Unionists and community activists protested outside the Melbourne headquarters of Australian-based mining company OceanaGold on November 15, in solidarity with the people of El Salvador and the Philippines.
The protest took place in support of a tour by an anti-mining activist from El Salvador, Vidalina Morales. A grassroots environmental advocate, Morales has been a leader in her local area in the struggle to oppose mining in El Salvador's Caba帽as province since 2006.
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Supporters of refugees from Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, the Blue Mountains and Newcastle converged on Parliament House in Canberra on November 18.
About 600 protesters gathered, among them were Hazara and Iranian refugees.
The protest coincided with the Labor parliamentary caucus meeting to decide whether to support the Greens move to disallow temporary protection visas.
After attending the national day of action on climate change, organised by GetUp on November 17, Sally Rawsthorne wrote in the that 鈥渇ringe dwellers鈥 like the Socialist Alliance and the 麻豆传媒 Weekly participating in the rally 鈥渄oes climate action a disservice鈥.
National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) members have been on indefinite strike at the Centre for Adult Education (CAE) since November 18, in pursuit of a new agreement with fair pay and conditions.
Staff and their union have been trying to negotiate a new agreement since February 2011, and have not had a pay rise since May 2010. Their pay is 20% behind teachers in the TAFE sector, despite the Box Hill TAFE buying the CAE back in 2010.
It's long been a favoured wish of many environmentalists to go off the grid, to be self-sufficient in energy and other services, and avoid the corporate utilities and their coal-powered electricity. The ambition for freedom from energy bills and fossil-fuel electricity is understandable.
And now in the age of relatively cheap solar panels (which weren't around in the 1970s), you can live off the grid and use a huge battery attached to a large array of solar PV (photovoltaic) panels, to maintain a hi-tech lifestyle on clean solar energy.
The gallery was packed at the Moreland Council meeting on November 13. About 100 residents crowded into the Glenroy Senior Citizens Centre determined to make their concerns felt over several contentious planning issues.
First was Amendment C123, which, if passed, will turn parts of Coburg into a mini-CBD with 10-storey buildings permitted, irreparably changing the character of the area, sharply reducing people鈥檚 quality of life and removing residents鈥 right to appeal against proposed developments.
At the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Colombo on November 15 鈥 boycotted by India and Canada in protest against the Sri Lankan regime's crimes against humanity towards the Tamil people 鈥 Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said of the regime's crimes: "Sometimes in difficult circumstances, difficult things happen.鈥
Staff at RMIT University held a 24-hour stopwork for a new Enterprise Agreement on November 20.
Organised by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), the strike was called to reject a substandard agreement that offers聽a 3% pay rise with no improvements to conditions.聽
RMIT management wants to leave many vital entitlements in "policy" rather than the Enterprise聽Agreement because this gives them the "flexibility" to alter them at their discretion.
At the recent UN climate talks in Poland, poor nations and NGOs singled out the Australian delegation for doing the most to block progress on a new deal to cut carbon emissions.
The National Tertiary Education Union released this statement on November 21.
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The Minister for Education Christopher Pyne today introduced the聽Higher Education Support Amendment (Savings and Other Measures) Bill 2013 into parliament, a bill which in the minister鈥檚 own words will be damaging to the university sector.聽
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The bill slashes more than $900 million from university grants over the next four years and will cost students almost $300 million in lost discounts for early repayment of their HECS debts.
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Rita Hester was found murdered inside her apartment on November 28, 1998. Hester was transgender and also African American, her death highlighting not only the issue of transphobic murder, but also the disproportionate representation of people of colour among its victims.
Her murder is still unsolved but an international day of action known as Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) is marked on November 20 each year.
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Hester鈥檚 murder was preceded and followed by other high profile transphobic murders.
After the storm, the 鈥渟hock doctrine鈥. This is what awaits the Philippines after the devastation wrought by Typhoon Haiyan.
The familiar cycle of 鈥渄isaster capitalism鈥 allows wealthy and politically connected First World corporations to profit obscenely from the suffering of acutely vulnerable disaster-affected communities.
Disaster profiteering is a parasitic tendency deeply embedded in the structures of the neoliberal global economy. It will degrade and corrupt the international 鈥渞elief effort鈥 under way in the Philippines.
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