After attending the national day of action on climate change, organised by GetUp on November 17, Sally Rawsthorne wrote in the that βfringe dwellersβ like the Socialist Alliance and the ΒιΆΉΣ³» Weekly participating in the rally βdoes climate action a disserviceβ.
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National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) members have been on indefinite strike at the Centre for Adult Education (CAE) since November 18, in pursuit of a new agreement with fair pay and conditions.
Staff and their union have been trying to negotiate a new agreement since February 2011, and have not had a pay rise since May 2010. Their pay is 20% behind teachers in the TAFE sector, despite the Box Hill TAFE buying the CAE back in 2010.
It's long been a favoured wish of many environmentalists to go off the grid, to be self-sufficient in energy and other services, and avoid the corporate utilities and their coal-powered electricity. The ambition for freedom from energy bills and fossil-fuel electricity is understandable.
And now in the age of relatively cheap solar panels (which weren't around in the 1970s), you can live off the grid and use a huge battery attached to a large array of solar PV (photovoltaic) panels, to maintain a hi-tech lifestyle on clean solar energy.
At the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Colombo on November 15 β boycotted by India and Canada in protest against the Sri Lankan regime's crimes against humanity towards the Tamil people β Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said of the regime's crimes: "Sometimes in difficult circumstances, difficult things happen.β
The gallery was packed at the Moreland Council meeting on November 13. About 100 residents crowded into the Glenroy Senior Citizens Centre determined to make their concerns felt over several contentious planning issues.
First was Amendment C123, which, if passed, will turn parts of Coburg into a mini-CBD with 10-storey buildings permitted, irreparably changing the character of the area, sharply reducing peopleβs quality of life and removing residentsβ right to appeal against proposed developments.
On the same day that Tasmania decriminalised abortion, the New South Wales parliament took a big step backwards for womenβs rights. The Legislative Assembly aimed at giving 20-week-old foetuses the same legal rights as human beings.
The Socialist Alliance condemns the violation of Indonesia's national sovereignty through the actions of the Australian government in tapping the mobile phone of Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and nine of his closest advisors, including his wife.
These actions are a reflection of how Western nations such as Australia treat poor nations with neo-colonial contempt.
A group of 133 developing nations have walked out of a key part of the United Nations climate talks in Warsaw, Poland. The walk out came amid a conflict over how countries that have historically emitted the most greenhouse gases should be held financially responsible for some of the damage caused by extreme weather in nations with low carbon emissions.
The United States, Australia, Canada and other industrialised countries are pushing for the issue β known as loss and damage β to be put off until after the 2015 climate talks in Paris.
Kshama Sawant, an openly declared socialist, was elected to the city council in a major United States city, Seattle, in Novemberβs ballot. You need to go back to the first half of the 20th century to find anything similar in the US.
The People's Caravan is a grassroots relief effort initiated by , a Filipino party of the marginalised and poor.
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