Issue 466

News

BY VIRGINIA BROWN PERTH — Thirty refugee supporters protested outside a meeting addressed by immigration minister Philip Ruddock at Subiaco Oval on October 3. Organised by the Refugee Rights Action Network, the peaceful protest highlighted
WOLLONGONG — Six-hundred residents, unionists and environmentalists voted at a September 29 protest to keep the pressure on to preserve the Sandon Point wetlands. The rally was called by the Northern Illawarra Residents Action Group in response the
BY NICK FREDMAN LISMORE — The first public discussion organised by the Lismore branch of the Socialist Alliance on the theme "Should the refugees stay?" on September 29 was a resounding success. A highlight of the meeting was a statement sent
BY NICK FREDMAN LISMORE — Two hundred people participated in the September 29 Global Justice Carnival, originally intended as a pre-Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting (CHOGM) convergence for the Northern Rivers area. The carnival demanded
BY SARAH STEPHEN Despite being pushed off the front pages by the September 11 attacks in the US, the Australian government's scandalous treatment of asylum seekers has continued unabated. The government's "war on refugees" reached a new level of
BY BRONWEN BEECHEY& KATHY NEWNAM ADELAIDE — Following the brutal attack on detained refugees during a September 22 solidarity protest outside Woomera detention centre, a refugee action collective has been set up in Adelaide. The police launched
BY NATALIE ZIRNGAST MELBOURNE — Protesters continue to picket the construction of a gas pipeline which will run through Merri Creek, despite an Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) ruling on September 20 overturning a green ban placed on the
BY SHUA GARFIELD HOBART — Anti-Discrimination Commissioner Jocelyn Scutt ruled on September 21 that the Tasmania University Union (TUU) will not be allowed to restrict the newly created men's officer position to men. The men's officer position
BY PHIL SHANNON CANBERRA — Payroll services, including the production and delivery of fortnightly payslips, for staff in the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care have been outsourced during the previous year to a private company. In
BY ZANNY BEGG SYDNEY — During the last six years the number of prisoners in NSW has risen by 21.3%. On September 2 NSW Premier Bob Carr announced a $162.5 million spending program on new jails which could lead to a further 16% increase in the
BY JO WILLIAMS MELBOURNE — Supporting a three-day hunger strike in defence of refugee rights on September 22, I was dismayed to be the target of some of the increasing physical and verbal violence against refugees and their supporters. Jorge
BY ANDREW HALL CANBERRA — Despite the long weekend, 250 people turned up to Garema Place on September 30 to oppose the military build-up around Afghanistan. This follows a 500-strong rally on September 20 calling for peace. A meeting called at

World

BY AHMAD NIMER RAMALLAH — In the week after the meeting between Palestinian Authority head Yasser Arafat and Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres on September 26 and the announcement of a much-vaunted joint cease-fire, 30 Palestinians were
BY BRUNO RODRIGUEZ [The following is an abridged version of a speech by Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, Cuba's permanent representative to the United Nations, delivered at the UN General Assembly session on October 1, 2001.] In a speech delivered just
BY FAROOQ TARIQ LAHORE — Adil is a leader of the Afghanistan Labour Revolutionary Organisation who lives in exile in Pakistan. He secretly visited the Afghan city of Jalalabad on September 16-19 to assess the situation and to consult with his
BY NORM DIXON On September 26, police opened fire on protesting residents in Tafelsig, Cape Town, who had mobilised to prevent 1800 households' water supplies being cut off by the Cape Town Unicity council. At least 15 people were wounded in the
BY EVA CHENG During 1999-2000, four of the Asian countries most seriously hit by the 1997-98 economic crisis — Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia and Thailand — appeared to be recovering sharply. But things swiftly turned sour at the end of last
SAN FRANCISCO — We've all heard about the incidents: "Middle Eastern-looking" passengers being walked off aircraft because of "fear" by other passengers or flight attendants or pilots. At San Francisco's airport up to 10 people daily have suffered

Culture

According to a report in the September 15 Los Angeles Times, the politically charged rock band Rage Against the Machine had the bulletin board service on its official web site closed after fans made postings — including one reportedly threatening
reflection of the bridge in the train windowwhere it meets other things: most beautifulsad blue harbour in an afternoon light thatcan barely keep itself from darkness; sky-scrapers, hairs of the city standing on endwith all that electricity; ghosts
A ConversationBy David WilliamsonDirected by Sandra BatesEnsemble Theatre, SydneyUntil November 3 REVIEW BY BRENDAN DOYLE The theme of violence against innocents, and the justice or impunity that follows, has never been more timely. The real
REVIEW BY PHIL SHANNON Her Own Woman: The Life of Mary WollstonecraftBy Diane JacobsAbacus, 2001333 pages, $28 (pb) A "hyena in petticoats", wrote London literary eminence Horace Walpole in 1795 in a fit of misogynist pique against Mary