After the Supreme Court on May 16 banned the Basque party Abertzale Sozialisten Batasuna (ASB) from contesting the May 27 local and regional elections, more than 82,000 Basques signed petitions for the creation of new electoral lists. However hundreds of pro-independence and left candidates in the Basque Country have also been banned on the basis of suspected links to Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA Basque Homeland and Freedom). Some 133 candidate lists of the legal party Accion Nacionalista Vasca (ANV Basque Nationalist Action), which formed in 1931, have also been banned. A statement on May 23 signed by 17 members of the European Parliament described the bans as a serious attack against the most basic civil and political rights in Europe and called for a political, peaceful resolution of the conflict in the Basque Country.
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LISMORE Officials and local activists from the National Tertiary Education Union and Community and Public Sector Union urged the 60 participants in a May 23 speak-out at Southern Cross University to step up the campaign against the federal government's Work Choices legislation and other anti-union legislation aimed at higher education workers. Pictured second and third from front right are NTEU national president Carolyn Allport and CPSU secretary David Carey.
On May 21, Cuban President Fidel Castro condemned the British Navys purchase of a new nuclear attack submarine, saying it illustrates the sophisticated weaponry being used to maintain the unsustainable order developed by the imperial system of the United States. According to British military officials, the HMS Astute which will be launched on June 8 and two further submarines to be purchased, will each cost US$7.2 billion. The most surprising thing is that with that sum, 75,000 doctors could be trained to attend to 150 million people, Castro noted.
On May 13, the Left party won 8.4 % of the votes in Germany’s smallest state, the adjoining north-western cities of Bremen and Bremerhaven. This was sufficient for the party to enter a west German state parliament for the first time, with seven MPs.
May 27 will be end of the 20-year concession granted by the Venezuelan government to the RCTV corporation owned by multi-millionaire Marcel Granier to use the state-owned Channel 2 broadcasting signal. The Venezuelan government has announced that the channel will become a public station, similar to a number of stations in Europe, based on programs made by independent producers
While public support in the US for Washingtons counterinsurgency war in Iraq has collapsed, the Pentagon has drawn up plans to almost double the number of US combat troops deployed in the oil-rich country by the end of this year.
Tom Lewis, 83, is a long-time Green Left Weekly subscriber in a small town between Bundaberg and Gin Gin, Queensland. His eyesight is rapidly failing and he can no longer read. But last week he renewed his subscription to the paper and made a $100 donation to our fighting fund.
John Howard was awarded the Jerusalem Prize for his friendship and commitment to Israel at a gala dinner at Melbournes Crown Casino on May 20. The award, by the Zionist Federation of Australia, the State Zionist Council of Victoria and the World Zionist Organisation, includes the John Howard Negev Forest, which will be planted by the Jewish National Fund (JNF) over an ethnically-cleansed Bedouin village.
On May 20, a group of women activists in Indonesias northern-most province of Aceh declared the formation of a new local political party the Acehnese Peoples Alliance Party for Womens Concern (PARAPP).
“Australian Tamils demand protection not persecution” was the theme of a gathering of more than 500 members of the Tamil community outside the Victorian parliament on May 22.
“A social movement is essential for changing government and opposition policies to halt the climate crisis”, Dr Mark Diesendorf told a May 22 public meeting at the University of NSW to launch his book Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy. Diesendorf told the audience of around 200 people that individual and household solutions are not sufficient.
Documentary maker Michael Moore has made headlines again with his latest film, SiCKO!, which premiered at the Cannes Film festival on May 23. The documentary is a loaded gun aimed at the US health-care system, which is the most expensive in the world and yet provides the worst cover in the First World, according to the latest World Health Organisation scorecard.
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