Angered by the latest round of cuts, staff at Victoria University (VU) held a protest outside a university council meeting on November 2.
National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) national president Jeannie Rea told protesters she had worked at VU for 20 years. She said that more than 100 people have lost their jobs at VU this year, with another round of redundancies still to come.
The results of the 2017 City of Greater Geelong Council elections have been declared, with Greens candidate Sarah Mansfield being聽elected in Brownbill Ward.
Mansfield won聽more than 17% of the primary vote. Her聽election was aided by a strong preference flow from residents who voted for Socialist Alliance (SA) candidates Sue Bull and Sarah Hathway.
Judge Carmen Lamela of Spain鈥檚 National High Court 鈥 direct descendant of the fascist Franco-era Court of Public Order 鈥 took the war of the Spanish state against the Catalan pro-independence government to a new level of judicial violence on November 2.
The Socialist Alliance is running in the November 25 Queensland state elections to help build an anti-capitalist alternative to the two-party system. We are also supporting the re-election of progressive independent MP Rob Pyne in Cairns and calling for a vote for the Greens in other seats.
A concerted campaign to stop Gloucester Resources Limited鈥檚 open-cut coalmine on agricultural land in Gloucester has been rewarded. The NSW Department of Planning and the Environment recommended on October 23 that GRL鈥檚 Rocky Hill mine not be given approval.聽
New Zealand Labour leader Jacinda Ardern, who says capitalism has been a 鈥渂latant failure鈥, became the country鈥檚 new, and youngest ever, prime minister on October 19.
Asked a few days after becoming PM if capitalism had failed New Zealanders, 37-year-old Ardern responded: 鈥淚f you have hundreds of thousands of children living in homes without enough to survive, that鈥檚 a blatant failure. What else could you describe it as?鈥
Victoria became the first state to have a Renewable Energy Target (RET) written into law on October 20. The Victorian RET has been set at 25% renewable energy by 2020, and 40% by 2025.
Writing in the October 28 New York Times, conservative columnist David Brooks said the preceding week was 鈥渨hen Donald Trump and Steve Bannon solidified their grip on the Republican Party and America鈥檚 national government鈥.
Brooks speaks for the Republican establishment 鈥 and sorely deplores this development.
Victoria is set to trial a safe injecting room, where users will be able to inject their drug of choice in a medically supervised safe space. The trial will run for at least two years, followed by a review.
It will be the first injecting room in Victoria and the second in Australia, after an injecting room was established in Kings Cross, Sydney, in 2001.
The Che Guevara stamp produced by the Irish republic鈥檚 postal service (An Post) has sold out its initial 120,000 print run. The stamp was released to mark the 50th anniversary of the Latin American freedom fighter鈥檚 murder on October 9, 1967 by CIA-backed Bolivian state.
The announcement confounds right-wing critics, who opposed the stamp. 聽An Post has described the demand for the 鈧1 stamp 鈥 using Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick鈥檚 image of the revolutionary icon 鈥 as 鈥渦nprecedented鈥.
After a concerted campaign by staff, trade unions and the community, the NSW government announced on October 27 that Shellharbour Hospital in the Illawarra will remain in public hands.
The campaign forced the government to cancel its proposed public-private partnership (PPP) plan and instead proceed with a $251 million redevelopment of the hospital on its current site.
It is an understatement to say that relations between the US and North Korea are very tense.
The US government continues to threaten to further tighten economic sanctions on North Korea, and launch a military attack to destroy the country鈥檚 missiles and nuclear weapons infrastructure.聽For its part, the North says it will respond to any attack with its own strikes against US bases in the region and even the US itself.