Issue 500

News

BY LISA MACDONALD SYDNEY — At the beginning of August, the nine branches of Socialist Alliance in NSW will begin to pre-select candidates for the March 2003 NSW election. A state conference at the University of Technology, Sydney, on
BY NOREEN NAVIN SYDNEY — The tenacity and determination of teachers, students and other members of the local community has forced the overturning of former NSW education minister John Aquilina's decision to close Dulwich and Marrickville high
BY PIP HINMAN SYDNEY — The federal government's "Pacific solution" is likely to be become the "Christmas Island solution" when a 1200-bed detention centre is finished there in March 2003, Anne Coombs, from Rural Australians for Refugees (RAR),
BY KATHY FAIRFAX SYDNEY — Husaini Hasan, chairperson of the Government Council of the Free Acheh Movement (MPGAM), told a meeting on July 11 that his people's struggle for a referendum would not be realised without international solidarity.
BY STACEY BRENNAN & EWAN SAUNDERS BRISBANE — The National Union of Students (NUS) National Education Conference, held July 5-7, was attended by 400 students. An endorsement of the campus refugee sanctuary campaign as "an idea worthy of further
BY GILLIAN DAVY MELBOURNE — On July 10, news broke that RMIT University has joined private prison operator Group 4 Falck to tender for the delivery of "educational and recreational sporting activities" to asylum seekers in Australian detention
BY REBECCA MECKELBURG BRISBANE — The bitter industrial dispute in May over the use of underpaid, non-unionised labour on the CSL Yarra was reignited when the re-flagged ship, now called the Stadacona, returned to Australian waters. The Maritime
UN award for Tampa seafarers Wilhelmsen Line and the crew of the MV Tampa have jointly won a $100,000 award from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for rescue on the high seas. The Tampa's crew and owner were given the award for
BY REBECCA MECKELBURG & MARCEL CAMERON BRISBANE — Despite the state ALP government's attempts to undermine the Queensland Nurses Union's (QNU) stop-work rally at Parliament House on July 12, more than 3000 angry public and private sector nurses
BY EMMA CLANCY PERTH — Murdoch University hosted the 2002 Students and Sustainability Conference, held July 7-13. The conference was attended by around 500 students, there to learn about and discuss environmental and human rights campaigns.
SYDNEY — More than 40 people gathered in Parramatta Mall on July 9 to protest against the public executions that have taken place recently in Iran and the failure of the UN to condemn human rights abuses there. Speakers also condemned the
BY KATHY NEWNAM NEWCASTLE — A solemn 80-strong protest in Civic Park on July 12 was the culmination of a week-long vigil in solidarity with hunger strikers in the Woomera detention centre. Dave McKay, who is visiting Newcastle from the Refugee

World

BY ROHAN PEARCE The ruling classes of the USA, Britain and Australia are finalising their plans for the next war against Iraq. Leaked Pentagon documents reported in the July 4 New York Times propose that Iraq be attacked from the north, south and
This message of condolence and solidarity was sent to the Worker Communist Parties of Iran and Iraq following the death of Mansoor Hekmat. Dear comrades, the members of the Democratic Socialist Party of Australia extend our sincere condolences to
LONDON — Human rights activists on July 9 began 24-hour vigil outside Australia House in protest at human rights abuses at the Woomera refugee detention centre. Four hunger strikers positioned themselves in front of the building. The protest was
BY DAVID BACON IMMOKALEE — If a small union of Florida farmworkers has its way, the nasal voice of the famous Chihuahua will be saying, "No quiero Taco Bell" (I don't want Taco Bell) on college campuses across the United States. For almost a
BY NORM DIXON The national strike by the more than 110,000 members of the South African Municipal Workers Union entered its second week on July 9. In the face of mass arrests, police violence and a slander campaign by the capitalist media, South
BY EVA CHENG Even before news of the latest corporate scams exploded in late June, the London-based Economist on May 18 published a 20-page defence of capitalism. The article began with the claim that "the capitalist system has proved surprisingly
BY NORM DIXON Residents in Mandela Park, Khayelitsha (near Cape Town), rebelled on July 8 in response to a raid by police and municipal officials. Community anger boiled over when a council sheriff attempted to repossess an elderly pensioner's
BY TODD CHRETIEN The killing of two demonstrators by police on June 26 has sent political shock waves through Argentina. The murders took place in an industrial suburb of Buenos Aires, where activists of the militant unemployed movement — known

Sukarno, the first president of Indonesia, was 27 years old when he became chairperson of the Indonesian National Party in the 1920s. Mohammed Hatta was a similar age when he took over the leadership of the nationalist

PARIS — An estimated 500,000 people took part in the June 29 Pride March here. Calling for "Egalite!" (equality), lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender contingents paraded from Montparnasse to Bastille Square. Photo by Jonathan Strauss.From Green

Culture

REVIEW BY SARAH STEPHEN Take Care of My Cat Directed by Jeong Jae-eun Starring Bae Doo-na, Lee Yo-won, Ok Ji-young, Lee Eun-sil, Lee Eun-ju Distributed by Cinema Service Co, email <rachel@cinemaservice.com> Screened at the 49th Sydney
REVIEW BY TYRION PERKINS In the Spirit of Wandering Teachers: the Cuban Literacy Campaign, 1961 Edited by Alexandra Keeble Ocean Press, Melbourne, 2001 $24.95 In the Spirit of Wandering Teachers is a poster-size book that
REVIEW BY PHIL SHANNON The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: An Investigative Reporter Exposes the Truth about Globalisation, Corporate Cons and High Finance FraudstersBy Greg PalastPluto Press, 2002211 pages, $59.95 (hb) Ultra-right millionaire and
Fond Memories of Cuba A documentary by David BradburyScreening at Valhalla Cinema, Sydney. Opens at the Schonell Cinema, Brisbane, July 18; Nova Cinema, Melbourne, July 25; and the Electric Shadows Cinema, Canberra, late July. REVIEW BY KIM
Museworthy: Afton Blommor (Evening Flower) for Par Lagerkvist You asked our questionsWhen we could not have asked themBecause we did not know what would fulfil usBecause we did not know what to askThat you were forgotten is rightThat what you
From the Bush crusade to foreign aid,Iraqi sanctions to the world's arms trade;from the threat of globalisationto social welfare in this nationyou tore through the tissue of lies500 issues they despise. Street sellers in the rain,it was worth the
Hell Stirs in HeavenBy Anita Caratelliself-published, Melbourne, 2001$25, order at <acspecials@yahoo.com> REVIEWED BY CHRIS SLEE Most Australians are only vaguely aware of the Torres Straits islands. Most have heard of Eddie Mabo, the

Editorial

When the first issue of Green Left Weekly appeared, US President George Bush senior's war on Iraq was raging; 500 issues later, President George Bush junior is planning another massive invasion of sanction-crippled Iraq, as imperial wars rage in