ADELAIDE — The United Trades and Labour Council has voted unanimously in support of a trade ban against Papua New Guinea until the blockade of Bougainville is lifted. The resolution includes a demand that the federal government end military aid.
- The national Customs strike on April 14 had 98% participation here. Public Service Union members protested outside Senator Chris Schacht's office, as well as establishing picket lines at the international airport and Customs House in Port Adelaide.
- Dulce Maria Pereira of the Brazilian Workers Party (PT) spoke to more than 400 activists at meetings during her Adelaide visit. She told a public meeting that it was important to build solidarity with the Brazilian people and to raise awareness of the true situation in the country. Speaking on the Barr Smith lawns at Adelaide University, she was able to reach 200 students. At Flinders University, women's studies students were inspired to consider the importance of rebuilding the active feminist movement here.
BRISBANE Brazilian politics is set to be rocked from top to bottom by the likely election of the Workers Party (PT) as part of a coalition in the national elections due next October, Dulce Maria Pereira told a public meeting here on April 9. She addressed some 80 people at the Resistance Centre, after meetings with parliamentarians and members of the Black and Latin American communities and interviews with the media.
- About 1000 people attended a rally at King George Square on April 13 calling for the decriminalisation of marijuana use. The rally, organised by Help End Marijuana Prohibition (HEMP), heard a number of speakers who told the crowd that the current laws were both ineffective and repressive.
MELBOURNE — Sixty people gathered outside the Magistrates Court on April 7 to show their solidarity with eight campaigners arrested on the picket lines defending Richmond Secondary College. The hearing, which is expected to last four days, will begin on June 28. The eight are being charged with hindering police, resisting arrest, obstructing police and besetting premises — an archaic anti-picketing law. Writs of more than $1 million rest over the heads of another six people regarding damages to the old RSC site. Jean Finn and Elvie Sievers face costs from an Equal Opportunity case contesting the closure of RSC. Stephen Jolly, a central leader of the campaign, faces costs of $6382.20 for a six-minute hearing for the government to get Supreme Court approval for the eviction of RSC occupiers.