BY CHRIS SLEE
MELBOURNE Members of the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) employed by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) held stop-work meetings during the week of September 9 to 13, at which they voted to hold a two-hour strike on
Issue 509
News
BY NICK EVERETT
SYDNEY The coalition organising a mass unity rally protesting against the World Trade Organisation "mini-ministerial" meeting on November 14 decided not to have opposition to an impending war on Iraq as a main demand of the
Protesters target Howard
CANBERRA One hundred people protested against the federal government's pro-war and anti-refugee policies on September 11 outside the National Press Club while Prime Minister John Howard was giving a speech.
9/11
BY ALEX BAINBRIDGE
HOBART Office-bearer positions in the September 10-13 elections
for the Tasmania University Union (TUU) were predominantly won by a ticket
called SHAG. A referendum to declare the campus a refugee safe haven won
two
BY MARG PERROTT
WOLLONGONG The Illawarra Socialist Alliance met on September 8 and unanimously endorsed Chris "Will" Williams as its candidate in the October 19 federal by-election for the NSW seat of Cunningham.
Williams is a 24-year-old
BY KATHY FAIRFAX
SYDNEY Rex Rumakiek, a long-standing OPM (Organisasi Papua Merdeka) representative in Australia, denied that the West Papua independence group was involved in the August 31 attack on the giant US-owned Freeport gold and
BY IGGY KIM
On September 11, the Indonesian army in Aceh announced that it had
taken into custody two foreigners Lesley McCulloch, an Australian academic
of British citizenship, and Joy-Lee Sadler, a US nurse and their Acehnese
BY PAUL MILLER
MELBOURNE Workers employed at the Pampas factory in West Footscray
have been on strike since September 4, after negotiations about wages and
conditions broke down. It is the first strike at the plant in 20 years.
The
BY SARAH STEPHEN
For two years, Kevin John Enniss was a paid informant of the Australian Federal Police (AFP). He was also at the heart of the people-smuggling business in Indonesia.
Enniss went far beyond the normal role of an informant. At the
BY GRANT COLEMAN
WOLLONGONG In the lead-up to the September 17 University of Wollongong student general meeting, activists have again met resistance from the Student Representative Council. The SRC meeting on September 13 reaffirmed its
BY EMMA CLANCY
PERTH "We want to see more events such as the 200-strong student general meeting held on September 3, which debated issues such as refugees, the looming war on Iraq and Palestine", Fred Fuentes told Green Left Weekly. Fuentes,
BY JIM McILROY
BRISBANE The September 7-8 Radical Times: Brisbane in the '60s
and '70s conference overwhelmingly condemned US plans to wage war against
Iraq. Participants demanded that the Australian government keep out of
any war in
BY TIM STEWART
BRISBANE Three hundred people attended a September 14 forum organised
by Australians for a Just Peace around the slogan our grief is not a cry
for war.
The forum was chaired by ABC radio presenter Sandy McCutcheon,
BY JULIE ALBERDI& JILL WESTAWAY
MELBOURNE On September 8, residents of Heidelberg Heights won their campaign against the erection of a mobile phone tower on their local church.
They had been advised in mid-August by the Rosanna Baptist
BY LISA MACDONALD
SYDNEY Bands and performers from a range of music styles have joined forces with refugee-rights activists to organise a Rock for Refugees benefit concert next month.
The all-ages, seven-hour concert on October 27 will
BY GRAHAM MATTHEWS
MELBOURNE On September 13, the Victorian Electoral Commission sent letters to all 764 Socialist Alliance members in Victoria.
The letters ask one simple question "Are you an Australian citizen 18 years or over and
BY AMIE HAMILTON
PERTH Despite a 200-strong student general meeting at which students voted overwhelmingly to hold a referendum in order to declare the University of Western Australia a refugee safe haven, it is unclear whether the referendum
BY LYNDA HANSEN
BRISBANE Thirty people attended a public meeting on September 12
to mark the fourth year since five Cubans were arrested in Miami and convicted
in June 2001 for espionage. They had been involved in monitoring right-wing
World
BY JACK BERHOFF
AUCKLAND The new New Zealand parliament is now sworn in and the Labour-Progressive minority coalition government headed by Prime Minister Helen Clark has delivered its "speech from the throne" sketching out its
BY RACHEL COHEN
Drug research and development (R&D) for diseases that disproportionately affect poor people in developing countries is at a virtual standstill.
According to a study by Patrice Trouiller and colleagues, soon to be published in the
[The following statement was issued on September 11 by Peaceful Tomorrows, an advocacy organisation founded by family members of victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.]
"The past is prophetic in that it
BY MAX LANE
JAKARTA Indonesian police used tear gas and water cannons to attempt
to subdue a large demonstration outside the parliament of the Jakarta special
province on September 11.
Tens of thousands of protesters gathered to
BY ROHAN PEARCE
The commemorations for the innocent people killed in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York received saturation television coverage across the globe. However, Israel's atrocities committed against the Palestinian
Culture
Every day the sun risesBut we are in a positionThat can't rise upCan you imagine what it is?
I like to see the worldBut I know that I can'tCan you tell me about the world?Do the people treat you well enough?
Every bird has feathersSo they fly
KIM STANLEY
ROBINSON is one of the most highly awarded science fiction (SF) writers,
winning the Nebula and Hugo awards for his Mars series (Green Mars,
Red Mars, Blue Mars and The Martians), among a dozen other novels
and short story
Oh yes! I'm the Great Pretender!Pretending I'm for human rights.My badge, you see, is from Amnesty,But my heart says, "Australia is for the whites!"
Oh yes! I'm the Great Pretender!I claim to protect girls and boys,But look that's not my style: I
Chile: The Other September 11
Edited by Pilar Aguilera and Ricardo Fredes
Ocean Press, Melbourne 2002
80 pages, $11.95
Order at <http://www.oceanbooks.com.au>
REVIEW BY VANNESSA HEARMAN
For those tired of the patriotic
BY JASON DI ROSSO
ABC Radio National's Hindsight program will present a 60-minute
documentary on the 1973 strike by workers at Ford's Broadmeadows plant,
near Melbourne.
In the program, former metalworkers' union leader Laurie
Prophets Without Honor: A Requiem for Moral Patriotism By William Strabala and Michael PalecekAlgora Publishing, 2002380 pages, US$23.95Available at <http://Amazon.com>
Prophets Without Honor tells the story of a group of priests and the
Editorial
Labor sells out on war
The me-too approach that Prime Minister John Howard and his cabinet
have taken to the US war drive against Iraq has given the ALP some leeway
to appear to be an opposition on this issue. It isn't.
Both the