ADELAIDE — The August 13 City Messenger ran a front-page article that supported abandoning "dry zone" by-laws in the South Australian capital's city centre.
In the article, the Catholic Church's vicar-general Monsignor David
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"Tell the women of Australia we are here. We want to see our husbands. We want our children to be happy." Just what is so unreasonable about these sentiments? These words were uttered to Marianne Dickie by distraught Afghan
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CANBERRA — One of the Canberra Sunday Times supplements of August 24 was a 16-page pictorial panorama, "Recovery: Canberra's journey from the ashes of January 18". At the beginning of August, however, the official "Inquiry into the
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NEWCASTLE — For those who don't know, Newcastle is a beautiful city. The sight of a massive bulk carrier being pulled and pushed into place by its attendant tugs is common. Even more special is when the ship appears, then
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In response to a series of beauty contests being held at a local pub, the Newcastle University women's collective has begun organising protests. The campaign was initiated with a protest against the "Miss University" contest held at the pub in late
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SYDNEY — After trying for months to split the Walk Against the War Coalition (WAWC), the ALP finally managed to get its way on August 18. At a special meeting of the coalition, attended by close to 100 people, the ALP mustered the
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The Bellingen Rural Australians for Refugees (BRAR) group formed in October 2001 following an exhibition of refugee art and a subsequent forum at the Bellingen 2001 Global Carnival. A week later, 20 concerned locals met to express
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Thousands of people around Australia marched on World Refugee Day in June. Even war on Iraq could not stop the development of this movement. In fact, more people have shown sympathy for refugees because of the war and the government's
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Australia's treatment of refugees took its ugliest turn with the hijacking of the MV Tampa by heavily armed SAS squads on August 29, 2001, and the subsequent remote incarceration of thousands of asylum seekers, without any access
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There was a time when Gary Foley's call to hit the streets ran a chill down your back. When Paul Coe told us we were a sovereign people, not a minority, we all believed him. And when Marcia Langton addressed a rally against the
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The Wodonga campus of La Trobe University only offers one humanities subject. There are almost twice as many students enrolled in the course as there are places. The lecture theatre's doors are closed as soon as all the seats are
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Australia has had a strange love-hate relationship with refugees for as long as anyone can remember. We have accepted more than 650,000 refugees as migrants since World War II, as part of the "planned" program pursued to build
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De Mello's death unnecessary I worked with Sergio de Mello as his Indonesian interpreter in East Timor over a two-year period, when he was UN transitional administrator there. I accompanied him and his staff in a wide range of meetings and on a
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On August 26, 2001, 433 asylum seekers were rescued by a Norwegian vessel, the MV Tampa, on their way to Australia. When the Tampa attempted to enter Australian waters in order to drop off the asylum seekers, it was boarded by the SAS and prevented
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Carmen Lawrence, who resigned from the Labor frontbench last December in protest at the party leadership's policies on refugees and the war on Iraq, is now standing for the position of party president. A postal ballot of all members
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MELBOURNE — The ACTU executive's choice of guest speakers at the peak union body's 2003 congress, held August 18-21, left a bitter taste in the mouths of many unionists. On the second day, Qantas board "chairman" Margaret Jackson
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The gushing tributes made by the warmakers in Washington, London and Canberra for the United Nations "special representative" in Iraq, Sergio Viera de Mello, provided an answer as to why Iraqi patriots would target the UN mission
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The Tampa woke Australia and the world to the savage brutality and unprincipled cunning of the Howard Government. Before the Tampa, concern for asylum seekers was found mainly amongst the usual miners canaries — those people in the
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MELBOURNE — On August 20, 1000 construction workers rallied outside the ACTU congress. Organised by the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, the rally called on the ACTU to support unions resisting the federal government's legislative
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SYDNEY — NSW Anti-Discrimination Board (ADB) workers have responded furiously to vicious cuts to be imposed on the ADB by the Premier Bob Carr's Labor government. The government's plans for massive funding cuts to the ADB became
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The Tarkine is the largest unprotected wilderness area in Tasmania, covering some 377,000 hectares of the state's northwest. It is a beautiful and dramatic region, with wild rivers, deep gorges and vast rainforests. Here, some of the
News
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According to refugee supporters who are in regular contact with asylum seekers in the Baxter detention centre, on August 22 there were a number of suicide attempts following news that more than a dozen Iranian asylum seekers faced
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CANBERRA — On August 2, the ACT Australian Education Union executive decided recommend to the AEU branch council that the ACT Labor governments third offer in the initial installment of the enterprise bargaining agreement
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Expert opinion "You'd be taking them to the Better Business Bureau if you bought a washing machine the way we went into the war in Iraq." — Former NATO commander and retired US Army general Wesley Clark, commenting August 17, on the White House
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In a move described by many delegates to the ACTU congress as having echoes of the 1998 waterfront dispute, Qantas on August 19 provocatively introduced three labour-hire workers from the company Blue Collar to work as baggage
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BRISBANE — On August 19, Australian Manufacturing Workers Union organiser Maggie May came to work and found a fax on her chair from AMWU national secretary Doug Cameron telling her that she would no longer be working for the
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MELBOURNE — Residents of the western suburb of Sunshine who have been campaigning for nine years to have a local outdoor pool reopened have reacted with scepticism to the setting up of a 25-member advisory group to be headed by
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MELBOURNE — In yet another hurdle for manufacturing workers to jump in their industrial Campaign 2003, the Victorian Industrial Relations Commission is increasingly refusing to certify agreements. "The IRC is tightening up on
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BY DYLAN FERGUSON& LESLIE RICHMOND ADELAIDE — After months of diluted information, stalls and community consultations few and far between, the Coastal Protection Board (CPB) is set to go ahead with a planned experimental breakwater at Semaphore.
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MELBOURNE — On August 21, 300 members of he National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) were joined by delegates to the ACTU congress in a protest rally against the Howard government's proposed changes to university funding which
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Joh's claim for compensation 'a joke' BRISBANE — National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services secretariat chairman Frank Guivarra has labelled former Queensland premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen's claim for damages for "pain and
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MELBOURNE — On August 17, nearly 100 people attended a meeting at Trades Hall to launch of the Fair Go campaign. The meeting was sponsored by a coalition of groups including the Victorian Trades Hall Council (VTHC), the Ethnic
Analysis
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When Pauline Hanson burst onto the political scene in 1996, she unleashed a tidal wave of racism, and gave it renewed strength. As she attacked Asian migrants, refugees and Indigenous Australians, Prime Minister John Howard defended her, claiming she
World
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An opinion poll, conducted August 7-8 by YouGov on behalf of the Mail on Sunday, confirmed that support for the ruling British Labour Party is continuing to plummet as the lies spun by Prime Minister Tony Blair's government to
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TARIQ ALI is a long-time political activist, author and socialist. In the 1960s and '70s, he was a leading figure in the British movement against the US war against the people of Vietnam. He is currently an editor of the New Left Review. Ali spoke
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With pomp and circumstance, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation on August 11 took formal command of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) "peacekeepers" in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul. This is the first time in
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SAN FRANCISCO — Editorial writers and TV talking heads have deplored the recall election of Governor Gray Davis in California as anti-democratic and a joke. Californian law allows for a recall election of officials if enough
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The US-based Labor Art and Mural Project's delegation to Palestine is facing a grave challenge. On August 22, the Israeli authorities — the Israel Defence Force, the Civil Administration and the police department — arrived
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AUCKLAND — A forest of West Papuan "Morning Star" flags and chants of "Free West Papua" and "Observer status now" greeted the arriving delegates of the Pacific Islands Forum at the Sheraton Hotel here on August 14. Sixty
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On August 12, a 40-day ceasefire was shattered by two Palestinian suicide bombings in Rosh Ha'ayin in northern Israel and the Israeli settlement of Ariel in the West Bank. Two Israelis were killed and 13 wounded in the attacks. The
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On July 14, Australia's Prime Minister John Howard announced a A$5 million security aid package, after meeting with Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in Manila. The package, aimed at "counter-terrorism activities",
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At a White House press conference on August 8, US President George Bush told journalists that it "turns out this is our 100th day since major military operations have ended, ended in Iraq. And since then, we've made good progress.
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The Commonwealth went ahead with the Global 2003 Smart Partnership International Dialogue (SPID) conference in Swaziland on August 12-16. In deciding to hold the conference, the Commonwealth showed total disregard for the
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Ashok Manohar, general secretary of the Lal Nishan Party (Leninist) of Maharashtra state, India, died in Pune on July 31 after a massive heart attack. He was only 54. Manohar started his political journey in the early 1970s as
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TORONTO — It's high time Ontario's low-income workers received a raise. The minimum wage in Ontario has been frozen at C$6.85/hour ($6.40 for students and $5.95 for liquor servers) throughout the eight brutal years of Tory rule.
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LONDON — The European Union Border Control Program, introduced with scant regard to refugee protection and human rights, is leading to an increasing number of deaths on the borders of Europe — and beyond. Over the last 18
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Despite the abject failure to find any weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq, Pentagon officials remain upbeat on the issue. After testifying to the US Senate's armed services committee on July 31, US Army Major-General Keith
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"Susan Schuman's son writes home from Iraq complaining of poor living conditions, skimpy water rations and dozens of daily attacks on US troops that go unreported. The mother of a Massachusetts National Guardsman stationed in Iraq
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The following speech was presented by LEONEL VIVAS, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela's ambassador to Australia, to the August 2 "Latin America: New Movements of Resistance and Transformation" conference in Sydney, organised by the Committees in
Culture
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The War on ErrorismNOFXFat Wreck Chords REVIEW BY JAMES VASSILOPOULOS Veteran US punks NOFX are not your typical band. You will not see the ad for their latest CD, The War on Errorism, on television after the doggy biscuit commercial. NOFX's
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Actively Radical TV — Includes the Green Left news. CTS Sydney (UHF 31), every Sunday, 9pm. Phone (02) 9564 1277. Visit <http://www.channel31.org> for program details. Access News — Melbourne community TV, Channel 31, has excellent
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SYDNEY — What do Indonesian factory workers making theatre in their spare time have in common with radical TV producers working out of a shack in Marrickville? In February, a rag-tag crew of community TV producers will be
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How do you see global feminism? The Girls Go Global Project is an international initiative that seeks to bring together contemporary and pop culture images of global feminism, created by women and girls across the globe. The
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Why Do People Hate America?By Ziauddin Sardar and Merryl Wyn DaviesIcon Books, $21 (pb) REVIEW BY DAVE RILEY If you have ever wondered why the United States ("America") is hated around the world, then maybe you did come down in the last shower.
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REVIEW BY GRAHAM MATTHEWS Terminator 3: Rise of the MachinesWith Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, Kristanna Loken, Claire Danes, David Andrews and Mark FamigliettiDirected by Jonathan MostowAt major cinemas To great fanfare, the third
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AUCKLAND — The New Zealand Herald newspaper has sacked its award-winning cartoonist following a censorship row. Malcolm Evans was dismissed after drawing cartoons criticising the Israeli government's treatment of the