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鈥業f you had three wishes, what would they be?鈥

I asked Simon, a homeless man in Melbourne who has organised protests around housing, 鈥淚f you had three wishes what would they be?鈥 鈥淎 roof over my head, a feed every day and someone to love me who I can love back. As simple as that鈥, he said. 鈥淭here's not much more to life when you break it down. There are too many people who get carried away with money, worrying about their next dollar. I live with nothing and supposedly I haven't got a long time left to live, so there's not much more you need.鈥

UNSW NTEU to fight 鈥榮ub-standard鈥 agreement

The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) has vowed to fight the imposition of a 鈥渟ub-standard鈥 enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA) after a majority of general staff voted in favour of the agreement in a September 29-October 1 poll. The agreement fails to meet award protections that limit the use of fixed-term employment, allowing for further deregulation of the workforce. It also reduces flexibility on annual leave entitlements and allows for forced redeployment within the university.

Union digs deep for Chilean miners

As the rescue of 33 miners trapped 700 metres underground at the San Jose mine in Copiapo, Chile, was drawing closer, concerns were being raised about Chilean miners鈥 rights. After the August 5 cave-in that trapped the workers, mining company San Esteban sacked more than 200 other miners, refusing to pay their wages and entitlements. The miners union in Chile is demanding the government pay the workers鈥 wages if the company won鈥檛.

Hundreds oppose freeway through Banyule

Almost 600 people poured into the town hall in Melbourne鈥檚 north-eastern suburb of Ivanhoe on October 6 to discuss the Victorian Labor government鈥檚 proposal to build a freeway across the Banyule Flats and the Yarra Corridor. The government intends to build the North-East Link to join the Western Ring Road to the Eastlink tollway. The lack of public transport in the area was shown by the fact that the only way most people could get to the meeting was by driving, causing a small traffic jam outside.

Richard Stallman and the free software movement

Richard Stallman is something of a legend in the global software community. In 1983, he created the free software movement, through which highly trained and often highly paid professionals give their time to producing software for the public good. The movement produced the GNU operating system, a free alternative to proprietary software such as the Microsoft or Apple operating systems. GNU is a both a humorous 鈥渞ecursive acronym鈥 standing for 鈥淕NU is Not Unix鈥, and a gnu (or wildebeest) is the mascot of the GNU system and GNU Project.