Feminists from various organisations and groups gathered outside NSW Parliament House on October 23 to protest the severe cuts the Barry O鈥橣arrell government has proposed for several community organisations.
Some of the centres and services that face an uncertain future include the Liverpool Women鈥檚 Resource Centre, which provides information and support to disadvantaged and abused women, and the Margaret Jurd Learning Centre, a non-government school that caters for children with disabilities.
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Socialist Alliance candidate Sue Bolton was elected to Moreland City Council in Melbourne鈥檚 northern suburbs in the October 27 elections.
The election provided a shake-up with the ALP losing three councillors and its outright majority on council. The Greens retained two councillors although their vote dropped in all three wards.
The Socialist Alliance gained its first councillor position in Victoria and a Liberal Party member was elected to Moreland Council for the first time. The Democratic Labor Party retained its councillor.
The Melbourne media have ignored the raised vote for socialists in the October 27 local government elections.
The Socialist Party鈥檚 sitting councillor Steve Jolly increased his vote from 29.2% in 2008 to 34.24% in the inner-city City of Yarra council. In other wards of Yarra Council, the Socialist Party increased its vote but did not retain its other sitting councilor, Anthony Main.
Since Jolly was elected, his vote has continued to rise. This is because he and the Socialist Party have used the council position to build campaigns in the local area.
The Sydney Stop the War Coalition released the statement below on November 2.
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Prime Minister Julia Gillard made her to an almost empty Parliament House on October 31.
After 11 years, she insists that the International Security Assistance Force counter-insurgency strategy against the Taliban is 鈥渨orking鈥 and the Afghan National Army is on track to take over security in 2014 鈥 when the Western forces 鈥渓eave鈥.
The two-year negotiations between loggers and environmentalists, which many hoped would end the conflict over Tasmania鈥檚 forests, collapsed on October 27.
The Wilderness Society, a key negotiator in the talks, blamed the collapse on the Forest Industries Association of Tasmania (FIAT), which represents logging companies such as Malaysian logging firm Ta Ann and, previously, Gunns Ltd.
If a casual observer glanced at the results for the mayoral elections in Geelong, they could be forgiven for thinking that they were a victory for apolitical and conservative politics.
The winner, Keith Fagg, comes from a local business family whose name is as close as you could get to landed gentry in Geelong. The next highest pollster鈥檚 claim to fame was that she, Stephanie Asher, had worked for BHP Billiton.
All of this in a working class town.
Aboriginal students and their supporters rallied at the University of Sydney on October 31 to demand university management commit to maintaining the Koori Centre.
The Koori Centre provides a supportive place for Aboriginal students to work and study together. Students organised the protest in response to information that the centre was slated for closure.
The protesters marched from the Fischer library to the university administration building, where they handed over petitions calling for management to stop attacking the centre.
Sue Bolton, the , is a feminist and socialist fighter.
She's been a tireless campaigner for working people鈥檚 rights since the late 1970s, when she first joined the anti-uranium campaign in Toowoomba, Queensland.
The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal last month approved a deeply unpopular McDonald's restaurant in Tecoma in聽Melbourne's Dandenong ranges.聽
Since the approval the local community has organised to reclaim space and created a garden, maintained an around-the-clock聽protest vigil at the proposed site and gathered thousands of signatures on petitions against the proposal.
Below is a statement from Murrundindi, Headman of Melbourne鈥檚 Wurundjeri nation against the development.
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Vodafone Australia said on October 29 鈥 10% of its workforce 鈥 by the end of November.
Vodafone Australia CEO Bill Morrow said in an attempt to turn around its performance. Vodafone had a $131 million loss during the first half of this year.
On the morning of October 22, the day after parliamentary elections in the Basque and Galician autonomous communities of the Spanish state, the TV and radio political pundits were struggling to be wise.
Their powers of analysis were not tested so much by the rise of EH Bildu, the Basque left-nationalist coalition 鈥 the polls had predicted its 25% vote. The disorienting new phenomenon was result for the Galician Left Alternative (AGE).
Not predicted
Hurricane Sandy was the largest tropical storm to ever hit mainland United States.
Its extent, power and the fact that it formed so late in the hurricane season so far north in the Atlantic ocean can only be understood in light of global warming caused by the burning of fossil fuels.
For many years, scientists have been warning that the rise in water temperature in the oceans would create more powerful storms, and that is what happened in the case of Hurricane Sandy.
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