GLW issue 742, published 2008-03-05.

Opposing imperialism

I’m sure that most Green Left Weekly readers are tired of reading Michael Barker’s paranoid ramblings against the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC) and his efforts to convince readers that I and other anti-imperialists and human rights activists who work with ICNC and similar NGOs are somehow acting as agents of the CIA and the Bush administration.

US anti-war unionist speaks out

Kathy Black, a convener of US Labor Against the War (USLAW), told a union reception in Sydney on February 29 that she is proud that the organisation has brought workers into the anti-war movement, remarking that “this was the first time that labour has been organised against a foreign invasion and occupation”.

Demonstration against NT intervention laws

On February 29, 40 people attended a protest organised by the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre over the continuation of laws related to the Northern Territory intervention. The demonstration was intended to send a message to federal Indigenous affairs minister Jenny Macklin, who was at Hobart’s Clarence TAFE campus. “End the intervention, human rights for all”, participants chanted.

Medical scientists take strike action

MELBOURNE — Medical scientists and psychologists working in Victorian’ s public hospitals who are members of the Health Services Union branch 4 voted on February 27 to take 48 hours of strike action as part of their enterprise bargaining agreement campaign. They will strike across all regional health divisions on March 5-6.

Further

Australian News

WA death in custody campaign continues

A Western Australian campaign group formed over the January 27 death in custody of an Indigenous elder has vowed to continue to fight for justice after being disappointed at the state government’s response.

NSW: state of scandal

Less than 12 months after its re-election, the NSW Labor government is in a poll slump — Premier Morris Iemma has a public approval rating of just 34%, according to a Nielsen poll released on February 26 (the Coalition’s Barry O’Farrell managed just 27%). The government has been rocked by scandals involving dodgy deals with developers, new hospitals unfit for patients, and faulty equipment delaying the opening of new rail lines.

Further Australian News

International News

South Africa: The Neoliberal loo

Should poor people be given pit latrines and other devices to limit their consumption of water? A resounding yes was heard at the Africa Sanitation conference held during February at the Luthuli International Conference Centre in Durban.

Indonesian students push for mining nationalisation

The National Student League for Democracy (LMND) held an action at the office of Exxon-Mobil in Jakarta on February 25 to demand the nationalisation of the Indonesian mining sector.

Further International News

Comment and Analysis

Indigenous activist: self-determination key to solving Kimberley problems

Aboriginal activist Natasha Moore has responded to the release of the Western Australian Coroner’s report into Indigenous deaths in the Kimberley by arguing only self-determination can make a fundamental difference to people’s lives.

Canadian farmer: 'GM crops a new form of feudalism'

During a 10-day tour of NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia in early February, Terry Boehm, vice-president of Canada’s National Farmers Union, and Arnold Taylor, president of the Canadian Organic Growers association, warned Australian farmers against adopting genetically modified (GM) crops.

Further Comment and Analysis

Letters

Letters to the Editor

Palestine Clearly both Nigel Rogers and Kryten Walia in their respective letters (GLW #740) have some political differences with the Australian Jewish Democratic Society (AJDS). At a guess, they disagree with our support for a genuine two-state

Letters to the Editor

General

Correction

In the article “Anti-pulp mill campaigner: ’We can’t afford to lose’” in GLW #741, a quote was wrongly attributed. The article quoted a press release saying that “peaceful community protest at the construction site is a last resort and we hope it will never be needed. However, we respect the growing feeling in the community that people wish to express their distress at the failure of successive government processes to properly and transparently consider a wide range of concerns about the mill by peacefully protesting”. This press release was issued by Vica Bailey from the Wilderness society, not Bob McMahon from Tasmanians Against the Pulp Mill.

Green Left Weekly's $250,000 Fighting Fund: The 'Sergeant Schultz defence'

“I hear nothing, I see nothing, I know nothing!”, said Sergeant Hans Schultz in the 1970s US sitcom Hogan’s Heroes.

Resistance!

Demanding a sustainable future

A lot has changed in the last few months: there’s a new government, Australia has ratified the Kyoto Protocol and climate change as an issue has arrived in the mainstream in a big way. Unfortunately, one thing that is still changing is our climate.

Cultural Dissent

The Communist Manifesto: 160 years old and still causing trouble

The Manifesto of the Communist Party
Karl Marx & Frederick Engels (with a commentary by Leon Trotsky)
Resistance Marxist Library, 1998
74 pages, $8.50
Available at <http://www.resistancebooks.com>

The art of struggle

A History Lesson: Art from the Howard Era
Ray Hughes Gallery, Surry Hills, Sydney
Images at
Contact
Until March 15

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