BY CAMILO JORQUERA
GEELONG — Almost 1000 people, mainly members of the the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), gathered to commemorate May Day on May 1 for the first time
Issue 491
News
BY TAMARA PEARSON & SIMON TAYLER
SYDNEY — In a passionate show of defiance against police and media condemnation of militant protests, pro-refugee, anti-corporate and pro-Palestine activists converged on the Sydney offices of Australasian
BY JAMES CAULFIELD
CANBERRA — The Liberal Party received a "Racists of the Year" award from 150 protesters on May 1, during the M1 rally and justice tour. Awards were presented by a "neo-liberal grim reaper" to several companies and organisations
BY KIM BULLIMORE
SYDNEY — Calling for a free Palestine, 500 women and children — many wearing traditional dress and carrying olive branches — rallied in Hyde Park on May 4.
Organised by the Palestine Human Rights Campaign, participants then
100 protest for M1 in Adelaide
ADELAIDE Darcie Gannon reports that 100 people attended M1 protests in
Adelaide outside the department of racism the Department of Immigration,
Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs. Protesters demanded an
Green Left Weekly spoke to M1 protesters at the morning blockades of Australasian Correctional Management in Sydney and the immigration department in Melbourne, about why they decided to protest.
Kylie Evans, a student at Melbourne University said
BY PIP HINMAN
SYDNEY Irene Xavier, a labour activist from Malaysia, warned a
May 3 public meeting that any Australian anti-terrorism laws will go
beyond their stated purpose. Xavier, from the Friends of Women Organisation,
and Mabel
BY DALE MILLS
On the M1 demonstration in Sydney on May 1 2002 a number of concerns
were expressed about the police. Individuals who have complaints should
date and sign a written statement detailing the nature of their complaint.
Please be
BY TIM STEWART & JULIE GJENGEDAL
BRISBANE — More than 400 people protested on May 1, as two separate actions demanded workers' and refugees' rights and freedom from corporate tyranny.
Two hundred activists arrived at the city's main immigration
BY EMMA CLANCY
PERTH — "How long will the US continue to cover up Israel's war crimes?" Ali Kazak, head of the Palestinian Delegation in Australia, asked M1 protesters. "We cannot have two sets of principles, one for Israel and one for everyone
World
BY JOHN PILGER
LONDON — More than a month ago, I wrote about Venezuela [see GLW #485], pointing out that little had been reported in this country about the achievements of Hugo Chavez and the threat to his reforming government from the usual
BY MICHELLE BREAR
SUVA — Parading as a champion of the poor and landless, Fiji's Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase is backing two parliamentary bills that will transfer government-controlled land to the Native Land Trust Board (NLTB), the authority
BY ROHAN PEARCE
The outrages committed by Israel, not just in recent months, but since its creation in 1948, would not have been possible without the aid and protection of the United States.
Although some in the Israeli government have expressed
BY LEO ZEILIG
Madagascar is best known for its unique wildlife and as a destination for Western tourists, who are keen, according to a recently published tourist guide, for a "taste of the exotic". However, largely ignored by the international
BY KAREN FLETCHER
HAVANA It's every host's nightmare: US President George Bush refuses
to come if Cuban President Fidel Castro is there, and there will be the
usual pack of terrorists and hired assassins who try to murder Castro whenever
BY NORM DIXON
Professor Hans Koechler, the UN secretary-general's observer to Libyan citizen Abdelbaset Ali Mohamed al Megrahi's appeal hearing against his conviction for murder of the 270 people killed in the 1988 Lockerbie air disaster, on March
BY EVA CHENG
General Pervez Musharraf has claimed that 70% of those eligible to
vote in Pakistan's April 30 referendum participated, and that 97% endorsed
his bid to remain the country's president for a further five years.
However, a
BY AHMED NIMER
RAMALLAH — One month into Israel's all-out assault on the Palestinian people of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Palestinian activists are attempting to address questions that are being more sharply posed than at any time in the
BY DON FITZ
The Bush administration found September 11 to be a golden opportunity to push for control of world resources, to crush political dissent, and to trample the Bill of Rights.
The cornerstone of its propaganda offensive is portrayal of
BY LANCE SELFA
CHICAGO — People all over Latin America must have let out a hearty laugh when they heard US national security adviser Condoleezza Rice lecture Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez about his post-coup need to "uphold constitutional
BY NORM DIXON
Iraq's President Saddam Hussein is the only leader in the world
to have used chemical weapons against his own people this has become
a mantra repeated by US President George Bush, British PM Tony Blair, Bush's
political
BY LISA MACDONALD
A strike of public sector workers, launched on April 15 in Quetta, Baluchistan, continues to paralyse life in the city.
Led by the militant Baluchistan Civil Secretariat Staff Association (BCSSA), the strike involves paramedics,
Culture
Chaplin: His Life and ArtBy David RobinsonPenguin, 2001892 pages, $33 (pb)
REVIEW BY PHIL SHANNON
It would have been Charlie Chaplin's greatest performance. "I'd have turned up in my tramp outfit — baggy pants, bowler hat and cane — and when
REVIEW BY JONATHAN STRAUSS
Links #21New Course PublishersSydney 2002128 pages, $8 each or $39 for six issuesOrder at <links@dsp.org.au>Available form Resistance Bookshops (see page 2) or visit <http://www.resistancebooks.com>
What are we to do with the refugeeswhen we have racists to appease?What we needed was a specific resolutionbut had to make do with the Pacific solution.Just across from the Long White Cloudin the land of the John White Howardlived a people who once
South Africa, Limits to Change: The Political Economy of TransitionBY HEIN MARAISJuta AcademicCape Town, 2001Ordering enquires at <education@juta.co.za> or visit <http://www.juta.co.za>
REVIEW BY CHRIS BOLSMANN
Hein Marais'
Editorial
Health care and income protection for all
Despite the federal government's $35 million handout to insurance fund
United Medical Protection in March, on April 29 UMPs directors announced
its provisional liquidation. The collapse of the