The Australia-Cuba Friendship Society held its 2007 national consultation in Canberra on April 13-15, attended by some 60 activists from around Australia. The gathering was also attended by Cuba聮s consul and consul general in Australia, Nelida Hernandez Carmona and Ifrahim Miranda Leon, as well as representatives of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, vice-president Buenaventura Reyes Acosta and Alicia Corredera Morales.
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麻豆传媒 Weekly will be taking a one-week break. Out next issue will be dated May 9.
Around 100 people filled Newtown Neighbourhood Centre on April 18 to hear visiting Zimbabwean socialist Munyaradzi Gwisai explain the background to the Zimbabwean people鈥檚 struggle for democracy.
Resistance held a NSW activist camp on April 13-15, themed 鈥淐onfronting war and imperialism, socialism in the 21st century鈥. The camp was attended by 50 people and included workshops on socialist solutions to the environmental crisis, the Venezuelan revolution, fighting sexism today, racism and imperialism, and the Palestinian struggle.
With his April 17 speech to the National Press Club, federal Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd launched a pre-emptive strike against all those unionists, including ALP members, who thought that the April 27-29 ALP national conference would be debating a new industrial relations policy to replace the Howard government鈥檚 hated Work Choices legislation.
Refugee-rights groups have accused immigration department and GSL management at the Villawood detention centre of collective punishment of detainees in the aftermath of two detainees escaping on the evening of April 19.
Joe Collins from the Australia West Papua Association said on April 19 that Australia should have no ties with the Indonesian military (TNI) until it is proven to have reformed. TNI commander Marshal Djoko Suyanto was visiting Canberra at the time to strengthen Australia-Indonesia military relations.
ALP leader Kevin Rudd鈥檚 industrial relations policies, outlined in an April 17 speech to the National Press Club, have caused great concern among many trade unionists because they echo many of the anti-worker provisions in the federal government鈥檚 Work Choices laws.
It now appears certain that the ALP鈥檚 national conference, to be held in Sydney from April 27-29, will drop the party鈥檚 鈥渘o new uranium mines鈥 policy, adopted in 1998.
This will satisfy the big mining companies鈥 desire to expand uranium mining. Labor leader Kevin Rudd and his 鈥渓eft-wing鈥 deputy, Julia Gillard, are leading the push to scrap the policy.
A community protest organised by Union Solidarity shut down the construction site at Woodside聮s Otways gas plant near Port Campbell on April 17.
Around 40 people attended a screening of Who Killed the Electric Car on April 18, hosted by the non-profit, community run Western Region Environment Centre in Werribee. The film was followed by a very lively debate about issues such as industry聮s drive for corporate profits, the lack of leadership from federal and state governments to provide solutions to climate change and the need for community action.
Paul Wolfowitz, president of the World Bank and formerly US President George Bush聮s deputy secretary of defence, doesn聮t seem to comprehend why he is in trouble. He has admitted to ordering a US$60,000 pay increase for his lover, a World Bank employee, before seconding her to the US State Department as part of a generous compensation package.
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