The Socialist Alliance held a Victorian state conference in Melbourne on February 3. Around 80 members and supporters discussed how to meet the challenge of global warming and continue the struggle to overturn all anti-union laws, including the much-hated Work Choices legislation, many aspects of which the new federal Labor government plans to retain.
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A Western Australian campaign group formed over the January 27 death in custody of an Indigenous elder has vowed to continue to fight for justice after being disappointed at the state government聮s response.
On February 19, Australian Defence Force chief Angus Houston told a Senate committee hearing that planning was underway for a mid-year withdrawal of the ADF聮s 550 soldiers based in Iraq聮s southern Dhi Qar province, as well as 65 army trainers. However, their withdrawal will leave in place 60% of the ADF personnel assigned to the Iraq war.
A lot has changed in the last few months: there聮s a new government, Australia has ratified the Kyoto Protocol and climate change as an issue has arrived in the mainstream in a big way. Unfortunately, one thing that is still changing is our climate.
Aboriginal activist Natasha Moore has responded to the release of the Western Australian Coroner鈥檚 report into Indigenous deaths in the Kimberley by arguing only self-determination can make a fundamental difference to people鈥檚 lives.
International Women鈥檚 Day, observed on March 8, is a testimony to women struggling to better their lives.
Less than 12 months after its re-election, the NSW Labor government is in a poll slump 鈥 Premier Morris Iemma has a public approval rating of just 34%, according to a Nielsen poll released on February 26 (the Coalition鈥檚 Barry O鈥橣arrell managed just 27%). The government has been rocked by scandals involving dodgy deals with developers, new hospitals unfit for patients, and faulty equipment delaying the opening of new rail lines.
Five days after the November 24 federal election, outgoing industrial relations minister Joe Hockey admitted, in a rare moment of political honesty, that Work Choices contributed to the Coalition government聮s defeat. He declared that the new Labor government was given a mandate by the people to abolish the Work Choices legislation.
Victoria鈥檚 Labor premier, John Brumby, and education minister Lyn Kosky have refused to meet with the Australian Education Union (AEU) to resolve a deadlock in negotiations over a new enterprise bargaining agreement for teachers.
Following the announcement by Fidel Castro on February 19 that he would not stand in the election by Cuba鈥檚 National Assembly (AN) for the position of president, the Western media coverage has ranged from grudging acknowledgement of Cuba鈥檚 social gains in the face of 50 years of US aggression, to outrageous claims of 鈥渄ictatorship鈥 and US government plans for a 鈥渢ransition鈥 in Cuba.
On February 29, 40 people attended a protest organised by the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre over the continuation of laws related to the Northern Territory intervention. The demonstration was intended to send a message to federal Indigenous affairs minister Jenny Macklin, who was at Hobart聮s Clarence TAFE campus. 聯End the intervention, human rights for all聰, participants chanted.
鈥淭urkish fighter jets, helicopters and hundreds of commandos streamed across the border into northern Iraq Wednesday despite Iraqi and American calls to swiftly end an operation to root out Kurdish insurgents鈥, Associated Press reported on February 27.
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