A decision in Alison Thorne’s Equal Opportunity Case against Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE (NMIT) was handed down on August 25 last year. Alison, the local Australian Education Union (AEU) branch President and a teacher of 20 years’ standing, was dismissed from her full-time position at Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE (NMIT) on April 11,… Read more »
International
Who’s pulling YOUR strings? The money manipulating the media
Did listeners find their views about the big four Australian banks “slowly shifting” over the past year? The views of John Laws, the immensely influential “shock jock” star of commercial radio’s 2UE certainly shifted. He changed from being stridently anti-bank, mirroring the resentment of his blue collar constituency — to urging “let’s be fair” approval…. Read more »
Elián González Brotóns: 6-Year-Old Hostage of Yankee Imperialism
December 5, 1999 — news from Miami: Elián González Brotóns, a young shipwreck survivor from Cuba, blew out the candles of his birthday cake. He had just turned six. With his mother, the “little Cuban refugee” had set out for the Land of the Free. She drowned. Elián was saved by the U.S. Coast Guard… Read more »
Mobilise Now Against Backward Laws: Equal Access to Reproductive Technology
The patriarchal nuclear family may have disappeared from most households, but it’s alive and kicking in Victoria’s fertility laws. In August last year, a lesbian police officer was charged with using an in vitro fertility (IVF) treatment. According to the Victorian Infertility Treatment Act (ITA), only married or heterosexual defacto couples can legally access IVF… Read more »
No justice, No peace Letty Scott: The story of a fighter
Letty Scott is a fighter. Her husband allegedly hung himself at Berrimah Prison in the Northern Territory on 5 July 1985. For the last decade-and-a-half, Letty has used her anger to campaign for the reopening of his case to expose the truth surrounding his death.
A Tale of Two Systems: A disabled worker compares the treatment of disabled people in Cuba and the U.S.
Being born disabled, I became aware of other disabled individuals around the discrimination they encountered. I could not understand why this was happening. Nor could I comprehend why the needs of so many people with disabilities were not adequately being provided for. It was only after reading The War on the Disabled: Adding Insult to… Read more »
6 November Republic Referendum: Vote NO to Capitalist Power Grab
The Australian electorate is not being asked to establish an “independent republic.” It is meant to rubber stamp a fundamentally anti-democratic shift in political power in favour of the Prime Minister — a proposal which must be defeated.
Rights for Queer Couples: A necessary fight, but there’s still a world to win!
Laws that offer equal rights and provide benefits and protections to same-sex couples mark major changes in social attitudes. But they leave queers who reject traditional models of domestic coupledom out in the cold.
Defend Indigenous Sovereignty without conditions! Global sisters debate Makah whale hunt
One morning in early June, as I was checking email messages, I found several postings on an international feminist list with the subject title, “Radical Women and Freedom Socialist Party support Makah Tribe whaling!!” The exclamation marks alerted me to the possibility of controversy. The first whale hunt in 70 years by the Makah of… Read more »
No preference to the Australian Democrats: GST deal highlights anti-worker “third force”
The Australian Democrats’ grab for a share of political power is a sellout of the majority of those who voted against the GST in the Senate.
