An exciting new event will soon make its appearance on the calendar of the Australian workers movement. It's the first Union and Community Summer School, held in Melbourne over December 10-11.
Called 鈥淲inning Our Rights鈥, the school will bring together experienced labour activists from different generations and most left political traditions, to discuss the way forward for the union movement.
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My Name is Rachel Corrie is a play based on the letters and diaries of the US peace activist killed by an Israeli military bulldozer in the Gaza Strip in 2003.
The play will run in Melbourne over November 3-14. This follows a sellout season at the 2010 Adelaide Fringe Festival.
In January 2003, Rachel Corrie travelled to Palestine as part of the International Solidarity Movement. She was part of a nonviolent protest against the State of Israel鈥檚 policy of demolishing Palestinian housing to expand Jewish settlement in the Occupied Territories.
"A Jewish majority in a solely Jewish state necessitates perpetual discrimination against the Palestinians鈥, Anna Baltzer, a Jewish-American award-winning speaker for human rights in the Middle East, told an audience of 100 at the Queensland Parliamentary Annexe on October 27.
Baltzer is an author, former Fulbright scholar and granddaughter of Holocaust refugees. She has lived and worked in the West Bank, and has contributed to four upcoming books on the Palestinian struggle.
Not so long ago, the polar ice sheet made it almost impossible to circle the North Pole by sea. But in June, two boats set off to do just that. By mid October, both returned to port successful 鈥 the first ships to sail around the pole in a single summer season.
"Is it fair that disability support workers earn less than workers who stack supermarkets shelves?" Australian Services Union NSW secretary Sally McManus asked 2000 protesters, including people with disabilities and disability sector workers.
"Is it fair disability workers are forced away from Sydney because they can't afford to pay the rent?"
The seat of Brunswick is arguably the most hotly contested seat in the November 27 Victorian parliamentary elections. Based on results at the recent federal election, the new Labor candidate, Jane Garrett, is tipped to beat Greens candidate Cyndi Dawes by only 0.6% of the vote.
Learning from the criticism of Labor鈥檚 negative federal election campaign, Garrett has adopted the slogan 鈥渆quality, social justice and tackling climate change鈥 in a bid to win back voters from progressive parties.
About 50 people attended a meeting on October 27 to stop the sell-off of Gleniffer Brae, a historic, heritage-listed manor house in Wollongong. Organised by Reclaim Our City, the meeting discussed the need for Gleniffer Brae 鈥 owned by Wollongong City Council 鈥 to stay in public hands, and questioned the right of unelected administrators to decide the future of such a valuable community asset.
Campaign groups against the NT intervention published a statement in the October 29 Australian that condemned its effects on Aboriginal working conditions in remote communities.
The statement was supported by Unions NT and by unions such as the Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union; the Maritime Union of Australia; and the Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union. It was also supported by several Aboriginal corporations, health services and rights groups involved from communities affected by the intervention, as well as support groups in the coastal cities.
Construction workers and trade unionists from across Australia will once again rally behind rigger Ark Tribe when his struggle against the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) continues on November 3 at the Adelaide Magistrates Court. Fundamental workers rights rest on the outcome of the case. The Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union (CFMEU) has led the call for the six-month jail sentence Ark Tribe faces to be thrown out, and for the ABCC, which continues to treat construction workers as second-class citizens, to be abolished.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard knew just who she was talking to when she gave her address to the Australian Industry Group鈥檚 annual dinner on October 25.
The AIG and its affiliates represent more than 60,000 bosses, according to its website. This includes Veolia, the privatisation juggernaut.
But just so she didn鈥檛 rustle too many feathers, Gillard spoke to them in the kind of arcane riddles she hoped only they could understand.
The first stage of the national school curriculum is scheduled to begin in 2011, and not many people are happy about it.
The idea of a national curriculum was initially raised by the Hawke Labor government in the late 1980s, and later echoed by Coalition prime minister John Howard.
Aboriginal workers in the Northern Territory "want to work, want to have a go鈥, Aboriginal activist Mark Fordham told 60 people at Brisbane鈥檚 Kurilpa Hall on October 24. Fordham is a former Community Development Employment Projects co-ordinator at Ampilatwatja community and is a member of the Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers鈥 Union.
Fordham had spent the previous two weeks touring the east coast, speaking with unions and community groups about the effect the federal government鈥檚 intervention into NT Aboriginal communities has had on employment.
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