Debra and Jon Cooley met at the Blundstone boot factory, where they have worked most of their lives. They had just taken out a loan for their dream home when Blundstone announced, on January 16, that it was closing up shop. Three hundred and thirty staff like the Cooleys, and Jade Archer and his partner, who are too old to start apprenticeships, now face an uncertain future as their skills are made redundant.
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An anti-nuclear Peace Parade and Festival is being planned for Palm Sunday in Melbourne.
Al Gore鈥檚 film An Inconvenient Truth has helped dramatise the enormity of the global environmental crisis. The scale of the threat posed by industrially induced global warming, and the short time in which to take meaningful action to prevent catastrophic consequences, makes the question of how to combat global warming arguably the most urgent one facing humanity.
A 聯freedom ride聰 from Sydney to Canberra will be held on March 25 to mark the 10th anniversary of the Howard government聮s overturning of the Northern Territory聮s voluntary euthanasia law, the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act (ROTI).
Whether you admire him or hate him, Venezuela聮s recently re-elected president, Hugo Chavez, is starting to attract a lot of attention in Australia, and around the world. The man who calls US President George Bush 聯the devil聰, and the 聯new socialism for the 21st century聰 that he and his government are creating in Venezuela, are stirring hope in the hearts of many people 聴 and fear in a few.
TASMANIA 鈥 The Weld Valley in southern Tasmania was the site of a convergence on January 20-21. Activists discussed strategies and planned the next actions in the campaign to save the Styx and Weld valleys from logging. Addressed by Greens Senator Christine Milne, Tasmanian Greens member Tim Morris and Adrian Whitehead from Beyond Zero Emissions, an overriding theme of the convergence was climate change. On January 25, 30 people attended a submission-writing workshop and media conference outside the Department of Primary Industries and Water in Hobart. Their aim was to force the state government to recognise the role of forest conservation in reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, something the government avoided in its their draft 鈥楥limate Change Strategy鈥.
The refusal by Tristar Steering and Suspension to pay a dying employee his work entitlements after he applied for a voluntary redundancy is just the latest in a long fight the company鈥檚 workers have waged to secure their rightful entitlements. Another 30 longstanding Tristar workers are still awaiting their own entitlements.
Despite right-wing intimidation, the founding congress of the National Liberation Party of Unity (Papernas) successfully concluded on January 20. A leadership was elected, which has already had its first meeting, preparing for a year of 鈥渁ll out鈥 political campaigning.
Unions are increasingly concerned over Airline Partners Australia鈥檚 (APA) proposed $11.1 billion takeover bid for Qantas. The buy-out, by the Macquarie Bank-led private equity consortium, has yet to be formally submitted, though the Qantas board of directors has unanimously agreed to the $5.60 a share bid.
On January 24, water activists at the World Social Forum in Nairobi announced the formation of the African Water Network, to campaign against water privatisation. Hundreds of activists from groups and campaigns in more than 40 African countries committed to the new initiative. According to Ghanaian activist Al hassan Adam, 聯The launch of this network should put the water privateers, governments and international financial institutions on notice that Africans will resist privatisation. We demand governments provide access to clean water through efficient public delivery.聰 The network pledged to: fight against water privatisation; ensure participatory public control and management of water resources; oppose all forms of pre-paid water metres; ensure that water is enshrined in national constitutions as a human right; and ensure that the provision of water is a national project solely in the public domain.
MELBOURNE 鈥 On January 21, Melbourne held its 12th Pride March. Despite rainy weather, 3000 people marched in the parade, with 87 groups represented. Issues raised included calls to repeal the ban on same-sex marriage, to stop violence against
Them A-rab folks all look the same to me
"Last night I talked about a new strategy for Iraq ... In spite of the remarkable progress, 2006 turned out differently than I had anticipated. And it did because there's an enemy there that recognises that
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