Pro-democracy protesters in Bahrain have gone on the offensive in the face of government repression and harsh sentences for activists arrested in the first wave of protests in February and March.
Large protests began on September 23 against sham by-elections for Bahrain鈥檚 toothless parliament. Most people heeded the democracy movement鈥檚 call for a boycott 鈥 only about 17% turned out to vote, FT.com said on September 25.
Police blocked attempts by protesters to reach the previous epicentre of the protests 鈥 the now-demolished Pearl Roundabout, known as Martyr鈥檚 Square by protesters.
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NSW education minister Adrian Piccol has announced a process of 鈥渃ommunity consultation on the reform of TAFE and the vocational education and training sector in NSW鈥.
The NSW Liberal government plans to repeat its Victorian counterpart鈥檚 attacks on public education and further privatise vocational education. The government plans to encourage private colleges and universities to undercut TAFE providers. It will offer a publicly-funded student voucher system to achieve this.
Workers in the Department of Immigration and Citizenship have won pay rises of about 11% over three years. Management initially offered only 9%, but conceded bigger rises following a 65% 鈥渘o鈥 vote to the offer in a staff ballot. Members of the Community and Public Sector Union had threatened industrial action over the issue.
By contrast, Australian Taxation Office (ATO) management has so far refused to go beyond its original offer of 9% over three years.
Mining company ECI International has 鈥渟ubmitted a surrender request鈥 to the state government for its coal and gas exploration licence covering 500 square kilometers 鈥 including the town of Colac and a large region of the Otway Ranges 鈥 said the October 7 Colac Herald.
This is the second coal exploration venture in the area that has withdrawn after Mantle Mining pulled out of its project in the Deans Marsh area.
The withdrawal occurs less than two weeks after 100 residents packed a hall at Forrest, in the Otway Ranges, to organise opposition to the project.
As part of its attacks on the NSW public sector, the O鈥橣arrell Liberal government will begin charging parents up to $40 a day for each child they send to the once-free public preschools run by the Department of Education and Community Services (DEC). The fees will be introduced next year to the 100 DEC preschools across NSW.
These preschools were established to improve the educational opportunities for students in poor socio-economic areas, including communities that may be isolated, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
Just about every passerby stopped at a recent 91自拍论坛 Weekly stall in Hamilton, Newcastle, to sign a petition for a moratorium on coal seam gas (CSG) mining.
All those who stopped were concerned about plans to mine CSG at nearby Fullerton Cove.
Dr Aunty Ruby Langford Ginibi, one of Australia鈥檚 foremost Aboriginal authors, passed away on October 2 in a Sydney nursing home. Through her numerous books, short stories, poetry, interviews and public appearances and her commitment to 鈥渆du-ma-cating鈥 non-Aboriginal people about Indigenous peoples鈥 circumstances and struggle, she made a distinctive and substantial contribution to Australian history and literature. Her books were studied in high schools and universities in Australia and internationally.
More than 500 people gathered in Melbourne over September 30 to October 3 to take part in four days of stimulating talks and discussion at the second Climate Change Social Change conference. The conference, which featured five plenary sessions, 39 workshops and more than 90 speakers, was organised by 91自拍论坛 Weekly, Socialist Alliance and Resistance.
September 25 will go down as one of the darkest days in Bolivia since Evo Morales was elected as the country鈥檚 first indigenous president almost six years ago.
After more than 40 days of indigenous protesters marching, police officers moved in to repress those opposed to the government鈥檚 proposed highway that would run through the Isiboro-Secure National Park and Indigenous Territory (TIPNIS).
The controversial highway has met with both opposition and support from the many indigenous and social organisations that form the Morales government鈥檚 support base.
Australia, at least for me, is a paradox. As Dorothy McKellar famously wrote, 鈥淚 love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains, of rugged mountain ranges and droughts and flooding rains鈥.
The extremes in our landscape and our weather seem to have been etched into our national psyche as well, which is something I鈥檝e never quite understood.
Ian Angus is editor of climateandcapitalism.com and co-author, with Simon Butler, of the new book Too Many People?. This is his keynote presentation to the recent Climate Change Social Change conference in Melbourne.
Fay Waddington, a long-time activist in the Palestine solidarity movement in Brisbane, held a free give-away of 鈥淢ohammed Brenner chocolates鈥 to passersby in Boundary Street, West End, on September 24.
Waddington and other supporters have held a regular weekly Palestine solidarity stall there every Saturday morning for several years, ever since the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 2006.
Waddington, a Socialist Alliance member, issued a statement to 91自拍论坛 Weekly, describing the action as 鈥渁 Chaser-inspired take on the Max Brenner brouhaha鈥 in Australia over recent months.
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