Nike, on your bike!
BY WILL WILLIAMS
SYDNEY — Clothing and footwear giant Nike copped it from all sides on June 24 as 150 angry activists marched on and briefly occupied its George Street store in the city to protest against exploitative labour
Issue 410
News
Shop stewards endorse Campaign 2000 settlement
BY CHRIS SPINDLER
MELBOURNE — Meetings of Metal Trades Federation of Unions shop stewards here on June 21 and 22 have endorsed a deal brokered between the MTFU and a group of breakaway employers
Kosovars offer solidarity to indigenous struggle
BY LESLIE WILLIAMS
CANBERRA — A smoke ceremony was held by Aboriginal Tent Embassy activists here on June 23 to welcome members of the Kosova Freedom Network (KFN). The Kosova Freedom Embassy, a
Reconciliation discussed
HOBART — "My people are still struggling for the return of our cultural heritage", Caroline Spotswood told 30 people at the Justice and Reconciliation forum here on June 20 sponsored by Green Left Weekly.
Spotswood,
Community workers demand 'quality services, quality pay'
BY NICK EVERETT & TRISH CORCORAN
SYDNEY — In the largest mobilisation of community and welfare workers in years, 1000 workers went on strike and marched through Sydney's central
BY SEAN HEALY
The federal Coalition government has received seven private tenders to conduct a "human rights" training program for 43 members of the Burmese military regime. Burmese democracy activists have protested that the program will
Rally condemns 'mutual obligation'
BY JAMES VASSILOPOULOS
CANBERRA — Sole parents and people with disabilities protested outside Parliament House on June 22 against government plans to extend harsh new welfare provisions to them and to
Nike site jammed
The web site of corporate giant Nike was hacked into on June 21, diverting visitors to the web site of the S11 Alliance ( http://www.s11.org) which is organising large demonstrations against the September conference of the World
ASIO stalks Burmese activists
BY SEAN HEALY
SYDNEY — The Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) has been following Burmese refugees in Australia and phoning them every day to check up on their activities, Maung Maung Than,
BY DANIEL JARDINE & ALEX BAINBRIDGE
"Australians and New Zealanders rarely have any valid basis for questioning the safety of foods on the supermarket shelves for human consumption", Senator Grant Tambling claimed when he launched the
ALP betrays WA sex workers
BY AMIE HAMILTON
PERTH — After months of joining with the Australian Democrats and WA Greens to block a repressive new bill on prostitution, WA Labor has signed a deal with the Liberal Party to allow the bill's
Cuban women's tour
July 22-30
Berta Acosta Sequi and Nancy Iglesias from the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) will be visiting Australia on July 22-30. This is a special opportunity to share experiences and learn from revolutionary women.
If you
Bondi tenants fight back
BY DANIEL JARDINE
SYDNEY — Rent increases of 20-30% in the Bondi area in the last two years prompted 100 local residents to attend the June 21 launch of a new video from the Eastern Area Tenants Service (EATS), Against
BY BILL MASON
BRISBANE — Residents of Springbrook, in the Gold Coast hinterland, have vowed to fight tooth and nail against a proposed Naturelink tourist cableway in the region. Thirty of them protested outside a June 18 meeting attended by
Homophobia and Pride WA
BY ELENA JEFFREYS
PERTH — For 15 years the Pride WA parade has been based in Northbridge, which falls under the municipality of the City of Perth. It has been a successful event, with a steady increase in the number of
CISLAC consultation a success
Latin America solidarity planned
BY NATASHA SIMONS
BRISBANE — A public meeting detailing the resistance to neo-liberalism in Latin America kicked off the Committees in Solidarity with Latin America and the
World
VIENNA — Austria's government — a coalition of the conservative People's Party (VP) and the extreme right-wing, racist Freedom Party (FP) — is showing its true colours. The FP managed to overtake the VP at last October's federal election by a
World Development Report author quits
BY SEAN HEALY
The World Bank has been embarrassed by the June 13 resignation of Ravi Kanbur, the chief author of its flagship World Development Report 2000, after Kanbur claimed unacceptable pressure had been
Following its strong showing in the May London Assembly election, the
London Socialist Alliance (LSA) scored well in the June 22 parliamentary
by-election in the north London seat of Tottenham. LSA candidate Weyman
Bennett won 885 votes, or
International news briefs
Wits University occupied
JOHANNESBURG — Members of the South African Students Congress, the Postgraduate Students Association and the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union on June 20 occupied of the
Around half a million jubilant Cubans marched in the eastern city of Holguin
on June 24 to celebrate a US federal appeals court in Atlanta statement
the day before that it would not reconsider its decision not to grant a
political asylum
BY NORM DIXON
Not content with destroying Mozambique's cashew processing industry, resulting in the loss of more than 9000 jobs in recent years, the economic dictators of the International Monetary Fund have turned their attention to the
INDONESIA: Situation explosive as economic and political crisis deepens
The 10 years to 1998 was a decade of escalating mass protest in Indonesia, climaxing in the 1998 mobilisations of hundreds of thousands of people across the archipelago which
MOSCOW — Immediately after Media-MOST head Vladimir Gusinsky was arrested, protests began. Particularly vocal were people who only a little earlier had been rushing to nominate Vladimir Putin for president, who had extolled his promised
Corporate mobsters to meet in casino
BY SEAN HEALY
If their rackets were heroin and prostitution, their meeting would
be called a Godfathers' convention. But their rackets are more legitimate,
or at least more legal, so their
Opposition to the George Speight's terrorist coup in Fiji is coming mainly from the Pacific island country's trade union movement. As it becomes clear that the military and the elite have done more to help rather than hinder Speight, wider sections
BY BECKY ELLIS
TORONTO — Twelve hundred people demanded entry to the Ontario parliament building here on June 15, saying they should be allowed to address the provincial legislature about poverty and homelessness in the city. The protesters were
The first issue of RESIST!, "North America's only independent Marxist-feminist magazine", was released on June 15. The Canadian magazine is the work of the Resistance Collective, which is seeking to build a new, revitalised socialist organisation in
Race and class in the US: Why racism matters
BY MALIK MIAH
SAN FRANCISCO — The historic half-million march across Sydney Harbour Bridge on May 28 in solidarity with the Aboriginal people showed why race and racism remains an important issue for
Whatever the final results of the June 24-25 general election in Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party's commanding political position has been deeply damaged. Under pressure from
Indonesia news briefs
Newspaper survey critical of government
Six hundred and eighty respondents to an internet survey conducted by the daily Media Indonesia said that the government has done little for the ordinary people and not enough to bring
Culture
A remarkable life
SYDNEY — "The Dom", an exhibition at the Liverpool Regional Museum, explores the political passions of Dominic Syme. Syme was a chicken farmer, Communist Party member and a Liverpool City Councillor. He was immersed in an
Anyone for lobotomy?
Suddenly Last Summerby Tennessee WilliamsCompany B, Belvoir St TheatreSydney, until July 23 Review by Brendan Doyle
Suddenly Last Summer, written by Tennessee Williams in 1957, assaulted US theatre-goers with a nightmarish
Film reveals Saharawi people's long struggle
REVIEW BY NICK EVERETT
The Forgotten War, a documentary about the struggle of the people of Western Sahara against the occupation of their country by Morocco, premiered to a packed audience in the NSW
A mild-mannered proposal
Running on Empty: 'Modernising' the British and Australian labour partiesBy Andrew ScottPluto Press, 2000330pp., $29.95(pb) Review by Sue Boland
In the 1980s, Britain's Labour Party (LP) officials were forever scurrying
Up close and pass the deodorant
Viewing Blue PolesBy Christos TsiolkasBelvoir Street Downstairs, SydneyUntil July 16 Review by Brendan Doyle
The 80-seat downstairs theatre at Belvoir Street, one of the few intimate theatre spaces left in Sydney,
Editorial
Not good enough
The ALP's persistent refusal to repeal the GST when it next forms federal government is not good enough.
There is already abundant evidence that the GST, even accompanied by income tax cuts, will make most people worse off. For
General
Green Left is taking a break
Many of the activists involved in producing Green Left Weekly will be in Melbourne attending the Resistance national conference on June 29-July 2 (see article on page ?). We are therefore postponing the next issue of
With the introduction of the GST on July 1, we will be forced to increase the price of Green Left Weekly. This will be the first price increase for GLW since August 1995.
Through the GST, the government will take one 11th of GLW's sales income. As