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News briefs

AMWU members defend their union GEELONG — On June 28, a meeting of 150 Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) members from Alcoa's Port Henry aluminium smelter discussed the state and federal governments' attacks on the leadership of

Skilled six workplace motion

[This is a model motion unionists can move in their union to support the AMWU leaders under attack.] That [workers/unionists from this workplace/meeting] note the role played by the leadership of the Victorian branch of the Australian Manufacturing

UNITED STATES: Waterfront showdown looms

BY SHANE BENTLEY The International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which covers 10,500 waterfront workers (known as longshoremen) on the US west coast, is headed for a showdown with the bosses' Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) after the ILWU'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. Includes the Green Left news. CTS Sydney (UHF 31), every Sunday, 9pm. Phone 9565 5522.

Loose cannons

Could have been the wedding cake "We are aware of reports of civilian casualties, but don't know if casualties were caused as a result of the bomb." — Pentagon spokesperson Lieutenant Comm- ander Jeff Davis, commenting on the US military's July

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— As the ALP state government reels from growing industrial turmoil in public hospitals, Premier Peter Beattie has withdrawn his unprecedented threat to attempt to conduct a secret ballot of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