Sam Wainwright

  • Left parties stand in NSW election

    Left parties stand in NSW electionSYDNEY — As Labor and the Coalition engage in a cynical law-and-order auction for the March 27 NSW poll, the biggest talking point has been the record 80 parties (264 candidates) contesting

  • NSW teachers strike for increased funding

    SYDNEY — More than 4000 teachers braved pouring rain to rally outside Sydney's Town Hall on February 9. The action was part of a statewide one-day strike called by the NSW Teachers Federation to pressure the Labor and Coalition

  • Kanaky: independence postponed

    Kanaky: independence postponedOn December 8, residents of the French Overseas Territory of New Caledonia voted 71.86% in favour of a referendum proposal to shift more decision-making powers from Paris to the territory. The

  • Labor succumbs to mining industry pressure

    Labor succumbs to mining industry pressureBRISBANE — Reporting on the ALP national conference held in Hobart last week, the January 22 Courier-Mail noted that Labor had "signalled it was ready to soften part of its

  • Brisbane activists reject attacks on free speech

    BRISBANE — On July 28, the Anti-Racist Campaign (ARC) adopted a set of aims and objectives which included: "In its campaign against racism ARC will attempt to build actions that challenge the basis for racist ideas and

  • Students fight cuts to TAFE

    Students fight cuts to TAFEBRISBANE — Queensland TAFE students and workers have won a small victory in their struggle to stop huge cuts to the system by the Borbidge government. In response to community outrage, the

  • Fighting racism: lessons from France

    Fighting racism: lessons from FranceLast August 23, police smashed down the doors of the Saint Bernard Church in Paris. Using handcuffs and chloroform, they dragged out the illegal immigrants sheltering inside and

  • Censored rap

    Censored rap@box text intro = The ability of the ideas of the extreme right to penetrate France's state institutions was dramatically demonstrated in Toulon last year. Kool Shen and Joey Starr, singers with the rap group

  • Le Pen: Pauline Hanson's big brother?

    PARIS — With the National Front (FN) registering up to 20% in polls and in control of four local councils, its leader Jean-Marie Le Pen recently boasted, "We have become a movement to be reckoned with, not just in France, but

  • London march for social justice

    London march for social justiceLONDON Around 10,000 people marched here on April 12 to call for social justice and to expose the anti-working class pro-big business policies of John Major's Conservatives, the Liberal

  • Strasbourg says no to the fascists

    PARIS — The shock of seeing Jean-Marie Le Pen's fascist National Front (FN) win the mayoral elections in the town of Vitrolles, the fourth town to fall under its control, has sparked widespread concern and debate about the

  • The National Front in action

    PARIS — It is certainly not exaggeration or scaremongering to call the National Front (FN) fascist. Of course, given France's experience of Nazi occupation, the FN hotly rejects the label. But its leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen,