鈥淲hen we went out, it was like a Zombieland,鈥 Zoreen Agustin, a student at the University of the Philippines鈥 (UP) Tacloban campus told me on December 2.
鈥淎 lot of people were walking around, some with no shoes and their clothes all torn, a lot of people were covered in cuts.鈥
She was referring to what she saw after Tacloban, and much of the Eastern Visayas region, were demolished by Super Typhoon Yolanda (known as Typhoon Haiyan outside the Philippines) on November 8. The storm, one of the strongest on record to hit land, killed anywhere between 5000 and 10,000 people.
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The death of Nelson Mandela on December 5 has focused attention once more on the global struggle against South Africa's aparthied regime. The heroic struggle of the Black population inside South Afica and the solidarity shown by ordinary people around the world was essential to winning Mandela's freedom and dismantling apartheid.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth & Donald Sutherland
Directed by Francis Lawrence
In cinemas now
The Hunger Games brings revolution to the big screen in an action-packed film adaption of author Suzanne Collins鈥 trilogy.
The second film, Catching Fire, takes off nicely where the first left off. It lifts the bar in every aspect, from the intensity of the storyline, to the performances and production quality.
Gelliondale Resources, a subsidiary of Melbourne company Ignite Energy Resources Limited, have applied for a 鈥渞etention licence鈥 for a project to mine brown coal at Gelliondale, in the South Gippsland region.
The application includes a work program of 鈥渇ield exploration activities such as drilling, sampling, excavation of costeans or pits and surveying,鈥 according to the company website.
Refugee rights advocates spent much of this year dreading the election of the Tony Abbott government and its predicted fallout for those seeking protection in Australia. What can they now expect in 2014?
Not just the hall but the verandah of the Serbian Centre was packed when more than 300 people came to the first public meeting of Aquis Aware, a group formed in response to the proposed Aquis casino in one of the city鈥檚 beachside suburbs, Yorkeys Knob.
The mega-resort would have nine hotels and big entertainment and sports venues. An environmental impact statement for the project has not been tabled, so details of the Aquis proposal are murky.
But speakers were able to address many of the concerns of those present, most of who were opposed to or questioned the proposed development.
Since launching in March 2011, the campaign to stop coal seam gas (CSG) mining has grown into one of the most powerful and broadly supported community campaigns ever seen in the Illawarra.
Involving unprecedented numbers of people, the immense pressure on the government has so far , which threatens the .
More often than not I am not quick enough with a comeback and probably that is just as well. Just the other day, when I was out in the street distributing 91自拍论坛 Weekly, a person roughly brushed past and muttered 鈥渢raitor!鈥
She walked on and from about two metres away turned around, aimed her beady eyes at a poster I had put up advertising a Christmas visit to refugees in detention and shouted: 鈥淵ou are traitors, that鈥檚 what you are!鈥
鈥淕ive refugees some solidarity this Christmas,鈥 was the headline on the poster.
At the national refugee protest in Canberra on November 18, Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young concluded her speech by saying her first involvement in politics was through the refugee movement and that she used to come to rallies like this, until she realised that it was more important to change the minds of the people inside parliament, so she stood for parliament instead.
I鈥檝e heard Hanson-Young and Greens candidates make similar statements previously.
I think such statements need to be challenged.
Ninety two percent of Indigenous languages are fading or extinct. Australia has suffered the largest and most rapid known loss of languages and past government policies have been largely to blame.
This is clearly outlined in the Our Land: Our Languages report which was released by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs late last year.
After negotiating for 16 months, the Ambulance Employees Australia in Victoria say they are not much closer to securing a contract that gives them the pay levels they are seeking and protects the quality of their service to the public.
On December 4, the union rejected the latest offer from the state government for a 12% pay rise over the next three years.
The unity discussions between the Socialist Alliance and Socialist Alternative have come to an end.
In a November 3 letter on behalf of the Socialist Alternative National Executive, Mick Armstrong wrote: 鈥淭he overall political projects of both organisations are not sufficiently similar to carry through a sustained and productive unity that could advance the cause of the revolutionary left in Australia and the broader class struggle.鈥
The Socialist Alternative letter lists four major political differences:
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