BY DARREN JIGGINS
HOBART — The Socialist Alliance has achieved the highest socialist vote ever in a Tasmanian state election. With 80% of the vote counted from the July 20 Tasmanian elections, the alliance received 663 votes. The final total will
Issue 501
News
BY NICK FREDMAN
LISMORE — At a breakfast function for businesspeople here on July 18, deputy prime minister John Anderson was met by banners, placards and twenty-five chanting people opposing the government's policy of the mandatory detention of
BY MARIA VOUKELATOS
BRISBANE On July 18, a 1500-strong rally of health workers marched
to Parliament House demanding fair wages and conditions. Solidarity stop-work
meetings happened simultaneously at major health centres across the
BY SEAN MARTIN-IVERSON
PERTH — After a week of coordinated industrial action, 2000 WA enrolled nurses have won a significant pay increase. Enrolled nurses in Perth's major public hospitals, organised in the Liquor, Hospitality & Miscellaneous
BY BILL MASON
BRISBANE — Queensland nurses have rejected a pay and conditions deal proposed by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission. On July 19, the Queensland Nurses Union (QNU) walked out of conciliation talks with the state Labor
BY TERRICA STRUDWICK
TOWNSVILLE — Indonesian trade union leader Dita Sari was one of 29 Third World women activists denied a visa to attend the annual International Women's Conference and the Network of Women Students Australia (NOWSA) conference
BY ANDREW HALL & PAUL OBOOHOV
CANBERRA — Rank-and-file ACT activists in the Community and Public Sector Union grouped around Members First, have issued a call to all CPSU members who want to rebuild a democratic, broad campaigning approach to
BY LIAM MITCHELL
SYDNEY With the strike at Daysons Rydalmere airconditioning re-manufacturing
plant entering its ninth week, the company is under considerable pressure
to end the dispute. The 12 workers on strike have told supporters
BY
BEN COURTICE
MELBOURNE Why is the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union national
office attacking the Victorian branch?, AMWU state secretary Craig Johnston
asked a stop-work rally on July 17. Addressing around 5000 of his union's
Save womens studies at Deakin University!
GEELONG Despite a 20-year history of strong enrolments and a national
and international reputation, Deakin Universitys womens studies program
is about to be gutted. More than 800 students
BY
SUE BOLTON
The Federal Court will decide on July 22 or 23 whether to overturn
the suspension of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Unions Victorian
secretary Craig Johnston. Johnston was stood down by the AMWU national
office on
On July 21, hundreds
of Green Left Weekly supporters around the country gathered to celebrate
the production of the 500th issue of GLW. Pictured is
Akasha performing at the GLW fiesta in Melbourne.
Photo by Peter Johnston.
From Green
BY NICOLE HILDER
WOLLONGONG — In an eight-page glossy brochure delivered to northern Illawarra residents in May, Stocklands describes itself as "one of the most respected development and investment groups in Australia". Yet its Sandon Point
World
BY EVA CHENG
As US corporate crime scandals spread by the day, even US President George Bush and vice-president Dick Cheney have been implicated in the shady practices that have triggered panic on stockmarkets around the world.
The US Securities
BY JIMMY LANGMAN
On June 30, Bolivians went to the polls to choose their next president
and elect a new congress. No candidate gained the 50% plus one margin
required for outright victory. Bolivia's congress will decide in early
VARADERO, Cuba — "The most beautiful land the human eye has beheld" was how Christopher Columbus described Cuba when he "discovered" it on behalf of the Spanish royals in October 1492. Despite several hundred years of Spanish colonisation and US
BY MAX LANE
JAKARTA — President Megawati Sukarnoputri's support within her Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) is falling as she increasingly associates with the political figures from the era of the Suharto dictatorship.
Almost
BY LESLEY McCULLOCH
In the remote area of Aceh Tengah (central Aceh) there is a new and growing problem for the civilian population: the presence of Indonesian-backed militia. The rarely visited area has experienced a devastating attack on its
[The following statement was issued by the Johannesburg Anti-Privatisation Forum, which unites working-class and poor communities struggling against water and electricity cut-offs and evictions which flow from the neo-liberal economic policies of the
BY MAX LANE
JAKARTA The Peoples Democratic Party (PRD) launched its new newspaper,
Pembebasan (Liberation) at a public meeting held at the Jakarta
Media Centre on July 11. Almost 400 people packed the auditorium for a
lively
The United States is the most powerful and important backer of the state of Israel. A common explanation for this support is that the "Israel lobby" within the US exercises huge influence over Washington.
There is a powerful network of Zionist
BY BORIS KAGARLITSKY
MOSCOW — For 10 years now, a chorus of politicians, journalists and sociologists has been telling the Russian people a story as simple and appealing as Little Red Riding Hood.
It goes like this: society was deformed by
BY ROHAN PEARCE
When Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, in a July 17 speech to mark the 34 years of rule by his Baath party, attacked "evil tyrants and oppressors" — referring to US-backed Iraqi opposition forces, primarily former Iraqi military
BY MARELYS VALENCIA
During a tour of Cuba, Ralph Nader, Green Party US presidential candidate in 2000, on July 9 stated that he was opposed his government's economic blockade of Cuba, which he said doesn't give Cubans "a chance to breathe".
BY BRIAN BELKNAP
Dockworkers' union leaders on the US west coast continue to negotiate with management for a new contract. The existing contract, which expired on July 1, is being extended on a day-to-day basis.
In 1999, when the International
BY PIP HINMAN
US military ties with Jakarta have been restricted since the 1990s because of the Indonesian military's (TNI) human rights abuses in East Timor. Now, Washington is using the "war on terrorism" as justification to renew ties. On July
BY MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
"Somoza may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch!" — US President Franklin D. Roosevelt on Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza.
There is something surreal about George W. Bush crowing to the world on May 20 about
BY ALEJANDRO RODRIGUEZ
In April 2000, Aguas de Tanari, a large multinational corporation, was due to take over the privatised water works in Cochabamba. Water prices were to increase and laws were passed to make it illegal to catch and use rain
BY PETER GELLERT
MEXICO CITY — The first major conflict between the mass movement and Mexico's President Vicente Fox's administration has ended in a qualified victory for those opposed to the construction of a new international airport for the
Culture
To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all">
The Oscar Wilde they never quote
REVIEW BY STUART MUNCKTON
The Importance of Being EarnestDirected Oliver ParkerStarring Rupert Everett, Colin Firth and Dame Judi
Acclaimed British director Ken Loach's latest film, The Navigators, deals with the experiences of a group of South Yorkshire railway track workers coping with the privatisation of British Rail. The Navigators reveals the "view from below" as the
BY ARUN PRADHAN
MELBOURNE — Forget about the Gold Coast, the next series of Big Brother should be televised from the Woomera refugee detention centre according to comedian Rod Quantock. After all, "it's all ready to go, all you need is the
REVIEW BY TYRION PERKINS
Louder Than War: the Manic Street Preachers Live in Cuba DVD featuring the Manic Street PreachersSony MusicKnow Your EnemyManic Street PreachersSony Music
"I suppose we're making history because of the trade sanctions
Editorial
US President George Bush needs another bloody Gulf War to win the mid-term US Congress elections in November. The serious shooting may start before or after that election, but the troops and the multi-billion dollar killing machines are already