On September 24, British Prime Minister Tony Blair presented his much-anticipated "dossier", Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction, to the parliament. Supporters of a US attack on Iraq had promised that Blair would provide the definitive "evidence" that
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Commendation As a former United States Marine, Korean War era, I want to commend you on your stand against Bush's war. It is plain that he wants to rush into war before the November congressional elections so as to keep voters' minds off our many
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On September 19, federal ALP leader Simon Crean, accompanied by Labor's candidate for the Cunningham by-election, Sharon Bird, announced that the party would vote against the Coalition's proposed changes to Telstra's price controls
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BY SEAN MARTIN-IVERSON PERTH — The Shire of Serpentine-Jarrahdale, near the Peel Inlet south of Perth, promotes itself to potential residents and eco-tourists with the slogan, "Explore the beauty". In its "Vision for the Future", the shire
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"What was done at Maralinga was a cheap and nasty solution that wouldn't be adopted on white-fellas land." This comment was made by nuclear engineer and Maralinga whistle-blower Alan Parkinson on ABC radio on August 5. Parkinson was
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[This is the text of a talk given to the final plenary of the September 22-23 Sydney Social Forum on the topic of alternatives to globalisation.] Let me begin by asking an unpopular question and give what could well be an
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and ain't i a woman?: Scarlet classifieds In late August, a classified ad was printed in the Florida-based Tallahassee Democrat. After listing the name of the author, along with her age, height, hair and eye colour, weight and race, it
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LONDON, September 28 — British Prime Minister Tony Blair may be President George Bush's only European ally in his drive for war on Iraq. But the people of the United Kingdom today forcibly demonstrated their opposition to forcible
News
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MELBOURNE — Martin Kingham, the Victorian state secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), faces the possibility of six months' imprisonment. Kingham was formally charged with being in contempt of the
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MELBOURNE Even if United Nations Security Council support for this war is granted, the agenda behind the war won't change, Kim Halpin, a member of Resistance and the La Trobe University education officer, told a
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PERTH Two thousand building workers rallied on the steps of Parliament House on September 24 to protest another death in the construction industry. Five days earlier, Des Walsh, a 47-year-old rigger with three
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[This letter was received from Lesley McCulloch via an email from the Acehnese human rights activists working for her release from Indonesian custody. It was written on September 27.] Those of you who know me personally can confirm I am
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SYDNEY Around 2000 people marched on September 26 to oppose the coming US-British war on Iraq and to demand a stop to Israel's US-backed war against the Palestinian people. The rally was jointly organised by the
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MELBOURNE —"We want to draw the link between war and corporate globalisation, and win people to the perspective that a movement against neo-liberalism and imperialism in a time of war needs to become an anti-war movement", Kylie
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The Green Left Weekly staff are taking a well-earned break this week. The next issue of GLW (#512) will be published on October 16. From Green Left Weekly, October 2, 2002. Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.
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Support for Palestine, opposition to war in Iraq CANBERRA — More than 160 people pledged their support for a free Palestine at a dinner on September 27. Obada Kayali spoke of the injustice committed against his people and Avigail Abarbanel, a
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MELBOURNE The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) and the Federated Engine Drivers and Fireman's Association (FEDFA) have reached an in-principle agreement with the Master Builders Association (MBA) over
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A Perth District Court judge on September 27 sentenced two Indonesian fisherpeople to jail for their role in transporting 438 asylum seekers to Australia in August last year. The people responsible for organising the journey and
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MELBOURNE — The Socialist Alliance's Melbourne South-East branch has preselected Josephine Cox as a candidate for the seat of Dandenong in the Victorian state election, expected before December. Cox, a TAFE student, ran for the
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Santa's little helpers "The HIH royal commission has heard the company threw extravagant Christmas parties for staff a little over a year before the company collapsed. The commission has been told HIH spent almost $1.2 million on Christmas parties
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A show trial is looming for Australian academic Lesley McCulloch, detained by the Indonesian military in Aceh, along with US nurse Joy-Lee Sadler. Both have been charged with alleged visa violations. On September 23,
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BY SUE BULL& GRAHAM MATTHEWS MELBOURNE — A public meeting against war on Iraq on September 26 attracted 250 people. The meeting was organised by the Victorian Peace Network. Featured speakers at the meeting were Dr Scott Burchill from Deakin
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SYDNEY — On September 24, the Port Jackson branch of the Socialist Alliance decided that its candidate for the March 2003 state election would be Paul Benedek. The decision to contest the seat gives voters an alternative to
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BY MARINA CARMAN& DALE MILLS SYDNEY — A meeting initiated by the No WTO network was held on September 21 to discuss protest actions against a World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting of trade ministers to be held on November 14-15. Around 100
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BRISBANE Former Labor senator George Georges died in Canberra on September 23 after a long illness. He was 82. Georges was from a rare breed: an ALP politician who stood up for his principles at the cost of his
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MELBOURNE By September 30, 471 Socialist Alliance members had returned letters to the Victorian electoral commission confiming their membership. The commission must receive a further 29 positive responses by October 4
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Building workers march BRISBANE — Around 600 building workers, members of five unions belonging to the Building Trades Group of Unions, marched through city streets to the Queensland Master Builders Association (QMBA) offices to present their
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BY SOBHI ALBADAWI& NOREEN NAVIN SYDNEY — Mustapha Barghouthi, president of the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees, gave a presentation on the situation in Palestine at the Trades and Labor Council on September 20. Barghouthi was in
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LISMORE — Chanting, "Education for people, not for profit", and "Whose streets? Our streets!", 300 university and high school students and university workers brushed aside police objections to spill onto the streets on September
Analysis
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Let Timorese stay! The immigration department's September 25 announcement that it had rejected 168 asylum claims made by East Timorese refugees is a national disgrace. These are the first of more than 1700 applications which have been
World
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On September 25, two leaders of the Acehnese civil rights movement Muhammad Nasir Azis and Kautsar bin Muhammad Yus who were abducted on September 22 by the Indonesian military (TNI) in the northern Acehnese city of
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JAKARTA — As the Indonesian economy sinks into even deeper crisis, a major social and political crisis has begun to unfold. This crisis began with the September 11 re-election by the Jakarta provincial parliament of retired general
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The German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democratic-Greens coalition government was narrowly re-elected in the September 22 national elections.The Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the conservative Christian Democratic
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MANAGUA Every pig has its Saturday is a popular Nicaraguan saying, which refers to slaughter of fattened pigs on Saturdays for the weekend cooking pot. For former right-wing president Arnoldo Aleman, Saturday seems to
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On August 9, the US State Department designated the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New Peoples Army (NPA) as foreign terrorist organizations and implored other governments to do the same. On August
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A Reuters news-wire report from Caracas on September 19 tells of a joke circulating among wealthy Venezuelans: George Bush wakes from a 10-year sleep to find that Saddam Hussein has embraced democracy. "What about Venezuelan
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In early August, three revolutionary socialist organisations in the Philippines the Partido ng Manggagawang Pilipino (Workers Party of the Philippines, PMP), the Sosyalistang Partido ng Paggawa (Socialist Party of Labour, SPP) and the Partido
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RAMALLAH Israel's siege of Yasser Arafat's presidential compound has brought the Palestinian plight back into world headlines alongside the impending US-led invasion of Iraq. While the mainstream media has largely
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According to independent left-wing Colombian MP Gustavo Montealegre Almario, Colombia's president, Alvaro Uribe Velez, is the leader of the country's right-wing paramilitary death squads groups. Montealegre told Green Left
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LONDON — Last October, in the early hours of the morning, a young expectant mother called Fatima Abed-Rabo awoke with intense labour pains. She and her husband Nasser set out in a friend's car for the hospital in Bethlehem, in
Culture
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SYDNEY — The immigration detention centre at Woomera in South Australia has been at the centre of the public controversy surrounding the mandatory detention of asylum seekers since it was opened in 1999. The brutal conditions
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John Pilger has come under attack in Britain for his documentary Palestine is Still the Issue, to be screened in Australia on SBS TV at 8.30pm on October 8. A September 20 article in the British Jewish Chronicle
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Questions from the Asylum: An Analysis of Australia's Asylum and Detention Issues By Susan Connelly Otford Press, 2002 66 pages, $5.95 Send cheque or money order to PO Box 299 St Marys NSW 1790. REVIEW BY SARAH STEPHEN
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Green Left Weekly cartoonist Chris Kelly with his collection of sculptures The Subterraneans, modelled on members of the Howard cabinet, and Kelly's stand-alone piece titled John Howard Desert Warrior the Poor Man's Napoleon (above).
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John Pilger has come under attack in Britain for his documentary Palestine is Still the Issue, to be screened in Australia on SBS TV at 8.30pm on October 8. A September 20 article in the British Jewish Chronicle
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Paradise Betrayed: West Papua's Struggle for IndependenceBy John MartinkusQuarterly Essay, issue 7Black IncOrder at <http://www.blackincbooks.com> REVIEW BY VANNESSA HEARMAN The latest issue of Quarterly Essay features an essay by