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SCOTLAND: 'Bush' thrown out of parliament

BY NORM DIXON There was uproar in the Scottish Parliament on November 20 when "George Bush", who was in the public gallery, jumped up and shouted: "God bless my fellow war criminals in the Scottish Parliament. God bless my fellow mass murderers. If

Ideas to resist the empire

BY MARGARITA WINDISCH MELBOURNE — One hundred and twenty socialists attended the Socialist Alliance's Victorian state conference, held on November 15 around the theme "Resisting the Empire". Renowned Marxist historian Humphrey McQueen opened

Meeting hears harrowing tales of mistreatment of refugees

BY KERRYN WILLIAMS CANBERRA — "More 'babies overboard' and outright lies" was how refugee advocate Marion Le described immigration minister Amanda Vanstone's response to the recent arrival on Melville Island of a group of Kurdish refugees. Le

WORLD ECONOMY: WTO ruling open way to US-EU trade war

BY EVA CHENG A trade war is threatening to sweep across the Atlantic as the United States lost an appeal at the World Trade Organisation on November 10 against a July WTO dispute panel ruling that tariffs of up to 30% that US President George Bush

The greatest terrorist state of all time

REVIEW BY SIMON BUTLER Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War IIBy William BlumZed Books 2003469 pages, $33.95 (pb) What is the link between an elderly peasant in Vietnam debilitated by exposure to chemical weapons, a

IRAQ: US terrorises civilians

BY ROHAN PEARCE A November 19 press release from the US military's Central Command was headlined, "Operations Make Iraq Safer, Improve Quality of Life". It was referring to the renewed offensive by US occupation forces against Iraqi resistance

DET workers strike against job cuts

BY MARCUS PABIAN MELBOURNE — Following a three-month campaign to resist job cuts, workers employed in the state Department of Education and Training (DET), frustrated by intransigence of Premier Steve Bracks' Labor government, went on strike on

News briefs

WA Labor attacks CFMEU officials PERTH — On November 17, the Western Australian Labor government announced that it would be initiating action to strip Joe McDonald, state assistant secretary of construction division of the Construction, Forestry,

Frida: an injustice to Kahlo, art and Trotsky

REVIEW BY LOUIS PROYECT FridaDirected by Julie TaymorWritten by Clancy Sigal, Diane Lake and Gregory NavaWith Salma Hayek, Alfred Molina, Geoffrey Rush, Ashley Judd, Antonio Banderas and Edward NortonBuena Vista DVD Frida is a really stupid

Australian military to train puppet Iraqi army

After having contributed several thousand troops to assist the criminal US-led invasion of Iraq and then rapidly scaling down the number of Australian Defence Force personnel in Iraq, Prime Minister John Howard's government now is considering

IRAQ: US accelerates creation of puppet regime

BY DOUG LORIMER With disaffection with the US occupation of Iraq having driven voter support for US President George Bush to its lowest level since his election, the Bush administration has been forced to accelerate plans to formally hand Iraq's

How the WTO works

Behind the Scenes at the WTO: the Real World of International Trade NegotiationsBy Fatoumata Jawara and Aileen KwaZed Books, 2003329 pages, US$19.95 (pb) REVIEW BY EVA CHENG Few people expected the Third World countries to force a collapse of a