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BHP coal dispute gets bitter

BY BILL MASON BRISBANE — Tensions are rising in the central Queensland coalfields as mine workers hold firm in their strike against BHP over a new enterprise agreement. Around 1500 workers at six coalmines are involved in the dispute, which

Arab film festival to challenge stereotypes

BY LENA NAHLOUS SYDNEY — The first Sydney Arab Film Festival will showcase international and local contemporary films, as well as experimental and documentary films. The festival will include classic Arab films loved and watched by

Write on: Letters to the editor

Confused It was with great interest that I read Jim Green's book review “Australia and the Atomic Empire” (GLW #441). I was somewhat confused by its reference to my own work, however. Dr Green, dismisses my early archival history of

How schools funding campaign was killed

BY NOREEN NAVIN SYDNEY — In November Prime Minister John Howard's Coalition government sparked public outrage when it introduced the State Grants (Primary and Secondary Education Assistance) Bill 2000. The bill was designed to allocate the bulk

Loose cannons

Like putting profits before social needs? "If we're going to give each other [trade] preferences, we have to have fundamental common values." — Marc Lortie, personal representative of Canadian PM Jean Chretien to the Summit of the Americas being

and ain't I a woman: Hollywood's 'healthy bodies' leave women looking for more

BY ALISON DELLIT "When I see people on TV who are starving, I just cry. I mean, I'd like to be that thin but not with all the flies and death and stuff." — Singer Mariah Carey, 1998. Mariah Carey's sympathy for the hungry did not generate calls

New Resistance Centre in Burwood

BY JANET PARKER SYDNEY — "It's the emergence of the anti-corporate globalisation movement and people's growing frustration with Labor and Liberal that have really made this possible", said Sam Wainwright, secretary of the Democratic Socialist

JAPAN: On the edge of an economic abyss

BY ALISON DELLIT Yet another Japanese prime minister is set to fall onto the well-polished sword of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party as Japan lurches inexorably towards a deep recession. Amidst mounting calls by capitalist investors for his

Refugee kept eight months in solitary

BY BEN COLLINS MELBOURNE — 27-year-old Palestinian asylum seeker Mohammed Dawood has spent the last eight months in solitary confinement, first at the Woomera Immigration Detention Centre and then at the centre in Maribyrnong, in Melbourne's

Conference will make, not just study, labour history

BY PAT BREWER CANBERRA — An added sense of immediacy will be added to the next National Labour History Conference — because it will be immersed in a labour struggle of its own. According to conference organiser Phil Griffiths, the conference

M1 launched in Darwin

BY NICK SOUDAKOFF DARWIN — The M1 Alliance here launched its May 1 blockade of the Northern Territory Chamber of Commerce on March 23, drawing an overwhelming response from passers-by when they asked them to vote for who they thought should be

Time for drug decriminalisation

Time for the decriminalisation of drugs The second phase of Prime Minister John Howard's “Tough on Drugs” campaign is a $27 million “education” campaign involving a series of TV advertisements and a glossy booklet to be distributed to