In the face of a general strike called by Shiite militants in BaghdadÂ’²õ northeastern Sadr City district, home to 2.5 million people, US troops ended their week-long siege of the district on October 31.
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The US, Britain, Italy, France, Australia and Bahrain began two days of joint naval exercises in the Persian Gulf on October 31, including marine boardings of ships 32 kilometres from the Iranian coastline. Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters in Tehran: “We are watching their movements very carefully. We do not consider this exercise appropriate. US moves go in the direction of more adventurism, not of stability and security.”
Three Filipino workers sacked for speaking out about their and 37 other Filipino workersÂ’ treatment by Ipswich welding firm Dartbridge Engineering have been found alternative employment by their union, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU).
Thousands across Canada took to the streets on October 28 against the countryÂ’²õ military intervention in Afghanistan. In wind, rain and in some cases snow, people turned out in more than 30 communities to stand against the mission. Forty-three Canadians have died in Afghanistan since 2002. The country has around 2300 troops serving there.
Bono is at a U2 concert in Glasgow when he asks the audience for some quiet. In the silence, he starts to slowly clap his hands.
On October 21, 80 people attended a public forum in Footscray organised by the Maribyrnong Action Group. Speakers discussed the health risks of diesel emissions and the ever increasing quantity of trucks passing through residential streets in Maribyrnong. A range of solutions were presented, from immediate curfew observance and extensions to shifting more freight onto trains.
Staff at the University of NSW mail room are the latest victims of the universityÂ’²õ cost-cutting and corporatisation. Mail services at UNSW including internal mail and courier services were put out to tender via an advertisement in the November 1 Sydney Morning Herald.
Many of the 2.6 million US soldiers who served in the Vietnam War have contracted cancer and a cocktail of serious health problems that they believe to be directly linked to their exposure to the dioxin-contaminated defoliant Agent Orange. The US military sprayed Agent Orange heavily in some parts of Vietnam for 10 years during the war.
Fadi Rahman from the Independent Centre for ResearchÂ’²õ youth centre in Lidcombe, Sydney, spoke to Â鶹´«Ã½ WeeklyÂ’²õ Emma Clancy about the impact on young Muslim Australians of the media attack on the entire Islamic community in the wake of Sheikh Taj el-Din Al HilalyÂ’²õ comments about women and sexual assault.
NSW Greens MP Lee Rhiannon has called on the NSW Labor government to drop a current trial of taser stun guns after one of the weapons caused the death of a teenager in the United States on November 1. It is expected that the NSW government will announce before next MarchÂ’²õ state election that stun guns will be given to 7000 NSW police on general duties.
How hard is it to raise $76,500 before the end of this year? Not hard at all for some organisations. As the November 1 Sydney Morning Herald reported: “Opposition Leader, Peter Debnam, took to the harbour last night for a fund-raising cruise with the property industry aboard a luxury cruiser owned by a developer, Greg Gav.
On October 30 primary and preschool teachers went back to the classrooms, ending seven weeks of strikes and actions, with their key demand of a 40% wage increase unmet. They will continue their campaign for wage justice with 24-hour strikes and education rallies on November 3 and 9.
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