Issue 502

News

BY BILL MASON BRISBANE — Queensland nurses were threatened with disciplinary action only hours after industrial bans were lifted, according to the Queensland Nurses Union (QNU). The bans were lifted following a July 24 arbitration commission
SYDNEY — The strike at Dayson air conditioning remanufacturing plant in Sydney is now in its 10th week. Seven workers, including two union delegates, were sacked after demanding union representation in negotiations with management. For
BY GRAHAM MATTHEWS Following successful campaigns to gain electoral registration at the federal level, and in NSW and Tasmania, the Socialist Alliance is now campaigning for electoral registration in Victoria. “To register in
BY CHRIS SLEE Public sector management is threatening the job security and flextime rights of workers in the Australian Taxation Office. Negotiations are underway for a new industrial agreement for the ATO. The Community and Public Sector Union
BY CHRIS LATHAM PERTH — Despite driving rain, 1200 construction workers protested on July 24 against the return to Western Australia of the royal commission into the construction industry. Communication, Electrical and Plumbing Union organiser
BY ALEX BAINBRIDGE HOBART — The Greens’ success in the July 20 Tasmanian elections — in which they won four seats — has been warmly received in the lunchrooms of many workplaces. By contrast the establishment is not comfortable with the
GLW celebrates BRISBANE — More than 100 people attended the Green Left Weekly 500th issue celebration dinner at the Ukranian Hall on July 20, which raised $1500 to help GLW keep producing. Congratulations to GLW were given by: Sam Watson,
The following advice for Australians travelling to Afghanistan was issued by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on July 4. Safety and Security — Australians should defer all travel to Afghanistan until further notice. Australians in
Protests held in solidarity with the Alamdar and Montazar Baktiyari, the Afghan boys who applied to Britain for asylum from Australia, were attended by 150 people in Sydney on July 21, 70 people in Melbourne on July 19 and another 50 people
BY SARAH STEPHEN Twelve-year-old Montazar Baktiyari and 14-year-old Alamdar Baktiyari have put faces to the horrifying reality of children in detention. After asylum seekers have been dehumanised as "illegals" and "queue-jumpers" for so long, the
BY FEDERICO FUENTES PERTH — On July 25, police launched an extremely brutal attack on a peaceful student protest. Thirty-five students were assaulted with batons and squirted with pepper spray. The students had gathered at Curtin University to
BY RACHEL EVANS MELBOURNE — In a sign of growing support for refugees' rights, the Dundas Street Centre in Thornbury — an offshoot of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre in Footscray — has begun operation. The centres are not funded government
BY GILLIAN DAVY MELBOURNE — A forum convened on July 25 by the RMIT branch of the National Tertiary Education Industry Union (NTEU) expressed vehement opposition to the university's proposal to tender for the delivery of "educational and
BY SUE BOLTON SYDNEY — The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union national conference, held July 21-25 at Sydney's plush Parkroyal Hotel, adopted a series of rule changes which strip decision-making power from state branches and shift it to the
BY KERRYN WILLIAMS CANBERRA — One-hundred-and-twenty refugees' rights activists and supporters gathered on July 23 for a public forum organised by Amnesty International, which indicated the breadth of the refugees' rights movement. The meeting

World

BY PIP HINMAN Seven activists from the Acehnese Democratic Women's Organisation (ORPAD), including a high school student, were arrested while staging a peaceful protest on July 16 in the territory's capital Banda Aceh. They were demanding
The right to freedom of expression on the internet was dealt a blow on July 9 when a Paris judge ordered Greenpeace to stop using a parody of the Esso logo in its Stop Esso campaign in France, pending a full hearing. Oil giant ExxonMobil, which
BY ADAM HANIEH RAMALLAH — The Israeli F-16 airstrike early on July 23 that killed Hamas leader Salah Shehada and 15 Palestinian civilians in a crowded Gaza neighbourhood suddenly put the roiling Israeli-Palestinian conflict back in the Western
BY DAVID BACON SAN FRANCISCO — Bonita, the word for beautiful in Spanish, is not a bad description for the nearly flawless bananas available from fruit and vegetable markets across the United States. It is also the name printed on stickers
BY DALE T. McKINLEY JOHANNESBURG — "SACP in clash with ANC" and "ANC warned not to follow path of ZANU-PF" were some of the headlines that have graced the pages of South African newspapers following the latest political spat between the ruling
BY NORM DIXON According to a report published in the July 27 New Scientist, US defence contractors are developing a laser weapon for fighter aircraft that may be powerful enough to blind people on the ground, even if they are relatively far from
BY NORM DIXON A bitter strike by the 120,000-strong South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) has ended in victory. The strikers returned to work on July 22. SAMWU members had endured sustained police violence and state repression. One worker
BY ROHAN PEARCE The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) should reverse its newly announced policy of promoting the voluntary repatriation of refugees to Afghanistan, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on July 23. The
BY ROHAN PEARCE Since the war on Afghanistan began, the US military has had a number of standard replies to accusations that it has massacred civilians: there were al Qaeda or Taliban leaders in the area; they fired first; it was a military
BY STEPHEN MARKS MANAGUA — The Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) returned to its anti-imperialist symbols and messages at the celebration of the 1979 revolution here on July 19. Pink and yellow, which had been the FSLN's colours in
BY MAX LANE JAKARTA — On July 22, several political parties organised a seminar to discuss the contemporary implications of the July 27, 1996, attack by pro-Suharto thugs on the headquarters of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI). During

Culture

REVIEW BY KATRINA CHANNELLS& JIM MCILROY Bend It Like BeckhamDirected by Gurinder ChadhaStarring Parminder Nagra and Keira KnightleyScreening at major cinemas This film is excellent because it encourages young women to play soccer! It is a
BY JASON CAHILL BRISBANE — It's a unique and precious thing to find an alternative voice among the plethora of reactionary forces that dominate the Australian media. In the print media, there is Green Left Weekly. And shining like a beacon is
A senior work colleague,A family friend.A beer gut, a beardand a gold wedding band.A young employee,A confident womanA coffee at workAn unwanted question ..."Will you fuck me?"It slowly sunk inThe "friendly" affectionThe attention from him.She felt
Regan (USA); Peter Stone (Africa); Penny Tweedie (Australia, East Timor, Bangladesh); Anastasia Vrachnos (Indonesia); and Paul Weinberg (Africa), 21 Publishing Ltd "> Reporting the World: John Pilger's great eyewitness photographers Capturing
BY MARGARET ALLUM Y Tu Mama Tambien (And Your Mother Too)Directed by Alfonso CuaronStarring Gael Garcia Bernal, Diego Luna and Maribel VerduScreened at the 49th Sydney Film Festival, June 7-21 Y Tu Mama Tambien (And Your Mother Too) was the film
Reasons to Be Cheerful: From Punk to New Labour through the Eyes of a Dedicated TroublemakerBy Mark SteelScribner, 2002277 pages, $18.95 (pb) REVIEW BY PHIL SHANNON "It's hard enough being a nineteen-year-old boy as it is, spun through a

Editorial

The attacks launched against the militant leadership of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union's Victorian branch by the union's national leadership are more than an internal faction fight. They are an attack on the left. The vicious campaign