the glass is half full or half empty.
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The article below is by Jan Sithole, general secretary of the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions. It first appeared at Pambazuko News.
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Thousands of tons of earth contaminated with radioactive waste have been identified at the site of the London Olympics at Marshgate Lane in Stratford, George Galloway, a left-wing MP for the anti-war Respect party, said on July 27.
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On July 28, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ordered the withdrawal of Venezuela鈥檚 ambassador and diplomatic staff in Colombia. His move was in response to the decision by the government of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to allow five US military bases on Colombian territory.
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With the June 28 military coup in Honduras, the agreement for five United States military bases in Colombia and the intensification of a dirty propaganda campaign against Venezuela, 鈥渢he big question is whether the US will look at launching a war that will undoubtedly spread throughout the region, or whether it will decide to postpone such a scenario and attempt to continue dealing regular blows.
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The article below is reprinted from the Morning Star.
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The article below is abridged from a July 27 statement by the National Black Fraternal Organisation of Honduras on the one month anniversary of the military coup that overthrew elected President Manuel Zelaya. It is reprinted from .
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From the hype surrounding the release of Apple鈥檚 latest iPhone at the start of July, you might be forgiven for thinking it could do everything from making a cup of coffee to shaving your armpits. The July 29 Sydney Morning Herald said there was even a new application that could measure your performance in bed.
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The frosty relations between Colombia and Ecuador got even frostier on July 6 when Colombian officials and lawyers accused members of Ecuador鈥檚 government of working for left-wing Colombian guerrillas.
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The article below is an excerpt from a speech given by a worker from the Vestas wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight. Since July 20, Vestas workers launched an indefinite occupation of the plant in response to plans to close it by Danish company Vestas Windsystems. The speech is abridged from Savevestas.wordpress.com.
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On July 17, 20 members of jailed democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi鈥檚 National League for Democracy were arrested after peacefully marching in a crowd of 300 to mark Martyrs鈥 Day.
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Zaineb Alani is an Iraqi antiwar activist living in the US. In this speech, delivered at the July 10-12 US conference of the National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations, she explains why the so-called withdrawal of US forces from Iraq does not mean an end to the occupation. The speech is abridged from the US .
Culture
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The Religious Right at the Crossroads 鈥 The 2008 US presidential election was a watershed moment in US politics, shattering the decades-old alliance between the Republican Party and conservative evangelical Christians. SBS1, Monday, August 10,
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Slaughterhouse FiveBy Kurt VonnegutFirst published in 1969224 pages, $24.95
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The Spartacus WarBy Barry StraussWeidenfeld & Nicolson, 2009240 pages, $55 (hb)
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FigureheadBy Patrick AllingtonBlack Inc, 2009239pages, $29.95