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Socialist Alliance launches election campaign

HOBART — More than 50 people participated in the state-wide launch of the Socialist Alliance election campaign on the Salamanca Lawns on July 6. The alliance's first ever television advertisement premiered at the event. It will be shown on

CUBA: 'We stand tall before the most powerful imperial force that has ever existed'

BY FIDEL CASTRO [The following is a slightly abridged version of a speech given by Cuban President Fidel Castro to an extraordinary session of Cuba's National Assembly on June 26.] Around the time when he assumed office, we wanted to avoid any

Nurses, health workers campaign escalates

BY REBECCA MECKELBURG& MARCEL CAMERON BRISBANE — As the ALP state government reels from growing industrial turmoil in public hospitals, Premier Peter Beattie has withdrawn his unprecedented threat to attempt to conduct a secret ballot of

Challengers in NTEU elections

BY JEREMY SMITH All positions in the National Tertiary Education Industry Union are up for election in 2002. In the national elections, president Carolyn Allport, general secretary Grahame McCulloch and national assistant secretary Ted

Stonewall remembered

BY MAURICE FARRELL SYDNEY — More than 200 people joined a rally and march on June 27 to commemorate the 33rd anniversary of the Stonewall Bar riot in New York City, considered the birthplace of the modern lesbian and gay rights movement.

Building workers: 'We saved this city'

BY NICK EVERETT SYDNEY — Environmental activists rallied outside the Sydney hearings of the pro-boss royal commission into the building industry on July 5, highlighting the record of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union's

UNITED STATES: Black farmers demand loans

BY RANDALL GICKER BROWNSVILLE, Tennessee — Three hundred black farmers on July 1 took over the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) regional office here to protest against the agency's failure to process loan applications. The growers were

A minority report on Minority Report

BY LOUIS PROYECT Although Stephen Spielberg emerged side-by-side with George Lucas as a purveyor of juvenile film fantasies during the Reagan era, he has evolved into one of the more important social commentators in Hollywood. Whether dealing with

Great Lakes Rural Australians for Refugees formed

BY PERRY BROWN & KATHY NEWNAM FORSTER — "This meeting is very encouraging", began Pat Thompson, in her address to the inaugural meeting of the Great Lakes Rural Australians for Refugees group, held in Forster on June 29. Thompson, one of the

PALESTINE: Arafat calls for democratic elections in the US

BY RAHUL MAHAJAN Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat stunned the world yesterday by demanding that the United States hold democratic elections for a new chief executive before it attempts to continue in its role as broker between

BRITAIN: The media and the Middle East

BY JOHN PILGER  LONDON — In May, the Glasgow University Media Group, distinguished for its pioneering media analysis, published a study on the reporting of the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. It ought to be required reading in newsrooms

GREECE: General strike signals radicalisation

BY JAMES VASSILOPOULOS On June 18, Greek workers paralysed the country with a massive general strike against a government attempt to increase the age of retirement and reduce pensions. This militant action underscores the radicalisation that is