A summit of huge importance was held in Venezuela on December 2-3. Two hundred years after Latin America鈥檚 independence fighters first raised the battle cry for a united Latin America, 33 heads of states from across the region came together to form the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).
For Latin America, the summit represented a further step away from its traditional role as the United States鈥 backyard and its emergence as a player in its own right in international politics.
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Because 麻豆传媒 Weekly is taking a break for the summer, it asked staff, contributors 鈥 or just people it likes 鈥 to name the best books published this year. Here are their suggestions.
Tim Dobson, 麻豆传媒 journalist and blogger at
by Ronald Reng
Yellow Jersey Press, 2011
Prime Minister Julia Gillard鈥檚 is more than twice the of all Australian full-time or part-time employees, aged 15 years or over. More than half of all Australian workers have a yearly pay packet smaller than the PM鈥檚 expected pay rise.
The $40,000 pay rise expected for backbenchers will also be more than the total wage of many Australian workers.
It is now common knowledge that Australian adult prisons are incarcerating children as young as 13. The major obstacle for human rights advocates struggling to free these children from our adult prisons is the Australian government and the horrific prejudices and stereotypes they have shoved down Australians鈥 throats.
As you read these words, disaster may be about to strike in the galloping crisis of the European financial system and the euro. Or it may not 鈥 yet.
On November 30, the imminent threat of a banking system implosion stirred the European Central Bank (ECB), the US Federal Reserve, Bank of England and central banks of Japan, Canada and Switzerland, into taking the minimum action needed to prevent a 鈥淟ehman Brothers event鈥 collapsing the European financial system.
The federal government鈥檚 decision to release small numbers of refugees from detention to live in the community while their claims are assessed will be welcome news to many refugees that have suffered under its mandatory detention policy.
In the lead up to the ALP national conference over December 3-4, Labor鈥檚 refugee policy has been in the spotlight.
The phrase 鈥渙rganise, don鈥檛 agonise鈥 has become a bumper sticker, a popular slogan in the feminist movement, the title of many speeches, conferences and newsletters. African-American civil rights activist Florence Rae Kennedy coined the term. Gloria Steinem quoted her in Ms magazine in 1973.
Since then, this powerful slogan has circumnavigated the world many times 鈥 used by many activists and movements.
It has lasted because the slogan reasonates strongly with the condition of the oppressed, exploited and persecuted.
In the face of a broad and growing campaign, rhetoric from the NSW government is beginning to match some of the risks when it comes to coal seam gas (CSG) mining. This begs the question: what is being done when it comes to CSG?
In an about CSG mining on December 1, NSW Premier Barry O鈥橣arrell told 2GB鈥檚 Alan Jones: 鈥淚 don鈥檛 intend to allow 鈥 particularly after the drought we went through over a decade 鈥 mining or any other activity to threaten water resources.
Victorian nurses have decided to take their claims directly to the community, after negotiations with the Baillieu Victorian government over their enterprise bargaining agreement broke down yet again.
Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) Victorian branch secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick told a mass meeting on December 2: 鈥淭he government negotiators staged a 鈥榖reakdown鈥 in negotiations last night to bait nurses and midwives into taking further industrial action that would pull the last forced arbitration trigger.
Occupy began as a movement against the effects and causes of the global economic crisis and against the austerity measures pushed by governments for the benefit of the 1%. In Australia, many people were inspired by Occupy Wall Street in New York and the global movement it had sparked.
When an international call for action on October 15 came out, we responded, and began our own occupations here.
Australian energy company Santos has met determined resistance to its coal seam gas operations in Australia. It is less well known that Santos was one of the companies responsible for a monumental environmental catastrophe in Indonesia in 2006. The accident drowned villages in the Porong subdistrict of Sidoarjo in mud, and displaced up to 50,000 people.
The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) has condemned the federal government's planned increase in the 鈥渆fficiency dividend鈥 imposed on the Australian Public Service.
鈥淓fficiency dividend鈥 is a euphemism for funding cut. In the 2012-13 financial year the 鈥渄ividend鈥 will be 4%, based on the assumption the public service will increase its efficiency by 4% during the year.
Such cuts have been continuing for many years. In 2011-2012 the 鈥渆fficiency dividend鈥 is 1.5%.
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