Chris is a labour law researcher, specialising in China and the right to strike. He spent 27 years in the SA union movement. Chris now lives in Canberra. More →
Going it alone: a new report on the state of the workers’ movement in China
China’s workers are taking to the streets in ever increasing numbers.
Angered by management abuses, and emboldened by the passage of new labour legislation, they are staging strikes, roadblocks and protests to demand the payment of wages in arrears, better working conditions [...]
A holiday in Vietnam. A first visit for us both. 2-weeks January 2010 leave, with the Lonely Planet guide.
Vietnam lived up our to our expectations and stories we heard.
I like to start with cities. So for those who have not been to Vietnam, this introduction is as a tourist, inner-city Ho Chi Minh [...]
Why Ecological Revolution?
John Bellamy Foster
It is now universally recognized within science that humanity is confronting the prospect — if we do not soon change course — of a planetary ecological collapse.
Not only is the global ecological crisis becoming more and more severe, with the time in which to address it fast running out, but [...]
AEU To all ALP Federal Members of Parliament
Re: League Tables – My School Website
The AEU supports the Government’s objective aimed at providing more information about school effectiveness to parents. However, the policy in its current form, which also facilitates the creation and publication of league tables, will do more harm than good.
Within 24 hours of [...]
What roles can the Union and Green movements play in …. Saving the planet?
Red, Green and In-between:
Reviewing Labour and the Environment in Historical Context
Here is a chance to hear Ian Lowe, Jack Mundey & Tony Maher discussing environmental and union campaigns. And that’s just for openers at this Saturday’s Brisbane Labour History [...]
My School Comparisons Expose Hypocrisy of PM and Gillard
The Save Our Schools public education advocacy group today accused the Prime Minister and the Federal Education Minister of hypocrisy and duplicity about reporting school results.
SOS national convenor, Trevor Cobbold, said they have broken each of their three key promises about publishing school results.
“The Prime Minister [...]
XANANA – Leader of the Struggle for Independent Timor-Leste
by Sara Niner
(Australian Scholarly Publishing)
Reviewer: Andy Alcock
Australia East Timor Friendship Association SA Inc
As a person who has been involved in the solidarity movement for East Timor since the middle of 1975, I was very excited to learn that Sara Niner had written a book about Jose Alexandre [...]
From SP news. When clothing manufacturer Pacific Brands announced in February last year that it would be moving offshore and sacking 1850 workers, people were clearly angry.
But when it came out soon after that Pacific Brands chief executive Sue Morphet would have her pay increased from $685,775 to $1.8 million that anger turned into [...]
Turkey: The Working Class
(Literally) Takes the Stage
by Sungur Savran
After at least a decade and a half of stagnation, the working class movement of Turkey is making a great stride forward, thanks to the militant
action of the workers of a now privatised former state economic enterprise,Tekel, the state monopoly of tobacco and alcoholic beverages.
The resolute [...]
IUF on Turkey: 10,000 workers protest despite police violence.
TEKEL Workers Protest in Ankara
Workers, their family members and supporters have been demonstrating in near-freezing temperatures in protest against a snap government decision to close their workplaces at the end of January 2010.
The protest began in front of the headquarters of the AKP (the political party [...]
