Since the island nation of Cuba experienced its successful revolution in 1959 its prison system has been evolving. Despite accusations of harsh human rights abuses from its neighbours to the north, Cuba today maintains a prison system that is in many
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This little piggy went to market Hi ho. — Hi ho all. Your attention please! — Presenting to you. Live today. Exclusive to MelBORN. The one. — The only. Globalisation Roadshow! — Rah! Rah! This little piggy went to market.
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Cuban President Fidel Castro has requested a visa to head Cuba's delegation to the United Nations' Millennium Summit in New York on September 6-7. This follows the US government's refusal last week of a visa application from Ricardo Alarcon, leader
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SAN FRANCISCO — The flying public is angry at United Airlines, the largest airline in the world. The company has cancelled almost 9000 flights between May and October. Most cancellations have occurred while passengers were already at the airports
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Organic farming — often considered an insignificant part of the food supply — can feed an entire country, concludes a report by the Oakland-based Institute for Food and Development Policy/Food First (<http://www.foodfirst.org>), a group
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Little more I can do "Look at your correspondence list and make some judgment calls." — Claude McCann I am sure that one-time Death Row Unit Manager Claude McCann will be pleased to know that his covert violations of my First Amendment right
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You used to hear, "I had this friend who won umpteen hundred thousand dollars for almost nothing in a lottery syndicate". In the past year it has more likely been, "I had this friend who got involved in an internet company and made
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Anglo-Australian company Rio Tinto, the world's largest mining company, has more than 60 operations in 40 countries. Antarctica is the only continent that has escaped its ravages. In every continent where Rio Tinto operates the
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The chemical company Monsanto has existed for just short of 100 years. Fraud and deceit have been associated with it for much of that time. This is a short history. The production of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) began in the 1930s. They were
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The sheer quantity of rhetoric about promoting the noble ideals of democracy, human rights and government transparency notwithstanding, US President Bill Clinton's three-day visit to Nigeria, which began on August 26, was all about
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The Cuban Revolution and Its LeadershipBy Doug LorimerResistance Books, 200062 pp., $5.95. REVIEW BY ALLEN MYERS The movement that is fighting against the program of the major multinationals known as "globalisation" do not have many allies among
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"A sure means of lowering the divorce rate? Now wouldn't that be something? With most Western countries struggling with the high social costs of divorce, a drop in divorce rates has to be seen as a giant leap for mankind, somewhat akin to finding a
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Below are excerpts from the Democratic Socialist Party's greetings to the 29th national Resistance conference, in Melbourne in July. They were presented by JOHN PERCY, DSP national secretary. We're all here because we're fed up with the rottenness
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Mark Stoyich doesn't show much imagination in his review of The White Devil (GLW #418). Webster's play deals with the social and political issues of the Renaissance. He can hardly be blamed for not dealing with those of the twentieth century. The
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Killing people is big business. In 1999, the United States spent US$276 billion on its military, just over a third of the world's total military expenditure. In 2000, the Pentagon's budget is expected to hit US$310 billion. Pentagon
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Last week, US secretary of state Madeline Albright let loose with a hypocritical blast at Cuba for supposedly having denied exit visas to 117 (yet to be identified) Cubans who wanted to leave the island and had United States visas. The US State
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Sixty years ago, on August 20, Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky was killed by an agent of Stalin. A decade after the "collapse of communism", is there any point remembering this anniversary? In his time, Trotsky was feared and maligned by
News
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SYDNEY South Sydney Council is evicting squatters in empty council buildings at 147-159 Broadway, near Glebe. The council had planned to evict the squatters on August 28, but public support and media attention forced a delay. The
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MELBOURNE — Four hundred people demonstrated on August 29 against the proposed outsourcing of the CSIRO's computer system. The demonstration, held outside the Casselden Place building, was organised by the CSIRO Staff Association.
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Exceptions make the rule "I don't think Australians will ever so far lose their common sense as to elect stupid people." — PM John Menzies Howard explaining in the August 23 Age why the new military powers legislation us unlikely to be abused by
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SYDNEY — The roar of traffic along Parramatta Road in Auburn did not silence 70 spirited protesters gathered outside the Nike factory-warehouse on September 1. The protesters, organised by Resistance, heard speakers decry
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ADELAIDE — An Adelaide University student was banned from entering sections of the university on August 31 by student election returning officer Ian Cannon, who is also chief executive officer of the student union. Cannon
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MELBOURNE — The ALP-controlled Melbourne University Student Union (MUSU) on August 31 succeeded in scuttling a student general meeting scheduled for September 1 to overturn the MUSU's decision to outlaw support for the September 11
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SYDNEY — If you were in any doubt about the vindictive and undemocratic nature of the Australian government's refugee policies consider the case of asylum seeker Maqsood Alshams, an activist in the Refugee Action Collective
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LISMORE — A major reason for the protracted enterprise bargaining dispute at Southern Cross University is extravagance by the institution's executives, according to damning evidence presented at a mass meeting called by the
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"Johnny Rotten" was a man who held strong beliefs on the rights of the working class. On any picket line in Melbourne over the last 20 years, chances are "Rotten" was there. Whether it was the nurses in 1987, the BLF in '86, the MUA in '98 or the
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MELBOURNE — The lesbian and gay community here organised a conference on August 27 to examine their reproductive rights and discuss reproductive law. Dr Ruth McNair runs the Carlton clinic, which specialises in providing
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SYDNEY The following statement is being circulated by anti-racism activists for endorsement by individuals and organisations around Australia. Those gathering for the assembly on September 15 at the Tent Embassy Peace Keeping Camp,
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BY SUSAN PRICE& STUART MARTIN More than 200 people rallied outside the Maribyrnong Detention Centre in Melbourne on August 26 in support of refugees' rights. The facility is run on behalf of the Australian government by Australian Corrections
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MELBOURNE — On August 25 Brunswick Town Hall confirmed its reputation as a long-time sanctuary for capitalism. Jeff Kennett's most prominent publicist, comedian Rod Quantock, refereed a brutal debate between two teams of
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PERTH — Members of the Australian Education Union (AEU) WA branch packed the Entertainment Centre on September 1 to endorse an escalation of the campaign for better wages and adequate funding for WA's schools and TAFEs. The AEU
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BY SEAN HEALY& MELANIE SJOBERG MELBOURNE — Victorian Trades Hall Council has confirmed that its labour rights rally, scheduled for September 12, the second day of protests against the World Economic Forum, will march to the WEF's Crown Casino
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WOLLONGONG — On August 31, the University of Wollongong was declared winner of Australia's University of the Year Award for 2000-2001 for "preparing graduates for the e-world". Ironically, the university is considering the
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It seems that for the federal Coalition government to even pretend to respect the human rights of refugees, women or Aborigines has become far too tedious and burdensome to bother with. On August 28, a desperate protest by asylum
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SYDNEY — Unlike most of the media coverage commemorating the first anniversary of East Timor's vote for independence, a day-long seminar organised by the Australia East Timor Association held at the Leichhardt Town Hall on August 30
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Misinformation on S11 leaked A briefing paper on the planned S11 protests, prepared by one of the world's largest public relations firms, Hill and Knowlton, has been leaked to Melbourne Independent Media Centre. The paper, marked "Highly
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ABC staff to fight SYDNEY — Amid fears of commercialisation of the national broadcaster, members of the ABC section of the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) will stop work on September 6 to discuss campaign strategies to defend the
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ADELAIDE — The August 28 militant protest by refugees at the Woomera Detention Centre, in South Australia's outback, sparked a racist frenzy from both Liberal and Labor politicians, and the capitalist media. Liberal Premier
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ADELAIDE — The United Trades and Labor Council of South Australia is considering turning its traditional Labor Day march, on September 29, into a strike following the refusal of the state Liberal government to contribute to a
Analysis
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In discussions about globalisation, working-class internationalism is often put forward as the only serious counter to the crimes of the likes of Shell, Bill Gates and the International Monetary Fund. Easy to say, but how can unions
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PERTH — The campaign here against corporate tyranny has taken a new turn with the organising of a Globalisation Convention for November. The convention was initiated by the local Stop MAI (Multilateral Agreement on Investment)
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UN Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson suggested that the Australian government had acted "in an over-defensive way" by cutting cooperation with the United Nations human rights committee system. That seems a diplomatic euphemism. This government
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The Defence Legislation Amendment (Aid to Civil Authorities) Bill is being debated in the Senate. It passed through the House of Representatives without amendment, with the support of the Labor Party. It is no coincidence that the
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It might sound flippant, but it isn't. The movement that is fighting against neo-liberal globalisation in its various aspects needs to consider the question: how will we know if we win? Or, to put the same question another way: what would victory
World
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Leave it to capitalism to find a way to make a profit from someone else's misery. In the United States, more than 2 million of our friends, neighbours and relatives are in state and federal prisons. The prison-industrial complex, as it is called by
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DILI — Members of Timorese Socialist Party (PST) around East Timor have been occupying buildings left by the Indonesian government in order to establish offices for their work with the grassroots. In order to claim right to use empty buildings,
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Suharto avoids court Students protesters who led the mass actions which toppled former President Suharto two years ago reacted with anger and disgust at his failure to show up on the first day of his corruption trial on August 31. Suharto's lawyers
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DILI - From August 21-29, members of East Timor's seven political parties participated in the congress of the CNRT (National Council for Timorese Resistance), which debated a wide range of recommendations and proposals for the development of Timor's
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'Let Nader debate' PORTLAND, Oregon— US Green Party presidential nominee Ralph Nader and his vice-presidential candidate Winona LaDuke on August 28 filled the Portland Memorial Coliseum with 10,571 supporters who demanded that Nader be allowed in
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The following is abridged from an August 28 statement from the Worker Communist Party of Iraq (WCPI) in Kurdistan. On August 26, [in Iraqi Kurdistan], the armed forces of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan arrested Azad Ahmed, a leading member of the
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MOSCOW — According to the Russian press, the reputation of President Vladimir Putin sank along with the submarine Kursk. This is not true. All that sank was the propaganda myth surrounding Putin. Russia's president has never had a reputation. A
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Below is an excerpt of an interview, conducted on March 4, with Dr VANDANA SHIVA by REBECCA GORDON and BOB WING. It appeared in the August 16 issue of the United States magazine ColorLines. The mainstream press in the US treats globalisation as the
Culture
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Over the last couple of years, a company called Napster has been one of many trying to make money from the internet. The company borrowed a few ideas and came up with some software that allowed listeners to share music through its
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BRISBANE — In the wake of the S11 protests in Melbourne there will be a street theatre workshop in Northgate on September 17 from 1pm to 4pm. The format is based on the following themes: being heard; being seen; having something to say;
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REVIEW BY HELEN JARVIS Death in Balibo, lies in CanberraBy Hamish McDonald and Desmond BallSt Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 2000. 199 pp., $24.95. "Blood on whose hands?" is the subtitle on the striking cover of this powerful book, which recounts
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REVIEW BY JEREMY SMITH Nations Without States: Political Communities in a Global AgeBy Montserrat GuibernauSt Leonards NSW: Allen and Unwin, 1999. $43.91 (pb) Nations Without States tackles an area that few others have been willing to touch: a