Michael Bull, Melbourne
Since its first meeting on February 10, the Defend Craig Johnston Committee has planned a range of activities to defend the former Victorian secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU).
Johnston is
Issue 573
News
Stuart Martin, Melbourne
Amid a howl of calls from employers for Victorian Premier Steve Bracks' Labor government to get tough on unions because the state is supposedly heading into industrial chaos, the government has threatened to wage war on
MELBOURNE — On February 23, 200 people attended a rally at Telstra's Melbourne headquarters, called by the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU), to protest against the planned transfer of information technology jobs to India.
CPSU national
GEELONG — On February 24, 30 members of four trade unions attended an emergency meeting called to discuss a defence campaign for Craig Johnston, former Victorian secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union.
Johnston goes to trial in
MELBOURNE — On February 20, Socialist Alliance activists picketed the Maribyrnong Detention Centre to highlight the plight of female detainees.
Socialist Alliance candidate for the seat of Gellibrand, Linda Waldron told Green Left Weekly, "Many
Robyn Marshall, Brisbane
The Liquor, Hospitality, and Miscellaneous Workers Union is taking an equity case to the industrial court to improve wages and conditions for childcare workers.
The childcare industry is dominated by women workers, and
The following letter was sent by the Western Suburbs Community Campaign Against Racism (to the residents of the Redfern Block in mid-February.
Dear friends,
We wish to express our condolences to the family and friends of Thomas "TJ" Hickey. This
Mary Merkenich, Melbourne
On March 3, Victorian public school teachers and their colleagues from the Catholic school system will stop work for one day. This collaborative action is unprecedented and is a sign of the desperation that teachers feel
Norman Brewer, Sydney
"TJ had 17 years. We have the rest of our lives to never forget him. We have to remember TJ, we have to remember all the deaths at the hands of the [state]", Redfern community leader Jenny Munro told a 550-strong memorial
World
Married with a house in the suburbs, 1.9 kids and a white picket fence? No thanks. Some people on the left have echoed this caricature, arguing that radicals should oppose gay marriage — or at least turn our attentions elsewhere.
True, marriage
James Balowski, Jakarta
In a statement issued on February 23, Amnesty International said that the five human rights activists and one other person who were detained by the Indonesian police between February 19 and February 23 in Indonesia's
Doug Lorimer
Candidates considered loyal to Iran's conservative clerical rulers regained control of the Majlis, the country's parliament, in an undemocratic election held on February 20. They have won at least 156 places in the 290-seat
Murray Smith, Paris
The united campaign being waged by France's two largest revolutionary socialist parties — the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR) and Workers Struggle (LO) — for the March 21 regional elections is getting a good reception.
From February 16, tens of thousands of Ecuadorians poured into the nation's streets and highways in a 48-hour wave of protest, paralysing much of the country, reports Duroyan Fertl.
In this interview by Eduardo Jimanez Garcia, which first appeared in Alma Mater, the journal of the University of Havana, Mariela Castro Espin, the director of the Cuban National Institute for Sex Education (CENESEX), advocates an amendment to the
Separate is not equal. That's the message of the gay civil rights movement that has burst forth across the US, inspired by the fight for the right of gays and lesbians to marry. Elizabeth Schulte, Steve Trussell and Sherry Wolf report.
Thousands of
Barry Sheppard, San Francisco
Prominent consumers' rights advocate Ralph Nader's decision to stand in the November US presidential election as an independent is freaking out Democratic Party and its liberal and leftist hangers-on. While claiming to
Jabril Sanei
Somalia is on the Horn of Africa, the north-eastern-most point of the African continent. As Raman Bhardwaj wrote in his 1979 book The Dilemma of the Horn of Africa, (Sterling Publishers, India): "The Horn's tip, a life-line for the
Eva Cheng
Some 2000 workers and their retired counterparts from the Tieshu textile factory in Suizhou, Hubei province, staged an angry protest on February 8 denouncing the now-defunct plant's management for cheating workers of savings and benefits.
Culture
REVIEW BY PIP HINMAN
A Woman of Independence: A story of love and the birth of a new nationBy Kirsty Sword GusmaoPan Macmillan Australia 2003320 pages, $30 (pb)
Kirsty Sword Gusmao's book, A Woman of Independence, is not just a love story.
Alastair Greig & Dick Nichols
The first issue of Seeing Red, the "forum of social, political and cultural dissent" launched by the Socialist Alliance, will be rolling off the presses in the next couple of weeks.
While the members of the editorial
REVIEWED BY ALEX MILLER
Red ClydesideAlistair Hulett and Dave SwarbrickRed Rattler
The extraordinary industrial and political militancy in the west of Scotland in the second decade of the 20th Century led Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir
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 9564 1277. Visit
A Twist of Lemon DeliciousWritten by the Lesbian IdolsDirected by Louise FisherNew Theatre, 542 King St, Newtown, SydneyMarch 6-13Bookings (02) 9519 8958$15 per ticket
REVIEW BY RACHEL EVANS
As part of the lead up to Sydney's gay and lesbian
Editorial
"Our players are innocent" screamed the front page of Rupert Murdoch's Sydney Daily Telegraph on February 26. The accompanying article was about the alleged gang rape of a Coffs Harbour woman by up to six players from the Canterbury Bulldogs rugby