A protest was held on February 18 in response to the City of Melbourne鈥檚 proposed by-law amendments that ban any form of public camping and make it easier for the confiscation of unattended property 鈥 essentially criminalising rough sleepers in the streets of Melbourne.
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About 65 workers at the Parmalat dairy factory in Echuca, Victoria, have been locked out since January 18 in a dispute over the company's plan to radically slash pay for new employees.
Parmalat is a national dairy company, whose brands include Pauls, Oak and Vaalia. In February last year it was bought by French-based company Lactalis, the largest dairy manufacturing company in the world. Emmanuel Besnier, CEO of Lactalis, has a personal worth of $6.7 billion and in 2015, Parmalat Australia鈥檚 sales revenue was $1.65 billion.
Protesters have been camping outside a Sri Lankan Air Force base since January 31 at Keappaapulavu on the north-eastern coast of the island of Sri Lanka.
Women are playing a leading role in the protest. They are demanding the return of their land, which was taken away to create a military zone.聽
The Keappaapulavu base is one of many military bases built throughout the north and east of the island. After the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who had been fighting for an independent Tamil homeland, Tamil areas are under what amounts to a military occupation.
"We will do everything we can to make sure Westpac decides they won't fund the destruction of the Great Barrier Reef and the Adani coal mine," Amy Gordon, from the Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC), told a crowd of about 200 outside the head office of Westpac Bank on February 20. The rallies were organised by the AYCC and .
The appointment of former Queensland Labor premier Anna Bligh as CEO of the Australian Bankers' Association (ABA) is a desperate public relations ploy by the Big Four Australian banks to head off a looming royal commission into their crimes and misdeeds.
It seems unlikely to succeed, given the anger in the community against the Big Four 鈥 the Commonwealth, National Australia Bank, Westpac and ANZ 鈥 and their systematic gouging of the general public.
Hundreds of thousands of people overflowed the streets of central Barcelona on February 20 in the largest ever European demonstration in support of refugee rights. The city police estimated attendance at 160,000 people; the organisers 鈥 the 鈥淥ur House, Your House鈥 campaign 鈥 put it at half a million people.
All along the vast march, its thematic sea-blue placards stood out in the light of the bright winter鈥檚 day: 鈥淓nough excuses! Let鈥檚 take them in now!"
The Australian government, at the behest of the United States, has decided to boycott major United Nations nuclear disarmament beginning on March 27. It argues that US nuclear weapons are essential for Australia鈥檚 security and therefore should not be prohibited under international law.
Australia ranks equal 15th overall in a new World Bank , tied with five other countries in the bottom group of wealthy OECD countries.
The Regulatory Indicators for Sustainable Energy (RISE) provides benchmarks to evaluate clean energy progress.
RISE rates country performance in three areas: renewable energy, energy efficiency, and access to modern energy (excluding advanced countries), using 27 indicators and 80 sub-indicators.
Ecuador鈥檚 National Electoral Council (CNE) announced on February 22 that the presidential race will head to a second round after left-wing candidate Lenin Moreno came first in the February 19 election, but fell agonisingly short of the 40% needed to win a first-round victory.
Moreno, from the ruling Alianza Pais (AP) of outgoing President Rafael Correa, won 39.35% of the vote. He beat right-wing Guillermo Lasso of the opposition CREO party by more than 10 percentage points, with the ex-banker winning 28.12%.
Severe coral bleaching could return to the Great Barrier Reef in the next four weeks scientists warn, after new bleaching and unusually high ocean temperatures have been documented.
Newly bleached corals have been discovered near Townsville.
Vast swathes of the Great Barrier Reef have been placed on Alert Level 1 by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration鈥檚 Coral Reef Watch for the next four weeks 鈥 meaning that coral bleaching is likely.
The February 23 ruling by the so-called Fair Work Australia Commission to allow the slashing of weekend penalty rates for those working in the food and retail sector is a direct attack on some of the most vulnerable and underpaid workers in Australia.
麻豆传媒 Weekly鈥檚 Chris Jenkins spoke to Aaron Beardsell, WA state organiser of the newly formed Retail and Fast Food Workers Union (RAFFWU) about the new union and the challenges facing workers in their sector.
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With the decision by the misnamed Fair Work Commission to slash the take home pay of some of the lowest-paid workers, it is worth restating that all wealth in our society is created by workers and not capitalists.
Profits come from the difference between the value of the goods and services created by a worker and what they are paid for their work. Some of this "surplus value" is invested back into production, but the rest is siphoned off as profit.
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