BY JAMES VASSILOPOULOS
CANBERRA — Preparations have begun to make the protests against US President George Bush as large as possible. Bush will visit Canberra sometime after the October 21 APEC meeting held in Bangkok, Thailand.
An informal
Issue 554
News
BY RUSSELL PICKERING
PERTH — Fifty building sites from Woodvale to Kwinana ground to a halt on September 8 as 4000 construction workers downed tools for 24 hours to protest the death toll in the building industry.
The latest fatality, that of a
LISMORE — One-hundred people participated in a Reclaim the Streets action on September 13, occupying a city street. Calling for more public space and better public transport and bicycle access, the protesters also expressed solidarity with
BY ANGELA PINK
PORT AUGUSTA — Students from Port Augusta secondary school attempted to teach federal immigration minister Philip Ruddock a lesson, in a performance they did at the Port Augusta Croc Festival on September 3.
The Croc Festivals
BY STEPHEN GARVEY
On September 9 the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) ruled on the final details of the enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA) at ACI's Box Hill factory, which has been the scene of a long-running dispute between the
We will need as much help as possible to build large, powerful protests against US President George Bush's visit to Australia. There are lots of ways you can help — from designing and printing information, web distribution, organising transport and
BY NICK EVERETT
US President George Bush has announced he will be visiting Australia — probably Canberra and Sydney — immediately following the October 21 APEC forum in Bangkok, Thailand. Within days of the announcement, activists have begun
BY EMMA MURPHY
Hundreds of people around Australia have attended meetings featuring Alvaro Guzman, the national director of the Venezuelan Bolivarian Student Front. Guzman began a national speaking tour with a meeting in Hobart on September 8,
BY MARGARITA WINDISCH
On September 12, 400 people braved cold and wet winter weather in Melbourne to protest against the World Trade Organisation. On September 13, 200 rallied in Sydney and 200 in Brisbane for the same cause. The protests coincided
BY PETER BAKER
HOBART — On September 11, 150 members of the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union (LHMWU) held a march and rally drawing attention to their campaign for smoke-free work places.
The protest action was called to put
Iraqi refugees protest deportation threat
BRISBANE — Iraqi refugees and their supporters rallied in King George Square on September 11 to protest the federal government's refugee policies and demand full rights for temporary protection
BY CHRIS SLEE
MELBOURNE — The Victorian Peace Network (VPN) decided at its meeting on September 9 not to organise a rally to coincide with US President George Bush's visit to Australia. However the meeting, attended by 21 people, agreed to fund
BY NIKKI ULASOWSKI
PERTH — An October 25 "End the occupation of Iraq" rally has been planned as the main focus of anti-war activists here. A mass anti-war march on Perth, initiated by the Perth No War Alliance, will coincide with rallies planned
World
BY BARRY SHEPPARD
SAN FRANCISCO — An important victory has been won by undocumented workers in California as a result of the recall election of Democrat governor Gray Davis. To avoid being recalled in the October 7 poll, Davis has reversed his
BY DOUG LORIMER
Desperate to reduce the burden on US troops in trying to suppress armed resistance to its occupation of Iraq, President George Bush's administration is pushing for a new UN Security Council resolution that would provide political
BY MATTHEW DIMMOCK
John Bolton did time in US President Ronald Reagan's administration in the 1980s. More recently, he was vice-president of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and a member of the Project for the New American Century, two key
BY HASAN ABU NIMAH
The resignation of the Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (also known as Abu Mazen) on September 7 should have surprised no-one. His appointment was part of a scheme that was no more than an artificial arrangement intended
BY EVA CHENG
On September 9, the Zapatista National Liberation Army's Subcomandante Marcos addressed protesters who had gathered to oppose the World Trade Organisation's September 10-14 ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico. He pointed out that the
BY BARRY SHEPPARD
SAN FRANCISCO — On September 3, five of the candidates hoping to replace the Democrats' Gray Davis as governor of California, should he be recalled on October 7, took part in a nationally televised debate. The five were selected
BY EVA CHENG
On September 5, the Hong Kong government indefinitely shelved its highly controversial anti-subversion law (Article 23 of the Basic Law, the territory's quasi-constitution) after a series of massive protests since December. Article 23
BY ROBERTO JORQUERA
Since the election of Hugo Chavez in 1998 as the president of Venezuela, a process of fundamental social change has been unfolding in that country, called the "Bolivarian revolution" by its supporters. Alvaro Guzman, the
BY CHRISTANO KERRILA
A revolution is unfolding in Venezuela and a life and death struggle is taking place between the future and the past. Venezuela's mainstream national media is almost totally monopolised by the corrupt capitalist oligarchy.
CHRIS BAMBERY, national secretary of the British Socialist Workers Party (SWP), spoke to Green Left Weekly's PETER BOYLE on September 5. Bambery was in Sydney to attend the International Socialist Organisation's Marxism 2003 conference.
How big is
BY CHRISTIANO KERRILA
The increasingly radical Venezuelan government headed by President Hugo Chavez is continuing its international diplomatic "offensive" against US imperialism in both its military and economic manifestations.
This offensive
Delegates to the annual British Trade Union Congress conference on September 10 unanimously backed a motion calling for "work through the United Nations for the withdrawal without delay of coalition troops and for control of Iraq to be given to the
BY JOHN PILGER
LONDON — For the past few weeks, I have been watching videotapes of the US-led attack on Iraq. Most of the tapes have not bee shown in Britain. They concentrate on the epic suffering of ordinary Iraqis. There are photographs, too,
BY JAMES BALOWSKI
JAKARTA — Indonesian government officials and high-ranking military officers have been hinting that, despite the military's (TNI) much-touted successes in its war against the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in the province
Culture
BY HUW ELLIS
UK-based DJ Adam Freeland's debut album Now & Them, with its killer single "We Want Your Soul", will be released in Australia on September 29. With Now & Them, Freeland has spread his wings well beyond the dance floor. The album's
Picasso's War: The Extraordinary Story of an Artist, an Atrocity and a Painting that Changed the WorldBy Russell MartinScribner, 2003274 pages, $39.95 (hb)
REVIEW BY PHIL SHANNON
"If cities are destroyed by flames, if women and children are
Late Victorian Holocausts: El Nino Famines and the Making of the Third WorldBy Mike DavisVerso 2002464 pages, $48
REVIEWED BY DAVE RILEY
While drought is considered a natural phenomenon, famine is not so easily blamed on the elements. It may be
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
Editorial
In many ways the content of US President George Bush's September 7 "address to the nation" was unremarkable. Aimed at those in the US who are increasingly disturbed by the Iraqi resistance to the US occupation of their country, it featured many of