Anne Picot, Sydney
Socialist Alliance activists joined unionists, students and community education activists on January 31 to picket the national ALP conference. Chanting "No fees for TAFE" and "No fees and no job cuts", we leafleted conference
Issue 569
News
Jim McIlroy, Brisbane
"We are issuing a challenge to Premier Peter Beattie to use his almost certain big majority after the coming state election to make some significant changes in this state", Coral Wynter, the Socialist Alliance's candidate for
Shua Garfield, Hobart
University of Tasmania student Munyaradzi "Munya" Chiramiro is facing deportation to Zimbabwe after incorrectly completing a bridging visa application. Munya has lived in Hobart since mid-2001 and is one semester short of
Elizabeth Stewart, Brisbane
Adrian Skerritt, the Socialist Alliance's candidate for the seat of Inala in the February 7 Queensland elections, has called a "public auction" of the electoral office of local Labor MP and primary industries minister
HOBART — A recent Newspoll on woodchipping commissioned by Doctors for Forests has drawn angry responses from the forestry industry and Liberal and Labor state politicians. More than 85% of the 1200 people interviewed across Australia said they
Anna Samson, Sydney
There is little difference between "an irresponsible drunken man" wantonly vandalising private property and two individuals attempting to "make a serious political point" by marking a public building.
This is what Justice John
Mike Byrne, Brisbane
The Socialist Alliance's South Brisbane branch staged an "eviction" of ALP state MP Anna Bligh from her electorate office on January 31, as a protest against homelessness, which has dramatically increased under Premier Peter
Simon Butler, Newcastle
The state of the refugee rights movement and the role local governments can play in strengthening it were the themes of a public meeting hosted by the Newcastle branch of the Socialist Alliance on January 28.
Steve
Sue Bolton, Melbourne
Australia Post's mail service in Victoria was seriously disrupted on January 29 when 250 postal workers took action against their relocation to the new Ardeer parcel facility in West Sunshine.
The dispute arose when
World
@intro2 = As the battle for the Democrat presidential nomination heated up, US Socialist Worker took a closer look at the most likely candidates. Profiles of all candidates are available at <http://www.socialistworker.org>.
John Kerry
Don Monkerud
High suicide rates among soldiers in Iraq should come as no surprise. Anyone who remembers America's last colonial-style war or who walks the nation's streets knows how Vietnam War veterans continue to suffer long after the last shot
ROHAN PEARCE
Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair has, for the moment at least, escaped becoming a victim of his pre-war deceptions about Iraq's alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction.
On January 28, an inquiry headed by James Hutton
Max Lane
The Indonesian people's contempt for, and rejection of, the country's elit politik (political elite) is wide and deep. So deep, that a term that began as a normal sociological description is now a form of insult used by the masses. Several
Kathy Newnam, Mumbai
One of the largest contingents to the World Social Forum (WSF) in Mumbai was from the Pakistan Social Forum (PSF). With nearly 400 delegates, it was the largest delegation of Pakistanis that has been to India for a specific
Indonesian trade unionist Dita Indah Sari, chairperson of the Indonesian National Front for Labour struggle, addressed 6000 people at the World Social Forum on January 17. On returning, she wrote the following comment on the conference.
Like at
Berta Joubert-Ceci, New York
Amid protests restricted by the government and a heavy police presence, the Americas Summit was held on January 12-13 in Monterrey, Mexico. Many protesting groups had signed a statement declaring US President George
Rohan Pearce
Little more than a week and a half after the publication of a book on the career of US President George Bush's former treasury secretary, Paul O'Neill, in which O'Neill confessed he "never saw anything that I would characterise as
The American Civil Liberties Union has congratulated six gay students who were awarded US$1.1 million compensation, after a California school failed to stop homophobic bullying.
The students had been fighting for five years. The school took the
Doug Lorimer
"Today our coalition is working ... with Iraqis and the United Nations to prepare for a transition to full Iraqi sovereignty by the end of June", US President George Bush dishonestly declared in his January 21 State of the Union
Eva Cheng
Hoping that China's enormous population of about 1.2 billion people could be turned into mass consumers for the products of Western companies, Western leaders hailed China's initiatives in the early 1990s to reintegrate into the world
Culture
The Crass Motor ShowKeep Left TheatreFebruary 18-28, Victorian Trades Hall, Carlton$15/$10Book on (03) 9489 1096 or visit <http://www.theatre.keep-left.org>.
REVIEW BY SARAH STEPHEN & JULIE SMITH
MELBOURNE — The Crass Motor Show is a
MirrorsKev CarmodySong CyclesA$30 from <http://www.thelastrecordstore.com/independents.html#kevcarmody>.
REVIEW BY IGGY KIM
Kev Carmody has been much missed since his last original album release, 1995's Images and Illusions. While his
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
REVIEW BY BEN REID
The Trouble with Nature: Sex in Science and Popular CultureBy Roger LancasterUniversity of California Press, 2003442 pages, $60
Surely but subtly, an alliance of poor science and the popular media has established a new
REVIEW BY OWEN RICHARDS
Our BoysDirected by Kerry BrewsterProduced and edited by Andrea LangScreening on ABC TV8pm, February 10
A new television documentary series about marginalised students in the public education system gives the lie to Prime