Recently at an anti-war rally in Perth, I was asked by another participant "is it really a racist war?" George Bush, Tony Blair and their bellicose supporters in Australia, John Howard and Kim Beazley, have argued that the bombing
-
-
Actively Radical TV — Sydney community television's progressive current affairs producers tackle the hard issues from the activist's point of view. CTS Sydney (UHF 31), every Sunday, 9pm. Ph 9565 5522. Visit <http://www.channel31.org> for
-
BY PAT O'BRIEN We all know that land degradation and salinity are some of the biggest environmental problems that Australia faces. Currently in Queensland alone, around 100 times more trees are being cleared than are being planted. So what about
-
International intelligence agencies are keeping their eyes on a new fifth column that has emerged to undermine the war on terrorism. No longer simply content to drop out of the system, heroin users, utilising the proceeds of the
-
'No war, no capitalism' HOBART — "If you're going to say 'no war', you have to say 'no capitalism'", suggested long-time peace activist Jack Lomax at a public meeting organised by Resistance on November 17. Lomax, one of four speakers at the
-
They placed on a growing heapAll the goods they had broughtLater we would each takeWhat we wanted Rosario BaluyotPosthumously famousTen years oldEyes blue as eyeshadowRaw mouthSplit like a tomatoBody not cookedBreasts just starting to riseNo
-
Misery "Some people know how to be people. They do not have to go to school for it. They are just naturally good at it." — Irving Elmer Bell. At Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison, those general population prisoners who have the
-
One of the few bright spots of the federal elections was the strong showing of the Greens, and one of their best performances was by Pamela Curr, the coordinator of the anti-sweatshop group Fairwear and a highly respected activist, who polled 15.8%
-
The rape and sexual assault of women is often used as a weapon of war. There is a connection between military bases and increased sexual assaults on women. Since 1972, there have been hundreds of reported attacks on women, in some cases on women as
-
Lockheed Martin is the largest producer of weapons in human history, the product of a 1995 merger of the world's two largest defence corporations. Their lines of business include government satellites, information technology base systems and launch
-
Private thoughts In the aftermath of September 11 a press "debate" has begun on the value of privacy. Support is being canvassed for a thinly disguised version of George Orwell's Big Brother. The September 13 Washington Post electronic edition,
-
Israel I welcome Philip Mendes' reply (Write On, GLW #471) to my letter in GLW #470. I would suggest he read my letter again. He has tried to confuse my attitude toward the Israeli state with my attitude toward individual Jews in Israel.
-
Since the Coalition's election win on November 10 the backlash against the government's attack on asylum seekers, a policy that was wholeheartedly supported by the federal Labor opposition, has continued to grow. Former Liberal
-
In the November 10 federal election the Socialist Alliance averaged 1% in the 15 House of Representatives seats in which it stood candidates. How good is this result? What does it mean when the Greens nearly doubled their vote from 2.4% to 4.7%? What
News
-
MELBOURNE — "I got involved before the Tampa crisis", says singer Ross McLennan of Melbourne band Snout. "Turning refugees away was terrible — but locking them up, telling lies about them and inciting racism was enough for me to
-
SYDNEY — A truly international flavour permeated the November 13 union-organised protest against corporate globalisation. Initiated by the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) to coincide with the World Trade
-
CANBERRA — Left-wing public service unionists in the national capital have been stymied in their attempts to prevent a union restructure which would dissolve the ACT branch of the Community and Public Sector Union. The ACT
-
MELBOURNE - Young Arab women have hit out at the stereotypes of Islam and the racism they're subjected to. "As an Arab I feel that my race is feared, not trusted and not liked and this is growing. But if the myths being promoted
-
SYDNEY — Citing racist attacks on women perpetrated since September 11, feminists have called a rally and march to oppose war and racism on International Women's Day 2002. "With no real evidence the United States declared many
-
SYDNEY — The November 10 assassination in Jayapura of West Papuan leader Theys Eluay drew condemnation from a wide range of public figures at a press conference in the NSW Parliament House here on November 15. Otto Ondawame, a
-
SYDNEY — Following the success of its ground-breaking campaign in the federal election, the Socialist Alliance in NSW is setting its sights on the March 2003 state election and has launched a campaign to get electoral
-
SYDNEY — If unions hope to really represent working people, they have to break into, regulate and organise the labour hire sector, militant union leader Craig Johnston told a gathering on November 13. Fresh from marching in an
-
GRAFTON — In the first action against the US war in Afghanistan held in the Clarence Valley region of northern NSW, 100 people joined a high school walkout and rallied in Grafton on November 9. The organisers included local
-
HOBART — A Hobart City Council committee decided on November 15 to recommend a motion to the full council that would "continue to refuse requests to sell and distribute newspapers and other goods [in the Elizabeth Street mall]
-
'Die-in' highlights war casualties BRISBANE — Around 50 people gathered in the Queens Street Mall on November 16 for a "die-in" to show solidarity with the Afghan people killed by US bombs. Chalk lines were drawn around their bodies to
-
Deaf man walking "I have not heard a word of criticism from anyone about the way Kim Beazley campaigned over the last five weeks." — ALP national secretary Gary Walsh. To inspire hope among the Liberals "Inspiring hope is often difficult, but
-
The large swing to the Australian Greens on November 10 was the bright spot in the gloom of the Coalition victory. It reflected the growing number of people who are disgusted with the Coalition and Labor parties' inhumane and
-
While the Howard Coalition government was returned with a comfortable majority of seats in the November 10 federal election, there was a significant shift of votes to the left of the traditional parties. This shift was driven by
Analysis
-
No other country in the world has gone to such lengths to close its borders to those fleeing repression and terror than Australia has. No other country turns back leaky fishing boats packed with hundreds of asylum seekers and refuses to take
World
-
BY DANNY FAIRFAX & SEAN HEALY The World Trade Organisation's choice of the Persian emirate of Qatar as the venue for its fourth ministerial meeting was supposed to avoid massive protests. In the end, it only spread them to every corner of the
-
LAHORE, November 13 — The Northern Alliance has taken over with little or no resistance by the Taliban forces. The much-threatened jihad of the Taliban was nowhere to be seen when the Northern Alliance forces arrived. The myth
-
[The following is a slightly abridged version of the speech made by revolutionary Cuba's foreign minister to the UN General Assembly on November 13.] The war in Afghanistan must be stopped. The government of the United States must
-
Until recently, the name "Afghanistan" had an exotic ring to many, but not to US policy-makers. For a decade (1979-1989) they backed the Afghan war against the Soviet Union, contributing to the latter's collapse. The new world
-
JOHANNESBURG — South African "civil society" organisations took their first major step towards organising for the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development. During three days of intense debates, held September 26-28, the Civil
-
JOHANNESBURG — Everyone seems worried about Africa's health and welfare these days. If you have an open mind and regularly read the London Financial Times — or its South African subsidiary Business Day — you would have seen
-
In the game of "chicken", two drivers test their nerves by driving towards each other at catastrophic speed. The first one to swerve to avoid collision loses. In a high-stakes game of "chicken" at the World Trade Organisation summit
-
On November 11, a panel of three judges in Banda Aceh handed down their findings after two weeks of hearings in the case brought by the Indonesian National Police against Kautsar, a central leader of the Acehnese freedom movement.
-
Al Gore was the choice of Florida's voters — whether one counts hanging chads or dimpled chads. That was the core finding of the eight news organisations that conducted a review of disputed Florida ballots. Gore won even if one
-
The Northern Alliance on November 12 created a huge problem for the United States by seizing Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, before a post-Taliban government could be cobbled together. US and British diplomats are hard at work to create
-
He's wanted for terrorist acts that caused death and injury. Believed to be hiding in the mountains, his exact whereabouts are unknown. He kills in the name of God, and he's on the FBI's most wanted list. Sound familiar? His
-
@box text intr = Dita Sari, chairperson of the Indonesian National Front or Labour Struggles (FNPBI) was released from police custody on the evening of November 9. She had been arrested, along with 30 workers, earlier in the day when police violently
-
The world's largest mining company, BHP Billiton, might be about to discover the limits of its power, after a global union representing 23 million metalworkers launched a worldwide campaign against its labour and environmental
-
US corporations aren't even subtle about it. Waving a flag and carrying a big shovel, corporate interests are scooping up government benefits and taxpayer money in an unprecedented fashion while the public is preoccupied with the
-
CHICAGO — After September 11, people in the US have widespread and understandable fears about hijacked airplanes turned into flying bombs and anthrax sent through the mail. But few understand the scale of the danger unleashed last
-
Delegations from more than 160 countries have finalised rules on the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions at a conference from October 29 to November 9 in Marrakech, Morocco. The treaty commits 38 industrialised countries to
Culture
-
REVIEW BY TROY SAXBY Marxism, Socialism & ReligionWritings by Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, VI Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg and Leon TrotskyResistance Books, Sydney 2001158 pages, $14.95Available at Resistance Bookshops (see page 2) or visit