A new film about the Timor Leste-Cuba solidarity
Monday, 28 July 7.30pm
Tris Elies night club
(next to the Katoomba Station)
Cuba now provides 1000 scholarships to young East Timorese to study to become doctors, as well as 300 Cuban doctors to provide primary health care in Timor’s most needy areas.
The Doctors of Tomorrow, which was filmed in Timor Leste and Cuba, features interviews with some of the 850 East Timorese students currently studying medicine with the Cubans, in the biggest medical college on Earth.
Tim Anderson, the film's producer, will introduce the screening.
$6/$10 solidarity
For more info, phone 4787 7859 or 0428 826 347
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Friday, July 11, 2008
Power workers say ‘Don’t sell the farm’
Power workers walked off the job at the Munmorah and Vales Point power stations on the NSW central coast last week to protest against Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald, who was using the Munmorah site for a press conference.Two-hundred-and-fifty workers lined the entrance of the power station, where the Minister launched an Australian-first pilot carbon capture project.
AMWU organiser Daniel Wallace said the workers took the action because McDonald has played a prominent role in pushing for privatisation in the Iemma Government.
"Workers are angry and they decided to line the street of the only entrance to the power station.
They wanted to make sure they gave Ian MacDonald the warm welcome that he deserves," he said.
"What they've said is they're not going to stay inside and work whilst the Minister's here selling their jobs and selling their industry."
Mr Wallace said the delegates were also disappointed to see local MPs drive straight past them through the entrance.
“I believe some of the delegates will be paying our local representatives a visit throughout this week to remind them of the important issues at stake.”
more
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Archaeologists to refuse help bombers
10 July 2008
NewScientist.com news service
Persepolis, once the capital of the Persian empire, and the massive mud-brick Bam citadel are among the nine listed World Heritage Sites in Iran. Yet leading archaeologists are urging colleagues to refuse any military requests to draw up a list of Iranian sites that should be exempted from air strikes.
"Such advice would provide cultural credibility and respectability to the military action," said a resolution agreed by the World Archaeological Congress in Dublin, Ireland, last week. Instead, delegates were advised to emphasise the harm that any military action would do to Iran's people and heritage.
During the invasion of Iraq in 2003, bombing damaged important monuments, including the Al-Zohur Palace in Baghdad, and museums and archaeological sites were later looted - even though archaeologists had been consulted in advance. "If these archaeologists had little impact in terms of saving even the few selected archaeological sites listed, what did they achieve?" asks Yannis Hamilakis of the University of Southampton, UK.
NewScientist.com news service
Persepolis, once the capital of the Persian empire, and the massive mud-brick Bam citadel are among the nine listed World Heritage Sites in Iran. Yet leading archaeologists are urging colleagues to refuse any military requests to draw up a list of Iranian sites that should be exempted from air strikes.
"Such advice would provide cultural credibility and respectability to the military action," said a resolution agreed by the World Archaeological Congress in Dublin, Ireland, last week. Instead, delegates were advised to emphasise the harm that any military action would do to Iran's people and heritage.
During the invasion of Iraq in 2003, bombing damaged important monuments, including the Al-Zohur Palace in Baghdad, and museums and archaeological sites were later looted - even though archaeologists had been consulted in advance. "If these archaeologists had little impact in terms of saving even the few selected archaeological sites listed, what did they achieve?" asks Yannis Hamilakis of the University of Southampton, UK.
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Noel Washington and the ABCC
For as long as he can remember, he has always hated bullies. And because of that he has always spoken out or stood up against those with power who intimidate or harass people. He has done it, even at the risk of losing his job. In 1990, as an organiser with the former Federated Ironworkers Union, he couldn’t stomach a leadership that sold workers short by doing deals that that were of no benefit to them. He ran on a ticket with others against the leadership in an election and lost his job.This time he risks losing his freedom, but the way Noel Washington sees it, he has no choice.
Noel faces jail as he has been charged by the Department of Public Prosecutions and is set to appear in the
As a union official for twenty seven years, Noel is no stranger to being in the witness box and being cross examined by the best of them. He’s not afraid of being questioned by the ABCC and that’s not why he hasn’t turned up, despite three letters requesting him to do so.
“The ABCC are the biggest bullies I’ve ever dealt with,” Noel says. “The laws they have at their disposal have no place in a so called democratic society like
more
457 visor workers: employer prosecuted
AMWU
Jun 26, 2008
The employer of two Chinese 457 visa workers who were forced to work with broken hands on unsafe equipment is being prosecuted by WorkCover.
The two workers had sustained injuries while working and were forced back to work while their hands were in plaster, despite directions from their doctor not to do so.
The cases of Zi Hong Fu and Cheng Cai received public attention after they sought help from the AMWU in 2006.
National Secretary Dave Oliver says the union came to the assistance of the workers and notified WorkCover.
“It was really shocking when we heard what the two workers were made to endure,” he said.
The company, Lakeside Packaging, had given the workers jobs that still required them to use both hands, including working on their boss's home erecting steel beams while their hands were in plaster.
Just weeks after breaking a wrist falling off a ladder while performing unqualified electrical work, Mr Fu had to erect scaffolding on the un-railed factory roof, despite never having done it before.
Broadmeadows Magistrates' Court heard that while drilling into 8mm thick metal plates with his unbroken left hand using a two-handed drill - supported between his chin and right hand - he broke his left wrist.
Ten days later, he was told to come back to work at Lakeside Packaging to disassemble a machine while his left arm was still encased in plaster.
He was given a letter at the end of the day warning him of his job performance. Mr Fu, 50, was in so much pain he returned to hospital, where doctors gave him another three weeks of sick leave.
When he returned with his left arm in plaster and right arm in a splint, his boss Menol (Tom) Najdovski ordered him to do maintenance work on his property, including operating a drill and cutting steel.
more
Jun 26, 2008
The employer of two Chinese 457 visa workers who were forced to work with broken hands on unsafe equipment is being prosecuted by WorkCover.
The two workers had sustained injuries while working and were forced back to work while their hands were in plaster, despite directions from their doctor not to do so.
The cases of Zi Hong Fu and Cheng Cai received public attention after they sought help from the AMWU in 2006.
National Secretary Dave Oliver says the union came to the assistance of the workers and notified WorkCover.
“It was really shocking when we heard what the two workers were made to endure,” he said.
The company, Lakeside Packaging, had given the workers jobs that still required them to use both hands, including working on their boss's home erecting steel beams while their hands were in plaster.
Just weeks after breaking a wrist falling off a ladder while performing unqualified electrical work, Mr Fu had to erect scaffolding on the un-railed factory roof, despite never having done it before.
Broadmeadows Magistrates' Court heard that while drilling into 8mm thick metal plates with his unbroken left hand using a two-handed drill - supported between his chin and right hand - he broke his left wrist.
Ten days later, he was told to come back to work at Lakeside Packaging to disassemble a machine while his left arm was still encased in plaster.
He was given a letter at the end of the day warning him of his job performance. Mr Fu, 50, was in so much pain he returned to hospital, where doctors gave him another three weeks of sick leave.
When he returned with his left arm in plaster and right arm in a splint, his boss Menol (Tom) Najdovski ordered him to do maintenance work on his property, including operating a drill and cutting steel.
more
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