Across Australia communities have come out and participated in Walk Together events to welcome refugees.
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In a daring and audacious move, Matt McCarten, General Secretary of the Unite Union, announced his candidacy in the Mana By Election in Wellington earlier today.
March for refugee and asylum seeker rights held in Sydney on October 23 to mark the ninth anniversary of the sinking of a boat, code-named the SIEV X, full of asylum seekers on its way from Indonesia to Australia on October 19, 2001.
Greens federal parliamentary leader Senator Bob Brown spoke in the parliamentary debate on the Australian military intervention in Afghanistan on October 25.
Belgian railway workers shut down almost the entire national rail network and disrupted international services on October 18 in protest at rail freight reforms that could cost hundreds of train drivers鈥 jobs, the Morning Star said that day.
The strike was called in protest against the terms of new 鈥渇lexible鈥 contracts that rail bosses are seeking to impose on staff. Unions warned that the contracts would make it easier for bosses to lay off hundreds of train drivers.
Two weeks ago, NSW Labor Premier Kristina Keneally sparked controversy when she declared that NSW would not honour its commitment to the national occupational health and safety (OH&S) harmonisation process.
The October 18 Australian said PM Julia Gillard had threatened the NSW government by withholding a $144 million reform incentive if it did not continue with the process, as agreed by all states except Western Australia in December last year.
A visiting International Monetary Fund official urged ministers in the Romanian capital of Bucharest to rebuff union demands for an increase to the minimum wage, the Morning Star said on October 20.
The monthly minimum wage in Romania is just 600 lei (less than $200). But IMF mission chief Jeffrey Franks, in Romania to review the right-wing government鈥檚 progress in implementing an austerity program in return for a major IMF loan, warned any increase in the minimum wage would discourage bosses from hiring new staff.
PERTH 鈥 Jewish American author Anna Baltzer spoke to a packed audience of more than 100 people at a forum hosted by Friends of Palestine WA on October 21.
She began by explaining that there were differences between the words "Jewish" (relating to faith or kinship), "Israeli" (relating to citizenship in the state of Israel) and "Zionist" (a political ideology).
Most of her presentation documented the illegal occupation of Palestinian land sponsored by the state of Israel and the effects of that occupation.
Family, friends and justice supporters rallied on October 16 in support of Jock Palfreeman, a 23-year-old Australian jailed in Bulgaria, whose appeal started on October 21.
Palfreeman was convicted of premeditated murder for an incident in 2007. But he says he was acting in self defence when he ran to the aid of two Roma men being attacked by 16 men. During the ensuing conflict, two of the attackers suffered stab wounds, and one died.
Palfreeman was sentenced to 20 years鈥 jail and fined $375,000, despite eyewitness accounts supporting his account and key CCTV footage going missing.
Mark Fordham, an Aboriginal activist from the Northern Territory and member of the Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union, is touring the east coast to raise awareness about the jobs with justice campaign. The campaign aims to force the government to provide real jobs and services to remote Aboriginal communities in the NT (see article page 7).
In Sydney, Fordham spoke to waterside workers with Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) officials. He thanked maritime workers for their solidarity with the Gurindji workers who walked off Wave Hill station in 1966.
Over October 16-17, 120 people participated in lively and informative discussions at the Latin America Solidarity Conference.
鈥淐hallenging corporate globalisation: people鈥檚 power is changing the world鈥 was organised by the Latin America Social Forum. LASF brings together the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN 鈥 Australia), Guatemala Human Rights Committee, Ibiray-Fondo Raul Sendic (Uruguay), Honduras鈥 National Front of Popular Resistance (FNRP), Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network and Socialist Alliance.
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