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PALESTINE: 700,000 people under house arrest

BY ADAM HANIEH RAMALLAH — The Israeli F-16 airstrike early on July 23 that killed Hamas leader Salah Shehada and 15 Palestinian civilians in a crowded Gaza neighbourhood suddenly put the roiling Israeli-Palestinian conflict back in the Western

Attack on Workers First is an attack on the left

The attacks launched against the militant leadership of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union's Victorian branch by the union's national leadership are more than an internal faction fight. They are an attack on the left. The vicious campaign

NICARAGUA: Sandinistas back to red and black

BY STEPHEN MARKS MANAGUA — The Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) returned to its anti-imperialist symbols and messages at the celebration of the 1979 revolution here on July 19. Pink and yellow, which had been the FSLN's colours in

UNITED STATES: Laser beam may blind people

BY NORM DIXON According to a report published in the July 27 New Scientist, US defence contractors are developing a laser weapon for fighter aircraft that may be powerful enough to blind people on the ground, even if they are relatively far from

Write On: Letter to Green Left Weekly

Fond Memories of Cuba I Senor Bradbury (Write On #501), may I suggest you learn Russian and get on the next Aeroflot flight to Moscow to do a little comparative piece on the degeneration of a revolutionary process and the consequences of force

Plutonium, proliferation and profits

BY JIM GREEN A shipment of mixed uranium and plutonium oxide (MOX) nuclear fuel travelling from Japan to England has generated a storm of protest because of the safety risks it poses and the additional risk of nuclear weapons proliferation. Two

Refugee Assistance Centre opens

BY RACHEL EVANS MELBOURNE — In a sign of growing support for refugees' rights, the Dundas Street Centre in Thornbury — an offshoot of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre in Footscray — has begun operation. The centres are not funded government

SOUTH AFRICA: Municipal workers win bitter strike

BY NORM DIXON A bitter strike by the 120,000-strong South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) has ended in victory. The strikers returned to work on July 22. SAMWU members had endured sustained police violence and state repression. One worker

4ZZZ: a shining beacon

BY JASON CAHILL BRISBANE — It's a unique and precious thing to find an alternative voice among the plethora of reactionary forces that dominate the Australian media. In the print media, there is Green Left Weekly. And shining like a beacon is

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. Visit

Confessions of a teenage Trotskyist

Reasons to Be Cheerful: From Punk to New Labour through the Eyes of a Dedicated TroublemakerBy Mark SteelScribner, 2002277 pages, $18.95 (pb) REVIEW BY PHIL SHANNON "It's hard enough being a nineteen-year-old boy as it is, spun through a

Media complicity in detention policy

BY SARAH STEPHEN Immigration department guidelines for journalists visiting immigartion detention centres state that they "may not interview any person who is detained under Australia's immigration law" and "will not photograph/film people in