MELBOURNE — RMIT University has made a landmark commitment to support refugees and asylum seekers, with a range of bold initiatives being implemented this year. RMIT plans to urge other Australian universities, through the
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SYDNEY — "If the Howard government won't consult the people by holding a nationwide referendum on the war, then the people should organise their own referendum", Lisa Macdonald, the Socialist Alliance's lead candidate for the NSW
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The February 5 edition of the National Indigenous Times featured a cover article profiling Indigenous leaders who have spoken out against Prime Minister John Howard's support for war on Iraq. The anti-war leaders the Times had
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Keep protesting! Please do not let up on our protest against war with Iraq. If Howard thinks those protesting at the weekend {February 14-16] are in the minority. Let's have another and another until he takes notice. The hide of the man! Peter
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International Women's Day protests, along with the March 5 international student strike, are shaping up to be the next globally coordinated actions against war on Iraq. The strike and IWD events are scheduled for the first week of March
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[The following speech was delivered at the anti-war rally in Sydney on February 16, which was attended by 500,000 people.] On this historic day, we should be very clear about one thing: George Bush, Tony Blair and John Howard are
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Betty Dixon, a 73-year-old grandmother from Goulburn, NSW, is an indication of the growing diversity of the refugees' rights movement. Dixon describes herself as an activist. She has visited Woomera detention centre three times
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On March 1, the annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade will fill the streets of inner-city Sydney in a confident assertion of all people's right to choose and live their sexual orientation, and to mark the political struggles that have won
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BY LISA MACDONALD & OWEN RICHARDS Osama Yousif, 35, arrived in Australia as a political refugee from Sudan in June 2000. Today, he is an upper house candidate for the Socialist Alliance in the March 22 NSW election. Yousif first
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The February 14-16 world-wide peace protests starkly exposed the gulf between the warmongering governments and media of Australia, the United States and Britain on the one hand, and the populations of those countries on the
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As a delegate and active member of the Maritime Union of Australia, I believe that the union movement has an obligation to every human being, to build and unite the left by leading the people to stand together in opposition to this crazy war
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On March 5, high school, campus and TAFE students across Australia will act together with US students in refusing to attend classes. We will be calling for books not bombs and demanding that Australian troops be brought
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The March 5 student strike appears is set to become the next big, nationally coordinated anti-war protest across Australia. Hundreds of students attended meetings to organise the strike on the February 14-16 weekend, after
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BY MICK BULL & SUE BOLTON The campaign by the construction division of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) to extend the 36-hour working week to all building workers, regardless of which state they happen to be
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More than 1 million Australians marched against war on Iraq two weekends ago. About 12 million people marched worldwide. The scale of the opposition to the US-led drive to war is unprecedented and is acting as a brake on
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MELBOURNE Maryan al-Talebi is a seemingly average 17-year-old high school student living in Footscray. She has a part-time job and is undertaking her final year of the Victorian Certificate of Education. But behind al-Talebis
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Is the Democratic Socialist Party a revolutionary feminist party? Not really, according to Alison Thorne, a leading member of the Freedom Socialist Party (FSP). The DSP, Thorne argued in her contribution on the future of the
News
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1000 protest in DaylesfordDAYLESFORD, Victoria — Inspired by the February 14 massive mobilisation in Melbourne, around 1000 residents took over the main street on February 22 to say "no to war". The arriving crowd was greeted by
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Women say 'Its not our warSYDNEY I told my friend I'd meet her at Hyde Park at 12.30pm for the Women for Peace rally. See you there, I said. Can't imagine there'll be much of a turnout in this miserable weather.
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GEELONG Answering a call from the Victorian branch of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union for shop stewards to fly banners of peace on construction sites, members have found that even a peace symbol needs to
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Wollongongs peace train and IWD plansWOLLONGONG After the 5000-strong February 8 anti-war rally here, a large crowd was expected to travel from Wollongong to Sydney on February 16. Although originally NOWAR had
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MACKAY, north Queensland — A week after moving to Mackay from Rockhampton, where I had been involved in anti-war organising, I received a phone call asking if any Mackay actions were planned. A quick phone call to the local
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ADELAIDE Young people need to be leading the anti-war movement. Tens of thousands of Australian students were involved in stopping the war in Vietnam, and we can stop the war in Iraq, said University of Adelaide student
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MELBOURNE — On February 16, 800 people packed into St Michaels Uniting Church for a forum organised by Women for a Humane Refugee Policy. Federal Labor MP Carmen Lawrence told the forum that the Howard government's treatment of
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CANBERRA — Seventy police, 30 in riot gear, raided the Aboriginal Tent Embassy at 6am on February 19. They dismantled a recently erected A-frame tin goonji. Most of those sleeping on-site at the time of the raid were women and
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CANBERRA — The ACT Network Opposing War on February 18 issued its own call for all anti-war and peace groups, community organisations, trade unions, student and youth groups and political organisations opposed to a war on
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SYDNEY — The Indonesian government's decision to divide West Papua into three provinces is a further attack by Jakarta on the Papuan people's right to self-determination, West Papua Institute for Human Rights supervisor John Rumbiak
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HOBART — The Unions Tasmania Council, the peak union body in the state, issued a statement from its meeting on February 13 opposing a unilateral US war on Iraq. However, the statement supports UN calls on Iraq to "surrender
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HOBART — The state Labor government of Premier Jim Bacon decided on February 3 to introduce new laws to allow the $30 million Meander Dam project to go ahead. Previously, the Resource Management and Planning Appeals Tribunal
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AMEC workers victory MELBOURNE — Workers employed by AMEC, the company contracted to install new generators at the Carrum Downs water treatment plant, are back at work. They won the reinstatement of eight workers, including the Australian
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Liberation I "You'll be fighting not to conquer anybody but to liberate people." — George "The Crusader" Bush addressing US troops, January 3. Liberation II "Under the [Bush administration's] plan a US military governor would rule post-war
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SYDNEY — On February 19, 100 people met in Leichhardt Town Hall to discuss the topic "How we can stop the war on Iraq". Organised by Green Left Weekly, the meeting was addressed by by anti-war Labor MP Harry Quick, who told
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MELBOURNE — Armed federal police and immigration officers carried out a Rambo-style raid on an inner-city building site on February 20. The police and immigration officers stormed the Bayview building site in Port Melbourne at
Analysis
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Help us get the word out! Last weekend one million people marched against Australia joining the US war against the Iraqi people. An unprecedented movement has taken over the stage of Australian politics. If it can keep its resolve
World
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More than 20,000 people marched against war on Iraq on February 15 in more than 20 cities and towns around New Zealand.
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"There will not be a safe place in Baghdad", an unnamed Pentagon official told the US news network CBS on January 24."You're sitting in Baghdad and all of a sudden you're the general and 30 of you at division headquarters have been
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PARIS Despite intense pressure from the US government, French President Jacques Chirac continues to maintain that France will veto a United Nations Security Council resolution authorising a war in Iraq. On February 15, I
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In the wake of the February 14-16 international weekend of anti-war demonstrations — in which up to 12 million people participated — leaders of the 15 European Union countries held an emergency summit on February 17 to cobble
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BERLIN — Like those around the globe, the anti-war protest here on February 15 was colossal. The planning committee, facing unending problems, difficulties and occasional disagreements, hoped against hope to have 100,000
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CHICAGO — Under the slogan, "Books not bombs", students across the United States are gearing up for what may be one of the most important days of youth activism against the looming US war against Iraq. The March 5 national student
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According to Labour MPs, British Prime Minister Tony Blair has only a few weeks to turn around the dreadful political mess in which his support for US President George Bush's looming attack on Iraq has landed him. Blair
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On February 15, around 50 people gathered at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, to participate the in global day of peace demonstrations. Meanwhile, reports Paolo Calisse, Amundsen-Scott Station, We organised a rally here at the South Pole,
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The emergence of a mass anti-war movement shows a complete distrust of official politics. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the London Financial Times crowed that it would finish off the anti-capitalist movement. No such luck, gents.
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The Indonesian government has again violated the December 10 Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (COHA). The agreement was supposed to bring an end to violence in Aceh. Indonesian authorities have arrested Acehnese civil rights
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SAN FRANCISCO Sunday February 16 was the largest anti-war protest in this city's history, with the march organisers estimating that 250,000 people took part. Even the police department said about 200,000 marched double that
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LEON The February 15 anti-war mobilisations were huge all over the world; in the Spanish state they were truly enormous. If one tots up the 1.5 million who marched in Madrid with the 1 million plus in Barcelona, and then add
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DUBLIN Among the millions marching on February 15, there were more than 100,000 on the streets of Dublin. That was the official number being cited not only by enthusiastic activists, but by hostile newspapers and a
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CHICAGO On February 15, close to 10,000 Chicagoans participated in a spirited march and demonstration opposing the impending US war against Iraq. Given the brutally cold weather, the size of the march was all the more
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ROME At least 2 million people (organisers estimate 3 million) from all over Italy converged on Rome on February 15, one of the largest peace rallies held in the world on that day. An entire section of the historic
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Despite mass protests last December, the Hong Kong government is pressing ahead with plans to pass a draconian new law which will seriously curb freedom of speech and association. In September — using the pretext of combating
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By Ahmed Ben Bella, George Galloway & John Rees At least 13 Egyptian activists against the war on Iraq have been arrested. Ten remain in custody; 11 of the 13 arrested have been tortured. We have received a plea for solidarity from a broad range
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TORONTO — February 15 marked the Canadian anti-war movement's impressive growth. In Toronto, Canada's largest city, between 30,000 and 50,000 people braved bitter cold and icy winds to assert their unconditional opposition to war
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BY IGGY KIM & EVA CHENG As in the rest of the world, there were anti-war protests across Asia on February 14-16. The largest protest was in Tokyo, with 25,000 people marching on February 14. In Thailand, 15,000 protested in two cities
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LONDON — Many people on the February 15 London anti-war march peace march hadn't been on a march before. But I had and let me tell you it was terrific. I was on one of 25 buses that left Nottingham for London, along with 300
Culture
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SYDNEY A cappella ensemble Ecopella will launches its first CD, An Organism Called Earth, on March 1 at the Newtown Neighbourhood Centre. Founded in 1998, the Sydney-based Ecopella was the first Australian choir to focus its repertoire on
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Deglobalization: Ideas for a New World EconomyBy Walden BelloZed Books, 2002132 pagesOrder at <http://www.zedbooks.demon.co.uk>Walden Bello's new book, Deglobalization: Ideas for a New World Economy, is part of the
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ADELAIDE — A group of local writers organised an anti-war poetry reading after the massive rally on February 16. Entitled Bang/Whimper, the event was held at an appropriately named venue, the Worldsend Hotel. It featured 10 writers
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MELBOURNE — Colour My World is an art exhibition being held to support asylum seekers who are without work rights, Medicare or social security benefits. Hundreds of displaced and distressed people, who have been granted a
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REVIEW BY LEE SUSTAR Gangs of New YorkDirected by Martin ScorseseWritten by Jay Cocks, Steven Zaillian and Kenneth LonerganWith Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, Liam Neeson, Jim Broadbent and Cameron DiazAt major cinemas The events of the