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The Queensland Plumbers Union says the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) is a gross waste of taxpayers’ [money] and called for it to be scrapped after a case against the union was thrown out of court.
On October 10, McDonald’s workers who are members of the Unite union, as well as community fair trade groups held a protest outside Queen Street McDonald’s in Auckland.
The case of the Cuban Five, five Cubans who have spent the past 10 years in US jails for the undercover gathering of intelligence on terrorism against their country, provides further evidence of the hypocrisy of US rhetoric about fighting terrorism and supporting human rights.
HOBART — Overnight on October 12, 20 activists staged a protest against logging operations in the Florentine Valley. The protest was organised by environment group Still Wild Still Threatened.
Venezuela’s tax and customs enforcement office, SENIAT, forced a 48-hour closure of all 115 McDonald’s restaurants in the country on October 9 as a punishment for tax irregularities, according to an October 10 Venezuelanalysis.com article.
On October 12, the National Day of Indigenous Resistance, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez delivered land titles to traditional land to four indigenous communities, according to an October 14 Venezuelanalysis.com article.
Mayors of three south-west Sydney councils — Liverpool, Camden and Campbelltown — have demanded that the NSW Labor government fulfil its promise to extend the Southern rail line from Glenfield to Leppington.
Several hundred students and other activists brought the City of London to a standstill in a flash protest on October 10, according to a report posted to Socialistworker.org.uk the followed day.
On September 30, more than 400 people gathered on the courthouse lawns in Mparntwe-Alice Springs to demand an end to the Northern Territory intervention.
Police in Wollongong have been issued with Taser stun guns. According to the October 14 Illawarra Mercury, “the stun guns, worth $4000 each, could deliver a 1200 volt electric shock to a person up to 8m away”.
Independent presidential candidate and anti-corporate activist Ralph Nader led a protest of hundreds in front of the New York Stock Exchange against the US government’s US$700 billion Wall Street bail-out package on October 16, according to an AFP report that day.
Former federal court chief justice Murray Wilcox has been commissioned by deputy PM Julia Gillard to prepare a review of the powers of the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) and its integration as a specialist division into Labor’s proposed industrial relations umbrella, Fair Work Australia (FWA), in 2010.