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BRITAIN: Australians to protest against war on ANZAC Day

BY MARTIN ILTIS LONDON — Australians Against the War (AATW) held its first formal meeting on March 30, attended by about 20 Australians living in London. The meeting flowed from the group's prominent participation in the 500,000-strong

SOUTH AFRICA: Human shields lead anti-war march

JOHANNESBURG — On April 5, more than 12,000 people marched behind about 15 "human shields", who have recently returned from Iraq, to oppose the US-led invasion of Iraq. The protest, organised by the Anti-War Coalition (AWC), marched through the

Labor fudges position on troop withdrawal

BY ALISON DELLIT In last week’s Green Left Weekly, I reported on federal Labor leader Simon Crean’s public backflip on the ALP's original call for Australian troops not to participate in a non-UN approved war against Iraq. Many ALP MPs,

Brisbane Social Forum discusses war, globalisation

BY BILL MASON BRISBANE — "We are not anti-globalisation, we are pro-democracy, pro-human rights, pro-food sovereignty. We are not against international trade, it is the capitalist race to the bottom that we are against", declared Anuradha Mittal,

PALESTINE: US marines study Israel's bloody ways

As Palestinians brace themselves for the first anniversary of the Israeli occupation forces' bloody invasion of the West Bank's Jenin refugee camp, it has been revealed that an Israeli expert has guided US marine officers through its putrid alleys to

Community protests condemn Iraq war

BY BILL MASON BRISBANE — A number of suburban protests were held on March 29 to demand "No war on Iraq" and "Bring the troops home". Initiated by the Socialist Alliance, the protests were held in West End, Fortitude Valley, Stones Corner and

Detainees welcome Baxter convergence

BY SARAH STEPHEN At the end of March, Baxter detainees wrote an open letter to the Australian people. It said, in part, “The government policy is so hard, so tough — they don't want to grant us protection, even on humanitarian grounds. At

Write On: Letters to Green Left Weekly

Books Not Bombs protest The decision on April 2 by the students to call off the march and be satisfied with a rally in Sydney Town Hall Square was an example of excellent decision-making by the Books Not Bombs leadership. What I object to is the

Christmas Island refugees moved to Nauru

BY SARAH STEPHEN According to Victorian Greens refugee spokesperson Pamela Curr, the three remaining asylum seekers on Christmas Island were secretly removed at 3am on March 25. "A specially chartered plane came in from [Papua] New Guinea", she

IRAQ: 'Humanitarian' war in Basra?

BY RAHUL MAHAJAN Iraq's desperate humanitarian situation has suddenly become a retroactive justification for the war, even for the attacking of civilian targets. The need to get aid into Basra prompted a British military spokesperson on March 25 to

IRAQ: Pentagon mafia to run post-Saddam regime

BY DOUG LORIMER "The Iraqi people will administer Iraq", White House press secretary Ari Fleischer declared, appropriately on April Fool's Day. That same day, Jay Garner, the retired US army general who has been selected by the White House to

IRAQ: US warns Russia, Syria and Iran

BY DOUG LORIMER The White House has claimed that Russian companies are providing assistance to Iraq to help it resist the US-led invasion. The Pentagon has extended this accusation to include Syria, which along with Russia, France and Germany,