On September 30, 2001, in the midst of one of the worst economic crises in Argentine history, the owners of the Zanon ceramic factory announced plans to switch off the furnaces.
In response, union delegates occupied the plant in the southern province of Neuquen. The next day, workers arrived to join the occupation 鈥 frustrating plans to sell off the machinery.
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A new manual by six Europe-based NGOs calls for an end to forest offsets, whereby carbon emissions in one country can be supposedly 鈥渙ffset鈥 by protecting forests in another.
Forest offset programs are largely organised through the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) mechanism, which receives support from the World Bank and other financial institutions.
The report says there are two motivations for forest offsets: 鈥渞educing the pressure to do something about fossil fuel emissions and the short term profit motive.鈥
The streets of Oakland, California, echoed with the voices of tens of thousands of people determined to take a stand on November 2. Workers, students, activists and people from all walks of life responded to the call for a general strike by Occupy Oakland. The last general strike in the United States was in 1946 (also in Oakland).
Strong>The Short Goodbye: A Skewed History of the Last Boom and the Next Bust
By Elisabeth Wynhausen
Melbourne University Publishing, 2011
219 pages, $29.99 (pb)
From writing stories about workers being sacked during the 2009 global financial crisis, Elisabeth Wynhausen, a journalist at Rupert Murdoch鈥檚 The Australian, got a taste of the real thing when she was handed a pink slip of her own.
Two civilian boats, the Canadian Tahrir (鈥淟iberation鈥), and the Irish Saoirse (鈥淔reedom鈥), carried 27 people from nine countries to try to reach the beleaguered Gaza Strip to challenge Israel鈥檚 ongoing criminal blockade of the territory.
On November 4, the two ships were illegally boarded by the Israeli military in international waters. All passengers, including Australian activist Michael Coleman, were detained by Israel.
In a grim piece of political theatre that is becoming more frequent, and more surreal, a sombre PM Julia Gillard on October 30 acknowledged the latest three Australian fatalities in Afghanistan by claiming that Australia was winning a just war there.
The death toll of Australian soldiers in the decade-long war is now 32.
Military deaths in Afghanistan are unusually bipartisan events in Australian politics. Gillard鈥檚 claims were unreservedly backed up by the Liberal-National opposition.
鈥淲hen I meet with [climate change] minister Greg Combet next week I will be taking my prescription pad with me and I will be writing a prescription for solar thermal for Port Augusta, not just three times a day but permanently,鈥 said Dr David Shearman of Doctors for the Environment Australia (DEA) to a 120-strong crowd in Port Augusta鈥檚 Cooinda Club on October 29.
Shearman was one of several speakers at the forum, which was organised by the Adelaide-based Climate Emergency Action Network (CLEAN), the Port Augusta City Council and Beyond Zero Emissions.
When Annie Leonard put her groundbreaking cartoon online in late 2007, she would have been really happy if 50,000 people had watched it. 鈥淭o my utter amazement we got 50,000 viewers on the first day,鈥 she told 麻豆传媒 Weekly during a recent visit to Australia.
Two grassroots lesbian, gay, bisexual, sex and/or gender diverse (LGBSGD) rights conferences will take place in Sydney in early December. The conferences will coincide with a national marriage rights rally on December 3, outside the ALP National Conference.
Australia's first Sex and Gender Diversity (SGD) Human Rights and Dignity Conference, is planned for December 2 at the Redfern Community Centre.
About 1500 people joined an Occupy Sydney rally at Town Hall on November 5, making it the largest of the three Occupy Sydney marches so far. Members of the Maritime Union of Australia and other unions filled out the crowd.
If you speak out against the widening gap between wages and CEOs鈥 salaries, the corporate media will accuse you of stoking the 鈥減olitics of envy鈥. Workers who dare take industrial action to get a few more crumbs from the bosses鈥 table are cast as class war dinosaurs.
Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams led a dramatic walkout from the Dublin parliament (Dail) on November 2. The protest was over the coalition government鈥檚 decision to hand over more than 鈧700 million to an unknown private investor in the failed Anglo Irish Bank.
Finance minister Michael Noonan admitted in the Dail there was no legal obligation to refund the bond investment, which was not covered by the former government鈥檚 bank guarantee.
With the government refusing a debate on the matter, Adams led the walkout of Sinn Fein and United Left Alliance parliamentarians.
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