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Students boycott 'holding pens'
DARWIN — Postgraduate students at Charles Darwin University have launched protest action after more than 30 students were informed about their forced relocation to what the CDU Postgraduate Students' Association is calling "holding pens".
The new centralised office space will house up to 10 postgraduate researchers in a single room and will be located away from their faculties. According to the CDUPSA, there has been no consultation about the forced relocation, despite claims to the contrary by university Vice-Chancellor Helen Garnett.
The CDUPSA is also concerned that the relocations will lead to further erosion of postgraduate resources. The CDUPSA is boycotting the new office space and on September 27 set up an information kiosk on the lawns of the campus. More than 300 signatures were collected on the campaign petition within the first week. Send messages of support to Kathy Newnam
MELBOURNE — Turkish poet and Socialist Alliance member Hidayet Ceylan opened the launch of the alliance's campaign for the seat of Wills on September 29, reading a poem about the pressures on women to conform to ideas of "beauty".
Adam McConvell from Actors for Refugees described seeing refugees being cut by razor wire as they attempted to escape from Woomera detention centre, and said he wanted to support a party that supports refugees.
SA Senate candidate Lalitha Chelliah spoke about the oppression of women under capitalism and Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union media training officer and radio 3CR presenter Denis Evans spoke on the alliance's role in supporting militant unions.
Wills candidate David Glanz spoke about the role of Socialist Alliance in "encouraging, spreading and fomenting resistance", citing protests initiated by the Wills SA branch in solidarity with Centrelink workers facing staff shortages and Kodak workers facing the closure of their factory.
Chris Slee
WOLLONGONG — On September 29, 70 people attended a Cunningham candidates public forum, organised by Vote 1 No More Poverty, a group made up of various church organisations.
"Australia faces a poverty crisis, there is no doubt that the rich are getting richer", said Greens Cunningham MHR Michael Organ. "I have spoken recently with people in my electorate of Cunningham who were forced to turn their hot water service off to save electricity, who can barely afford to send their kids to school, who are not eating properly and who have rotten teeth in their mouths and cannot afford to go to the dentist."
"Australia being such a rich country, it's a disgrace that 23% of the population live under the poverty line", said Chris Williams, the Socialist Alliance candidate. Williams advocated "a shorter working week with no loss in pay to share the work around" and "a decent minimum wage to pull the 1.4 million 'working poor' above the poverty line".
Amanda Zivcic
HOBART — On September 29, 80 teachers and students attended a meet-the-candidates forum organised by the Hobart College Student Representative Council, with support from the United Nations Youth Association.
Representatives from the Socialist Alliance, the Greens, the Democrats, the Christian Democratic Party and the ALP addressed the forum. The Liberal Party and Family First did not respond to invitations.
Kamala Emanuel, the Socialist Alliance candidate for Denison, said that "over 1 billion people in the world live on under $1 a day and 70% of those are women". She said that whether a Labor or a Coalition government was elected on October 9, this would change little for ordinary people.
On the same day, Socialist Alliance activists were told by the school administration that they were not allowed to put up any political posters as the school was "apolitical". A free speech campaign will be run in the coming weeks defending students' right to be political.
Duncan Meerding
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, October 6, 2004.
'Fomenting resistance'
Forum on poverty questions priorities
Candidates address college forum
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