Susan Price
This year's budget included $755 million for intelligence and security arrangements as well as defence measures, which will exceed $1.5 billion over the next five years. This brings the total amount of additional defence spending by the
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In GLW# 580, Rohan Pearce, a member of the Democratic Socialist Perspective and the Socialist Alliance, reported on the conflict in Fallujah and commended the Iraqi resistance there. In the following article, Toma Hamid & Jalal Mohammad, members of
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Peter Boyle The third national conference of the Socialist Alliance, held in Melbourne on May 8-9, confirmed that the SA is here to stay, is growing and is taking further steps towards becoming a multi-tendency socialist party. Some 133 delegates
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Mary Merkenich, Melbourne At the end of April, the leadership of the Australian Education Union (AEU) brokered a deal with the Victorian Labor government that ended a campaign by teachers for a 30% wage rise over three years, improved working
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Sam Watson The abolition of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission is the final straw in the ongoing campaign of terror and intimidation that PM John Howard's regime has perpetrated against the Indigenous nations of this land.
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James Bowden, Darwin & Iggy Kim, Sydney A public meeting of 40 people on May 6 had spirited discussion and debate on the Australian government's theft of East Timor's oil and gas resources in the Timor Sea. The meeting, which was co-sponsored by
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Rohan Pearce As more and more photographs of abuse and torture inflicted on Iraqi detainees at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison by their US guards have come to public light, US officials have been desperate to claim that they are an "aberration" in
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I believe the Socialist Alliance conference was a great success. There was healthy debate around working class policies, which gave an avenue for Socialist Alliance to move forward. It was very clear to see that some major trade union leaders have
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Socialist Alliance national co-convenor and Wills candidate David Glanz addressed the May 7 SA national conference launch. The following is abridged from his speech. Glenroy, in the Wills electorate, isn't one of the poorest working-class suburbs,
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The following are excerpts from greetings given to the Socialist Alliance third national conference, May 8-9. Craig Johnston, former Victorian secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union. The ALP isn't much different to the Liberals.
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Kerry Nettle Instead of investing in our common future the federal Coalition government spends money on waging an illegal war, on regressive tax cuts, buying swinging votes and divisive public policy — and all this while presiding over the most
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Dave Riley The Socialist Alliance national conference registered a significant orientation in the politics of SA with several initiatives taken up to consolidate the role of non-aligned members (those not belonging to one of the affiliate
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The Australian government has delivered a huge boon to the Australian government bureaucracy with a massive injection of funds totalling $432 million in the 2004-05 AusAID budget. The 2004-05 aid budget is being hailed by foreign minister,
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Jon Lamb Not much has been publicly revealed about the mid-April negotiations between Australia and East Timor on the maritime boundary. The ABC Four Corners on May 10, however, made it clear that the Coalition government intends to continue to
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Andrew Martin, Brisbane Just days before the ballot opened for the position of Australian Manufacturing Workers Union Queensland branch secretary on April 28, lawyers acting on behalf of the incumbent candidate, Andrew Dettmer, sent a letter to
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Graham Matthews, Melbourne The Victorian state budget handed down on May 4 was headlined by an increase of $2 billion in spending on health. The ALP government also promised an extra 250 teachers over two years. Yet the budget includes an attack on
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General Richard Myers, chairperson of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, claims, "It is not systematic. And it's really a shame that just a handful can besmirch, maybe, the reputations of hundreds of thousands of our soldiers and sailors, airmen, and
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Elizabeth Schulte, Chicago They said it was in the interests of young women's health. Overruling a decision made just five months ago, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on May 6 that it was rejecting over-the-counter sales of the
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Emma Murphy On April 16, the day following Prime Minister John Howard's death blow to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), Rupert Murdoch's Australian reported that "Australia's 14-year experiment with Indigenous
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Iraq I A former US guard at Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib jail, Sergeant Sindar, has remarked, "It is a common thing to abuse prisoners. I saw beatings all the time". A Red Cross spokesperson has referred to a "pattern" and "broad system" of prisoner
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Dick Nichols Suddenly, with a federal election looming, there's money to burn. There always was, of course, but this time last year Coalition treasurer Peter Costello was lecturing us about the need to pay off government debt and to build the
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Dave Andrews, Fremantle Angered by provisions in the federal budget attacking the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, the Fremantle branch of the Socialist Alliance is urging solidarity with the union. Ian Jamieson, a wharfie, member
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Kamala Emanuel, Hobart Kay Patterson, the minister assisting the prime minister for the status of women, claims the budget shows the government's "strong ongoing commitment to the women of Australia", referring mainly to the $3000 maternity payment
News
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Selena Black, Sydney Postal workers across NSW, Victoria and Queensland went on strike for 24 hours on May 13, following the breakdown of negotiations over a new enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA) and Australia Post's unwillingness to accept
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Howard chased off campus CANBERRA — Prime Minister John Howard's attempt to launch the Coalition's new policy on research and development funding at the CSIRO on May 6 was gatecrashed by 150 angry students and activists from the Australian
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Protest for free education MELBOURNE — About 250 students converged on the State Library on March 12 in protest against university fees and funding cuts. Victorian National Tertiary Education Union president Jeannie Rea told the crowd that free
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Kim Bullimore, Melbourne More than 500 Aboriginal people and supporters rallied outside the Victorian state parliament on May 10 to protest the proposed abolition of ATSIC and cuts to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander services. Both the
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Emma Lord, Sydney Andrew Wilkie has announced that he will run as the Greens' candidate in Prime Minister John Howard's seat of Bennelong. Wilkie made headlines last year when he resigned from the Office of National Assessments (ONA) over the
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Greg Wilton, vice-president of the WA Electrical Trades Union: Craig Johnston led from the front, not from behind. He got out there and stood up for workers' rights and against the casualisation of the work force. The fact that these charges have
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Doesn't keep count of cannon fodder "It's approximately 500, of which — I can get the exact numbers — approximately 350 are combat deaths." — US deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, April 29, responded at a US House of Representatives
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Ruth Ratcliffe & Owen Richards, Sydney Around 200 activists rallied outside NSW parliament on May 13 to protest the state Labor government's inaction on the ADI site. Speakers called on Premier Bob Carr to declare the site a conservation zone,
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Sue Bolton, Melbourne On May 10, at least 8000 trade unionists defied the employers, the federal and Victorian governments, the ACTU and the national officials of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union by rallying outside Melbourne's county
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Peter Sypkens, Hobart On May 14, the final tally of votes for the Tasmanian upper house seat of Elwick was declared, with Socialist Alliance candidate Kamala Emanuel receiving 936 votes — 5.21% of the total count. This was the best result for a
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Alex Bainbridge, Hobart Public sector nurses have won significant improvements in their pay and conditions after a hard-fought dispute with the Tasmanian government. The decision to accept the government's offer was made at mass meetings held
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Office closure angers union members NEWCASTLE — Rank-and-file members of the Community and Public Sector Union have reacted with disbelief and outrage to a proposal by the CPSU National Management Committee (NMC) to close the Newcastle organising
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Chris Latham, Perth On May 13, chanting, "What do we want? — Workers' comp!", more than 2500 workers marched on the Western Australian parliament. The rally was organised by the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), the
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Sue Bolton, Melbourne When Craig Johnson, the former Victorian branch secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU), walked into the Melbourne County Court on May 10, he was expecting to face trial on four charges relating to an
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CANBERRA — On May 10, 4000 primary, secondary and Canberra Institute of Technology teachers participated in a stop-work meeting followed by a rally outside the ACT Legislative Assembly. The ACT branch of the Australian Education Union (AEU)
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Despite its decision to lift martial law in Aceh, Jakarta refuses to withdraw any of its 40,000 troops from the province, to lift the ban on protests or to allow international observers in. A protest in Sydney will coincide with the two-year
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Freedom of speech under a cloud ADELAIDE — On May 14, Adelaide's Murdoch-owned sole daily paper, the Advertiser, reported that the Adelaide City Council had passed new by-laws that place restrictions on the "handing out of advertising material
World
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Steven Katsineris "Most people want change; really we want change. We really want a solution, we want to go and be a member of the European Union... And we really want to have a real identity, because the Turkish Cypriots in Cyprus have been left
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Carlene Wilson Mario Bango is 21 years old. Since March 2001 he has been locked up in a Slovak prison. Mario is a Roma, one of a substantial ethnic minority spread across Eastern Europe. His crime? When he was 18, Bango defended his younger brother
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Lou Plummer is a member of Military Families Speak Out and the Bring Them Home Now Campaign. He offers a war veterans take on the debate around the US military's torture of Iraqi prisoners. One Friday when I was in my early 20s, I took off my
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Bert Brauer, Christchurch NZ National Party leader Don Brash's speech attacking Maori rights just before Waitangi Day (February 6) ignited a racist backlash. Racially motivated verbal and physical attacks, especially on Asian immigrants, have
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Alex Miller Low-paid childcare workers in Scotland have been striking since March 1 for better pay and conditions. A Nursery Nurses' Voice bulletin issued by the Scottish Socialist Party on April 29 described as "shameful" the decision by the
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Norman Brewer, Wellington In a spectacular, colourful and noisy display of Maori solidarity, about 20,000 protesters besieged the NZ Parliament in Wellington on May 5. The protest was on an unprecedented scale for the country of 4 million
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Alison Thorne In an attempt to silence dissent against the war in Iraq, flag-waving followers of KVI-AM radio hurled racial epithets and threatened violence in a multi-ethnic Seattle neighbourhood on April 30. The protest was sparked by a single
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John Pilger When I first went to report the US war against Vietnam in the 1960s, I visited the Saigon offices of the great US newspapers and TV companies, and the international news agencies. I was struck by the similarity of displays on many of
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Doug Lorimer Ironically, the 82nd Airborne Division's brutal suppression in April last year of peaceful Iraqi protests in Fallujah, a city of 250,000 residents 45 kilometres west of Baghdad, sparked the beginning of a mass-based Iraqi armed
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Doug Lorimer Growing support among Iraqis for the armed resistance against the US-led occupation has led top US military officers to acknowledge that the US is headed for defeat in Iraq. According to the May 9 Washington Post, this "view is far
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Green Left Weekly's Ra£l Cienfuegos interviewed Ra£l Reyes, a member of the leadership of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The United States and the European Union label the FARC a terrorist organisation, and in Colombia the
Culture
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On May 4, US left-liberal filmmaker Michael Moore was told that Miramax Films had been instructed by its owner, the Walt Disney Company, not to distribute Moore's new film, Fahrenheit 9/11, in North America. "I would have hoped
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Since its inception, Green Left Weekly has featured cartoons from one of Australia's premier left cartoonists, Chris Kelly. Kelly has not set his vast body of work up on the web for all to see. Included are the weekly editorial cartoons Kelly has
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Growth FetishBy Clive HamiltonAllen & Unwin, 2003280pages, $24.95 Review by John Tognolini "Clive Hamilton's garbage is just silly, dangerous, left-wing crap" — NSW treasurer Michael Egan. After reading Clive Hamilton's Growth Fetish, I
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The DreamersDirected by Bernardo BertolucciWritten by Gilbert AdairWith Michael Pitt, Eva Green and Louis GarrelShowing nationally. REVIEW BY DANNY FAIRFAX He: the wide-eyed young North American spending a — by now quite clich‚d — year in
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In May and June, Cuban music lovers will have an opportunity to see some of Cuba's greatest musicians live in performance, including original members of the Buena Vista Social Club, the Afro-Cuban All Stars and Vieja Trova
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London-based, Australian journalist John Pilger's latest documentary film, Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror, has won the gold award in the political category at the prestigious 2004 WorldMedia Festival.
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Starting out as a busker in Fremantle, guitarist, singer and songwriter John Butler has become one of the most successful independent musicians in Australia. His band, the John Butler Trio, is donating $1 from every ticket sold on