If the last federal election promised the beginnings of a break from the two-parties-for-capitalism electoral system that has plagued Australian politics for the past century, the March 29, 2011 NSW election seems to be a lurch in the other direction.
The Liberal-National Coalition won dominance of the Legislative Assembly and (with small right-wing parties) control of the Legislative Council because a large number of working class voters punished the Labor party with a -13.5% swing.
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Israeli warplanes launched four simultaneous attacks in the Gaza Strip on March 24, Xinhuanet.com said the next day.
Since the flare-up of violence that began on March 19, Israel has killed 10 Palestinians, six of them civilians, in different airstrikes and shootings, the article said.
鈥淭he targets included an abandoned building which used to be the headquarters of the Palestinian National Authority鈥檚 intelligence department, a nearby sports hall and a neighboring training camp for the military wing of Islamic Hamas movement in northwest Gaza City," it said.
Union supporters have taken their message of worker solidarity and resistance from Wisconsin, all the way to the White House.
Socialistworker.org said more than 1000 trade union activists and students gathered in Washington D.C. on March 23.
The protests targeted a Republican Party fundraising event organised by several of Wisconsin鈥檚 Republican lawmakers.
The fundraiser was held at the offices of major lobbying firm BGR Group.
Mississippi鈥檚 Republican governor Haley Barbour founded BGR Group, whose clients include energy, pharmaceutical and defence companies.
On March 25, much of the community in Maharlika Village in Manila turned out after Friday prayers to protest against the Western powers鈥 military attacks against Libya.
Maharlika Village is a predominantly Moro community in Taguig City, in the south-east of Metro Manila. The protest was organised by the local council, community leaders, religious leaders from the community鈥檚 16 mosques, the Bangsamoro Solidarity Movement and the Anak Mindanao Party (Amin).
The World According to Monsanto: Pollution, Politics & Power
Marie-Monique Robin
Spinifex Press, 2010.
373 pages, $44.95 (pb)
鈥淲hat counts for us is making money,鈥 said a Monsanto vice-president to a new employee at an induction session in 1998, reminding the idealistic novice that there is a simple, and crude, capitalist philosophy at the heart of the US chemical and biotechnology giant.
Twenty people gathered on March 21 in Mitchell Park to commemorate the victims of the March 11 tsunami in Japan. The gathering made paper cranes and heard from Sachi Hirayama from Darwin Youth for the Japanese Disaster who promoted charity events for the cause.
Cat Beaton read a statement from Environment Centre Northern Territory saying that people鈥檚 thoughts were with those who lost loved ones as a result of the natural disaster but also with the workers struggling to rebuild after the devastation.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel鈥檚 governing Christian Democratic Union (CDU) survived a narrow vote in elections for the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt.
The right-wing CDU lost 3% of the vote from the previous elections, dropping to 32.6% support. The two other big parties in the state, the far left Die Linke and the centrist Social Democrats (SPD), remained steady on 23.8% and 21.5% respectively.
Merkel鈥檚 allies at a federal level 鈥 the pro-free market Free Democrats 鈥 failed to cross the 5% threshold needed to win a seat, as did the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD).
The situation inside every one of Australia鈥檚 refugee detention centres has grown dangerously volatile.
Just days after the Christmas Island breakout and subsequent protests, nine refugees climbed on the roof of a detention centre in Darwin after watching the assault of another refugee on March 15.
Two days later, a 20-year-old Afghan man hanged himself with a bedsheet at the Scherger detention centre after his refugee application was rejected.
About 50 people gathered at Murray St Mall, Perth on March 22 to participate in a speak-out called by the Refugee Rights Action Network.
The protest was called in response to the deteriorating conditions inside the detention centres and the recent use of tear gas and rubber bullets against the Christmas Island protestors.
On March 20, 1500 people marched in Tokyo opposing nuclear power in the aftermath of the nuclear power plant disaster in Fukushima that followed the devastating March 9 earthquake.
Protesters also opposed the imposition of fiscal austerity by the government in the face of the earthquake disaster.
Activists have also staged speak-outs at the offices of Tokyo Electric, which runs the Fukushima plants, and government offices.
Former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti鈥檚 last elected president, has finally returned home.
He was kidnapped from Haiti in a US-backed coup in 2004 and exiled in South Africa until his March 18 return.
Aristide returned to a country still devastated by last year鈥檚 earthquake. The US and its allies broke their promises to provide badly needed aid.
Two months earlier, Jean-Claude 鈥淏aby Doc鈥 Duvalier, the notorious former dictator overthrown in a mass rebellion in 1986, also returned to Haiti.
The science that informs us about climate change is becoming more and more alarming.
The National Snow and Ice Date Center said on March 23: 鈥淥n March 7, 2011, Arctic sea ice likely reached its maximum extent for the year, at 14.64 million square kilometers (5.65 million square miles).
鈥淭he maximum extent was 1.2 million square kilometers (463,000 square miles) below the 1979 to 2000 average of 15.86 million square kilometers (6.12 million square miles), and equal (within 0.1%) to 2006 for the lowest maximum extent in the satellite record.鈥
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