On February 2, former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib launched his NSW state election campaign in the western Sydney seat of Auburn. The seat is currently held by the ALPs Barbara Perry.
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One-hundred people gathered at Brisbanes Riverside Centre on January 27 to discuss Indigenous self-determination and the United Nations draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which is expected to be ratified this year.
When questioned by the media about opposition in the US Congress to the George Bush administrations surge of troops to Iraq, Vice-President Dick Cheney kept his message simple: It wont stop us. In the January 24 interview with CNN, Cheney added, We have to have the stomach to finish the task.
Tim Zammit, a young worker at Woolworths in Hackham, South Australia, wrote the following letter to his union the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA) in response to the recent employment agreement negotiated by the SDA.
A two-week strike ended late on January 27 after an agreement was reached with President Lansana Conte to delegate some of his powers to a new prime minister. More than 90 people were killed and hundreds injured during police crackdowns on the strike. Hospitals ran out of blood supplies on January 22, when attacks by soldiers and police left dozens dead. Unions called the strike to demand that the president step down and to voice anger at the appalling living conditions in the extremely impoverished west African nation. Guinea, ruled by Conte ever since he took power in a military coup more than 22 years ago, was ranked the most corrupt African country in Transparency Internationals 2006 survey. While Guinea is rich in natural resources, some neighbourhoods in the capital, Conakry, do not even have running water or electricity, and low wages and massive inflation mean many cannot afford to buy food. Last May, police killed 20 people when mostly youth protesters in Conakry took to the streets to protest rice and fuel price rises.
Nobody can quite believe their eyes and ears. More than 15 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, has made it abundantly clear that his country is embarked on a socialist revolution.
Five footballers at North Carolinas Guilford College were charged with ethnic intimidation and the assault of three Palestinian students on January 21. The FBI will also investigate whether the footballers should be charged with hate crimes. The three Palestinian students were brutally attacked by up to 15 members of the college football team, who used brass knuckles and called them terrorists, sand niggers and fucking Palestinians. Students at the college have condemned the attacks as racist and have begun to organise in support of the Palestinian students. On January 24, Yes! Weekly online magazine reported that students have also threatened to walk out of school if the attackers were not suspended.
One of the best-known and most successful aspects of Venezuelas Bolivarian revolution has been the social missions social programs funded by Venezuelas oil wealth aiming to solve the most pressing problems of the nations poor majority. One of the best known and most successful social missions was one of the first to be established, the health program Mision Bario Adentro (Into the Neighbourghood). Established in April 2003, the mission has brought free quality health care via the establishment of popular health clinics in poor neighbourhoods across Venezuela. Before Barrio Adentro, health care was out of reach for many of the poor, as private health care was too expensive and the public health system was in a state of disrepair.
Petrodollar Warfare
By William Clark
New Society Publishers, 2005
$29.95 267pages
By William Clark
New Society Publishers, 2005
$29.95 267pages
“It must never again be the case that a death in custody, of Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal persons, will not lead to rigorous and accountable investigations and a comprehensive coronial inquiry.”
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