On our third full day of activity on the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network (AVSN) 2012 Presidential Elections Brigade we visited Sala de la Batalla Sociales, LA Communa. This is a grouping of 35 Community Councils in the barrio of Petare. We visited the community medical centre (where free health care is provided by Cuban and Venezuelan doctors), a community radio station and had an exchange with community council members. The commune of Petare is building a chocolate factory which will sit alongside a community university. Photos by Pip Hinman.
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Independent journalist Juan Cole wrote on his :
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The Israeli Likud Party鈥檚 cover story for why it wants to draw the United States into a war with Iran makes no real sense.
Police arrested and handcuffed two Brisbane-based activists, Rebecca Barrigos and Sid Zaoichi, after they set up a stall and petition against the state government鈥檚 budget cuts at a Brisbane university campus on September 21. 91自拍论坛 Weekly鈥檚 Liam Flenady spoke to Barrigos about the arrests and the campaigns against austerity and for free speech in Queensland.
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What were you and fellow activist Sid Zaoichi campaigning for on campus and why was security called to evict you?
We are facing a climate emergency. The impacts of increasing extreme weather events are already being felt around the world and the unprecedented record Arctic sea ice melt highlights the urgent need to transition away from fossil fuels.
Shamefully, it is in this context that new coal and gas projects continue to be approved, and the federal government plans to give $4.5 billion in free carbon permits to the country鈥檚 dirtiest coal-fired power stations. This money should be put into building large-scale renewable energy, like solar thermal power for Port Augusta.
One day after the huge stop work and rally of Australian Education Union (AEU) members on September 5, Mary Bluett, the Victorian AEU鈥檚 branch president, announced she was retiring. Her husband AEU branch secretary Brian Henderson, also announced his retirement. Bluett has been an education union official for 31 years.
The Victorian AEU is a 51,000 member strong union. Teachers have come increasingly under attack in recent years, but they, like nurses, still have a lot of public support.
The third Australia-wide gathering of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaigners took place in Adelaide from September 21 to 23. The Australian Friends of Palestine Association (AFOPA) hosted the weekend of events.
A highlight of the three days was the appearance by London-based Israeli academic Ilan Pappe, who spoke twice. He spoke to 600 people at the annual Edward Said Memorial lecture, which is named for the late Palestinian academic.
An election in the NSW Public Service Association (PSA) will be held in October to determine who leads the 42,000-strong union for the next four years.
Membership of the PSA consists of public servants employed by the NSW government. The current ALP-aligned leadership team is being challenged by a group of rank-and-file members and delegates known as the Progressive PSA (PPSA).
The student left has won a big victory at Curtin University, taking several key positions in the student guild elections held over September 25 to 27. Positions won include president, education vice-president, women's officer and queer officer.
ran a very political campaign, highlighting a range of student rights issues. These included opposition to the university's planned budget cuts and cuts to courses.
The university is also planning to increase parking fees, which will hit students hard.
Sixteen Aboriginal adults in the remote New South Wales town of Wilcannia are the first graduates of a groundbreaking trial literacy program that would not have been possible without the help of a tiny Caribbean nation 鈥 Cuba. At the beginning of this year, Cuban educator Jose Chala Leblanch arrived in Wilcannia to help establish the literacy program based on the world-famous 鈥淵es, I Can鈥 teaching method developed by Cuba.
A document called was released by the Barry O'Farrell NSW government in June. It plans to modernise the Sydney rail network by converting it to a "three tier" system: rapid transit, suburban and intercity.
Unfortunately, the plan is vague about the long-term future of rail expansion around Sydney. Its unstated objectives would appear to be:
A new report by Greenpeace says plans to double Australia鈥檚 coal exports will damage worldwide attempts to reduce carbon emissions and limit climate change.
Released on September 18, Greenpeace鈥檚 report, , focused on the Galilee Basin, a coal-rich region in central Queensland.
Several companies are seeking approval to build nine huge coalmines there, 鈥渇ive of which would be larger than any existing coal mine in Australia鈥.
Responding to a new book by former Labor finance minister Lindsay Tanner, which said the , foreign minister Bob Carr said: 鈥淚 think it is getting a little too easy to bag the Labor Party.鈥
Carr said: 鈥淚f I were in retirement 鈥 it would have been a pushover to have polished off another book, number 20, on what's wrong with the Labor Party.鈥
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