BY MARCEL CAMERON & TIM STEWART
BRISBANE — More than 50 people attended a lively debate on November 23, sponsored by the Socialist Alliance and discussing the way forward for the left. The meeting was addressed by University of Queensland
Issue 519
News
BY TOM FLANAGAN
LISMORE — Around 350 people attended a lively and colourful "No War on Iraq" rally at Spinks Park on November 30.
Speakers included Mavis Davies, a Bundjalung elder, Lismore councillor and former mayor Ros Irwin, Sister Margaret
BY
SARAH STEPHEN
Despite claims that the police and navy had no way of surveying,
or receiving, a distress call from SIEV-X, the asylum-seeker boat which
capsized last October, it appears that Australian authorities may have
had far more
BY GRAHAM MATTHEWS
MELBOURNE — Around 30 people attended the campaign launch for Judy McVey, the Socialist Alliance candidate for Brunswick district, on November 27 at Cafe Mingo. Speaking with the candidate were Construction, Forestry, Mining
BY LESLIE RICHMOND & EMMA MURPHY
ADELAIDE — Around 2000 people attended a November 30 anti-war protest, representing a broad cross-section of Australians. Contingents had been organised by Quakers, the Greens, the Construction, Forestry, Mining
BY CHRIS LATHAM
PERTH — On November 22, members of the Western Australian branch of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union's construction and general divisions began the process of implementing of a new enterprise agreement.
The
BY
KAMALA EMANUEL
LAUNCESTON Amongst the usual tinsel, angels and reindeers of the
annual Christmas parade on November 30, there were a couple of floats that
carried a different message. Peace on Earth, goodwill to all; no war on
BY CHRIS ATKINSON
DARWIN — The Socialist Alliance here are gearing up for a big year in 2003. That was the conclusion after a discussion by members and supporters over a dinner on November 23.
Seven of the 14 people attending were members of
BY JOHN GAUCI
SYDNEY — Despite a ban on all political activity in the Manly Corso, the beachside suburb's famous pedestrian mall, 200 activists held a "No war on Iraq" rally there on November 23. The rally was initiated by the Northside Socialist
BY EMMA CLANCY
PERTH — The Fremantle branch of the ALP held a rally on November 23 in opposition to a war on Iraq, which drew around 120 people. Local MP Carmen Lawrence told the crowd that she believed "our aim should be the removal of weapons
BY
MATT MACKAY
SORRENTO, Victoria Hundreds of angry Mornington Peninsula residents
brought their concerns to the city on November 1, holding a rally at the
steps of the State Library to protest at the state government's and Melbourne
BY ANNE O'CASEY
MELBOURNE — A crowd of around 10,000-15,000 turned out to oppose war on December 1, the day after the Victorian election.
The rally was chaired by Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia state secretary Michele O'Neil
BY LEON HARRISON
SYDNEY — While I have always supported struggles for social justice in Palestine and I am opposed to the US war drive against Iraq, I find that, as a gay man, my own community is under attack from not only Christian
BY JAMES CAULFIELD
CANBERRA — People in the ACT could soon be faced with attacks on their civil liberties in the form of new "anti-terror" laws being put to the ACT Legislative Assembly. On December 10, a new bill will be debated by the
BY JAMES CAULFIELD
CANBERRA — Five-hundred people attended a November 30 rally outside the US Embassy and Prime Minister John Howard's residence, the Lodge.
The protest was organised by the ACT Network Opposing War. Speakers included ALP MP
BY NICK EVERETT
SYDNEY — "Newspapers often categorise people into moderates and extremists. You are the moderates, the government are the extremists", declared John Pilger, addressing an anti-war rally in Sydney on November 30.. The Australian
BY LISA MACDONALD
SYDNEY — A December 14 conference of the nine NSW branches of Socialist Alliance will preselect at least eight more candidates to complete its Legislative Council (upper house) ticket for the March 22 state election. The
BY CHRIS SLEE
MELBOURNE — About 40 people attended a forum on the peace process in Sri Lanka, held at Monash University on November 24. It was organised by supporters of the Uthayam Tamil newspaper and Radio Shakthi, a Sri Lankan radio program on
BY GRAHAM MATTHEWS
MELBOURNE The victory
of the Labor Party in the Victorian state election has surprised few. The
most encouraging aspect of the election was the huge increase in the left-of-Labor
vote, which in some inner-Melbourne
BY AMY GARDNER
HOBART — Around 400 people gathered in Franklin Square on November 30 to protest against the planned US-led war on Iraq. The rally was organised by the Peace Coalition of Tasmania. The people then set off on a short march to
BY KATHY NEWNAM
NEWCASTLE — On November 26, the Newcastle City Council gallery was packed with an impressive number of refugee-rights supporters, who cheered on the passing of a motion making Newcastle a "Welcome City" for refugees.
Moved by
World
BY DOUG LORIMER
HONG KONG — On November 25, a Kowloon City magistrate found three political activists — Leung Kwok-hung of the April 5 Action Group and Hong Kong Federation of Students members Christopher Fung and Chris Lo — guilty of
BY ROHAN PEARCE
In a set-back for Washington, on November 19 Danish government prosecutors have charged Nizar al Khazraji with war crimes. Khazraji is the highest-ranking general to have defected from Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime. The
BY FEDERICO FUENTES
On November 14, Argentina gained the status of a financial delinquent when it defaulted on its repayments to the World Bank. While in Washington, Argentina's economy minister Roberto Lavagna delivered the news that Argentina
BY
MAX LANE
JAKARTA Any analysis of Indonesian politics during the last year
three years, especially since the downfall of President Abdurrahman Wahid,
has to take account of the steady rise in the masses alienation from the
BY FAROOQ TARIQ
Mir Zafarulah Jamali, a feudal lord from Baluchistan, was elected as prime minister on November 21 by Pakistan's national assembly. After months of attempts to install a puppet "civilian" government, General Pervez Musharraf's
McCulloch trial adjourned
On November 27, the trial in Aceh of Australian resident and academic Lesley McCulloch and US nurse Joy-Lee Sadler was adjourned for three weeks at the insistence of the prosecution. The women fear the trial may drag
BY ROHAN PEARCE
Ignoring the fact that Iraq is fully cooperating with United Nations weapons inspectors, Washington continues to prepare for war. The November 19 New York Times reported that the US "has quietly doubled the number of its troops in
BY JAMES BALOWSKI
On November 27, an Indonesian court sentenced notorious militia chief Eurico Guterres to 10 years in prison for crimes committed during the violence in East Timor following the 1999 referendum for independence.
The judge said
BY JIM GREEN
The fracture, and subsequent sinking, of the oil tanker Prestige off the Spanish coast has created a major environmental disaster, brought the region's fishing industry to a standstill and put the spotlight on the controversial
BY STUART MUNCKTON
"Highways are blocked with barricades, creating huge traffic jams. Protests and tear gas fill streets; police patrols are few; residents stick by their radios and TVs, ingesting venomous political rhetoric while seeing if it's
BY ROHAN PEARCE
A United Nations investigation into the killing of British UN worker Iain John Hook in Jenin on November 22 has begun. An investigator from the UN arrived in Jerusalem on November 24.
The Israeli army maintains that it "responded"
BY CONN HALLINAN
The "troubles" in Northern Ireland are back, courtesy of the British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Protestant loyalists who refuse to share power with Ulster's Catholics.
The current crisis, during which the British government
BY SONALI KOLHATKAR
The US military campaign in Afghanistan was called Operation Enduring Freedom. In January, US President George Bush said in his State of the Union address, "The last time we met in this chamber, the mothers and daughters of
BY
RENFREY CLARKE
It is astonishing what the bourgeoisie will let slip when they're
talking to one another and don't think we're listening! In light of federal
trade minister Mark Vaile's ludicrous claims that the people who protested
BY JORGE JORQUERA
On November 24, former army colonel Lucio Gutierrez comfortably won the Ecuadorean presidential elections as the candidate of the Patriotic Society January 21 (SP21) alliance and Pachakutik, the main national Indigenous people's
Culture
BY KENNY McEWAN
Wasilli Kandinsky was born in Moscow in 1866 to a wealthy merchant family. He could have become the law professor that he trained to be. Had he done so, he would probably have disappeared into obscurity. Instead, his name has become
REVIEW BY SARAH STEPHEN
BridgesBy Tonchi McIntoshOrder at <http://www.tonchi.com.au>
It is impossible to pigeonhole Tonchi McIntosh's musical style, which includes mixtures acoustic folk and rock, and touches of reggae and country. It
Marxist Writings on History and PhilosophyBy George NovackResistance Books, 2002269 pages, $21.95 (pb)Order at <http://www.resistancebooks.com>
REVIEW BY JONATHAN STRAUSS
When the ideologists of imperialism in the 1950s declared "the
MELBOURNE — Kino Dendy Cinemas are to present a special screening of award-winning journalist John Pilger's new documentary The New Rulers of The World, together with The Timor Conspiracy: Death of a Nation, on December 11. Both films will be
BY BUSTER SOUTHERLY
Green Day's singer-guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong has spoken out against US President George Bush's moves to wage war on the people of Iraq. He has launched an online petition to build opposition to war among Green Day fans and
Editorial
On November 25, the trials of Australian-based, British-born academic Lesley McCulloch and US nurse Joy-Lee Sadler began in Aceh. They are being tried for visa violations, after the prosecution failed to make espionage charges stick. McCulloch is a