Issue 460

BY JEREMY SMITH GEELONG — Five hundred people rallied on August 9 to protest against Labor Premier Steve Bracks, in town to open the Geelong Sheraton Hotel. Most of the crowd were workers at Target whose jobs are under threat. Unionists in the

Students fight casualisation NEWCASTLE — Resistance is supporting a campaign to save the fine arts faculty at Newcastle University. Eighty students from the faculty attended a meeting to oppose the forced casualisation of teaching staff and

BY RUSSELL PICKERING SYDNEY — When 16 solidarity activists, including a number of children, began their occupation of the Colombian consulate on the morning of August 8, they were protesting rampant violations of human rights in the South

BY VIV MILEY Sacked academic Ted Steele and the National Tertiary Education Union have won their federal court case against Wollongong University, in a decision the union believes is an important win for academic freedom. Steele and the NTEU

BY CHRIS SLEE MELBOURNE — The Australian Tax Office is preparing to sack thousands of its workers, following a 9% cut in the department's funding announced in the May federal budget. The tax office has taken on several thousand new workers in

BY SARAH PEART MELBOURNE — "We need to fight in the factories and in the communities to build a new international movement that is strong enough to take on the bosses' system", Martin Mitterhauser, an anti-corporate activist just back from last

BY FEDERICO FUENTES MELBOURNE — Students have begun to organise for the biggest possible blockade of the Commonwealth Business Forum on October 3 to 5. On nearly all university and TAFE campuses, students have formed collectives to help build the

BY PETER BOYLE SYDNEY — As I rocked up to Sydney University for my usual Green Left Weekly sales spot on August 9, three university security officers were attempting to close down the Socialist Worker club's literature stall in the library

BY STUART MARTIN WOLLONGONG — Determined to outsource maintenance work at its Port Kembla steelworks, BHP executives announced on August 7 that 436 jobs in the general and rail maintenance crews are to be axed and the contracts for them handed to

BY SAM FROST Oil giant ExxonMobil's operations in the Indonesian province of Aceh are to be examined by a US court, after 11 Acehnese filed a suit against the company, claiming to have suffered human rights abuses at the hands of military units

Seven years after the African National Congress swept to office on the promise of "a better life for all", the patience of South Africa's working class and poor is wearing thin. Across the country, community organisation and mobilisation is beginning

BY SEAN HEALY Humans have made all kinds of nifty things — the axe, the wheel, the spinning jenny, the aeroplane, the pill, the Pentium III computer chip — and achieved all sorts of things with them. But these inventions have not freed society.

BY EVA CHENG Companies in the US planned to lay off 205,975 workers in July, 65% more than in June. These new cuts bring the total US job losses so far this year to nearly a million, three times those over the same period last year. Such cuts are

BY MAX LANE Military generals and figures linked to the regime of former dictator Suharto have done well in the first cabinet of newly-elected President Megawati Sukarnoputri, which was announced on August 9. In a signal move, Sukarnoputri has

Starting From ZeroA documentary by Mandy King & Fabio CavadiniScreening on SBS, Friday, August 17, 8.30pm REVIEW BY FIONA CROCKFORD Starting from Zero profiles the return home in October 1999 of three East Timorese exiles following the decisive

Just ArtShowing August 8-1531 Woods Street, Darwin REVIEW BY JO ELLIS Opened by Dadang Christano on August 8, this eclectic collection of artworks by local and international artists, explored the themes of democracy, peace and freedom. Taring