Here it is 2011 and again the Patricks union-busters are taking on the wharfies of the MUA here at Anderson Road West Melbourne site will be a community assembly - we remember the 1998 struggle - let's wise up and understand the past to change the present/future seehttp://www.takver.com/wharfie/index.htm

Mining magnate Clive Palmer, one of Australia's richest men, devised a $10 million Christmas bonus for his workforce - in recognition of the Yabulu nickel refinery's stunning turnaround....

(Well he can spare $10 mill when is worth billions and makes him seem charitable, nice boss instead of the notorious prick he is usually known as...

Clive Palmer is a billionaire ie one thousand millionaire $1,000,000,000 plus. So he gives away less than 1% of his wealth that is $10,000,000 and this is Scrooge style nice xmas news spin? If he gave his mine over to the workers who created his wealth, or a $billion to the local indigenous landowners whose land he plunders then that would be news... )

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1418276/Boss-gives-workers-a-Mercedes-for-Christmas

SBS = Some Billionaires Spin/story

meanwhile http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/spies-infiltrated-victorian-desalination-plant/story-e6frf7kx-1225955317621

Piergiorgio Moro October 18, 2010 - 6:56AM

Marsinah was a 23-year-old Indonesian woman who had dreams for a better life. On the evening of May 8, 1993, on her way home from work, she was set upon by unknown assailants and drowned in a canal. No one was ever tried for her murder, but it is accepted wisdom that Marsinah was killed due to her efforts in trying to increase the poor wages at her factory.

Support Hazrat Ali, Coordinator of the Mutual Welfare Society in Bangladesh Hazrat Ali had an industrial accident. He needs your support.

The situation: Hazrat Ali was badly burned in an industrial accident at his workplace in December 2009. A gas leak caused an explosion. Two people died. Hazrat Ali was very badly injured but survived. Hazrat Ali received emergency and hospital care in Dhaka. There is no welfare payment or medical benefits scheme or workplace accident insurance in Bangladesh, so all costs until now have been covered by relatives and friends and members of the Mutual Welfare Society, and through obtaining personal loans. Hazrat Ali needs ongoing treatment.

Hospital costs in Dhaka are15,000 Bangladesh Takas per day. (This is about US $215 per day) This daily necessary expense is approximately a monthly salary for a worker in Bangladesh. Because of the very high cost of paying hospital care, all the financial resources of Hazrat Ali’s family, friends and colleagues are exhausted. Because of the financial constraints, Hazrat Ali had to leave hospital and is now in his family home.

Cambodian Garment Workers On Strike for a Living Wage

Around 68,000 garment-factory workers in Cambodia have started a week-long strike to demand a wage of US$ 93. They say that a recently-established minimum wage of US$ 61 fails to cover basic living expenses and does not meet living wage standards.

The Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union (CCAWDU) and National Independent Federation Textile Union of Cambodia (NIFTUC), with with around 75,000 members are calling upon the Cambodian employers association to enter into negotiations.

In the run-up to the strike, there have been numerous incidents of violence, threats and intimidation against union members. Government officials as well as employers have threatened union leaders with criminal charges and imprisonment. Says Mr. Ath Thorn, President of the Cambodia Labour Confederation (CLC): “The right to strike and collective bargaining is well established in Cambodian law as well as in international human-rights law. We call upon the government, employers and international brands to respect these rights and pay Cambodian workers a living wage”.

News from India's Special Exploitation Zone - www.gurgaonworkersnews.wordpress.com

In the September 2010 issue you can find:

1) Proletarian Experiences - Daily life stories and reports from a workers' perspective

*** The isolated social work in the household - Report by a working-class woman about her work in and around the house in the industrial area: caring for husband and children, earning money by doing outsourced embroidery work. The story has been published several years ago in the Hindi workers' newspaper Faridabad Majdoor Samachar. We document it in the wider context of workers' reports, looking at the hidden side of the factory world.

Call for solidarity Agrarian reform now!

Peasants in Indonesia need land: Land to the tiller!

Serikat Petani Indonesia (SPI) Building up to National Farmers’ Day, September 24, 2010

More than 65 years of independence, the situation of agriculture in Indonesia is still far from justice. We witness and feel the imbalances in land ownerships. Consequently, the situation leads to the fact that the peasants continue to own a very small land, or even landless.

Projection from Serikat Petani Indonesia (SPI), a peasant’s movement struggling for agrarian reform, said that there are currently 28.3 million households involve in farming business—and 15.6 million of them are very small-holder farmers, owning only 0.4 hectare of land.