Lisa Macdonald
Since the federal election there have been hundreds of articles asking the obvious question: How could a Coalition that has been caught out in so many lies, provoked the biggest protest marches in Australian history, forced some in
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Frank Marrinan, Sydney The police were called in twice to the Villawood immigration detention centre during the first week of January — once by management and once by a detainee. After a female detention officer and a Chinese woman detainee
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Sarah Stephen Using the cover of the Christmas holiday season and the media focus on the tsunami disaster, the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) ordered the forcible deportation of one Sudanese and two
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Aaron Benedek, Sydney In a major breakthrough for civil rights campaigners, the federal government announced on January 11 that Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib is to be released. After being arrested by Pakistani police in
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Dave Riley The youth radicalisation that swept Australia in the late 1960s fostered a massive wave of hope and idealism. Many young people, keen to change a society that they found so wanting, identified with figures who gave their all to such a
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Sarah Stephen It was with disgust and horror that many Australians watched news reports on December 30 of the Bakhtiyari family's overnight deportation. TV cameras captured glimpses of tearful children looking out the windows of their chartered
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Women's oppression is often portrayed as a permanent feature of human life. The argument claims that the basic unit of society has always been the male-headed family made up of bread-winning, dominant father, nurturing, dominated mother, and their
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Sarah Stephen In December, the Australian Federal Police charged four refugee supporters with the "crime" of assisting asylum seekers to escape Australia — punishable by two years' jail or a $5000 fine. We know that the government has little
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John Pilger The West's crusaders, the United States and Britain, are giving less to help the tsunami victims than the cost of a stealth bomber or a week's bloody occupation of Iraq. The bill for US President George Bush's coming
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Sarah Stephen, Sydney One-hundred people gathered outside the Downing Centre Local Court on January 11 to protest charges laid against four refugee supporters who allegedly helped asylum seekers to escape from Australia. Charges against Mark
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January 19 1969: Student Jan Palach sets himself on fire in Prague to protest the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. January 20 1932: El Salvador's government murders 30,000 peasants to end uprising. 1996: International strike lends
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Sonia Chirgwin On December 13, I flew from Bangkok to Australia on Thai Airways. After a long flight there was a stopover in Sydney for one hour prior to completing the flight in Melbourne, arriving at approximately midnight. The plane was then
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Capitalism Eva Cheng's review (GLW #609) of The Trouble with Capitalism by Harry Shutt was terrifically interesting, because it pointed up the highly interventionist character of capitalist states and debunked the commonly (still) held view that
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The initial response by the world's richest countries to the earthquake and tidal wave disaster in southern Asia was pathetic. While many of these countries have poured billions into invading and bringing misery to the people of Iraq, they cannot
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Max Lane On December 26, one of the worst earthquakes in a century sent a massive tsunami travelling at 800 kilometres per hour out from an epicentre off the island of Sumatra. This tsunami hit a series of countries around the Bay of Bengal and
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Mike Whitney The US media has descended on the Asian tsunami with all the fervour of feral animals in a meat locker. The newspapers and TV's are plastered with bodies drifting out to sea, battered carcasses strewn along the beach and bloated babies
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Sarah Stephen Rebuilding the countries affected by the tsunami is a monumental task that will take many years. Some communities will never be the same — the landscape along the coastal regions has been permanently altered. The 15-metre salt
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Immediately after the devastating tsunami hit Asia, Indonesian worker-farmer, human rights, information technology, journalists rights', anti-violence, environment and women's groups also set up depots to collect aid and began to organise for
News
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Alison Dellit More than 200 people attended the 2005 Marxist Summer School held by the Democratic Socialist Perspective in Sydney on January 8-11. Participants discussed a wide range of topics relevant to Marxists today, from an analysis of the
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Kathy Newnan"> SYDNEY — People imprisoned in Villawood detention centre responded generously to the tsunami crisis, despite many having little money. Some have cash from their working days before they were detained. Together they raised
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Alex Bainbridge, Hobart Woodchipping giant Gunns Limited issued a writ against 20 environmental activists and organisations on December 13, claiming their actions had hurt its business. Two days later, up to 700 people protested in Hobart to
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Chris Latham, Perth In a ballot of nurses employed in Western Australia's public health system, two-thirds voted to reject the state Labor government's offer of a non-union agreement. The clear rejection of the government's attempt to sideline the
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Nicole Hilder, Wollongong Residential developer Stockland Development was found guilty on December 16 of disregarding planning rules after dumping thousands of tonnes of landfill on top of a sacred Aboriginal site at Sandon Point in northern
World
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Luisa Ara In the early hours of the morning of January 1, in Andahuaylas, one of Peru's poorest cities, approximately 150 ex-military rebels, members of the Peruvian Nationalist Movement (MNP) headed by Antauro Humala, stormed the city headquarters
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John Roosa On December 25, one day before Aceh was devastated by an earthquake-driven tsunami, the Indonesian military (TNI) announced that it had just killed 18 pro-independence guerrillas in the province. Such news had long since become routine.
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Federico Fuentes The New Year ushered in a new wave of protests and strikes that has threatened to end Bolivian President Carlos Mesa's term early. Already the latest events have completely polarised Bolivia, a country which witnessed 2000 protests
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Eric Ruder, Chicago After nearly two months of a savage US offensive, the people of Fallujah are returning to their city — to find heaps of rubble and whole neighbourhoods demolished. Operation Phantom Fury, as the US called its assault,
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Russian academic Boris Kagarlitsky recently attended a conference in Caracas organised by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The following is excerpted from his account of the trip. In Venezuela, a revolution is taking place. In 1992 Colonel Hugo
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John Catalinotto, New York Former CIA "asset" and current Iraqi "Premier" Iyad Allawi telephoned US President George Bush on January 3 to discuss problems about holding the January 30 national election in Iraq. The big question was whether the
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GERMANY: New left party to be launched In a ballot conducted in the now 6000-strong Electoral Alternative Work and Social Justice in December, an overwhelming 96% voted to formally launch a new left party at an extraordinary congress on January
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Stan Goff The following is an abridged version of a speech given on December 11 at a public meeting in New York City sponsored by Veterans for Peace and Military Families Speak Out (MFSO). It first appeared in the GI Special email bulletin. Goff is
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Stuart Munckton In Havana on December 14, Cuban President Fidel Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez signed a new, far-reaching economic agreement between the two nations. Both countries believe that the agreement fits within the framework
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Kim Bullimore On January 9, Mahmoud Abbas (also known as Abu Mazen) was elected the new president of the Palestinian Authority, with 62% of the popular vote, following the death late last year of Yasser Arafat. According to the corporate media, the
Culture
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NinjaBy Tamara AsmarOld Fitzroy Hotel Theatre, SydneyUntil January 22 REVIEW BY BRENDAN DOYLE The Old Fitzroy in Sydney has been the home of much original, thought-provoking and affordable new Australian theatre. Ninja is yet another shoestring
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Louise MichelEdited by Nick McClellanOcean Press, Melbourne, 2004 118 pages, $11.95Order from <http://www.oceanbooks.com.au>. REVIEW BY OWEN RICHARDS In 1871, for the first time in history, the working class "stormed heaven" by taking
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Stasiland: Stories behind the Berlin WallBy Anna FunderThe Text Publishing Company304 pages, $24 (pb) REVIEW BY AMANDA PEARSON Anna Funder's Stasiland is well written, lyrical and evocative. It is journalistic in style, and does not pretend to be
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When the policemen were olderthe postmen had whistlesand the Queen was a slip of a girlwhen the South Pole was colderand Ming had his Thistleand Mum wore a twinset and pearlswhen the menace was redand the peril was yellowand the potties all sucked up
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Saul WilliamsSaul WilliamsFader LanbelUS$12Order from <http://www.saulwilliams.com>. REVIEW BY BILL NEVINS "This ain't hip hop no more. It's bigger than that", declares Saul Williams in an early cut on his latest, self-titled cd. The