Globally, millions of women experience violence 鈥 whether in the form of intimate partner violence, rape and sexual coercion, stalking, trafficking, forced prostitution, exploitation of labour, or other violations of women's bodies and psyches.
The high prevalence of violence against women both reflects and reinforces women's lower status in society.
To end the violence against women, we need to confront both the violence directly and the structural causes of women's lower standing that makes women vulnerable to the violence.
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We've been told opportunity, prosperity and more freedoms came to Australia under the banner of capitalism and the 鈥渇ree-market鈥 in the 1980s and 90s after the economic slump of two recessions.
But when neoliberal ideals and rhetoric are set aside, a grim picture of the great, and ever growing, divide between the rich and poor in Australia emerges yet again.
Between 1920 and 1980, inequality in Australia was shrinking, until a perceived sense of national stagnation took hold and the Hawke-Keating Labor government made the leap into the global free market.
Australia鈥檚 big electricity generators are feeling the squeeze of electricity demand falling in recent years and growing competition from renewable energy.
This year, some environmentalists criticised the federal government for scrapping the 鈥渃ontracts for closure鈥 negotiations, which would have made the federal government compensate operators to close up to 2000 megawatts of coal-fired power stations. However, more than 2000 megawatts of coal power plant has now been closed or 鈥渕othballed鈥 across the country without paying the contracts for closure.
In what one longstanding Perth feminist activist described as the biggest Reclaim the Night march in Perth in 20 years, over 300 people 鈥 women, children and men 鈥 rallied and marched in Fremantle on October 26, for an end to violence against women.
Brazilian Roberto Curti was fleeing from 11 police officers down Sydney's Pitt Street when he was tasered, handcuffed, capsicum sprayed and set upon on March 18.
Minutes later, after being tasered up to 14 times, having three cans of capsicum spray used on him, and with the weight of what one police officer called "half a tonne" of police on him, while restrained by two sets of handcuffs and a baton, the fit 21-year old student and soccer player was dead.
What is feminism and why do we need it? Filmed in Brisbane, Sydney, Hobart and Perth.
More than 3000 people formed a human sign at Bulli Showground on October 21 to spell out: 鈥溾'. It was the third major action organised by Stop CSG Illawarra, after its聽 last May, and Bridge Walk to stop coal seam gas last October.
The threat facing Western Australia鈥檚 Kimberley region received national attention on October 5 when 10,000 people attended a concert for the Kimberley in Melbourne鈥檚 Federation Square.
The Australian parliament building reeks of floor polish. The wooden floors shine so virtuously they reflect the cartoon-like portraits of prime ministers, bewigged judges and viceroys. Along the gleaming white, hushed corridors, the walls are hung with Aboriginal art: one painting after another as in a monolithic gallery, divorced from their origins, the irony brutal. The poorest, sickest, most incarcerated people on earth provide a facade for those who oversee the theft of their land and its plunder.
In a lengthy editorial on October 13, the United States鈥 most important ruling-class voice concluded that the war in Afghanistan has failed, and that the US should get out as soon as possible.
that:鈥淭he United States will not achieve even President Obama鈥檚 narrowing goals, and prolonging the war will only do more harm.鈥
The ongoing siege of Gaza by the Israeli government looked set for a worrying escalation following a visit to Gaza by the emir of Qatar. Just three days earlier, Israel's navy had boarded a Gaza aid ship and used tasers on activists. Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani entered Gaza via Egypt's Rafah border crossing on October 23. Israeli leaders condemned al-Thani's visit, the first by a foreign head of state since 1999. Al-Thani promised $400 million in aid projects to Gaza, undermining Israel's economic blockade.
Feminist and Socialist Alliance activist Margarita Windisch gave the speech below at Melbourne鈥檚 Reclaim the Night rally on October 20.
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