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Local residents organise against Blackshirts

BY VANNESSA HEARMAN MELBOURNE — To respond to the increasing activities of the misogynist Blackshirts, the Diversity and Safety Community Network was formed on August 7 at a meeting of 25 local residents and activists in Brunswick. The

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

Illawarra students mobilise for refugees

BY GRANT COLEMAN WOLLONGONG — Four hundred of the Illawarra Grammar School's 600 students attended a voluntary assembly on August 16 to discuss the plight of refugees in Australia's detention centres. The meeting was organised by about 20

NIGERIA: Woman killed outside oil company offices

LAGOS — One woman was shot dead on August 8 in Nigeria's southern oil town of Warri when groups of women protesters besieged the premises of oil transnationals Royal-Dutch Shell and ChevronTexaco, witnesses said. They said two groups of

RUSSIA: The neo-liberal god has failed

BY BORIS KAGARLITSKY MOSCOW — No-one is surprised any more to hear economic bad news from the United States. Nevertheless, the failure of WorldCom has been something out of the ordinary. It is not just the scale of the bankruptcy. Six months

PAKISTAN: Teachers score victory

BY FAROOQ TARIQ & RAJA MEHBOOB HUSSAIN LAHORE — On August 8, the military government of President Pervez Musharraf declared that its previously announced plan to privatise Pakistan's educational institutions would not take place.

A scathing attack on policies of the US government

Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace: How We Got to Be So HatedBy Gore VidalThunder's MouthPress/Nation Books, 2002160 pp., $29.20 (bp) REVIEWED BY ROLAND SHEPPARD "Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war to whip the citizenry into a

Corporate polluters hijack Earth Summit

For the past three years, corporate polluters have been working to undermine the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), at which delegations from 174 countries will gather in Johannesburg, South Africa, from August 26 to September 4.

IRAQ: Puppets, traitors and spivs meet in Washington

BY NORM DIXON A carefully choreographed meeting of the "Iraqi opposition" was held in Washington on August 9 and 10. Attending were leaders from six right-wing groups opposed to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. The US government is seeking to

'Terror laws' discussed

BY RAY FULCHER MELBOURNE — More 100 people attended the “'War on Terrorism': Democracy Under Challenge” conference in Melbourne on August 9. The conference was hosted by the Victoria University law school and supported by the Federation of

ALP steps to the right

BY ALISON DELLIT The ALP's current navel-gaze reminds me somewhat of the Time Warp. Not John Howard's back-to-the-1950s time warp, but the Rocky Horror dance: a jump to the "left", a step to the "right", a bit of pelvic thrusting and you end up

Labor's the same now as it ever was

BY IAN BOLAS In the present period we have Labor governments in all states and yet nothing much seems to be different. The NSW government sends mounted police against pickets, the Victorian government collaborates in victimising the "Skilled Six"