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Not one death but two

Sarah Stephen At 1pm on November 19, in the small town of Normanton near the Gulf of Carpentaria — some 600 kilometres north-west of Palm Island — Leonard John Casey, a 39-year-old Aboriginal man, was arrested on charges of grievous bodily harm

Government, developers threaten Redfern Block

Paul Benedek, Sydney The inner-city suburbs of Redfern and Waterloo, home to the Australian Heritage-listed Redfern Block, which has historically been a centre of Black empowerment and organising, faces a $5 billion state government

VENEZUELA: An unfolding revolution

The following is based on a report by Stuart Munckton that was adopted by the national committee of the Democratic Socialist Perspective, an affiliate of the Socialist Alliance, on November 7. The Venezuelan revolution is the first revolution of

Palm Island: Police terror follows death in custody

Sarah Stephen At 11.20am on November 19, a 36-year-old Aboriginal man, Cameron Doomadgee, died in the police watch-house on Palm Island, 70km north of Townsville. An hour earlier he was very much alive, singing along the street. He was arrested for

Unionists declare:'The spirit of Eureka lives'

Jim McIlroy & Margarita Windisch, Ballarat "The spirit of Eureka has always been part of the progressive trade union movement", environmentalist and former NSW Builders Labourers Federation secretary Jack Mundey told a crowd of several hundred at

A woman's place is in the struggle: How to stop the attack on abortion rights

The Bush administration thinks it has political "capital". And it plans on spending some to destroy women's right to choose abortion. Tucked away in the omnibus spending bill approved by Congress last month was a provision that would allow

Refugee-rights activists charged

Sarah Stephen, Sydney Early on the morning of December 1, Refugee Action Coalition activist Mark Goudkamp got a knock on his door. He opened it to find eight Australian Federal Police officers and immigration department officials. The AFP

OUR COMMON CAUSE: End police brutality!

The brutal imposition of martial law and the use of armed Tactical Response Group officers against the Aboriginal community on Palm Island has shocked many Australians. Yet another Indigenous person has died in police custody. Yet another community

Workers put the bite on Leighton

Sam Wainwright, Perth On November 25, 300 workers employed by Leighton Contractors on the construction of the Perth to Mandurah railway won a significant victory in their fight for better night shift penalties. Negotiations between the

Mass campaign needed to defeat VSU

Frederico Fuentes With a Coalition majority in both houses of parliament from July 1 next year, federal education minister Brendan Nelson has signalled his intention to move forward with key elements of his higher education "reform" package

News briefs #2

#2 Prostitution law opposed DARWIN — On December 1, the Scarlet Alliance, a national sex workers' rights group, held a World AIDS Day public forum to highlight issues surrounding the unjust and discriminatory sex worker law in the Northern

Indigenous paper's editor condemns leaked welfare proposals

On November 11, under instruction from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, federal police raided the Canberra offices of the National Indigenous Times to search for leaked government documents. NIT editor Chris Graham spoke to Green Left