Issue 542

News

BY STEPHEN GARVEY MELBOURNE — ACI Mould Manufacturing took the provocative action over the June 7-9 long weekend of issuing workers at its Box Hill plant with a notice that they would be locked out for a month from June 16 to July 18. The 77
BY ANGELA VECCHIO MELBOURNE — Australian Manufacturing Workers Union members at Stramit Building Products in Preston have won the first round of a struggle for a new enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA). The workers' claim is based on the
BY GRAHAM WILLIAMS MELBOURNE — More than 600 manufacturing companies were hit by a 24-hour stop work on June 12. The action was initiated a week earlier by a shop-stewards meeting of the Victorian branch of the Australian Manufacturing Workers
BY AARON BENEDEK & ANDREW MARTIN SYDNEY — Around 50 people met in the south-western suburb of Yagoona on June 13 to discuss how to combat racism and police harassment in the local community. The evening, organised by Bankstown Books Not Bombs,
BY GRAHAM MATTHEWS MELBOURNE — On June 17, a left-wing activist will appear in the Sunshine Magistrates Court accused of illegally distributing leaflets. Socialist Alliance member Tony Iltis has been charged with handing out leaflets at the
BY KERRY VERNON BRISBANE — On June 12, 800 Queensland Public Sector Union members participated in a march to state parliament to protest deteriorating job conditions and job cuts. QPSU members have also imposed work bans in response to the
BY RUTH RATCLIFFE DARWIN — On June 13, education minister Brendan Nelson came to Darwin for the Australian National Training Authority Ministerial Council's launch of the National Training Complaints Hotline. The council was greeted by protesters
BY TIM GOODEN GEELONG — On June 11, 100 people attended a public meeting convened by Gavin O'Connor, ALP MP member for the federal seat of Corio, to hear speakers talk about defending Medicare. The meeting was addressed by Australian Nursing
BY KERRIE BARRON & JAMES CAULFIELD CANBERRA — A group of activists gathered outside the Royal Thailand Embassy in Yarralumla on June 12 in response to the Thai government's "war on drugs". The "war" began around three months ago, and has
The Morris McMahon picket has entered its 14th week. Community pickets are being held at the factory gate every Thursday morning at 6.30am, 34 Arncliffe St, Arncliffe. From Green Left Weekly, June 18, 2003. Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.
BY LEIGH HUGHES ADELAIDE — Student anti-war activists won a campaign for corporate accountability at Flinders University on June 11. The academic senate has agreed to establish a working group to investigate ties between corporate sponsors and
BY PETER BOYLE Mr B or Mr C? Who has more personality? Better leadership style? Better policies? Does the broader fellow offer a smaller target to PM John Howard — and should he? Does the robot impersonator really have the "ticker"? Will it make
Casual hospitality workers win right to permanency SYDNEY — On June 8, the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union announced it had reached agreement with the Australian Hotels Association for casual employees in pubs, accommodation

World

BY DOUG LORIMER Washington's campaign to brand Iran as being in violation of its obligations under the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) will be bolstered by a report from the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The report,
BY ROHAN PEARCE "For us, the war is still going on", a US soldier in the town of Samarra, north of Baghdad, told the London Financial Times on May 30. He showed the FT's correspondent the impact marks from mortar rounds and rocket-propelled
BY JEFF SHANTZ TORONTO — The recent outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) here are shining a harsh light on the inadequacies and outright failures of neoliberal public health policies and practices. It also shows clearly the
By JAMES BALOWSKI JAKARTA — Just hours after claiming significant progress in its operation to crush the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and its supporters, the Indonesian military (TNI) on June 9 lost seven soldiers in an ambush in the Bireuen regency
BY DOUG LORIMER During his trip to Europe earlier this month, US President George Bush claimed that US occupation forces in Iraq had "found the weapons of mass destruction". The claim was based on the discovery of two trailers bearing laboratory
BY NIKOLAI HADDAD In his reply to my article, "55 years of oppression: Palestinians demand freedom!" (Green Left Weekly #539), Sol Salbe (GLW #541) correctly notes that it was the United Nations General Assembly, and not the UN Security Council,
BY DALE MILLS There have been more sensational revelations about British state-sponsored terrorism in Northern Ireland following the publication on April 17 of an official report — by Metropolitan Police chief Sir John Stevens — that found that
BY MAX LANE When Hasan de Tiro proclaimed the independent state of Aceh and launched the Aceh Sumatra National Liberation Front, also known as the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), in 1978, he attracted little support. Contrary to the myth-making of the
BY EVA CHENG When the world's six top business clubs unite to call on the eight most powerful governments to help breathe new life into global trade talks, you can be sure those negotiations have hit a rock. The European Round of Industrialists,
BY DICK NICHOLS MADRID — In the run-up to the May 25 local and regional government elections, all sides of politics were wondering what effect would the vast movement against the war on Iraq have on the result. Surely, the slavishly pro-US
BY MAIRE LEADBEATER AUCKLAND — Amnesty International activists co-ordinated three successful vigils in solidarity with the people of Aceh on June 6. The vigils, in the morning, at noon and during evening rush hour, took place in Auckland's
BY MURRAY SMITH PARIS — France was again brought to a standstill on June 10 by the movement against the government's attacks on workers' pension rights. The demonstrations were as massive as on previous occasions: 200,000 marched in Paris,

Culture

Actively Radical TV — Sydney community television's progressive current affairs producers tackle the hard issues from the activist's point of view. Includes the Green Left news. CTS Sydney (UHF 31), every Sunday, 9pm. Phone (02) 9564 1277. Visit
BY SARAH STEPHEN A new 28-page booklet has been produced by the Western Australian Refugee Alliance which provides a good introduction to the issue of SIEV-X, the boat which sank in international waters on October 19, 2001, killing 353 of its
Dark VictoryBy David Marr and Marian WilkinsonAllen & Unwin, 2003 $29.95 (pb) REVIEW BY SARAH STEPHEN David Marr and Marian Wilkinson's Dark Victory has had some rave reviews since its release in March. The praise is well deserved. It is an
The Magdalene SistersDirected and written by Peter MullanWith Geraldine Macewen, Anne-Marie Duff, Dorothy Duffy, Eileen Walsh and Noora-Jane NooneShowing at independent cinemas REVIEW BY ALEX SALMON Based on a true story, The Magdalene Sisters,
BY JON LAND NEWCASTLE — A bunch of local and national musicians are banding together to put on a huge fundraising event at the Civic Theatre on June 29 for War Child, an organisation that raises awareness of the struggle for survival facing
BY JOHN PERCY Some supporters of Green Left Weekly have established a national archive of Australian and international political posters. This collection now numbers several thousand, spanning nearly four decades. Steve O'Brien from Newcastle is
ADELAIDE — Seventy people attended the launch of the Children of the Gulf War photographic exhibition at the University of Adelaide on June 10. The display features photos by Takashi Morizumi. Former Baghdad-based "human shield" Ruth Russell told