Sarah Stephen
Aladdin Sisalem, a 25-year-old Palestinian born in Kuwait, has spent the last four years in search of a country that could offer him freedom from persecution. On May 31, he finally found it, as he flew into Melbourne with a visa in
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Norm Dixon Hollywood's global warming apocalypse flick, The Day After Tomorrow, has focused attention on how the melting of polar ice, the Arctic tundra and the world's glaciers can trigger abrupt climate change. There is now overwhelming evidence
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Alex Tighe Too bad if you happen to be employed in a small business that decides to cut costs by making you redundant. Even worse luck if you have worked there for several years. The Coalition government has displayed its aggressive anti-worker
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Dale Mills On June 1, former taxi driver and factory worker Jack Roche became the first person in Australia to be imprisoned as a "terrorist", after pleading guilty to involvement in an al Qaeda plot to bomb the Israeli embassy in Canberra.
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Pip Hinman On the eve of what Washington tells us will be a hand-over of Iraq to the Iraqis on June 30, activists across Australia are preparing to protest. Green Left Weekly spoke to a range of activists about why. The "handover" to a
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Kamala Emanuel On May 27, Prime Minister John Howard announced his plan to amend the Family Law Act to exclude same-sex couples from the definition of marriage and to ban them from adopting children from overseas. As a sweetener, the legislation
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Cam Walker World Refugee Day, marked on June 20, is a chance to acknowledge both the plight and the courage of refugees. It could also be a day for reflection on another looming crisis: the beginning of a new wave of refugees fleeing human-induced
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Katie Cherrington, Newcastle Rank-and-file members of the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) are uniting across the country against the May 5 decision by the union's National Management Committee (NMC) to close the Hunter region organising
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Kavita Krishnan, Delhi Psephologists, astrologers and speculators alike had used their predictions to campaign for a return of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's right-wing National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to power in the April 20-May 10
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Ruth Ratcliffe Despite Pm John Howard's attempts to dismiss it, evidence that Australians have been tortured in Guantanamo Bay by the US military is becoming overwhelming. Green Left Weekly spoke to Stephen Hopper, lawyer for detained Sydney man
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Phil Andrews, Melbourne On May 20, the national executive of the National Tertiary Education Union voted to accept a heads of agreement (HoA) at Swinburne University, which ties increases in staff pay to an increase in the number of full-fee paying
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Rohan Pearce On June 1, PM John Howard finally admitted that Australian soldiers had known that US soldiers were torturing Iraqi prisoners. Up until then, his government had insisted that Australian officials had found out about illegal US
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Iraq Britain and the US seem to be having some communication problems about who will have veto rights over US military attacks on innocent wedding parties, while the US's former pin-up boy, Ahmad Chalabi, claims that his recent fall from grace is
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During the past 20 years, our life at work has become more stressful, unsafe and unrewarding. Some of us are taking home more money, but often the price is double shifts, enforced overtime and less time for family and leisure. Others are working two
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Dr Marg Perrott The federal government's attack on confidential medical access for those under 16 is yet another example of the government's right-wing ideological offensive against people in need and the population in general. On December 5 last
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Dale Mills, Sydney "This whole thing is about bashing Muslims for votes. Bash a Muslim, buy a vote." This was Sydney solicitor Chris Murphy's response to politicians and media commentators' outrage at the release on bail of his client, Bilal
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Doug Lorimer The selection of Iyad Allawi as prime minister of the Iraqi "interim government" is a clear demonstration that Washington has no intention of relinquishing its control over Iraq on June 30. Allawi was selected as Iraq's new PM on May
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"This decision should not deter any person from coming forward to police if they have been the victim of a serious crime", declared Detective Chief Inspector Jason Breton, after announcing on April 27 that the gang-rape case against up to six
News
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Nick Everett, Canberra "We must all do our bit to end our government's silence on the crimes being committed against the Palestinians", Michael Shaik, an International Solidarity Movement activist, told a Socialist Alliance public meeting on June
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Dianne Hiles, Sydney The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) undertook an inquiry during 2002 into children in immigration detention. On May 13, the report, "A Last Resort?", and its recommendations were tabled, very quietly, in
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Paul Oboohov, Canberra The ACT Labor government, with the support of the Liberal MLAs, rammed a bill through the ACT Legislative Assembly on May 25 to make the Gungahlin Drive extension immune from planning and environmental legislation. The
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Lynda Smith In their second week at sea, from the South Bellona Reef 500 miles north-west of Brisbane, the seven-person crew of the Flotillas of Hope expressed their ongoing gratitude to all who continue to support them and their desire to be
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World leader "Mental illnesses including anxiety disorders and depression are common and undertreated in many countries, both developed and developing, with the highest rate found in the United States." — June 2 Associated Press report on the
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Sarah Stephen, Sydney Up to 1000 asylum seekers remain behind bars in Australia's immigration detention centres, including 168 children. The majority are from war-torn countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq - places the Australian government
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Tony Iltis, Melbourne On May 29, Preston Markets management called the police to a Socialist Alliance campaign stall. Since 1999, the stall has been held regularly on Saturdays at the markets. Activists at the stall were leafleting for the June
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#1 Teachers endorse further action SYDNEY — On June 2, 98% of teachers at Sky Channel-linked meetings across NSW voted in favour of further industrial action if the state government fails to fund a salaries increase from outside the existing
World
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Max Lane The government of Megawati Sukarnoputri, apparently at the urging of Indonesia's intelligence agency (BIN) and foreign affairs department, has refused to extend Sidney Jones' work permit. Jones works for the International Crisis Group, a
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Ron Guy A wall can take many forms. It can be the 2400 kilometres of earth — and estimated three million landmines — that separate the Western Saharan people from their homeland. Or it can be a wall of silence. Recently, I joined a delegation
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Dale McKinley On June 3 in the Protea Magistrate's Court in Soweto, two Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF) activists from the community of Phiri — Tshepo Mkwanazi and Thabo Madisane — were convicted of "intimidation" and given R10,000 fines each,
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Alison Dellit Colombian oil workers have returned to work after a victorious 37-day strike against the privatisation of the state-run oil company Ecopetrol. Colombia's government has been progressively privatising Ecopetrol through a restructure
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John Pilger Piers Morgan, the editor of the Daily Mirror, Britain's most famous mass-circulation newspaper, was sacked on May 14 because he ran the only English-language popular paper to expose the "war on terror" as a fraud and the invasion of
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Roberto Jorquera Venezuela's National Electoral Council (CNE) announced on June 4 that opponents of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had managed to collect enough valid signatures to demand a recall referendum for the presidency. Martin Sanchez
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Steven Katsineris The US wants to upgrade its half-century intelligence presence on Cyprus into a fully fledged army base when the Greek and Turkish Cypriot sides agree on reunification, according to a report by Iason Athanasiadis in the March 6
Culture
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Seeds of Deception: Exposing industry and government lies about the safety of the genetically engineered foods you're eatingBy Jeffery M. SmithScribe Publications, 2004292 pages, $30 (pb) REVIEWED BY PHIL SHANNON Dr Arpad Pusztai wasn't expecting
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Steps for the Future: A Miner's Tale — From seven different countries in southern Africa comes this unique collection of films which deal with the ever-present danger and tragedy of HIV/AIDS. SBS, Tuesday, June 15, 1.25am. Cutting Edge: The
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REVIEW BY DAVE RILEY TroyDirected by Wolfgang PetersenWith Brad Pitt and Eric BanaScreenplay by David Bewioff For an uncomfortably long time into this movie I thought I had done my dough. I don't like investing risk money into my entertainments
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We'll get rid of the dictator, rebuild your countryMake sure all your kids go to schoolWe'll clean up the cities, get the sewage plants runningInstitute parliamentary ruleWe'll bring you autonomy, senators and judgesAnd a shiny new
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Dark Dreams: Australian refugee stories by young writers aged 11-20 yearsEdited by Sonja Dechian, Heather Millar and Eva SallisWakefield Press, 2004$19.95 (pb) REVIEW BY SARAH STEPHEN Dark Dreams is a fascinating anthology of essays, interviews