Tim Vollmer
October 15 marked the first anniversary of the death of Joel Exner, the 16-year-old who fell 15 metres to his death on his third day of work. Joel's death highlighted the need for tougher laws to bring an end to the hundreds of deaths
Issue 603
News
Kathy Newnam, Darwin
Postgraduate students at Charles Darwin University have declared their determination to continue to fight university management attempts to relocate 35 postgraduate research students to what they are calling "holding pens".
Rachel Evans, Sydney
On October 11, 200 people packed out Gleebooks for the launch of Bob Brown: Gentle Revolutionary by James Norman. With the Greens consolidating as the third force in Australian parliamentary politics, the book's timely release
Sarah Stephen
On October 14, the immigration department deported MK, an Iranian Christian, from the Baxter detention centre in South Australia. Australia is the only country that deports asylum seekers to Iran.
"Immigration minister [Amanda]
SYDNEY — In an interview printed in the October 14 Bulletin magazine, Indian writer and anti-globalisation campaigner Arundhati Roy, comparing Australia's Aborigines to India's untouchables, said she wanted to donate her $50,000 Sydney Peace Prize
Sarah Stephen
Plans are underway for a national convergence on Canberra on November 16, the first sitting day of federal parliament since the October 9 federal election returned the Coalition to government.
The convergence is a joint initiative
Jess Melvin, Sydney
The South-East Asian department at the University of Sydney will cease to exist in 2006 unless students and staff can stop its closure.
Indonesian language, Thai language and South-East Asian history and politics subjects are
Sue Bolton, Melbourne
On October 12, a Federal Court judge ordered the Howard government's Building Industry Taskforce to stop accessing the personal banking details of members of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) employed
Chris Latham, Perth
On October 13, Alcoa was charged with the unauthorised discharge of a prohibited substance. This followed a toxic spill that released between 300,000 and 1.3 million litres of caustic soda at its Alumina refinery at Kwinana,
PERTH — The campaign by Western Australia's nurses to win wage parity with nurses in other states looks set to escalate in the lead-up to the state elections, following a government backflip.
In response to threats by the Australian Nurses
Ruth Ratcliffe
"Aceh — the struggle for independence", an exhibition of photos taken by freelance photographer William Nessen, toured to the small town of Toronto on Lake Macquarie on October 15-16.
Nonie Hodgson from Action in Solidarity with
Margarita Windisch, Melbourne
Up to 1800 people marched on Victorian state parliament on October 13 to protest the proposed toxic dump site at Hattah in north-western Victoria.
A "toxic" truck and eight busloads of people left Mildura before dawn
World
INDIA — Villages condemn political killings
On October 1, a meeting of several hundred elected village representatives in Patna, capital of Bihar state, condemned the increasing number of killings of leading members of the Communist Party of
Doug Lorimer
The Los Angeles Times has reported that US officials have told it the Bush administration has decided to delay a major offensive to recapture rebel Iraqi cities until after the November 2 US presidential election.
A week earlier,
Leslie Feinberg, New York
"We have called on the anti-war and peace movements to join us on October 17 and they are coming by the tens of thousands", Million Worker March leader Clarence Thomas explains, "because the war in Iraq, just like the
"These terrorists are serious, they're deadly and they know nothing except trying to kill. I understand that. That's why I will never stop at anything to hunt down and kill the terrorists." — John Kerry, St. Louis debate, October 8.
"[I]t is very
Alex Miller
The opening of the new Scottish parliament building in Edinburgh by Queen Elizabeth II on October 9 was upstaged by an alternative republican ceremony organised by the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) and other Scottish republicans.
As
Norm Dixon
"Like a whistle was blown to halt the activity, the entire metropolis suddenly went dry of vehicles from 7am... Lagos was shut down... Banks, markets, business houses and state and federal secretariats were under lock and key", read the
Chris Slee
Sri Lanka's clothing industry, which directly employs 340,000 workers and indirectly employs another million, faces a "sudden collapse" when the Multi-Fibre Agreement (MFA) expires next year, according to Kalani Subasinghe, a staff
Kim Bullimore, West Bank
At the height of the 18-day military offensive in Gaza, which has resulted in at least 136 Palestinians being killed, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's senior adviser, Dov Weisglass, revealed that Israel's much-touted
Kim Bullimore, West Bank
Thirteen-year-old Iman Alhamas was shot dead on October 6 as she walked to school in the Rafah refugee camp. One of 30 children killed during the 18-day Israeli offensive into Gaza, Iman's body was riddled with 20 bullets.
Zimbabwean anti-globalisation activists, social movements, NGOs, community-based organisations, faith-based groups and unions opposed to neo-liberalism and corporate-led globalisation which were scheduled to hold the second Zimbabwe Social Forum from
Justin Podur
The Venezuelan government, under President Hugo Chavez, has created "missions" to provide services to Venezuela's population. Perhaps the most well-known of the missions is Mission Robinson, which has brought adult literacy programs to
Eva Cheng
Hong Kong's recently elected pro-worker parliamentarian Leung Kwok-Hung, known as Long Hair, has overcome one threat to his elected position, only to have more descend.
After being elected to the Legislative Council (the territory's
Elizabeth Schulte, Chicago
In an effort to emphasise the few differences between his campaign and President George Bush's, Senator John Kerry is arguing that Bush's invasion of Iraq was a mistake. Not because of the terrible human cost of the war,
Culture
BY BILL NEVINS
David Rovics, the US's most radical folksinger, stepped onstage in Albuquerque on October 2 wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the face of George Bush and the caption "International Terrorist". The audience applauded wildly.
Rovics
REVIEW BY JESS MELVIN
The Resistible Rise of Arturo UiA play by Bertolt BrechtDirected by Erin ThomasPACT Theatre, Erskineville, Sydney. October 7-30Tickets $24/$18, bookings (02) 9699 344Concession tickets available for Green Left Weekly readers.
REVIEW BY ALISON THORNE
Revolutionary Integration: A Marxist Analysis of African American LiberationBy Richard Fraser and Tom BootRed Letter Press, Seattle 2004224 pages, $28.00 (pb)Available in Australia from Feminist Education Association, PO Box
REVIEW BY VANNESSA HEARMAN
Reluctant Saviour: Australia, Indonesia and the Independence of East TimorBy Clinton FernandesScribe Publications, Melbourne 2004138 pages
Clinton Fernandes, a Melbourne-based writer on politics and international
Editorial
PM John Howard now claims a mandate for a raft of reactionary measures that he didn't even mention during the federal election campaign.
Before polling it was all about security, trust and "rewards". Just four days after the election, treasurer