Live cattle trade blocked
BY MARGARET SETTER
Prompt action by a newly formed alliance between Animal Liberation, the Maritime Union of Australia and the Australasian Meat Industry Employees' Union has, for the moment, defeated plans by Elders
Issue 403
News
ALP machine dumps MPs
BY STAN THOMPSON
ADELAIDE — South Australian ALP delegates have dumped three members of parliament during a special Easter convention to pre-select candidates for the next state and federal elections. Former deputy state
BY VIV MILEY
SYDNEY — Protests around the globe, from Seattle and Washington to Jakarta and Bolivia, have highlighted growing discontent with corporate "globalisation" and imperialism. From June 29 to July 2, the socialist youth group Resistance
Cuba tour in Che's footsteps
BY ROQUE GRILLO
The "heroic guerilla", Ernesto "Che" Guevara, may be all the fashion on T-shirts or posters but those people who want to get beyond the romantic imagery now have a special chance to do so. Ocean Travel
Police attack Joy Mining picket
BY CHRIS LATHAM
MOSS VALE — Police forcibly removed people from a picket line at the Joy Mining heavy machinery manufacturing plant on April 27 to allow the removal of the plant's hydraulics workshop equipment.
Coober Pedy says no to radioactive waste dump
BY KATE DECKLEMAN
COOBER PEDY — The Coober Pedy Against Radioactive Waste Repository Committee and the local Aboriginal women elders, the Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta, joined together to demonstrate at
Alcoa workers locked out
BY ANTHONY BENBOW
PERTH — Five hundred workers at aluminium company Alcoa's operations here have been locked out since early April as part of a union-busting exercise. The workers, members of the Communications,
BY JIM GREEN
The federal government submitted a report on the proposed Jabiluka uranium mine in the Northern Territory to the United Nations' World Heritage Committee (WHC) on April 15. The government was called on to explain what progress it had
Members First challenges Caird to repay money
BY STUART MARTIN
CANBERRA — The national secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU), Wendy Caird, has been challenged to repay union money spent on a glossy brochure sent to all
BY RAY FULCHER
MELBOURNE — Students at Melbourne University have had a resounding victory over the right-wing dominated Student Council. Over three days from April 17, students approved four referenda proposals, by margins of up to 90%, to
Maritime College locks out academics
BY ALEX BAINBRIDGE
HOBART — Academic staff were locked out of the Australian Maritime College (AMC) in Launceston on April 20 and April 26 in response to industrial action by the academics' union. This was
ACI backs down on lockout
BY CHRIS SLEE
MELBOURNE — In a major backdown, ACI has ended its 18-week lockout of workers at its glass mould manufacturing plant in Box Hill. Workers met on April 19 and voted to accept a new enterprise agreement
Tax workers reject pay offer
MELBOURNE — Community and Public Sector Union members in the Australian Taxation Office have rejected, by an 88% margin, a management pay offer. The offer included a pay rise of 4% per year, conditional on
Campaign targets Nike
BY MARGARITA WINDISCH
MELBOURNE — Activists unfurled a banner with the message "Nike slavery: Just stop it" over busy Hoddle Street here on April 18, launching a planned eight-week campaign against the clothing and
Red flags fly in Canberra
BY ANDREW HALL
CANBERRA — With prominent contingents from the Australian Education Union, the Democratic Socialist Party and Resistance, and Members First, the rank-and-file group in the Community and Public Sector
BY ERICA HAINES
ADELAIDE — The South Australian Liberal government hoped to have Adelaide's bus services driving smoothly on the privatisation highway from April 23. Instead, the venture only shuddered along. The government chose the Easter
World
On March 31, Petr Aven, head of Russia's largest bank, Alfa, told the British Guardian that Russia needs President Vladimir Putin to come down with the iron-fist of dictatorship to suppress the workers' movement and all opposition to fast-tracking
'Let us correct the history of West Papua'
BY MARK ABBERTON
SYDNEY — Representatives of the West Papuan freedom movement, meeting at a conference here on April 19, expressed hope about new openings for greater unity and organisation in their
SAN FRANCISCO — At a time when the United States' labour movement is in the doldrums, a union of low-paid, largely foreign-born workers is reviving the militancy, imagination, and high morale of the great strikes of the 1930s. On April 3, 8500
NIGERIA: Violence erupts as Shell begins operations
Police and military forces swept into K. Dere, a village in Nigeria's Niger River delta, on April 11, in response to peaceful protests against the efforts of Royal Dutch Shell to restart its
Tunisian activists jailed
Fathi Chamki, president of the RAID (Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions to Assist Citizens, Tunisia), Mohamed Chourabi, member of the RAID and Iheb Heni were arrested and jailed on April 8 in Soliman.
UNITED STATES: Elian's rescue a blow to 'Miami Mafia'
ATLANTA — Almost five months after he was found adrift on the high seas near Florida, six-year-old Elian Gonzalez has been reunited with his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, at a resort near
SRI LANKA: Unity in opposition to war
The Sri Lankan government of Prime Minister Chandrika Kumaratunga was elected in 1994 on a promise to withdraw the Sri Lankan armed forces from the Tamil homeland and achieve an "honourable" solution to the
EAST TIMOR: Workers confront discrimination, poor conditions
DILI — As workers prepare to celebrate their first May Day in a free East Timor, their pay and conditions of work remain very low, especially compared with the vast sums paid to foreign
MOSCOW — The Russian Supreme Court on April 13 confirmed the St Petersburg City Court's December 29 acquittal of Aleksandr Nikitin, accused of espionage for writing about the dangers of Russian nuclear submarines.
The appeal by the prosecutor's
JAKARTA — April 15 marked the first anniversary of the establishment of an extraordinary organisation, the Indonesian Institute for the Study of 1965-1966 Massacre (YPKP). Its chairperson is Sulami, who was second secretary-general of Gerwani (the
UNITED STATES: Protests begin to clarify anti-globalisation debates
WASHINGTON — The militant and youthful protests here, to coincide with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) meeting on April 16-17, dramatised the profound
PAKISTAN: Labour Party congress a historic moment
LAHORE — There was a tangible political confidence in the hall of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan as 138 delegates and 28 observers from around Pakistan worked hard through four days of
Solidarity with Russian workers
A protest vigil called by International Solidarity with Workers in Russia outside the venue of the Russia 2000 Expo in London on April 19. Two days earlier, ISWoR supporters demonstrated against President Vladimir
ZIMBABWE: MDC, farm workers Mugabe's real target
Despite the populist rhetoric of President Robert Mugabe — seemingly bolstered by the criticisms and exaggerations of the British Labour government, the Western mass media and, in Australia,
MANILA — The following is abridged from an appeal issued on April 10 by Erwin M. Gaerlan, executive director of the Moro Human Rights Center. The MHRC has been initiating activities to help put a stop to the worsening war situation in Mindanao
RUSSIA: Down with the new code of slavery!
MOSCOW — The following call for solidarity, issued last month by the coordinating committee of the All-Russian Campaign in Defence of the Labour Code, is addressed to "all progressive organisations of
Culture
The tragedy of intolerance
Boys Don't CryDirected by Kimberley PierceWritten by Kimberley Pierce and Andy BienenFeaturing Hilary Swank and Chloe SevignyScreening at Palace/Nova Cinemas REVIEW BY ERICA HAINES
Boys Don't Cry is the tragic real-life
Editorial
Zimbabwe crisis exposes refugee hypocrisy
Australian politicians are falling over themselves to offer refugee status to wealthy, white plantation owners displaced from their properties in Zimbabwe by supporters of President Robert Mugabe.
On