Even John Howard has got the point at last: human-made climate change can鈥檛 be denied. But the minor reductions in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions available from existing 鈥渟olutions鈥 - from the Kyoto Protocol to Howard鈥檚 technofixes - won鈥檛 stave off further destruction. We need a radically different approach - a massive, immediate turn to renewable energy sources.
691
鈥淭he central message of the 2006 election was so unmistakable that even George Bush couldn鈥檛 miss it. Get. Out. Of. Iraq.鈥 This was how the November 17 US Socialist Worker weekly summed up the results of the November 7 US mid-term congressional elections, in which the Democrats won control of both houses of the US Congress for the first time since 1994.
There are six socialist candidates standing in the November 25 Victorian state election, and we call for your support for all of them.
We all stand for socialism, a society that is run by and for the vast working-class majority, a society in which the needs of the mass of people come first, not the greed of a handful of mega-millionaires.
A society based on satisfying human need is totally realistic. Imagine what could be done with the tremendous wealth in Australia if workers, pensioners and small farmers had the real power.
Quoting New York Times economics writer Jeff Madrick, Newcastle University lecturer Chris Dorran told a November 13 meeting that 聯by almost any mainstream economists聮 standard, the plan [for the economic transformation of Iraq] is extreme; in fact, stunning聰.
As the Venezuelan presidential elections on December 3 draw closer, and the tensions grow as the revolutionary forces led by President Hugo Chavez face off against the US-backed opposition fronted by Manuel Rosales, the world is watching with huge interest. The stakes in this election are immense: the future of the Bolivarian revolution and the struggle to construct socialism of the 21st century are on the line.
A 550-strong lecture sponsored by the Australian Lawyers Alliance on November 13 heard David Hicks聮 US military lawyer, Major Michael Mori, slam the Bush administration聮s new military commission law, which will be used to try Guantanamo Bay detainees. Hicks is one of approximately 400 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay being held without charge.
On November 14, the federal court ordered the reinstatement of two National Union of Workers (NUW) delegates after their employer, Saint-Gobain Abrasives, was unable to prove that its decision to dismiss them was unrelated to their involvement with the union.
The new student organisation at the University of New South Wales, established as a result of the Howard government聮s 聯voluntary student unionism聰 (VSU) law, is forcing staff earning $40,000 or more per year onto individual contracts (AWAs 聴 Australian Workplace Agreements).
The Democratic Socialist Perspective will be holding its biennial educational conference at Sydney University on January 4-7, 2007. The conference theme 聴 聯Ideas to change the world聰 聴 is inspired by Karl Marx聮s 11th Thesis on Feuerbach (1845): 聯Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it.聰
Australians have joined the international campaign calling on U2聮s Bono 聴 who has appealed to the world for peace and poverty reduction 聴 to apply those same values to block the manufacture and distribution of a video game that promotes the invasion and destruction of Venezuela.
Three to four thousand people joined a rally and march against the G20 meeting on November 18. The rally opposed the neoliberal and militarist agenda of the meeting, which brought together finance ministers from the G8 group of rich nations, Australia, the European Union and 10 economically significant Third World nations, as well as the heads of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
Protest actions were held around Australia on November 17 as part of the 聯Chavez not Bush!聰 international week of solidarity with Venezuela. The actions called opposed US interference in Venezuela聮s December 3 presidential election. In Sydney (pictured), 40 people picketing the US consulate were addressed by Keysar Trad from the Islamic Friendship Association, and Kiraz Janicke and Marce Cameron from the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network. Trad spoke strongly in favour of Venezuela聮s right to self-determination and pointed to Iraq and Afghanistan as disastrous examples of the US government聮s failure to respect this principle.
- Previous page
- Page 2
- Next page