GLW issue 700, published 2007-02-28.

Iraq: Troops out now!

The invasion and occupation of Iraq has never been popular. With more than 650,000 Iraqis, mostly civilians, having been killed since the March 2003 US-British-Australian invasion, it is not surprising that three quarters of Iraqis want the US and other foreign troops out, with 61% supporting armed attacks on US troops. The war is also opposed by a majority in the West, including those countries that are involved in the US-led occupation.

Green Left Weekly is celebrating its 700th issue!

Green Left Weekly is celebrating its 700th issue! Thanks to everyone who sent messages of solidarity from across Australia and around the globe. Green Left Weekly couldn't have made it to 700 without our readers, subscribers, writers, sellers and all

Loose Cannons

The people in Baghdad don't count "I concluded that to step back from the fight in Baghdad would have disastrous consequences for people in America." — Emperor George Bush II, February 14, defending his decision to send an extra 21,500 US combat

Stand up for your rights!

Hot on the heels of the Sydney protests against US Vice-President Dick Cheney, more than 100 people attended the Sydney Socialist Alliance’s ‘Stand Up for Your Rights’ concert and election launch on February 24 at the Newtown Neighbourhood Centre. Many performers gave their time to the event including Uncle Arthur Ridgeway from Newcastle and Munkimuk from Sydney.

Australian News

Police attempt to silence Cheney protesters

In scenes reminiscent of the police brutality against students who walked out of school against the Iraq war in 2003, hundreds of NSW police and officers from the NSW Public Order and Riot Squad (PORS) tried to stop peaceful rallies on February 22 and 23 when US vice-president and war criminal Dick Cheney arrived in Australia.

Anti-war victory at UNSW

An anti-war speak-out held on February 21, during orientation week at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), halted military recruitment on that campus for the day. The action was organised with the support of socialist youth group Resistance, Christian Students Uniting, the Bike Club, the UNSW Greens and the UNSW Environment Collective.

Further Australian News

International News

Philippines: Death squads escalate their dirty work

Many Australians would assume that death squads, disappearances, harassment by the military, violent dispersal of demonstrations and political prisoners were features of the Philippines that vanished when Ferdinand Marcos’s dictatorship was overthrown in 1986.

US Iraq commander wants thousands more troops

On February 17 — one day after the US House of Representatives approved a non-binding, bipartisan resolution opposing President George Bush’s plan to increase the size of the US occupation force in Iraq by 21,500 combat troops — the commander of US forces in Baghdad announced he had filed a request for even more soldiers.

Further International News

Comment and Analysis

West Papua - calling it a betrayal would be too generous

February 23 marked the deadline for submissions to the federal parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Treaties (JSCT) on the new Australia-Indonesia “security” pact. If there is any uncertainty about the hypocrisy that underlies Australia’s neo-colonial foreign policy, then this treaty — a “mending the fences” exercise after the federal government granted asylum to 43 pro-independence West Papuan refugees in 2006, and, before that, Canberra’s reluctant 1999 intervention in East Timor — should end it.

Blair troop pull-out puts Howard on defensive

Twenty-four hours before British PM Tony Blair’s February 21 announcement that his government would withdraw 1600 troops from Iraq in “coming months”, Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer warned that any, even staged, withdrawal of US and allied foreign troops from Iraq would be a “victory for the al Qaeda terrorists”.

Further Comment and Analysis

Letters

Letters to the Editor

Police minister The Beattie government must sack police minister Judy Spence immediately. She has presided over the most appalling downward spiral in the standards of police service delivery and police accountability and, in the finest Westminster

General

GLW $250,000 Fighting Fund: 700 issues later

Seven hundred issues ago the first copy of Green Left Weekly hit the streets in the midst of the first US-led invasion of Iraq. “Just say no” to the war, was the cry on our multi-coloured cover, and the issue was snapped up eagerly at the anti-war protests.

Green Left Weekly is celebrating its 700th issue!

Cultural Dissent

On the box

Australia by Numbers: Sydney 2000 —Traces the birth and life of the Foundation for Aboriginal Affairs. Features interviews with Chicka Dixon, Gary Foley, Joyce Clague, Esther Carroll and Ray Carroll, combined with previously unseen archival

The power of progressive purchase

Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping
by Judith Levine
Free Press, 2006
274 pages, $39.95 (hb)

Further Cultural Dissent

FEATURED CONTENT

Billionaire Rinehart's bid for media control

Above: GetUp! released video showing professional climate change denier "Lord" Christopher Monkton advising a room full of mining executives on how the industry must gain control of Australia's media. This week mining billionaire Gina Rinehart became the largest shareholder in the Fairfax media conglomerate, having already bought a stake in Channel Ten.