499

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

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

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

Abbott threatens right to strike

BY SUE BOLTON You have to give federal workplace relations minister Tony Abbott full marks for trying — he's having another crack at getting anti-union laws through parliament. On June 26, Abbott introduced two new workplace relations bills

International students under attack

BY CHRIS ATKINSON DARWIN — NT University's international students are the latest victims of the government and corporate media's racist scaremongering campaign. The pass grade on an English language subject compulsory for international students

'Death merchants' and US nuclear policy

REVIEW BY EVA CHENG The New Nuclear Danger: George W. Bush's Military-Industrial Complex By Helen Caldicott Scribe Publications, Melbourne, 2002 320 pages, $30 (pb) Although the risk of India and Pakistan launching a nuclear war

SOUTH AFRICA: Municipal workers strike for living wage

BY ROGER RONNIE More than 100,000 municipal workers across South Africa — members of the militant South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) — began a national strike on July 2. Tens of thousands have marched in demonstrations in major

Shame Howard on Tampa Day

BY PIP HINMAN August 26 marks one year since the Coalition government refused to allow the Norwegian freighter MV Tampa to deliver those asylum seekers it had rescued to Christmas Island — it marks one year of the “Pacific Solution”.

Labor government to ignore ranks on marina

BY CHRIS LATHAM On June 22, delegates at the Western Australian state conference of the Labor Party passed a motion that opposed the construction of a marina near Coral Bay. The motion recognised the development's "potential to impact severely on

and ain't i a woman?: More to history than white men

and ain't i a woman?: More to history than white men There is much more to Australian history than white men. Women fought for (and in many cases won) equality, peace and rights for Indigenous Australians, the peoples of the Third World and

DOCS strike for more staff

BY FRANCES SHEEHAN SYDNEY — Fed up with being asked to perform miracles on the smell of an oily rag, staff at the Department of Community Services (DOCS) have taken industrial action to secure the extra staff and resources needed to protect

Woomera hunger-strikers taunted

BY SARAH STEPHEN The information available from the hunger strikers in Woomera detention centre, whose protest passed the two-week mark on July 7, is heart-rending. The July 5 Canberra Times spoke by telephone to Ramzi, who said "We are very weak