GLW issue 642, published 2005-09-14.

UNITED STATES: Bush under pressure to accept Cuban aid

Kerry Smith Act Now to End Racism and War (ANSWER), one of the two main anti-war coalitions in the United States, issued a call on September 3 for US voters to demand that President George Bush accept socialist Cuba's offer, first made on August

GERMANY: Left Party vote may force neoliberal 'grand coalition'

Norman Brewer, Bremen The latest opinion poll suggests that the centre-left Social Democrat-Greens federal government of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder will fail to win enough seats in the September 18 federal parliament election to retain

Free the speech!

Chris Samuel, Sydney I am no stranger to being given unsolicited material on the streets of Sydney. Most of the time I'll take it to check out what they have to say. After all, we have the democratic right to freedom of speech. On September 8, I

Why we need unions

While the Coalition federal government is hell bent on pandering to big business's agenda, it is undermining the quality of life of every Australian. The new industrial relations legislation, and specifically individual contracts, which are already

Further

Australian News

PNG land rights activists speak

Tim Stewart, Canberra "We used to have freedom to fish and to swim in our lagoon, but now we have freedom no more", Yat Paol, a visiting activist from Papua New Guinea, told a September 9 forum organised by Aid/Watch and hosted by Greens ACT

Health workers fight for new agreement

Bill Mason, Brisbane Staff in the Queensland public health system have launched a campaign for a new enterprise agreement. The current agreement expired on August 31. The Queensland Public Sector Union is holding a series of stop-work meetings to

Further Australian News

International News

MALAYSIA: Police attack residents, demolish homes

A bloody confrontation erupted on September 7 in Kampong Saujana Shah Alam, when four truckloads of riot police clashed with local residents who had formed a human chain to prevent the demolition of their homes. Seventeen people were arrested,

INDONESIA: oil sovereignty and economic crisis.

Max Lane Over the last few weeks, the Indonesian rupiah has lost more than 10% of its value. It has "stabilised" at around 10,500 to the US dollar compared to 9500 before August. The stock market has also suffered similar declines, losing 17% of

Further International News

Editorial

Telstra bosses expose Howard's lies

Having taken control of the Senate on July 1 and then bullied and bribed recalcitrant Coalition MPs, particularly Queensland National Party senators, PM John Howard was all set to steamroll through parliament the legislation needed to sell off the

Cultural Dissent

An anti-imperialist message from Bollywood

The Rising: Ballad of Mangal PandeyDirected by Ketan MehtaStarring Aamir Khan, Toby Stephens, Rani Mukherjee, Amisha Patel and Coral BeedScreening nationally at selected cinemas REVIEW BY RAJIV RAWAT A strange North American silence seems to have

The tradition of class-struggle unionism

Uncharted Waters: Social Responsibility in Australian Trade UnionsBy Greg MalloryBoolarong Press, Brisbane, 2005243 pages, $35 (pb) REVIEW BY JIM MCILROY In his foreword to Uncharted Waters, former NSW Builders Labourers Federation (BLF)

Further Cultural Dissent

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