Coalminers in north-west Spain have maintained a large-scale strike against government plans to cut subsidies to the industry. The cuts could result in thousands of job losses and the destruction of communities.
The strike began on May 29 when the Asturias region's 8000 miners voted to walk off the job indefinitely. A small number of miners locked themselves underground for weeks, while many others occupied public spaces.
Miners have come under intense attack by police and civil guard, who used tear gas, rubber bullets and batons to break up the strike.
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Throughout June, the United States was hit by freak storms, intense heatwaves, prolonged drought, huge floods and out-of-control bushfires that have burnt out more than 2.1 million acres.
In 2006, Alternet's Joshua Holland coined the 鈥渮ombie lie鈥: an untruth that returns from the dead to haunt us, despite already being demolished by arguments and evidence.
Politics is dominated by zombie lies. 鈥淎sylum seekers are 'queue jumpers' arriving here illegally鈥 is a classic example. Over the past few decades, zombie lies have helped legitimise paternalistic, punitive welfare reforms. They still shape debates about how to treat poor and unemployed Australians.
HOBART 鈥 To mark the end of NAIDOC week, Aboriginal people and their supporters marched through the streets and rallied at Tasmania鈥檚 parliament house lawns on July 6 to show that they always have been and always will be a sovereign people.
Speakers at the rally included the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre鈥檚 (TAC) Nala Mansell-McKenna, TAC's Legal Secretary Michael Mansell and Aboriginal activist Jim Everett.
below on July 6.
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Coal seam gas companies are 'getting away with blue murder' despite mounting evidence from around the country of the environmental damage they are causing, according to Lock the Gate Alliance.
Lock The Gate has responded with dismay to news today that Santos and Eastern Star Gas have been fined only $3,000 for breaking environment laws in the Pilliga forest by polluting a local creek system with coal seam gas waste water.
The pending approval for the liquefied natural gas (LNG) hub at James Price Point in Broome has after four of the five Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) board members responsible for assessing the project stood aside due to conflicts of interest. , the operator of the $35 billion project.
In the first construction worker rally in years, up to 10,000 workers marched through Melbourne on July 4, telling the state government to dump its new building code.
Premier Ted Baillieu鈥檚 Coalition government began to implement its Code of Practice for the Building and Construction Industry on July 1.
Unions say the new code is all about attacking unions. Building companies that fail to comply with the code on any site will be thrown off the government tender list.
A Senate committee recommended on June 25 that Australian parliament make marriage equality law after almost 60% of 46,000 submissions were in favour. A report tabled for the lower house on June 18 also had overwhelming support, but did not support or reject the two marriage equality bills before parliament.
The lower house committee received a record 276,000 responses during its inquiry, with more than two-thirds in support of gay marriage.
With impeccable smiling customer service staff motioning to myki readers and swarms of grinning, armed, uniformed officers pursuing passengers for a chat, the Victorian Liberal government hopes to win support for its public transport agenda.
Public Transport Victoria stopped selling weekly, monthly and yearly Metcards on July 2. More than 80% of Metcard machines have been removed from train stations. The expensive and unpopular myki system will soon take over.
Labor and Coalition MPs have shed thousands of crocodile tears claiming that Australia needed to 鈥渟top the boats鈥 to 鈥渟ave lives鈥 by making offshore processing of asylum seekers government policy.
Labor backed a private members bill put by independent MP Rob Oakeshott that would allow Australia to expel refugees to any country that was part of the Bali Process, including Malaysia.
About 500 Toll warehouse workers at Somerton in Melbourne鈥檚 northern suburbs have voted for an indefinite strike in their campaign for a new enterprise bargaining agreement.
The warehouse is a Coles distribution centre, but Coles outsources the workers to Toll Logistics. This has resulted in workers getting up to 20% less pay than other Coles warehouse workers.
Socialist Alliance National co-convener Peter Boyle spoke alongside NSW Greens MLC John Kaye at the opening session of 91自拍论坛 Weekly鈥檚 Climate Change Social Change conference in Parramatta on June 30. His speech is below.
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I want to dedicate this little presentation to our Pakistani comrade Baba Jan 鈥 who has been imprisoned and tortured since August last year for standing up for the rights of his people from the Hunza Valley after their villages and farmlands were flooded in 2010.
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