IPRA conference
BRISBANE — Seven hundred people attended the International Peace Research Association's 16th general conference. East Timorese Leila Cabarina spoke about the 20 year war on East Timor and the role of youth in the struggle. She noted that for peace to come, "Australia must get out of the Timor Gap".
PSA vote
ADELAIDE — A 1000-strong mass meeting of the PSA has voted for two stop-work actions to allow participation in a protest on August 5 and in the August 19 national day of action.
Strike deferred
ADELAIDE — A 24 hour-strike by education workers scheduled for July 25 over a long-running 15% pay claim and dispute over excess workload was deferred to allow arbitration. The AEU-SAIT and CPSU-PSA have agreed to accept the IRC framework. Industrial action will resume on August 1 if a satisfactory offer from the government is not received.
Tax work bans
MELBOURNE — Members of the CPSU employed by the Tax Office have voted for bans, including refusing to issue notices to taxpayers who owe money, in protest over plans to cut up to 3000 jobs and attack working conditions. Workers also voted for a motion of no confidence in the management of the Tax Office.
Woodchip Protest
NEWCASTLE — Environmentalists protested against the expansion of woodchipping quotas outside the electoral office of Maitland federal member Bob Baldwin on July 19. Protesters presented a book about the Tarkine forest and arranged to meet Baldwin later.
Anti-Howard forum
NEWCASTLE — One hundred people attended a one-day regional forum on July 20, entitled "Living with the Howard Government, Developing Counter Strategies". Speakers included members of the ACTU Council and ACTU Executive, MP Peter Baldwin, Peter Botsman from the Evatt Foundation and Newcastle academic Roy Green.
Participants discussed assessments of the Accord years, where the ALP went wrong and prospects for campaigning against the Coalition's cuts. Resolutions were passed on building a campaign against Howard's industrial relations legislation.
Indonesian picket
PERTH — On July 19, some 15 people picketed the Indonesian consulate to protest against the Indonesian military's unprovoked attack on a peaceful demonstration of workers in Surabaya on July 8. Organised by ASIET (Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor), protesters held signs calling for the release of Dita Sari, a leader of the independent trade union PPBI and others, as well as a banner calling for the abolition of the dual (social and military) function of ABRI, the Indonesian armed forces. At the July 8 action, ABRI reserved its most brutal treatment for people carrying this slogan.
Those arrested are still being held and threatened with charges of "subversion". ASIET is planning further actions in defence of Dita Sari and her fellow activists, and is calling for donations to pay for the activists' legal costs, food and medical supplies.
Anti-uranium movement
SYDNEY — A meeting of 50 people here on July 18 discussed how to take the anti-uranium mining movement forward. Speakers included Jenny Munro from the Metropolitan Lands Council, John Hallam from Friends of the Earth and Maritime Union of Australia national secretary Tony Papaconstuntinos, who cited the MUA's ban on the ship carrying nuclear waste from the Lucas Heights reactor to Scotland last month as an example of the sort of action that is needed.
Former MP Jeanette McHugh told the meeting that the movement should focus on turning ALP policy around. While NSW Greens representative Karla Sperling pointed out that the ALP's record on uranium is appalling, she too advocated looking to politicians, in particular progressives in the Senate.