Elites
Lately we've heard a lot of criticism of "the elite". Strangely, much of this criticism has come from members of the right-wing media and political elite.
If the complaint against "elite" opinion is that it's wrong, the fact that it's
-
-
Amnesty International's refugee coordinator, Dr Graham Thom, and former Labor Senator and United Nations Association of Australia president Professor Margaret Reynolds are among those who have backed a call for a royal commission
-
More people die in work-related accidents than on roads each year in this country. According to the construction workers' union, as many as 30% of employers underpay their insurance premiums. In June, New South Wales was rocked
-
The future direction of the Community and Public Sector Union is to be decided December 3-7 as branches vote on whether to accept restructuring plans proposed by the CPSU leadership. The proposed changes — the concentration of
-
Fanta Babies There are all sorts of breasts in the world Girls wearing mud breaststo induce the growth of their own Silicone for the dissatisfied, the sorcerous Hormones for the boys — soft twelve-year-old breasts And in this one very
-
The report into violence in Aboriginal communities in Cape York, presented by Tony Fitzgerald, has opened the floodgate of "causes" and "solutions" to the alcoholism crisis that has faced indigenous Australians since white
-
Monopolies don't need to innovate The October launch of Windows XP, Microsoft's new operating system, had been anticipated as the saviour of the personal computer industry. (An operating system is a piece of software that turns a computer from a
-
In the past three months, the Australian government's treatment of asylum seekers has caused outrage among many in the Australian and international communities. No other government has gone to such great lengths to close its borders to people
-
When the left-wing Peoples Democratic Party seized power in Afghanistan in April 1978, its membership was probably under 10,000 and mostly concentrated in the major cities. To mobilise broader support for the revolution and to help
-
Drug user advocate groups have long argued that the Northern Territory should replace its methadone reduction program, which only gives opiate users access to the drug for three months, with a long-term methadone maintenance
-
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
-
For me it was the defining image of the year — Bob Carr on the steps of the NSW Parliament House giving the finger to unionists protesting against his workers' compensation cuts. It captured the ALP's contempt for ordinary
-
The First Ladies' Club of Hypocrisy If you believed their press comments, Laura Bush and Cherie Blair, the wives, respectively, of US President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, care deeply about the women of Afghanistan.
-
If the ANZ bank's advertising campaign is right and "nobody cares who came second", then Australian political columnists, politicians and academics have been wasting vast amounts of ink since the November 10 federal election. The
-
BRISBANE — Renowned US activist Angela Davis joined dozens of activists, solicitors and researchers working inside and outside prison who gathered here from November 28-30 to discuss the impact of imprisonment on women. Famous
News
-
Thirty detainees at the Maribyrnong detention centre issued a statement on November 23 drawing attention to their treatment at the hands of security company Australasian Correctional Management and the immigration department, claiming that, in recent
-
SYDNEY — Thousands are expected to attend an International Human Rights Day rally, march and festival on December 9, which organisers the Network Opposing War and Racism say will both oppose the carnage in Afghanistan and express
-
Australian workers are second to South Korea in working the longest hours. They may soon be in first place, as South Korea is legislating to reduce working hours. With long working hours reaching epidemic proportions, the
-
Human rights commissioner Sev Ozdowski announced on November 28 that he would conduct an inquiry into the effect of immigration detention on children, in particular investigating whether Australia's detention practices are in
-
BY ZANNY BEGG SYDNEY — More than 1500 people gathered in Newtown for the Reclaim the Streets festival and march on December 1, protesting against the dominance of cars on city streets and the lack of control people have over their environment.
-
MELBOURNE — Premier Steve Bracks sent a letter to Australian Manufacturing Workers Union national secretary Doug Cameron on November 29, complaining about the actions of the Victorian AMWU's Workers' First leadership. Bracks
-
Would you like enriched uranium with that? "Will the product(s) be used in connection with weapons of mass destruction, i.e., nuclear applications, missile technology, or chemical or biological weapons purposes? O Yes O No." — Final of four
-
SYDNEY — The New South Wales Teachers Federation is in the midst of a bitter dispute over the stance the union has taken on Israel's occupation of Palestine, with the federation's executive standing by its opposition to Israeli
-
HOBART — Hobart City Council has been placed under pressure by the continuing distribution of Green Left Weekly in the Elizabeth Street Mall, despite a ban upheld by the council on November 26. The intent behind the motion
-
CANBERRA — For months "Fort Badja" has been a base of operations for environmentalists seeking to stop the logging of New South Wales' south-east forests. But that changed on November 20, when 30 police removed six forest
-
SYDNEY — At meetings held by the six Socialist Alliance branches in Sydney following the November 10 federal election, alliance members began to assess the election campaign results and discuss the activities of the alliance in
-
CANBERRA — In a surprise move, John Stanhope, the chief minister of the new ACT Labor government, has announced that he will remove foetal images from a compulsory information booklet shown to women seeking an abortion in the
-
BRISBANE —."Aboriginal and Torres Strait peoples have had a strong relationship with Green Left Weekly over the years", indigenous leader Sam Watson told 80 GLW supporters on December 1. The audience had gathered to enjoy food and entertainment
-
@caption =PENRITH - As part of an ongoing campaign to challenge the ALP state government's proposal to build a new women's prison at South Windsor, the No New Women's Prison Campaign held a week long vigil near the prison construction site from
-
HOBART — The socialist youth group Resistance organised a successful "Rock Against War" on December 1, with the support of local "original bands" opposed to the US-led "war on terrorism". Pictured is Lab A. Photo by Alex Bainbridge.From Green
-
SYDNEY — Supporters of Tibetan independence have claimed a "small victory" against China's occupation of the country after a cultural exhibition they called a "propaganda tour" was cancelled early. Thirty people, including
-
BRISBANE — "Our bombs and missiles will be as effective [in fighting terrorism] as fighting fire with kerosene", retired brigadier Adrian D'Hage told a packed Brisbane Town Hall, filled with 250 people for a November 27 "Public
-
MELBOURNE — Reacting to a crackdown on asylum seekers in the Maribyrnong detention centre, 20 activists from the Refugee Action Collective staged a protest action outside the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs'
Analysis
-
Ever since the US war against Vietnam provoked normally passive civilians into demonstrating against the war, the ruling class has been acutely aware that when it wants to wage war against another country, it needs to control the information which
World
-
More than two and a half million students in the schools and universities answered a strike call all over Spain on November 28, 200,000 of them pouring onto the streets to support demonstrations organised by the Marxist-led
-
On October 19, the body of human rights attorney Digna Ochoa was found in her Mexico City office. She had been shot to death at point blank range in the back of her head. Next to her body was an obscenity-filled letter threatening
-
George Bush has said that anyone who "houses and supports terrorists" is themselves a terrorist — so maybe people should take a look in the US president's own backyard to find one. Fort Benning, Georgia, is the site of the US's
-
A cursory perusal of the political events in South Africa over the last two months might leave one with the impression that there is a fundamental political battle raging between the South African Communist Party and the African
-
CHICAGO — "We watch the X-Files on television, but we never thought it would happen here." That's what Pakistani native Asif Kazi told reporters after FBI agents came crashing through the front door of his Chester, Pennsylvania,
-
On September 20, 1996, the Pentagon released to the public seven manuals prepared by the US military and used between 1987 and 1991 for intelligence training in Latin America and at the School of the Americas. From start to
-
The United Nations General Assembly, for the 10th consecutive year, voted overwhelmingly on November 27 for an end to the US economic blockade against Cuba The vote was 167 to 3, identical to last year's record vote. Only the United States, Israel
-
The German Greens, junior partner in a coalition government with the Social Democratic Party (SPD), voted on November 16 in the German parliament to support the deployment of 3900 German troops for the United States-led "war on
-
Tian Chua was detained by Malaysian authorities on April 10 under the Internal Security Act which has been in force in that country since 1960. Under the ISA, the Mahathir government is empowered to jail any person without trial
-
In B-grade splatter films, even after the evil villain has been sliced, diced and dunked in lava, you just know he'll be back for the sequel. It's the same with corporate plots to take over the world — because the Multilateral
-
Afghanistan's proximity to the Caspian region has fuelled speculation that US President George Bush's bombing, and now invasion, of the country has been motivated primarily by a desire for control of the Caspian's rich oil and gas
-
The provisions in a future agreement on investment allowing corporations to sue governments for measures which affect their revenues would likely be based on chapter 11 of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Cases which have
-
LONDON — Polite society's bombers may not have to wait long for round two. The US vice-president, Dick Cheney, warned last week that America could take action against "40 to 50 countries". Somalia, allegedly a "haven" for al Qaeda,
-
SAN FRANCISCO — "America has a message for the nations of the world. If you harbour terrorists, you are terrorists. If you train or arm a terrorist, you are a terrorist. If you feed a terrorist or fund a terrorist, you're a
-
The first of an expected 1100 US marines began landing in southern Afghanistan on November 25, ferried from US ships in the Arabian Sea and equipped with helicopter gunships, artillery, armoured vehicles and Harrier jump jets. As they
-
After the leader of their union was shot down at the gate into the plant where they worked, Edgar Paez and his co-workers at the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Carepa, Colombia, tried for four years to get the country's courts to bring
Culture
-
One Night the MoonDirected by Rachel PerkinsWritten by Rachel Perkins and John RomerilFeaturing Paul Kelly, Kelton Pell and Chris HaywoodMusic by Paul Kelly, Mairead Hannan, Kev Carmody and Ruby HunterAt major cinemas REVIEW BY ANGELA LUVERA One
-
It might have begun as a story in the mind of JK Rowling, but today Harry Potter is an industry that turns over more than many countries' gross domestic product and has multinational corporations falling over themselves for a cut of
-
It's A Groove Thing!Rosie LedetMaison De Soul Records<http://www.floydsrecords.com> REVIEW BY BILL NEVINS ALBUQUERQUE — It's a hot summer night at a south-west juke-joint. Rosie Ledet is on stage. Her head cocked to the right, black
-
Cover-up: the inside story of the Balibo FiveBy Jill JoliffeScribe BooksMelbourne, 2001360 pages, $35 REVIEW BY JO ELLIS It was close to dawn on October 16, 1975, when journalists Greg Shackleton, Gary Cunningham, Tony Stewart, Brian Peters and
-
I want you to understand my life and my vanishing identityhaving lost the meaning of my life — now I survive ...it is like being a child again I am trying to tell you my needs while I am learning to speak againI am discovering my new world and