Trade unions protested in Paris on August 31 as President Emmanuel Macron unveiled his new attacks on workers鈥 rights. Macron鈥檚 proposed labour 鈥渞eforms鈥 would make it easier for bosses to hire and fire workers.
Macron wants parliament to vote on the new legislation 鈥 the third attack on workers鈥 rights in the past few years 鈥 without a chance to amend it.
Federal government departments have been ordered to keep their "average staffing levels" in line with those from 2006鈥07, the final year of the Howard government.
The Senate was told on August 28 that labour hire firms are reaping big profits from this by supplying temporary workers who cost the government more than if they were directly employed but who earn about 3% less money.
Community and Public Sector Union deputy secretary Melissa Donnelly said it was "an utterly ludicrous situation engineered entirely by the short-sighted policies of the Turnbull government鈥.
Ever since it was announced, the federal government鈥檚 postal survey on marriage equality has been met with responses questioning both the legitimacy of the survey and demonstrating support for marriage equality 鈥 responses that have been vital for the confidence and morale of members of the LGBTIQ community.
Despite this, the right, particularly the Christian right, has demonstrated its determination to defeat the push for marriage equality through the mobilisation of homophobic and transphobic hatred and disinformation.
It is important to put socialists on council because we have a very different perspective from other political parties. Our 鈥減eople and planet before profit鈥 philosophy guides our approach and, increasingly, councils are being relied on to lead key political debates 鈥 such as recognising Australia鈥檚 colonial past.
Newcastle鈥檚 bus drivers have been repeatedly underpaid since the city鈥檚 public transport system was privatised on July 1.
About 70 workers have been underpaid between $200 and $600 since then.
The NSW government awarded Keolis Downer a 10-year contract to operate Newcastle鈥檚 public transport system of buses, ferries and the new light rail last year.
It was the first time in Australia that one company was awarded a contract to operate a city鈥檚 entire transport system.
Can you imagine being a bank CEO today? Wouldn鈥檛 you be wishing you were leading the bank 10 years ago before the global financial crisis when you could do whatever you wanted without too much fuss?
Fast forward to 2017. Bank CEOs are under intense scrutiny, but still pushing the banks鈥 profit-driven agenda in the face of scandal after scandal and community anger.
More than 800 Somali and Eritrean refugees were violently evicted on August 24 from a building they were occupying in the centre of Rome. The occupation, which began in 2013, had come to symbolised the inefficient and broken nature of refugee reception policies in Italy.
More than 250 people gathered on August 26 for the Frack Free People's Rally organised by Lock the Gate Alliance and Frack Free WA outside the Western Australia State Labor Conference.
An open letter from eight former agronomists and soil scientists, including five who worked for the Department of Primary Industries, has urged NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian to halt Shenhua鈥檚 Watermark coalmine and protect the Liverpool Plains from mining.
The letter said the agreement the government reached last month with Shenhua to renew its coal exploration licence, paving the way for the mine to proceed, puts at risk 鈥渢he future of one of the major contributors to food and fibre security鈥.
The belated decision by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) to set up a public inquiry into the Commonwealth Bank (CBA) is aimed at heading off the growing calls for a royal commission into the entire scandal-ridden banking sector.
The August 27 announcement by APRA of an 鈥渋ndependent鈥 probe into the country's biggest bank followed a series of scandals that have rocked the financial world.
Four new books on climate change, neoliberalism and movement strategy for ecosocialists compiled by Ian Angus, the author of A Redder Shade of Green and editor of Climate and Capitalism.
Flooding in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, which smashed into the Gulf Coast on August 25, had left at least 23 people dead by August 31, thousands in need of rescue on rooftops or in boats, hundreds of thousands more without power and tens of thousands in need of shelter.
Yet characterisations of the carnage by the National Weather Service as聽聽should not be conflated with the spurious claim that the devastation wrought by Harvey was 鈥渦npreventable鈥 or 鈥渦nexpected鈥.