Critical Times

RSVP essential via Hawke Centre web site or phone 08 8302 0215

Thursday 11 February
5.30pm for a 6.00pm start

Allan Scott Auditorium, UniSA City West campus, Hawke Building, 50 North Terrace, Adelaide

Keynote address by Professor Ian Lowe, President of the Australian Conservation Foundation “The truth and lies about water politics”

A sustainable Water Future without compromising the health of interdependent ecosystems is a critical issue for our state and our nation.

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Facing the economic crisis in the U.S.
October 2009 By Katie Beran and Celine-Marie Pascale

Few people will escape the effects of the global economic crisis that has been unfolding since the fall of 2008.

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Source: Serve the People

There is a huge public outcry against the Federal Government’s announced $22 million bail-out of failed private child care chain ABC Learning.

No doubt this reflects some of the anger of people around the world at the use of tax payer money to bail out the finance capitalists in the wake of the global financial meltdown.

Some of it is also directed personally at entrepreneurial owner Eddie Groves and his estranged wife Le Neve.

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Capitalism is an inherently unstable system based on exploitation and inequality. It suffers periodic crises which bring insecurity and mass unemployment for working people. The current economic crisis once again confirms this fact.

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An undercover Victorian policeman infiltrated community groups opposed to a controversial arms fair in Adelaide, it has been revealed.

The covert policeman attended meetings and took part in planning against the Asia Pacific Defence and Security Exhibition, which was to be held on Remembrance Day next month.

The fair was cancelled as the then Acting Premier, Kevin Foley, warned “feral anarchists would be descending on Adelaide” to protest against the weapons bazaar.

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* 16 October 2008 * From New Scientist Print Edition.

TConsumption of resources is rising rapidly, biodiversity is plummeting and just about every measure shows humans affecting Earth on a vast scale. Most of us accept the need for a more sustainable way to live, by reducing carbon emissions, developing renewable technology and increasing energy efficiency.

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Corey Oakley

We were told that free market capitalism was the solution to all the world’s problems. Well, after 30 years of letting the market rip, we are now in the early stages of an economic disaster without precedent in living memory.

The world financial system is on the edge of total collapse.

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by Brian Boyd, VTHC Secretary
Today the national Abolish ABCC Committee met at Melbourne Trades Hall. Chaired by Dave Noonan, National Secretary CFMEU (Construction and General) Division, the meeting assessed the campaigns activities and general strategy to date.

In particular, reports were heard about the ABCC’s court cases against CFMEU Vic senior official Noel Washington.

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The latest chaos on Wall Street — the worst financial upheaval in the US since the 1930s Great Depression — highlights not just the scale of the world financial crisis, but the needless destruction caused by the blind competition at the core of capitalism. »

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Three construction workers, all of whom have been personally attacked by the Australian Building and
Construction Commission (ABCC), will today launch the ‘Rights on Site’ campaign in Parliament House.
edia ConfereThe campaign, including a TV advertisement, website and other materials, will educate the public about the
draconian powers of the ABCC and build public support for getting rid of the laws.
National Secretary of the Construction Division of the CFMEU, Dave Noonan, said “Charlie Isaacs, Joe Mannucci
and Ivan Franjic will be joining me and other union leaders to launch the Rights on Site campaign.

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Around 100 construction workers walked off several city sites yesterday site to protest about the lack of safety standards of a key Adelaide builder Theo Samaras and to draw attention to the effect of the ABCC and no right of entry for unions on construction sites in South Australia.

This follows two dramatic accidents that put at risk the lives of workers and the public. The first was close to the Central Market when a crane lift fell 8 stories onto the street below, crashing just outside the office of a law firm.

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Liah Lazarou

On August 28, federal environment minister Peter Garrett announced the expansion of the Beverley uranium mine, situated in South Australia’s far north-east.

Heathgate Resources, a subsidiary of US company General Atomics, will now expand the area of land mined, while the already approved production rate of 1500 tonnes of uranium oxide a year will remain the same. In effect, this allows for a greater area of land — and groundwater — to be threatened by acid leach for the same production and profit rate.

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By Renfrey Clarke

Among the crowd of some 2000 protesters in front of South Australia’s Parliament House on August 1, eco-activists in jeans and windcheaters mingled with people in Akubra hats and Driza-Bone jackets. Mentions of Labor Party Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, federal water minister Penny Wong and South Australian Premier Mike Rann drew sustained jeers.

In the brief, angry speeches, several themes recurred: the Murray River is dying; the lake system at its mouth is almost dead and it is governments, not nature, that are to blame.

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Poor struggle as rat meat prices soar

The price of rat meat has quadrupled in Cambodia this year as inflation puts other meat beyond the reach of poor people, officials say.

With consumer price inflation at 37 per cent according to the latest central bank estimate, demand has pushed a kilogram of rat meat up to around 5,000 riel ($1.48).

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Eating rats is the best way for rich and poor people to solve the global crisis of rising food prices, an Indian official said as he unveiled his plan to put rodents on menus.

Regular rat snacks would translate into fewer rodents eating precious grain stocks, 50 per cent of which are lost in the north-eastern state of Bihar every year to the animals, said Vijay Prakash, secretary of the state’s welfare department.

“This will help in mitigating the global food crisis.

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An open letter to

Prime Minister Rudd, Federal Water Minister Wong,

South Australian Premier Rann and Water Minister Maywald.

You are invited to address the people who gather, in support of the River Murray, on the steps of Parliament House, Adelaide, on Friday August 1st at 11.30am.

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How Capitalism Made the World Food Crisis

a Politics in the Pub forum, presented by Socialist Alliance

According to the UN nearly a billion people are starving or suffering from malnutrition & the recent price rises have added another 100 million people to this category.

Meanwhile, the annual cost of dealing with over-eating and obesity in the rich countries is estimated at US$120 billion a year.

If the money spend on commercial advertising were cut by just 1/4 US$250 billion a year would be freed up to feed people

Is there a way out of this madness?

You are invited to a public forum with our guest speakers

Dick Nichols, Socialist Alliance national convenor and author of Environment, Capitalism, Socialism

a representative from Reclaim the Food Chain, Friends of the Earth

Thursday July 10, 7pm.

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“Climate Emergency – No More Business as Usual!” Adelaide, October 10-11, 2008 **** Currently confirmed speakers include: David Spratt, author of Climate Code Red; Dr Mark Diesendorf, Institute of Environmental Studies, University of NSW; Professor Barry Brook, Director, Research Institute for Climate Change and Sustainability, University of Adelaide; Renfrey Clarke, Green Left Weekly environment correspondent ****

The Environmental Activists’ Conference “Climate Emergency – No More Business as Usual” will be held from Friday 10 October to Saturday 11 October 2008. The conference is designed to provide an open forum for education, ideas, solidarity and campaigning perspectives on how to avert the global warming threat. It aims to initiate wide-ranging discussion that will include exchanges between climate scientists and educators, activists and community organisations, environmental groups and concerned individuals.

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The combined impact of the state budget and the dreadful WorkCover laws marks June 5, 2008 as a dark day for SA, according to SA Unions Secretary, Janet Giles.

“Mike Rann proudly describes himself as being a “pro business Premier”, but he fort to add “anti worker” to the equation”, Ms Giles says.

“This budget reinforces the business windfall announced last year, and comes at a time when vulnerable injured workers are being stripped of entitlements.

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Five years after they were sent to Iraq to support the US imperialist invasion, Australian combat troops are being withdrawn.

This has been made possible by the widespread and continuing opposition to the Iraq invasion by the people of Australia. In the prelude to the illegal actions of the US imperialists and their Australian puppet, now former Prime Minister, John Howard the largest ever anti-war demonstrations took place, eclipsing even those of the Vietnam war period.

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