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Victorian Socialist Alliance Federal election candidates strongly condemn the Australian Federal Police raids on the Kurdish Association of Victoria and community members.
Greens candidate for Mackellar Dr Jonathan King is a blue-blooded radical. King gained national prominence in 1988 when he staged an $11 million recreation of the First Fleet's voyage. The historian and former journalist became, in his own words, 鈥減olitical hot property,鈥 courted by both major parties.
He declined their overtures. Politics 鈥渨as in [his] blood鈥, King said, but he was 鈥渢oo radical鈥 for the major parties.
Following the bicentennial voyage, King found his 鈥渘ext big project, and that was helping the environment鈥.
On August 16, Darwin was the venue for a screening of Our Generation, a landmark new documentary about the plight of Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory living under the repressive NT intervention.
The film focuses on the effects of the intervention on the Yolngu people of East Arnhem Land, which coincided with a move by the NT Labor government to move people off traditional homelands and into larger towns (the 鈥渉ub town鈥 policy).
Sick of the manipulative, increasingly policy-free barrage of major party negative advertising in the race to the August 21 Australian federal election?
About 500 people rallied in Melbourne on August 13 to put the Liberal and Labor parties on notice that the refugee rights movement is rebuilding, and a growing number of people are willing to stand up for refugees.
The Refugee Action Collective organised the protest under the slogan of 鈥淪tand up for Refugees鈥 in a bid to have the treatment of asylum seekers recognized as a human rights issue.
There were contingents of Greens, socialists and the Community Public Sector Union. Protesters chanted, 鈥淓ast Timor no solution, let the refugees in鈥.
After a successful strike and picket line on August 8, Victoria University鈥檚 (VU) vice chancellor, Liz Harman, agreed to negotiate on pay and conditions.
Until then, senior management had demanded that promised pay rises this year be in return for abandoning regulation of workloads in the current enterprise bargaining round. The National Tertiary Education Union Branch (NTEU) has now suspended its bans on releasing results. Stood down union members have been reinstated.
BRISBANE 鈥 The annual Hiroshima Day rally and march took place on August 7, commemorating 65 years since the US dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city, killing about 100,000 people. The event was organised by the Rally for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament with the theme: 鈥淛oin us on the road to nuclear disarmament鈥.
PERTH 鈥 鈥榃e are running because the Labor and Liberal parties do not represent the interests of ordinary people鈥, said Socialist Alliance candidate for Perth Alex Bainbridge at the launch of SA鈥檚 campaign.
鈥榃e're struggling to build a movement that can more effectively represent the interests of ordinary people on some of the big issues that we face. These issues include climate change, workers鈥 rights, the shameful policies that governments are taking towards refugees and towards Aboriginal people.鈥
鈥淏usinesses like making profits鈥, said Labor leader Julia Gillard on ABC鈥檚 Q&A on August 9. She was explaining why Labor opposed the Coalition鈥檚 proposal to raise the company tax rate by 1.5%. 鈥淚f they鈥檝e got to pay more tax and that鈥檚 going to cut into their profits, then they鈥檒l think of a way of adding a bit more profit.
鈥淲hat鈥檚 the best way of adding a bit more profit in? They put up prices.
鈥淚t, you know, just stands to common sense reason, doesn鈥檛 it?鈥
The Greens lead NSW senate candidate Lee Rhiannon agrees.
On August 12, members of the Unite trade union employed at six airports by the privatised British Airports Authority voted to strike by a margin of three to one, rejecting a one percent pay rise offered by BAA. The 6185 Unite members at the six affected airports 鈥 firefighters, security staff, engineers and support staff 鈥 accepted a pay freeze in 2009.
BAA also withdrew a proposed 拢450 bonus for the airport workers and informed all staff that they would lose out on their annual airport incentive payment of 拢700 for 2010.
BRISBANE 鈥 Quien Dijo Miedo (鈥淲e are not afraid鈥), an film about the popular resistance to the military coup that took place in June last year in the Central American country of Honduras, was shown at the Queensland Council of Unions building on August 6.
The screening was sponsored by organisations including the Communist Party of Australia, the Revolutionary Socialist Party, the Socialist Alliance, Guatemalan group URNG-MAIZ Australia, the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network, and the El Salvadoran FMLN.
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