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On September 17, the Uber Bar in Brisbane announced a new policy of refusing entry to high-profile sports players. According to the owner, Jim Davies, the ban was imposed following numerous “incidents” widely reported in the media.
University of Queensland (UQ) women’s collective members discovered racist, sexist and homophobic messages covering the Women’s Room on the morning of September 17.
Former foreign minister in Nicaragua’s revolutionary Sandinista government of 1979-1990, Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, gave the United Nations Security Council a blast in his opening address to the new annual session of the UN General Assembly on September 16.

“I’m a strong believer in free enterprise, so my natural instinct is to oppose government intervention”, affirmed US President George W. Bush, in his September 24 television speech to promote the biggest corporate bailout plan since the Great Depression. “I believe companies that make bad decisions should be allowed to go out of business.”

To lobby or not to lobby? Fortunately for the Australian union movement our forebears in the union leaderships didn’t spend much time trying to answer this question. Campaigns were more direct and more successful than today’s so-called strategies of “boxing smart” and “keeping your powder dry”.
On September 20, hundreds of people converged on Clifton Park in Brunswick to admire the work of talented graffiti artists.
Haiti has been devastated in recent weeks by Hurricanes Fay, Gustav and Ike, and tropical storm Hanna. Fay was the first to hit, on August 15, and Ike was the last, on September 7.
Green Left Weekly is taking a break. The next issue will be dated October 15.
The Socialist Alliance condemns as unjust the conviction on September 15 of seven of 12 Melbourne Muslim men of belonging to a terrorist organisation.
Following a strike by Dandenong mail officers in June and an overnight picket by Union Solidarity in September, Australia Post has agreed to reinstate Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union delegate Hemma Lorenz to her original position. The campaign was triggered by Australia Post’s decision to transfer Lorenz to a city facility.
On September 18, Human Rights Watch released a report titled “Venezuela: Rights Suffer Under Chavez”. The report contains biases and inaccuracies, and wrongly purports that human rights guarantees are lacking or not properly enforced in Venezuela.
Anti-union culture in Centrelink Union activists working at Centrelink have traditionally distributed printed material on workmates’ desks as a primary means of communication about workplace issues. This practice has now been prohibited by Centrelink management. This is not a consistent policy across government agencies.