SYDNEY — The Sydney Social Forum (SSF) will be held at the University of Technology, Sydney on October 24-26. It will feature three international keynote speakers: Ariel Guides from the Philippines Solidarity of Philippines Workers
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Despite the federal government's attempts to restrict the protests against US President George Bush, organisers of the Canberra rally on October 23 are confident it will be huge. Buses from Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and towns across
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With the United States and its allies facing an escalating guerrilla war of resistance to its occupation of Iraq, more and more people are starting to see similarities between the Iraq war and the US war in Vietnam in the 1960s and
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PERTH — On October 10, 125,000 homes in Western Australia lost electricity when a computer fault caused the Collie power station to shut down for two-and-a-half hours. This followed widespread blackouts in the south-west area of
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Australian novelist Richard Flanagan was recently asked by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) to read a favourite piece of fiction on national radio and explain his reasons for the choice. "I was unsure what fiction to
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PERTH — Western Australia has had more than its fair share of controversial coastal development issues over the last decade. The national spotlight has mostly focused on a proposal to build a resort and marina at Maud's
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CANBERRA — Andrew Wilkie, the former senior intelligence officer at the centre of a storm following his resignation in protest at Prime Minister John Howard's government's stance on Iraq, admits to having a soft spot for Tamworth.
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These photographs of the October 20, 1966, protest against US President Lyndon Johnson were taken by Perry Brown, who is now a member of the Democratic Socialist Party and the Socialist Alliance in Newcastle. He described the scene to
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Grief in Bali The world today is full of grief. The wars, poverty, disease and cultural disruption wrought by imperial policies of plunder, conquest, humiliation and exploitation are producing an ocean of tears and agony. How many times a day on
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NEWCASTLE — The Lower Hunter Transport Working Group (LHTWG), set up by the NSW Labor government with wide terms of reference, issued its first report on September 19. There were no surprises. Some options, like replacing the heavy
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In 1966, the Vietnam War was still fairly popular, and the jingoistic patriotism of the previous period in Australia was still predominant. In this context, it is hard to understate the courageousness of federal Labor leader Arthur
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In early September, the organisers of Lesfest, a national lesbian festival and conference, were granted an exemption under Victoria's Equal Opportunity Act to allow the event to be advertised as being for "female-born lesbians". Explaining their
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SYDNEY — The fight to save 1000 NSW public service education support jobs in the schools and TAFE colleges is entering a critical phase. The state Labor government's deadline for filling the new organisational structures is early
News
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SYDNEY — Palestinian legislator and human rights activist Hanan Ashrawi is scheduled to receive the Sydney Peace Prize from NSW Premier Bob Carr on November 6 at Parliament House. Ashrawi, a long-time campaigner for the rights of
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Libraries standing empty and university lectures being cancelled would normally alarm people concerned with quality education, but on October 16 — when up to 40,000 university staff went on strike across Australia — the sight
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MELBOURNE — The Action ticket has won the October 6-10 La Trobe University Student Representative Council (SRC) election in a landslide victory. The ticket consisted of independent activists, members of the socialist youth
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PERTH — Around 60 members and supporters of the Socialist Alliance attended the organisation's WA conference on October 12. A variety of workshops and plenary sessions were held, discussing topics such as fighting governments'
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NEWCASTLE — NSW Health and Research Employees Association (HREA) branches throughout the Hunter region have unanimously condemned the NSW Labor government's decision to privatise new facilities to be built at the Newcastle Mater
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Federal Labor leader Simon Crean has told Labor MPs that they should give US President George Bush a standing ovation when he finishes his address to the joint sitting of parliament on October 23. Tim Gooden, assistant secretary of
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FREMANTLE — The battle to save the popular South Beach is gathering pace, with a public rally being organised on the beach on October 26, at 11am, called by residents and beach users. The rally aims to stop powerful property
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BY DUNCAN MEERDING& ALEX BAINBRIDGE HOBART — A growing protest movement is targeting the forest practices of the Tasmanian Labor government, including woodchipping, clearfelling and the use of 1080 poison. A "walk for change" attracted up to 2000
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SYDNEY — Around 120 people gathered at the Metcalf Auditorium, in the NSW State Library, on October 17 for a memorial meeting for the highly influential Palestinian intellectual and activist Edward Said. Said died in the US on
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SYDNEY — Members of the NSW branches of the Socialist Alliance will meet on November 8 for the alliance's NSW conference. Its theme is "Regime change begins at home: unite for socialism!". Socialist Alliance NSW committee member
Analysis
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Since the end of July, 24-year-old Palestinian asylum seeker Aladdin Sisalem has been the only prisoner in the Australian government's Lombrum detention centre on Manus Island, in Papua New Guinea. He has very little human contact,
World
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At a White House press conference on October 10, US President George Bush announced new punitive measures against socialist Cuba, including new steps to enforce Washington's 41-year-old trade embargo against the island, stricter
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Since July, Washington has launched an unprecedented campaign to blame China's currency regime for declining US manufacturing jobs and pressuring Beijing to end its nine-year peg of the yuan (renminbi in Chinese) to the US dollar. US
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LA PAZ, Oct. 13 — After the October 12 massacre in El Alto, an Aymara city of 800,000 on the upper edge of Bolivia's capital, La Paz, which left at least 25 dead and 100 injured, millions of Bolivians have concluded that
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MANILA — At least 50,000 people mobilised across the Philippines on October 18 as US President George Bush, arrived for an eight-hour visit. At least 10,000 people jammed the main thoroughfare leading to the House of
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Tens of thousands of people across New Zealand marched on October 11 to oppose genetically modified crops. A moratorium on GE crops is due to lapse at the end of October. The biggest march was in Auckland, where up to 35,000 people took part in what
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In a humiliating backdown, Bolivia's president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada resigned as president on October 17 and fled to the United States. Lozada resigned as his last remaining supporters in cabinet deserted him in the face of huge
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JAKARTA — On October 13, the Indonesian armed forces (TNI) announced the cancellation of a November 6 visit to Australian Defence Force facilities in Perth by a TNI delegation. The decision was in response to the Australian
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A little over two years ago, on October 7, 2001, US President George Bush announced that the Pentagon had begun air strikes against Afghanistan in preparation for a US invasion. The bombing campaign marked the official start of the
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BILBAO — The 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States, and the media impact they made, created a climate in which governments around the world — by fanning and exploiting fears of "terrorism" — have been able to implement
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SAN FRANCISCO — In a referendum that coincided with the election for California's governor, voters rejected Proposition 54 — the "Racial Privacy Initiative" — by an almost two-to-one margin. Drafted and aggressively promoted by
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In January 2001, US President George Bush reinstated the "global gag" rule on international family planning assistance that the US administration of Ronald Reagan had announced at the UN-sponsored Second International Conference on
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After weeks of haggling, France, Germany and Russia on October 16 finally voted in the UN Security Council for a US-sponsored resolution mandating the creation of a "multinational" occupation force in Iraq under US command. While
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The 21st Australia-New Zealand Work/Study Brigade will travel to Cuba in December. Organised annually by the Australia-Cuba Friendship Society, the brigade provides an opportunity for people to express solidarity with Cuba's struggle
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The 12-month prison sentence imposed on human rights activist Irene Fernandez, handed down on October 16 by magistrate Juliana Mohamed, was a shameful day for the justice system in Malaysia. Charged with "maliciously publishing
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AUSTIN — The US military is attempting to resurrect the influenza virus that killed up to 40 million people in 1918. Several genes of the extraordinarily lethal "Spanish flu" have been isolated and introduced into contemporary flu strains. The new
Culture
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It's becoming clear, why you engineeredOur involvement in their war.For our "mutual aid", and for your "free trade"It was worth their dying for.But your quest for oil, and to carve the spoils,Of their reconstructed ruins,Cannot pay the price, for so
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Vive La Revolution: A Stand-up History of the French RevolutionBy Mark SteelScribner, 2003299 pages, $29.95 (pb) REVIEW BY PHIL SHANNON On June 20, 1789, Dr Guillotin made a significant entry into history. Locked out of their meeting place by
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Syria: Neither Bread Nor FreedomBy Alan GeorgeZed Books, 2003 REVIEW BY CHRIS SLEE Israel's government on October 5 launched a missile attack on Syria, the first strike into Syrian territory in 30 years. US President George Bush immediately