Forty protesters were met by hundreds of police 聴 including members of the riot squad and mounted police 聴 as they gathered to picket PM John Howard聮s attendance at a $250-a-head Asia Society function on June 6.
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Under pressure to prove his government has answers to the global warming crisis, on June 3 PM John Howard backed the corporate polluter-friendly recommendations of his Task Group on Emissions Trading, set up on December 10.
On June 1, around 150 people, including elders, family members, Noonuccal people of North Stradbroke Island and supporters of Aboriginal rights, gathered at Queensland University of Technology to pay tribute to Oodgeroo Noonuccal. This warrior woman聮s life as poet, political activist, artist and educator was honoured with the inaugural public lecture and awarding of scholarships in her name.
Tasmanians from all walks of life are up in arms about Gunns鈥 proposal to build one of the largest pulp mills in the world in the Tamar Valley, near Launceston.
Some 55,000 people demonstrated in Hong Kong on June 4 聴 the 18th anniversary of the Chinese army聮s bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy student protesters at Beijing聮s Tiananmen Square.
Since federal ALP leader Kevin Rudd outlined Labor鈥檚 鈥淲ork Choices lite鈥 on April 17 鈥 promising that a Labor government would maintain the Coalition鈥檚 ban on strikes outside of bargaining periods and secret ballots 鈥 Labor鈥檚 full-scale retreat on industrial relations has continued.
Activists from the Stop Bush Coalition have condemned moves to make NSW into a 聯police state聰 during the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in September. The government introduced legislation into NSW parliament on June 7 that will give police extraordinary powers for two weeks around the time of the summit.
The trial of the 鈥淧ine Gap Four鈥 in Alice Springs is continuing with the Crown lawyer arguing that the jury should not be determining the reasonableness of the activists鈥 actions. Michael Maurice QC argued that, 鈥淓ngaging in activities to disrupt the implementation of public policy can never be reasonable鈥.
At midnight on June 4, around 2800 kitchen staff, orderlies and hospital cleaners were set to be locked out of their workplaces by four contracting companies 聴 Spotless, OCS, ISS and Compass 聴 in hospitals across New Zealand. However, last-minute negotiations between the Service and Food Workers Union Nga Ringa Tota (SFWU) and the District Health Board averted the lockout.
Hundreds of Aborigines and community supporters will wear bright yellow wristbands to the Townsville court on June 12. They will be gathering to observe the trial of Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley, who has been charged with the manslaughter and assault of Mulrunji Doomadgee on November 19, 2004, on Palm Island.
The Socialist Alliance supports the Stop Bush Coalition鈥檚 call for a mass protest when the world鈥檚 biggest war criminal, US President George Bush, attends the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Sydney in September. A mass protest is exactly what the John Howard and NSW governments (and the federal Labor opposition) don鈥檛 want - and should get.
More than 1 million public servants across South Africa have embarked on the largest public sector industrial campaign in the country聮s history. On June 1, more than 700,000 workers downed pens and clipboards for an indefinite stoppage, while another 300,000 聯essential workers聰, who are prohibited from striking, joined huge nationwide marches, pickets and other protest actions. While the immediate demand is for a significant pay increase, an important undercurrent of the mass action is working-class and poor people聮s growing dissatisfaction with the pro-rich policies of the African National Congress (ANC) government.
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