Issue 475

News

BY STEPHEN O'BRIEN NEWCASTLE — A memorial service for long-time activist and socialist Elfriede Burghardt was held here on November 27. Burghardt was born in Germany in 1918 and grew up as part of an anti-fascist family living under the Nazis.
PERTH - On December 7, activists from the Resistance socialist youth organisation staged a "die in" outside the Defence Force Recruitment Centre to protest against the war in Afghanistan. The protesters later walked through the city malls carrying a
BY DANIEL OOI SYDNEY — On December 8, 80 people converged on the Resistance Centre in Chippendale for a day of films and discussion about the past and present anti-war movements. The "teach-in", organised by Resistance, drew participants from as
Union backs 'no war' resolution BRISBANE — The Queensland branch conference of the Community and Public Sector Union on December 1-2 strongly endorsed a resolution calling on the Australian government to immediately withdraw all military
BY ALISON DELLIT SYDNEY — Arriving at Parramatta station for a Green Left Weekly selling spot during the afternoon peak hour rush on December 6, I was surprised to see a dog roaming among the commuters near the ticket gates. Dogs are normally
No racism! BY TAMARA PEARSON Across Australia, thousands rallied on December 9 to commemorate International Human Rights Day. While the theme of the event varied across the country, the dominant demands were: "Stop the war in Afghanistan!" and
BY MIKE BYRNE BRISBANE — A new group has been established in Queensland to influence the Australian Labor Party's policy on refugees and immigration. Queensland Labor for Refugees was launched on November 27 at a meeting attended by 35
BY MARCEL CAMERON BRISBANE — The Queen and British Prime Minister Tony Blair will both attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) to be held in the Queensland resort town of Coolum from March 2-4, 2002. The elite summit was to
BY JIM GREEN A South Australian government report has revealed that trial mining at the Honeymoon uranium mine in the north-east of the state in 1999 led to the leakage of a radioactive acid leach solution through an "impervious" clay barrier.
BY ALEX BAINBRIDGE HOBART — Two weeks after the Hobart City Council banned the distribution of Green Left Weekly in the Elizabeth Street Mall, the paper continues to be distributed there daily. As of December 9, there had been no arrests or fines
BY PIP HINMAN SYDNEY — The Australian Press Council on November 30 denounced the federal government's restrictions on media access to asylum seekers. Council chairperson Professor Ken McKinnon accused the government of "severely restricting the
BY PIP HINMAN SYDNEY — On the eve of immigration minister Philip Ruddock's departure for Geneva to attend a landmark ministerial meeting, beginning on December 12, of signatory states to the 1951 refugee convention, refugee rights activists have
BY NICK FREDMAN LISMORE — Sugar mill workers across northern New South Wales have won a substantial victory over Sunshine Sugar. The company had attempted to cut the workers' real pay and demanded compulsory work on public holidays in recent
BY KAMALA EMANUEL HOBART — Yet another crisis has hit the provision of abortion services in Tasmania: in the past month doctors performing the procedure in the state's public hospitals have withdrawn the service fearing possible prosecution. In
This is the last issue of Green Left Weekly for 2001. The next issue — #476 — will be published on January 14.From Green Left Weekly, December 12, 2001. Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.
BY TAMARA PEARSON SYDNEY — "The Australian government, supported by the Labor Party, turns away, terrorises and attacks defenceless people who are themselves fleeing terror, war and persecution", declared Max Lane, coordinator of Action in
BY ADAM BAKER BRISBANE — The US military machines, the oil companies which are central to the US's war aims in Central Asia and the Israeli government which brutalises the Palestinians all came under sustained fire from activists at an anti-war
BY MARIA VOUKELATOS MELBOURNE - Anti-war student and community activists met at the University of Melbourne on December 2-3 to discuss the challenges facing the anti-war movement. The conference, organised by the National Union of Students (NUS)
BY ROB MILLER MELBOURNE — In its latest attempt to crush unions, Yallourn Energy is once again attempting to provoke a dispute that will threaten power supplies in Victoria, this time by walking away from an in-principle agreement reached with

World

BY NORM DIXON Speculation is mounting over where Washington will select to be the next target in its bogus "war on terrorism". However, the question may have already been answered: it's Palestine. In the wake of three suicide bombing attacks in
BY MAX WATTS For 10 years the Bougainvilleans have fought, with bullets and guns, against the world's second largest mining multinational: Rio Tinto. Rio Tinto hid behind multiple veils. The war was — the media told us — a civil war between
BY SUSAN PRICE MANILA — While the spin doctors of neo-liberal globalisation promote its supposed "benefits" to women, participants from 13 countries at the Asian Workshop on Women and Globalisation arrived at an alternative conclusion. The
BY SAMYA NASSER JERUSALEM — While there was never any doubt that the secular groups within the Palestine Liberation Organisation conducted the intifada of 1987, the Islamist Hamas sees itself as the leader of the present one. The Hamas leaders
BY MAX LANE The cities and towns of the northern province of Aceh were almost like ghost towns on December 4, the 25th anniversary of the GAM, the Free Aceh Movement. In the two largest cities, Banda Aceh and Lhokseumawe, all public transport
BY SUSAN PRICE The unity statement of the International South Group Network included some far-reaching elements: "The 'race to the bottom' character of economic globalisation ... may have increased the participation of the female labour force in
BY MUMIA ABU-JAMAL PHILADELPHIA — With the end-game emerging into view of a bomb-drenched Afghanistan that is now apparently newly pacified, we are seeing the re-emergence of Iraq as America's demon-of-the-month. The justification for this new
BY AARON BENEDEK Japan's constitution "renounces the use of force to settle international disputes". Nevertheless, on November 25, three Japanese warships — a supply ship carrying 130 troops, a minesweeper and a destroyer — were deployed to
BY SEAN HEALY The crisis-wracked Argentine economy looks likely to take another battering after the International Monetary Fund on December 6 announced it blocked a US$1.3 billion loan which the government had hoped would lessen its financial
BY SUSAN PRICE MANILA — November 30 — Bonifacio Day, and this year the 129th birthday of one of the Philippines' national proletarian heroes — became a day and night of mobilisation and protest by radical forces against the government of
BY ALISON DELLIT Even before "anti-terrorist" legislation, increasing powers to the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, has been publicly released, attacks on civil liberties in Australia are increasing. The legislation, first proposed
BY ROB MILLER If there was an Academy Awards ceremony for terrorism, Israel would sweep every category — and every acceptance speech would have to thank the government of United States, whose generous support has made Israel the most successful
BY RICHARD PITHOUSE DURBAN — South Africans spend their weekends at funerals of children and people in their 20s and 30s. In some hospitals doctors report that as many as 70% of their patients are HIV+. The country's best medical scientists
BY JONATHAN GADIR In a ceremony at the Swedish parliament on December 7, the Right Livelihood Award, generally known as the alternative Nobel Peace Prize, was awarded to Gush Shalom, the Israeli Peace Bloc, and personally to its tireless
BY AHMAD NIMER RAMALLAH — Commentary in the capitalist mass media about the measures taken by Israel against the Palestinian population in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the wake of the December 1-2 suicide bombings has been strikingly
BY SEAN HEALY US President George Bush junior always promised that his "war on terrorism" would be waged on many fronts, in every corner of the world. And he's delivered: because, just as the war in Afghanistan seems to be nearing an end, the war

Culture

@head2 = Billy Connolly versus GodBilly Connolly versus God The Man Who Sued GodDirected by Ben GannonStarring Billy Connolly and Judy DavisAt major cinemas REVIEW BY NATALIE ZIRNGAST Along with movies like The Castle, The Bank, Erin Brockovich
BY JOHN NEBAUER JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy has defined the parameters of the fantasy genre since its first volume was published in 1954. It helped inspire fantasy role-playing that began with Dungeons and Dragons in the 1970s. It was
BY AZIZ CHOUDRY An Evergreen IslandA film by Fabio Cavadini and Mandy KingFrontyard FilmsOrder from <cavadini@tpgi.com.au> We are swamped with information about the impact of corporate capitalism, structural adjustment and the power and

Editorial

@box text intr = Capitalist governments are no friends of civil liberties and democratic rights at the best of times. Since the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center in New York, they have been seizing the opportunity all around the world to