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GLW taking a one-week break

The current issue of Green Left Weekly is a two-week issue, so that GLW staff may participate in the "Turn anger into action" national Resistance conference in Sydney from June 27-29. (Visit http://resistance.org.au for full details.) The next issue

Solomon Islands: Cuban doctors a 'blessing'

Here is a good news story.

Paul Toohey: Mixed messaged and malign motivations

‘Last Drinks: the impact of the Northern Territory intervention’, by Paul Toohey
Quarterly Essay, Issue 30, June 2008
Black Inc., $15.95

Every 10 minutes to everywhere

“Speeding towards dangerous climate change” was the name of the public forum at which the Public Transport Users Association (PTUA) launched its “Every Ten Minutes to Everywhere” campaign on June 15.

Venezuela: What a pro-worker government looks like

This year’s May Day solidarity brigade to Venezuela, the seventh brigade from Australia to be organised by the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network (AVSN), had 12 participants representing various unions. One of those was Chris Spindler, an organiser for the Victorian Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU). Spindler was sent on the brigade as an official AMWU representative, to report back on how the Bolivarian revolution being led by President Hugo Chavez’s government was improving the lives of workers and the poor. On June 11, the Victorian AMWU voted to affiliate to the AVSN and to send a message of solidarity and congratulations to the workers of the giant steel plant Sidor — which was nationalised in April following a long struggle by its workforce. Green Left Weekly’s Trent Hawkins spoke to Spindler about the his impressions of the revolution.

Higher education union launches national campaign

At the end of May, the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) logged all but three universities with a bold set of claims.

Clipsal to sack 200 workers, close Barossa factory

On June 12, the South Australian-based manufacturing company Clipsal announced it would sack 200 permanent workers and close its Nurioopta plant based in the Barossa Valley. The company indicated that there would likely be unspecified “flow on” job cuts in its labour hire workforce.

Philippines: Dealing with the oil crisis

Our dependency on oil has never been more excruciating than it is today.

CFMEU official charged for non-compliance

Noel Washington, vice-president of the Victorian branch of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), is to appear before the Geelong Magistrates Court on August 8 for refusing to attend a compulsory Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) hearing.

Chavez threatens to cut Europe's oil over racist law

In response to the extreme, racist anti-immigrant “Return Directive” law, passed by the European parliament on June 18, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatened to stop oil sales to any country that applied the directive.

AMA withdraws from NT intervention

In a blow to the Northern Territory intervention policy, the Australian Medical Association (AMA) announced on June 15 that it will pull out of recruiting medical staff for the program, which it argued the government was dramatically underfunding.

Protests demand: End the NT intervention!

On June 21, protest actions were held around Australia on the first anniversary of the federal government’s “intervention” into Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, demanding an immediate end to the racist invasion of Aboriginal land that it entails.