Community Wakeup for Port Adelaide

A Community Wakeup Concert organised by SA Unions, the MUA and theatre company Vitalstatistix brought together a host of speakers, acts and activities in support of the Your Rights at Work Campaign last Sunday. A group of young actors gave an impromptu comedy performance depicting an exchange between workers and their boss about the relative merits of AWAs. Among the speakers were local Federal MP Rod Sawford, state Minister for Families and Communities Jay Weatherill and Claire McCarthy for the Greens. Beryl Miller of the UAW spoke of the class forces behind the Howard Government’s IR assault while retired wharfie Rex Munn talked about the many struggles that centred on the Waterside Workers Federation Hall where the concert was being held. The hall may well be under threat from the redevelopment now taking place in Port Adelaide. Rex then fired the audience up with a powerful rendition of The Ballad of Joe Hill in honour of Paul Robeson who had spoken and sung in the hall many years ago. A local committee in support of Your Rights at Work is being organised.

Invasion Day Adelaide 2006

Hundreds of South Australians participated in the annual Invasion Day event last Thursday in the parkland beside the Tandanya national Aboriginal cultural institute in Adelaide. Stalls and a workshops in Ngarrendjeri basket weaving were held while Aboriginal and non-Indigenous musicians entertained the crowd. Anangu elder Gary Lewis spoke about the symbolism of the Anangu Pitjantjatjara flag, which had its first official unfurling on the day.