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Speakers at anti-racism forum miss connections

By Nick Soudakoff CANBERRA — More than 200 people attended the Strategies Against Racism forum at the Workers Club in Canberra on August 23. The forum, coordinated by the Council for Civil Liberties of the ACT, the Ethnic Communities Council

Chinese dissidents denied rights

Chinese dissidents denied rights By Eva Cheng Jailed dissident Wang Dan is suffering from severe pain, which doctors suspect is caused by a brain tumour, but officials have turned down Wang's repeated requests for a test. Wang is in weak

Israel bombs Lebanon

By Adam Hanieh RAMALLAH — Fighting has escalated in the last week in areas of southern Lebanon occupied by the Israeli army. Since August 20, Israel has launched four air strikes against forces fighting the occupation. This brings the number

and ain't i a woman?: ACTU: rhetoric versus reality

ACTU: rhetoric versus reality This week the ACTU is holding its biennial congress in Brisbane. If previous congresses, and the agenda of this one, are anything to go by, delegates (very few of them from the grassroots of the union

US trade unions in Russia

By Renfrey Clarke MOSCOW — Since the days of perestroika, the US government, working through quasi-independent aid bodies and the main US labour federation, the AFL-CIO, has spent millions of dollars trying to fashion a new Russian labour

Not much change in the world

Not much change in the world The Way of the WorldBy William CongrevePerformed by the Victorian College of the Arts School of DramaDirected by Robert DraffinGrant Street Theatre, VCA, MelbourneUntil September 6 Review by Bronwen Beechey For

Life of Riley: Is there a God?

Is there a God? Some thinkers — all locals, all of them conservative, some unruly — have confessed to discerning a striking resemblance between John Howard and the pope. True, resemblances, there are. Both have other names. The

Democracy in the student movement

Comment by Peter Robson Student unionism is vital to the protection of students' rights and education standards. For a union to be truly effective, it must be active and capable of voicing student opinions, and it has to be democratic. It's

On the box

Actively Radical TV — Sydney community television's progressive current affairs producers tackle the hard issues from the activist's point of view. CTS Sydney (UHF 31), every Thursday, 10pm and Saturday, 7pm. Access News — Melbourne

I'm not a parasite, I'm an investor

Wall Street — How It Works and for WhomBy Doug HenwoodVerso, 1997, 372 pp. Review by Eva Cheng The US-based progressive periodical Left Business Observer has for years been a valuable source of information and sharp analysis of the US economy

Workers rally against changes to compo

Workers rally against changes to compo By Tim Gooden CANBERRA — Public sector workers responded to a call on August 26 from the ACT Trades and Labour Council to rally against proposed changes to workers' compensation. The lunch-time rally

Chinese workers and farmers fight exploitation

By Eva Cheng On August 22 in the village of Beixiang, Guangdong province, more than 1000 angry farmers assaulted the local party secretary, destroyed several police vehicles and rampaged through the local government offices after officials