The third annual camp for climate action will happen in the Hunter Valley from December 1-5, between the Liddell and Bayswater power stations. The camp will bring will be an important forum for diverse groups to build stronger links with one another.
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An Iraqi Kurd in his 30s who had been in detention at Christmas Island for about 12 months, attempted suicide, the Australian said on November 23. This came just a week after the second suicide in two months at Villawood detention centre.
About 20 fellow asylum seekers resorted to sewing their lips shut and 230 other detainees went on hunger strike in protest as 鈥減eople felt that the Gillard government was ignoring their cases鈥.
About 100 people attended a 鈥淪ave Gleniffer Brae鈥 meeting on November 15 as part of a campaign to keep the historic, heritage-listed manor house in public hands.
Organised by Reclaim Our City, the meeting demanded, 鈥渘o action leading to the sale of public land at Gleniffer Brae and this precinct be taken by Wollongong City Council and its non-elected administrators鈥.
The meeting welcomed a recent commitment by the council to hold off on any discussion of the matter until 2011. It demanded community consultation before any attempts to sell the land were made.
Four thousand nurses and midwives met at Sydney Olympic Park on November 24 to protest against the state government's refusal to fund safe nurse-to patient-ratios.
It was the first state-wide nurses鈥 strike since 2001 and 170 hospitals were affected.
The action was supported by 180 branches of the NSW Nurses Association (NSWNA). The Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) said the strike must be called off, but the nurses were defiant.
Max Watts, a well-known personality on the left in Australia, particularly in Sydney, died on November 23.
Max was a left-wing freelance journalist, an occasional contributor to 麻豆传媒 Weekly and its discussion e-list, and a solidarity activist with many national liberation struggles, including in Palestine, Kanaky, West Papua and Bougainville.
In the 1960s, he was a central activist in Europe working with soldier resistance to the Vietnam War within the US armed forces. Resistance inside the army (RITA) was one of his great political passions.
The letter below was written by Socialist Alliance member Justine Kamprad. She wrote it to federal member for Fremantle Melissa Parke after South Australian rigger Ark Tribe was found not guilty on November 24 of refusing to attend an interview with the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC).
Dear Melissa Parke,
As blue-collar workers, my partner and I have been involved with our unions over the past decade. In that time I have seen our unions fight for safety, dignity and a better life for our family.
All around the Western world, far-right groups (some with neo-Nazi links), are gaining political ground through an orchestrated campaign against Muslim communities. These groups are spreading fear and hatred against recent immigrant communities from Muslim countries, and tap into well-resourced post-9/11 war propaganda initiated by rulers of the world鈥檚 richest and most powerful states.
A community sit-in defending Melbourne鈥檚 only Indigenous school, Ballerrt Mooroop College in Glenroy, began on November 24.
The state Labor government planned to shift the Glenroy Specialist School (GSS) onto the site, which would push the Koori school into portable classrooms in a tiny area. The government provided $18 million to GSS to relocate, but the Koori school received just $750,000.
鈥淲inning Our Rights鈥 is the theme of the December 10-11 Union and Community Summer School, which will be held at Melbourne Trades Hall. The conference will discuss the 30-year-long retreat of the Australian union movement and also victories over that period.
鈥淲inning Our Rights鈥 will feature unionists leading important struggles. They will share their experiences and discuss how to turn the tide.
Attending will be Tom Buckley from New Zealand鈥檚 Unite union. Unite has won the rights of restaurant and other retail workers by organising in a heavily casualised industry.
Prominent queer rights and climate activist, Paola Harvey, will stand for the Socialist Alliance in the seat of Keira in the March 2011 NSW elections. Harvey, a resident of Mount Keira and part-time student, is a founding member of Equal Love Wollongong, the organisation leading the struggle for marriage equality, and is a member of the Wollongong Climate Action Network (WCAN). Also a member of Resistance, socialist youth organisation, she is involved in campaigns for youth rights, education and employment.
The success of Greens MP Adam Bandt's marriage equality motion in federal parliament, which called on MPs to take the issue back to their electorates, shows how successful our grassroots movement has been.
We've forced the Gillard Labor government to back away from its ridiculous discriminatory policy of denying equal marriage rights.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard now says the official ALP policy, which says marriage can only be between a man and a woman, should be looked at again at Labor鈥檚 next national conference. She wants to bring the conference forward to December 2011.
The Socialist Alliance鈥檚 Socialist Ideas Conference on November 20 featured informative presentations and spirited discussion. It reviewed the political situation in Australia and globally.
One of the speakers was Greens MLC Mark Parnell. The most animated discussion was about the Greens' political perspectives and relation to community campaigns and grassroots activism.
This followed an online debate before the event, about whether a Greens parliamentarian 鈥 particularly from the right of the party 鈥 should have been invited to speak at a conference promoting socialist ideas.
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