BRISBANE — "Year after year we keep saying the same things to the government — Aboriginal people want a chance!", Sam Watson of the Aboriginal Legal Service told a rally of 150 people here on January 26, Invasion Day. Other speakers included Norman Johnson, from the Australian Indigenous Peoples Party, Dunkin Johnson, an Aboriginal councillor, and Ricky Cusko.
NEWCASTLE — The Australian Industrial Commission on January 27 granted a 4.5% pay rise to 670 blue-collar workers at the Tomago Aluminium smelter, ending one of the largest industrial disputes for at least five years in the Hunter Valley. The dispute included a 24-day strike late last year and commission hearings in November and December. The dispute was settled under the "exceptional circumstances" clause in the enterprise bargaining agreement.
PERTH — Around 50 people heard independent MP Phil Cleary address the prospects for new electoral alliances at a lively Politics in the Pub at the Court Hotel on January 23. Cleary also spoke to a Trades and Labour council meeting on January 24, as well as a number of media engagements. One proposal canvassed at the forum was the possibility of a "black, red and green alliance", with specific attention to the upper house in the next state election. Inspired by the developments with the Alliance in New Zealand, Cleary stressed that he wanted to generate activity outside the ALP.
SYDNEY — More than 5000 people marked January 26 as Survival Day at the annual concert at La Perouse. Entertainers included Tiddas and Kev Carmody. Photo by Trish Corcoran.
- Some 250 anarchists from around the country attended the Visions of Freedom Conference-Festival at Sydney University on the weekend of January 21-22. Discussion workshops included anarcho-syndicalist strategies, anarchy and feminism, anarchy and ecology, and militarism and non-violent struggle. The high point was a talk given by Noam Chomsky at Town Hall on the Saturday night. The conference was also used to launch Ciaron O'Reilly's Bomber Grounded, Runway Closed and Jack Herer's US classic The Emperor Wears No Clothes: Hemp and the Marijuana Conspiracy.
- On January 28 the Australia-Cuba Friendship Society and the Cuban Consulate marked the centenary anniversary of the fall in combat of Cuban independence leader Jose Marti. Marti died on May 19, 1895 aged 42. The heard the acting Cuban consul general, Gilda Lopez, speak of the inspiration that Marti gave to generations of Cuban revolutionaries from the "last war for independence" to the current struggle in Cuba against the US blockade.