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Brigadista reports on May Day in Caracas

“The Venezuelan revolution is slowly going forward, despite problems. President Hugo Chavez hasn’t stopped for a minute in pushing the process ahead, in the face of serious challenges”, Coral Wynter, co-leader of the Australian May Day 2008 solidarity brigade to Venezuela, told a meeting of the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network on May 26.

South Africa: Marching for justice

Below is an abridged May 26 statement by the Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF).

Of bread, circuses and clanging symbols

Joseph Bryan, Kevin Rudd’s, politicians, tax cuts, Stolen Generation, Northern Territory, 2020 Summit

On the box

UFOs, Lies and the Cold War — Argues that from 1947 into the 1960s, US intelligence was able to use UFO paranoia strategically to cover up secret weapons testing. SBS, Friday, June 6, 2.30pm. Embassy Days — Follows the evolution of the

Petrol populism and public transport

Petrol prices have sky-rocketed in the last six months. The cost per litre now pushes $1.60, with predictions in some quarters of a $2 per litre price by the end of the year.

Sydney on the streets

Sense of a City
Regard Gallery, 372 Wilson Street, Darlington
June 13-29, 11am-5pm daily
Opening June 12, 6pm

What would a liveable city look like?

When one sees a modern city from the air, especially at night, it is a truly awe-inspiring spectacle. The immensity of the project is a testimony to the power and creativity of human beings. However, on the ground and actually living and working in this wonder, things are quite different: the social and ecological problems crowd in and fill your view. The truth is that our cities have always been dominated by the rich and powerful, and built and operated to serve their needs rather than those of the mass of working people who live and toil in them.

Clean development mechanism — a discredited strategy

The world’s biggest carbon offset market, the Kyoto Protocol’s clean development mechanism (CDM), is run by the United Nations, administered by the World Bank and is intended to reduce emissions by rewarding developing countries that invest in clean technologies.

'Enough of these fools': French students on the move

“Enough of these fools who shut factories and shut schools!” was a chant of thousands of student protesters as they marched on May 18 against the neoliberal education reforms in France. The conservative government of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s restructure of the education system will mean 11,200 teachers will lose their jobs as well as the cutting of “optional” subjects, such as foreign languages and art.

Utah Phillips, 1935-2008

@intro =I wouldn’t want to elevate anybody to inappropriately high heights, but for me, Utah Phillips was a legend.

Britain: New Labour crashes in Crewe

The New Labour government headed by PM Gordon Brown sank deeper into crisis after it lost the Crewe and Nantwich by-election — occasioned by the death of the sitting MP Gwyneth Dunwoody — to the Conservatives on May 22.

NT health worker: Intervention 'largely failed'

The federal government’s intervention into remote Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory has largely failed to produce significant improvements in health or housing, an NT health department employee told Green Left Weekly on May 29.