Dave Andrews, Fremantle
The Western Australian branch of the Maritime Union of Australia has now experienced 12 months of a new leadership.
Last June, Chris Cain and Ian Bray won two of three elected branch full-time positions as representatives
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Sarah Stephen Over the last 10 years, racism has been on the rise in Australian society. A report by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission released last month illustrates how Arab and Muslim Australians have become the most recent
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Kids don't vote "Kids don't vote", immigration minister Amanda Vanstone was reported as saying when criticising a children's book on the plight of children in detention. But why shouldn't they? Students are now more interested in politics and their
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Ray Hayes has worked in the Northern Territory for over 20 years, including as a union organiser. He is presently working in the marine aquaculture industry. He has been a long-time supporter of the struggle for East Timorese independence and was a
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Sarah Stephen Green Left Weekly asked a number of people active in Sydney's Muslim community to share their views on why anti-Muslim prejudice has developed such roots in recent years, and what can be done to change it. Dr Akbar Khan, president
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The Building Industry Group — the combined Victorian building unions — will show its solidarity with Colombian workers on July 22 by bringing a delegation of stewards from local building sites to an annual rally against Coca-Cola in Melbourne.
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Alison Dellit "Not to give Mr Howard too much credit but he at least appears to have half a brain. Half, I said. Half. I'm being generous. But what is he doing with George W. Bush? It's really disgraceful", documentary film-maker Michael Moore told
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Kamala has been a socialist activist for 10 years. She was involved in the campaigns for a free East Timor, for decriminalisation of abortion, for the protection of old-growth forests and against nuclear testing in the Pacific. She has helped
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Green Left Weekly 's Dave Riley interviewed public transport activists and commentators. Answering his questions are Paul Mees, a teacher in transport planning at Melbourne University and a former president of the Public Transport Users Association;
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Peter Boyle "The Coalition government must reveal its role in torture of the illegally detained Australian citizen Mamdouh Habib in Egypt and in Guantanamo Bay", Raul Bassi, the Socialist Alliance candidate for the western Sydney seat of Blaxland
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North America and Western Europe (12% of the world's population) account for 60% of household consumption globally. The one-third of humanity who live in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa account for 3.2% of household consumption. Almost 3
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DARWIN — Protesters gathered on July 7 outside the office of David Tollner, federal member for the seat of Solomon, in opposition to the proposed joint US-Australian military 'training facilities' in the Northern Territory and other parts of
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Kathy Newnam Agreements signed by defence minister Robert Hill at the annual Australia-US ministerial consultations in Washington on July 7 greatly strengthened Australian government support for the US war machine. The agreements include plans to
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Susan Price Will the ALP start to back away from its workplace relations policy under pressure from the Business Council of Australia? The response of ALP industrial relations spokesperson Craig Emerson to the Access Economics assessment of the
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Does the fear of refugees flooding Australia keep you awake at night? Do you agree that ASIO needs more powers to track down, detain and interrogate "illegal" and "suspicious" people, especially Muslims? If your answer is "Yes", then PM John Howard
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Lalitha Chelliah The Coalition government is touting its new media campaign — which includes TV ads and a glossy brochure delivered to all households — as a major response to the problem of domestic violence. The comments by Rodenberry (GLW
News
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Sarah Stephen On June 29, the first group of 35 Afghan asylum seekers arrived in Australia from Nauru. A second group of 35 Afghans arrived on July 6. The remaining 76 Afghan asylum seekers on Nauru who have been assessed by the immigration
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Average folks "[John] Kerry's choice of [John] Edwards also sets up stark contrasts between the two tickets. Edwards' working-class roots and Southern-style populism will make it easier for Democrats to portray President Bush and Vice-President
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Graham Matthews, Melbourne Staff cuts and lengthening queues were the subject of a street protest organised by the Wills branch of the Socialist Alliance at the Moreland Centrelink office on July 9. Forty people participated in the protest,
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#1 News briefs #1 CFMEU retains right of entry PERTH - Up to 300 building workers converged on the Holiday Inn Burswood construction site on June 28, following the sacking of six construction workers. The sacked workers, all members of the
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Chris Slee, Melbourne Two Iraqis living in Australia, both of whom have recently returned from visits to their homeland, addressed 50 people at a forum organised by the International Socialist Organisation, an affiliate of the Socialist Alliance,
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The July 1 Australian published its top ten websites "Most used political directories" list, and once again, Green Left Weekly is on top: 1. Green Left Weekly11.21% 2. Australian Labor Party9.88% 3. On Line Opinion7.44% 4. Sydney
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Tony Iltis, Melbourne On July 8, the Melbourne Town Hall was filled to capacity when at least 2000 people attended a performance put on by Actors for Refugees. Performers at the event included Daniela Farinacci, Helen Morse, Alison Whyte, Pamela
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Dirty tricks on Grocon site On June 29, Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) steward Nazza Ottobre was moving the union office in Grocon's Eureka Towers construction site from the basement to the next level when he found a
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The Melbourne North-East Activist Centre (formerly the Resistance Centre) on High Street, Northcote, is now closed, due to financial constraints. The Socialist Alliance will continue to meet at the Northcote Town Hall, 189 High Street, Northcote.
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SYDNEY — The Aboriginal tent embassy at Victoria Park will hold a 'Corroboree for Sovereignty 2004' from July 14. For information visit http://active.org.au/sydney.From Green Left Weekly, July 14, 2004. Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.
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Kamala Emanuel, Hobart Workers at Tasmania's two casinos will stop work on July 14 in Launceston and on July 15 in Hobart, to consider their response to Federal Hotels' latest pay offer. This follows a resumption of negotiations with the Liquor,
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Julie Sloggett, Sydney In the next few weeks, University of Western Sydney students will begin the stressful task of attempting to register for semester two tutorials. Many of them will find that the subjects in which they were previously enrolled
Analysis
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The federal election date may not yet be determined, but the vote-buying scams are already in full swing. We've already been treated to tens of millions of dollars worth of publicly funded political advertising for the Coalition government. On
World
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Doug Lorimer As Iraqi resistance fighters fought running gunbattles in the streets of central Baghdad, on July 7 the US-appointed Interim Government of Iraq (IGI) announced a set of security laws that will override the country's interim
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Doug Lorimer A top Pentagon official conducted unauthorised investigations of reconstruction contracts in Iraq and used the results to push for lucrative contracts for friends and their business clients, the July 7 Los Angeles Times reported.
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Alex Miller At its national conference last month, the Fire Brigades Union voted by 31,105 to 14,611 to break its 86-year-old tie with the Labour Party. The massive majority in favour of disaffiliation with Labour was achieved despite strong
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As Venezuela's elected president faces a recall referendum pushed for by Venezuela's US-backed corporate elite, Leonel Vivas, that country's ambassador in Australia, released the following statement on July 5. On the July 5, 1811, the people of
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Eva Cheng Following a mid-June visit to Beijing, Nepal's chief of army staff General Pyar Jung Thapa revealed to state radio and television that China would step up "security cooperation" with Nepal. This will improve Katmandu's ability to
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Tariq Ali Before the war, they said Iraq had "weapons of mass destruction" that threatened the West. Those of us who opposed the war said this was a lie. US President George Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Australian PM John Howard
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Jacob Mundy On June 11, the United Nations announced that former US secretary of state James Baker had resigned his position as the UN secretary-general's personal envoy to the Western Sahara. Baker failed to bring the Moroccan government around to
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Federico Fuentes Tension is rising in Bolivia, South America's poorest country, as a July 18 referendum on the future of the country's natural gas industry approaches. Nationalisation of the gas reserves was the central demand of the mass
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Boris Kagarlitsky, Moscow The Communist Party's leaders have always been prone to optimism. When they were told of an impending crisis in their ranks, they confidently replied that nothing of the kind was possible. When forecasts suggested they
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Brandon Pillay, Durban Marcel King, the youngest son of Alemaine King, of Rinkgreen Walk, Greenbury, was killed on June 24 by the eThekweni (greater Durban) municipal council security force as he defended his helpless mum. Alemaine and her
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NEW ZEALAND: Maori party scores 92% in by-election Maori Party leader Tariana Turia scored the new party's first election victory on July 10, picking up 6869 of the 7454 votes cast in a by-election in the Maori electorate of Te Tai Hauauru. Turia,
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Joyce Semaan Palestinians have hailed a decision handed down on July 9 by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that declared the apartheid wall that Israel is constructing in the West Bank illegal. The decision came after five months of
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Stephen Darley, Adelaide We all know that the invasion of Iraq wasn't about weapons of mass destruction, or terrorism, or how bad Saddam Hussein was, or any other of the threadbare excuses that have been exposed as barefaced lies. It was about
Culture
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@PARAFILTR ON = Control of Rivers: Water, War, Peace — Examines the possibility of future international disputes arising over the availability of fresh drinking water. SBS, Friday July 16, 1pm. Cutting Edge: The World According to Bush —
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Dave Riley "I think the tactics the Don used aren't much different from those General Motors used against [anti-corporate campaigner] Ralph Nader. Unlike some corporate heads, Corleone has an unwavering loyalty for the people that have given
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With the plethora of reality TV, and thinly disguised corporate marketing, documentaries are bringing people back to cinemas. As the Melbourne Age's Larissa Dubecki wrote on May 11: "Reality TV's malaise might now be judged a
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Revolution in the air: From Malcolm and Martin to Lenin, Mao and CheMax ElbaumVerso Press, 2003384 pages, $58.50 (pb) REVIEW BY BARRY SHEPHERD In Australia, and all over the world, people from different backgrounds are looking for ways to rebuild