546

VENEZUELA: Workers seize Pepsi plant

On July 9, workers took over a Pepsi-Cola bottling plant in Villa de Cura, south-west of Caracas. The workers charged that the company, part of Venezuela's Grupo Polar, plans to close the plant and lay-off hundreds of employees in an effort to

Ralph Miliband: accurate diagnosis, faulty prescription

Ralph Miliband and the Politics of the New LeftBy Michael NewmanMerlin Press, 2002368 pages, $52.70 (pb) REVIEW BY PHIL SHANNON Many socialists in Britain have Ralph Miliband to thank for saving them from the sad fate of becoming a political

Hicks faces show trial

BY DALE MILLS What do you call a trial in which, even if found not guilty, you can end up in solitary confinement for the rest of your life? According to Attorney-General Daryl Williams, one in which "all the fundamental guarantees of the US and

Move to split Sydney anti-war coalition

BY NICK EVERETT SYDNEY — Sections of the anti-war movement are attempting to disband the Sydney Walk Against the War Coalition, the organisation that organised the 500,000-strong march against the war on Iraq on February 16. They have already set

Censorship: 'Let us choose the good from the bad!'

BY GAELE SOBOT I've seen two films during which I desperately wanted to walk out of the cinema to escape the assault to my senses: Peter Greenaway's The Baby of Macon (1993) and Larry Clark's Kids (1995). Greenaway's excesses included murder,

Tent embassy under further attack

BY PAUL OBOOHOV CANBERRA — At 5am on July 17, about 100 Australian Federal Police officers attacked the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, acting under orders from the federal government's National Capital Authority (NCA). The AFP confiscated a previously

News Briefs

EDI workers strike for job protection BATHURST — Unions representing 90 striking workers at the EDI Rail factory, which manufactures train undercarriages, have been ordered by the NSW Industrial Relations Commission to a compulsory conference on

PHILIPPINES: Left wins seats in Congress

BY REIHANA MOHIDEEN MANILA — On July 10, the progressive democratic alliance Sanlakas and the Workers Party (Partido ng Manggagawa) were at long last proclaimed as having won seats in Congress along with five other organisations. The

ACI workers confront management

BY STEPHEN GARVEY MELBOURNE — ACI workers and their supporters protested outside ACI headquarters on July 7 to demand that management end their lockout of workers at the ACI Mould Manufacturing plant in Box Hill. The workers, who were stood down

Monbiot's new world order

BY AUSTIN WHITTEN SYDNEY — The large audience that attended the sold-out Valhalla Cinema talk given by George Monbiot on July 15, titled, "Future Implications For World Democracy", greeted Monbiot's ideas with a great deal of enthusiasm.

Loose cannons

Free Iraq! "Get us out of here now! There is nothing we can do to pacify the Iraqi people except get out of their country and allow them to restore order in whatever way THEY wish." — Excerpt from a letter from a US soldier in Iraq to his mother,

Martin Bright workers strike

MELBOURNE — Workers from One Steel subsidiary Martin Bright Steels have been on strike for more than two weeks, as part of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union's Campaign 2003. The strike follows two weeks of overtime bans. The workers are