Geelong Trades Hall secretary Tim Gooden released the statement below on April 27 about the move by the federal government to put the Health Services Union (HSU) East into administration.
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I am very concerned by the announcement of minister Bill Shorten that the federal government will seek to have the HSU East put under the control of an appointed administrator.
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The statement below was initiated by the Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM), in solidarity with workers' rights and pro-democracy activist Somyot Pruksakasemsuk 鈥 jailed in April last year under the lese-majeste (insulting the monarch) law. It has been signed by the Australian Socialist Alliance, the Party of the Masses in the Philippines, the Indonesian People's Liberation Party, the Confederation of Congress of Indonesian Unions Alliance (KASBI), Indonesia, and the Labour Party Pakistan .
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Activists have been campaigning to prevent the removal of public housing in the Auckland suburb of Glenn Innes since April 2.
Many Tenants who have lived in the homes for decades have been evicted. Contractors are preparing to remove the homes for a new housing development. The development will reduce public housing, and evicted tenants have not gotten any guarantees of a right to return.
Tenants, local community members and activists in the Mana Party organised to try to stop the removals,. They have peacefully blockaded and occupied the empty houses in protest.
Argentine President Cristina Kirchner announced the nationalisation of Federal Petroleum Deposits (YPF), the country's largest oil extractor and refiner, on April 16.
Altogether, 51% of Spanish oil multinational Repsol's 57% stake in YPF has been claimed by the Argentine government.
The move shook the markets, with YPF shares falling 30% on the New York stock exchange.
The nationalisation has drawn condemnation from Spain, the European Union and the United States 鈥 as well as US regional allies Chile, Colombia and Mexico. In contrast, it was applauded by Venezuela and Bolivia.
The released the statement below on April 24.
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A 10-year-old year old Vietnamese asylum seeker has provided a community visitor from the Darwin Asylum Seeker Support and Advocacy Network (DASSAN) with a letter pleading for help.
The 10-year-old girl arrived in Australia by boat in March 2011 and has been detained in three different centres located in three different states since arriving in Australia.
Environmentalists seem to realise that they have some stake in a fight such as the Ecuador-Chevron lawsuit.
That case, which Chevron has recently moved to an international arbitration panel to try to avoid a multibillion-dollar penalty handed down by Ecuadorian courts, is about whether a multinational oil corporation will have to pay damages for pollution, for which it is responsible. Most environmentalists figure that would be a good thing.
Stand Fast, an anti-war group of military veterans,
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鈥淵ou do not honor the dead through mindless flag waving, rewriting history or promoting new wars,鈥 said Hamish Chitts, East Timor veteran and spokesperson for Stand Fast 鈥 a group of veterans and former military personnel who oppose the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
However the dispute in Britain about tax and charity donations ends up, the one thing we must all agree on is how inspiringly generous these philanthropists are, selflessly donating chunks of money that, by coincidence, are the amount they would have had to pay in tax anyway. Even the Good Samaritan would have said: "That's TOO philanthropic, you're being a fool to yourself."
Ahmed Ben Bella, a leader of Algeria's fight against French colonial rule, died on April 11 aged 95. Ben Bella was the north African nation's first president after it won independence in 1962, until a 1965 coup.
Ben Bella was active in fighting French rule from the 1940s. After the French were forced to grant Algeria independence in 1962, Ben Bella sought to promote a socialist path for the Algerian revolution 鈥 promoting policies such as agrarian reform and workers' self-management.
The right-wing coup in 1965 that overthrew his rule ended Algeria's socialist trajectory.
The Vatican has attacked the largest group of American nuns for allegedly promoting radical feminism. It appointed a bishop to 鈥渞eorganise鈥 the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR).
This is in stark contrast to how the church has handled its ongoing sexual abuse scandal among its men.
聽
鈥淏elief in Winter鈥檚 iron music turns the lands of home to Spring.鈥 Kenneth Patchen, 鈥淣octurne for the Heirs of Light鈥
Even your blood
seems cold slush
so
we come, bearing
scientific warmth
and clean blades
Of faith and all
such crude early things
we moderns strive to sharpen,
your mystic heart alone
beats most desperate
beneath our lazer aim:
true tempered love
at gunship point
thrusts in you
bleeding you clear
in sha'Allah
by dread hand of
surgeon- drone,
bootkick- blessing,
your shabby portal
opens
upon us
we ash-cross your brow:
The expression 鈥渂usiness as usual鈥 summarises the view of the revolution in Bahrain held by the Bahraini authorities, Western governments, international media like Al Jazeera, and the Gulf states.
The Formula One Grand Prix has been confirmed by the International Automobile Federation. It declared the decision to reinstate it 鈥渞eflects the spirit of reconciliation in Bahrain鈥.
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