@PARAFILTER =
DSP strengthens global solidarity
BY ALISON DELLIT
"In these times, which side you stand on becomes a crucial test. There is no halfway house, no sitting on the fence. That is the challenge that Resistance and the Democratic
Issue 476
News
Among the campaigning plans and activities projected at the conference were:
Building large, vibrant anti-war and pro-refugee demonstrations on May 1 in every major city around Australia.
Support for the second Asia-Pacific Internationakl
BY DANIEL JARDINE
SYDNEY — Ten thousand tonnes of toxic hexachlorobenzene are stored at the Orica plant in Botany, in Sydney's eastern suburbs. The HCB is the by-product of more than 30 years of the production of chlorinated solvents by both
BY SARAH CLEARY
HOBART — Abortion services suspended in Tasmanian public hospitals in November 2001 have not yet resumed, despite a pre-Christmas emergency sitting of state parliament to resolve the crisis.
The services were withdrawn following
BY SARAH STEPHEN
The UN High Commission for Refugees on January 8 expressed the view that a significant proportion of asylum seekers being housed on the tiny Pacific island of Nauru will be found to be refugees, and that Australia has a special
BY ALEX BAINBRIDGE
HOBART — On December 17 the Hobart City Council denied a permit for the sale of Green Left Weekly in Elizabeth Street Mall. It was the third time the council had denied such a permit in little over three weeks.
The council
BY GRAHAM MATTHEWS& NICK EVERETT
There were no spare seats at the Capitol in central Melbourne as 650 people crammed the theatre for an evening with filmmaker and journalist John Pilger on December 15.
The occasion was the big-screen premiere of
World
Green Left Weekly's SARAH STEPHEN spoke to TAFADZWA CHOTO, national coordinator of Zimbabwe's International Socialist Organisation, about the issue of HIV/AIDS when she was in Australia in October.
Zimbabwe has the highest level of HIV infection
BY JOHN PILGER
LONDON — Since September 11, the "war on terrorism" has provided a pretext for the rich countries, led by the United States, to further their dominance over world affairs. By spreading "fear and respect", as a Washington Post
BY MAX LANE
The Indonesian economy is in a truly parlous state. The combined public and private foreign debt is US$150 billion, standing at 110% of GDP, and more than 40% of the government's revenues are devoted to interest payments on foreign
BY DAVID BACON
MEXICO CITY — In the 1930s and '40s, General Lazaro Cardenas made land reform and nationalisation of economic resources symbols of Mexican national sovereignty. Independence from the colossus of the north, Cardenas said, meant
Excerpts from a December 31 statement issued by Farooq Tariq, general secretary of Labour Party Pakistan:
A real war could erupt between the two nuclear powers, Pakistan and India ... both countries are speaking the war language ... initial steps
BY NORM DIXON
At every turn since the fall of Kabul and Kandahar, Washington has justified its prolonged bombing and steadily increased military presence in Afghanistan and surrounding countries with claims that the US military's sophisticated
BY EVA CHENG
Riding on the back of US President George Bush's "war on terrorism", the Hindu fundamentalist Indian regime led by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Pakistan's military dictator General Pervez Musharraf are massing troops along
BY SARAH STEPHEN
"Women should be home taking care of their husbands and children, chained to the stove, not working in my stores." This sentiment may have been commonly expressed in the 1950s, but the statement is recent, and comes from the
BY PETER GELLERT
MEXICO CITY — Human rights organisations and the Mexican left have long argued that more than 600 political activists were detained by government security forces from the late 1960s to the 1990s and never heard from again. Many
BY SARAH STEPHEN
A January 7 ruling by 2nd District Utah Judge Michael Allphin allowed the prosecution of a man accused of killing his pregnant ex-wife for the murder of the foetus. Roger MacGuire allegedly shot Susan MacGuire, on January 15, 2001,
BY MONICA MOOREHEADAND LARRY HOLMES
US Federal District Judge William Yohn, in a 272-page ruling issued on December 18, threw out the death sentence imposed on former Black Panther and radical journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal at his 1982 trial. However,
Memories of former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright's callous 1996 declaration that the deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children due to US-sponsored sanctions were "on balance ... worth it" were evoked on January 8 when the US envoy to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, touched down in Kabul.
1947: Pakistan invaded Kashmir on the basis that 80% of its population is Muslim. In response, Kashmir's Hindu feudal ruler sought protection from India.
1948: India and Pakistan fought over Kashmir, resulting in each controlling roughly half of
Culture
Holy War Inc: Inside the Secret World of Osama bin LadenBy Peter L. BergenWeidenfeld & Nicholson, 2001$29.95
REVIEWED BY CHRIS SLEE
Despite serious limitations, Peter Bergen's Holy War Inc. is a useful biography of Osama bin Laden. While Bergen
REVIEW BY SHUA GARFIELD
Living in these TimesDavid RovicsAvailable at <http://www.davidrovics.com>
It is certainly unorthodox to begin a cd with a song about a firefighter being crushed and burned to death by the collapsing World Trade
Villa and Zapata: A Biography of the Mexican RevolutionBy Frank McLynnPimlico, 2001459 pages, $38 (pb)
REVIEW BY PHIL SHANNON
It was an extraordinary moment in Mexico's history. In elegant teahouses in Mexico City, startled young waitresses
Last year the governmentCreated 6.8 million secretsRoughly the same numberAs the previous yearBut that doesn't take into accountThe effects of the warSaid an annual reportIssued yesterday
I promised I would never tellBut they cut offA man's balls
Editorial
It is one year into the 21st century, but you could be forgiven for thinking we were back in the 19th century. In the imperialist capitals there is ominous talk of the "clash of civilisations" and the need for the "enlightened" West to lend a firm