On November 20, a meeting initiated by the NSW Greens marked Transgender Remembrance Day. Below is an abridged presentation by Rachel Evans, co-convener of Community Action Against Homophobia, National Union of Students female queer officer and NSW Socialist Alliance upper-house candidate.
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Still 'staying the course'
"I supported our involvement [in the US war against Vietnam] at the time and I don't intend to recant that. I mean, I didn't hold any position of authority then, but I supported the reasons for Australia's involvement
On December 1, the anniversary of the 1961 raising of the West Papuan flag, 70 people rallied outside the Indonesian embassy in support of West Papuan independence.
Across Australia on November 30, hundreds of thousands of workers answered the Australian Council of Trade Unions鈥 call to protest against Work Choices. The ACTU estimated that around 270,000 people took part, the majority hooked up to the Sky Channel broadcasts from the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
In a November 25 media release, Michael Anderson, a spokesperson for the Gumilaroi Nation, accused the federal and WA state governments of 聯not having the intestinal fortitude to stand against the multinationals who seek to destroy Aboriginal culture聰. He was commenting on the threatened destruction of ancient Aboriginal rock art on the the Dampier Archipelago, resulting from the $50 billion Pluto Gas natural gas project by Woodside Energy on the Burrup Peninsula.
Pressure from workers and students forced the University of Western Sydney聮s Board of Trustees to review its rejection of a $250,000 SRC funding proposal on November 29. The proposal is designed to help UWS Student Association (UWSSA) survive federal 聯voluntary student unionism聰 (VSU) legislation and came on the back of UWSSA having its budget slashed from $2.5 million to $450,000 for three years.
Socialist Alliance in Sydney is appealing for help finding a ute that can be used in the NSW election campaign. The idea would be to mount a mobile display profiling our 鈥淪tand up for your rights鈥 message. The ute could also be used as a platform for protests and rallies.
The West Papuan 聯Morning Star聰 flew over Newcastle City Hall on December 1, the anniversary of the first official raising of the flag in West Papuan in 1961. The flag raising ceremony was addressed by Greens councillor Michael Osborne and Australian West Papua Association spokesperson Michael Freund of Australian West Papua Association.
Despite increasing recognition about the problem of violence against women, most refuges, community and non-government organisations devoted to helping women and children in crisis, allocate a good deal of their stretched resources to writing submissions for limited funding. This is because both the state and federal governments have a piecemeal, short-term approach to the problem.
In a November 27 media release, the WA-based Project SafeCom refugee right group, renewed its call for the abolition of Australia聮s temporary protection visa (TPV) regime following a report in the same day聮s Australian newspaper that an Iraqi asylum-seeker sent home by Australian officials was assassinated in Baghdad after being accused of being an Australian spy.
Jim Casey was elected senior vice president of the NSW Fire Brigade Employees Union (FBEU) in its May elections. Casey, a socialist, was part of a left ticket of four, running with an ALP member, a syndicalist and a rank-and-file unionist with a history in of activism in the Maritime Union of Australia. The team decided to run an executive ticket of four people, with recommendations for the other nine positions on the committee of management.
A significant ruling in the Federal Court on November 28 upheld the right of workers to use their leave as they see fit. The ruling prevents public sector organisations from issuing blanket bans on when employees can, or cannot, take leave.
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