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Baktiyari boys: 'What is our crime?'

BY SARAH STEPHEN Twelve-year-old Montazar Baktiyari and 14-year-old Alamdar Baktiyari have put faces to the horrifying reality of children in detention. After asylum seekers have been dehumanised as "illegals" and "queue-jumpers" for so long, the

ECUADOR: Blood on the bananas

BY DAVID BACON SAN FRANCISCO — Bonita, the word for beautiful in Spanish, is not a bad description for the nearly flawless bananas available from fruit and vegetable markets across the United States. It is also the name printed on stickers

'We will never forget you'

BY ANTHONY BENBOW PORT HEDLAND, WA — Despite intense police attention, on July 18 more than 100 protesters marched on the Port Hedland immigration detention centre and remained for an all-night protest vigil. For more than 12 hours,

INDONESIA: Dissident parties work together

BY MAX LANE JAKARTA — On July 22, several political parties organised a seminar to discuss the contemporary implications of the July 27, 1996, attack by pro-Suharto thugs on the headquarters of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI). During

Bathurst Uni occupied for 50 days

BY KATE CLUGSTON BATHURST — On July 30, Charles Sturt University (CSU) students protesting the proposed cutbacks to the Communications school will have taken action for 50 continuous days. The "Out of Order" campaign has now held the second

SOUTH AFRICA: The SACP-ANC political merry-go-round

BY DALE T. McKINLEY JOHANNESBURG — "SACP in clash with ANC" and "ANC warned not to follow path of ZANU-PF" were some of the headlines that have graced the pages of South African newspapers following the latest political spat between the ruling

Stock market chaos and corporate scams: Bad apples or a rotten system?

BY PETER BOYLE As the once seemingly ever-exuberant US stock market plunges (Wall Street stocks have lost US$7 trillion in value since March 2000) and more reports of big business scandals dominate the headlines, establishment economic commentators

Staff oppose RMIT detention centre bid

BY GILLIAN DAVY MELBOURNE — A forum convened on July 25 by the RMIT branch of the National Tertiary Education Industry Union (NTEU) expressed vehement opposition to the university's proposal to tender for the delivery of "educational and

Reporting the World: John Pilger's great eyewitness photographers

Regan (USA); Peter Stone (Africa); Penny Tweedie (Australia, East Timor, Bangladesh); Anastasia Vrachnos (Indonesia); and Paul Weinberg (Africa), 21 Publishing Ltd "> Reporting the World: John Pilger's great eyewitness photographers Capturing

News Briefs

GLW celebrates BRISBANE — More than 100 people attended the Green Left Weekly 500th issue celebration dinner at the Ukranian Hall on July 20, which raised $1500 to help GLW keep producing. Congratulations to GLW were given by: Sam Watson,

Refugee supporters get together

BY KERRYN WILLIAMS CANBERRA — One-hundred-and-twenty refugees' rights activists and supporters gathered on July 23 for a public forum organised by Amnesty International, which indicated the breadth of the refugees' rights movement. The meeting

Cameron strips AMWU state branches of power

BY SUE BOLTON SYDNEY — The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union national conference, held July 21-25 at Sydney's plush Parkroyal Hotel, adopted a series of rule changes which strip decision-making power from state branches and shift it to the