Throughout the continent, there is an offensive against the rights of women. Most law does not recognise the term "sexual rights", and the religious right has been working hard to eliminate the term "reproductive rights" as well.
In several
-
-
Jo Williams, Melbourne On February 18, supporters of Green Left Weekly packed 250 people into the Brunswick Town Hall for the annual Comedy Debate fundraiser with Rod Quantock. As with the previous three comedy debates, the Moreland City Council
-
An article by John Gauci in issue #620 titled "NSW teachers' union calls for mass IR protest" incorrectly stated that the industrial relations report to the New South Wales Teachers Federation state council was given by president Maree O'Halloran.
-
Tim Daughney Refugee-rights supporters came from all over Australia. Packed into crowded buses, cars and mini-vans, we travelled for up to 48 hours to spend the Easter weekend camping in the desert. The Baxter '05 convergence numbered about 450
-
More than 40 million cubic metres of sand, silt from the sea bed of Port Phillip Bay and the Yarra River, and rock removal by intense "hydro-hammering" from the Rip. The Great Ship Channel through the Rip will be deepened by at least three metres
-
Chris Slee, Melbourne Support from other workers for the picket set up by workers sacked from the ABM Plastics factory in the Melbourne suburb of Braeside has been "outstanding", Jamie Bellerby, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU)
-
April 6 1998: Patrick Stevedores launches its "war on the waterfront" by sacking its work force at night using security guards and dogs. April 9 1981: IRA prisoner Bobby Sands is elected MP while on hunger strike. April 10 1919: Mexican
-
Sarah Stephen The recent Easter protests outside South Australia's Baxter immigration detention centre mark almost five years since the movement against mandatory detention began in earnest. It is a movement that has swelled far beyond the
-
Among the hundreds of protesters who converged at the Baxter detention centre over the Easter weekend were a dozen activists from Newcastle University. Green Left Weekly's Simon Butler spoke to Lucille Palmer, Zane Alcorn and Emma Wasson about the
-
Helen Smith spoke to Neil Blake, coordinator of the Port Phillip EcoCentre — a resource and support centre for community groups undertaking environment initiatives in the coastal area of Melbourne — about the Port Phillip Bay channel deepening
-
Max Lane, Sydney More than 500 people participated in the biggest gathering of social justice and international solidarity activists in Australia since 2002, when they attended the Third Asia Pacific International Solidarity Conference (APISC
-
While in London and Brussels some 100,000 people took part in rallies to mark the second anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq, only 7000 people took to the streets across Australia on March 18-20. What has happened to the million Australians
-
The following remarks were made by independent journalist John Pilger to a March 20 anti-war rally in Sydney. The other day, the Aboriginal filmmaker Richard Frankland said this: "When you've got a voice, you've got freedom, and when you've got
-
Peter Benenson The recent passing of Peter Benenson, founder of Amnesty International, is a sad event. In correspondence with him some years ago, I found him a far more interesting and radical person than the incarnation of AI in this country would
News
-
Jim Green, Adelaide Friends of the Earth (FoE) and Adelaide's Campaign Against Nuclear Dumping are hosting a tour of South Australia's nuclear sites on April 15-23. FoE has organised many similar trips over the past decade, attracting people from
-
Jon Lamb, Darwin Hundreds of teachers participated in a series of rolling 24-hour strikes across the Northern Territory from March 21 to March 30, demanding better pay and conditions as well as more funding for the NT's ailing education system.
-
Annolies Truman, Perth Ram Seegobin, a leader of the Mauritian socialist organisation Lalit (meaning "struggle" in Creole) addressed a meeting here on March 30 and spoke at a Fremantle showing of The Control Room on April 1. The meetings were
-
MELBOURNE — On March 31, 200 students from university campuses across Melbourne rallied at the University of Melbourne to protest federal education minister Brendan Nelson and the introduction of "voluntary student unionism" (VSU) legislation.
-
Brianna Pike, Melbourne Students campaigning against "voluntary student unionism" at Deakin University won a victory against the university administration on March 25. The university's attempts to use security guards and police to forcefully remove
-
Andrew Hall, Bundanoon Rural Australians for Refugees (RAR), the movement of grassroots rural and regional refugee supporters, now has 90 groups in towns across Australia. Ninety members and supporters gathered at RAR's 2001 birthplace in
-
Ben Courtice MELBOURNE — Les Thomas, brother of Melbourne resident Jack Thomas who is charged with terrorist offences, told the media on April 1 that his brother's case demonstrates the current threats to civil liberties. He particularly singled
-
Shua Garfield, Sydney As University of NSW Student Guild representatives crossed their picket line, guild staff organised by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) leafleted passers-by to explain the one-day strike action they took on March
-
NEWCASTLE — On March 23, 170 students braved the rain and cold at the University of Newcastle to protest the federal Coalition government's assault on student unions. The university's vice-chancellor, professor Nick Saunders, stated his
-
Seventy people attended an all-day trade union seminar organised by the group Union Solidarity on March 19. The highlight was a panel on the lessons of the 1998 maritime dispute featuring Kevin Bracken, secretary of the Victorian branch of the
-
Graham Matthews, Sydney The decision by the NSW Labor government to allow defence contractor Boeing exemption from the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act was slammed by NSW Greens MP Lee Rhiannon as nothing more than the government sponsoring racism.
-
SYDNEY — Participants in the Asia Pacific International Solidarity Conference rally in Redfern on March 26 demanding justice for TJ Hickey, a young Aboriginal man who died while being chased by police. Hickey's family presented documents
-
James Vassilopoulos, Melbourne "If the government touches one, they touch all. We need a national stoppage organised by the Australian Council of Trade Unions and labour councils", Martin Kingham, Victorian secretary of the Construction, Forestry,
-
Pilar Aguilera Aleida Guevara, the 44-year-old daughter of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, will speak at public meetings in Australia in May. A pediatrician in a Havana children's hospital, she has emerged as a prominent figure in the anti-globalisation and
-
Selena Black Parents may be forced to choose between meeting compliance demands and their children's interests under proposed welfare changes to force single parents of primary school age children into work, according to the National Council of
-
'Free' market at work "Halliburton ... charged the Pentagon $27.5 million to ship $82,100 worth of cooking and heating fuel.. In the latest revelation about the company's oft-criticized performance in Iraq, a Pentagon audit report disclosed Monday
-
Bill Mason, Brisbane Townsville "stolen wages" campaigner Yvonne Butler has described the offer by the Queensland government of compensation for the theft of Aboriginal workers' wages and entitlements over decades — amounting to fixed payments of
-
CANBERRA — More than 100 students gathered at the Australian National University on March 31 for a speak-out organised by the student association's education department against the federal government's moves to introduce "voluntary student
World
-
Rohan Pearce and Alison Dellit "Masses of Americans are against this war and are looking for a way to express that", Ahmed Shawki, the editor of US journal International Socialist Review, told the audience at the Asia Pacific International
-
In mid-May, the British immigration department rejected a visa application from Tamil Sri Lankan Theivanai Balanchandran, who is willing and able to donate a kidney to her desperately ill British daughter-in-law Suthakaran Lalitharani. Lalitharani
-
More than 150,000 Quebecois post-secondary students are on strike, in a serious attempt to defeat a CN$103 million cut to the student bursary program. The strike began seven weeks ago when 30,000 students attended a walkout, and has grown steadily in
-
Stuart Munckton The Venezuelan government headed by President Hugo Chavez repeatedly accused the US government of planning a "new aggression" against Venezuela, including a plot to assassinate Chavez, despite pro-Chavez forces winning nine national
-
Jamal Juma, Jerusalem Over the last two months there has been a wide-scale escalation of popular resistance confronting the ever-intensifying Israeli occupation. The Ramallah demonstration on March 14 reflected the highpoint of mobilisation against
-
Barry Healy Karol Jozef Wojtya, known as John Paul II since assuming the office of pope in October 1978, will be remembered as one of the most significant, though certainly not the most progressive, figures in the history of the Roman Catholic
-
Somewhere in a Chilean warehouse, 10,000 health department posters with the slogan "Emergency contraception: It's your decision; it's your right" lie gathering dust, after the March 8 announcement by the assistant secretary for health, Antonio
-
More than 1000 members of the Young Communist League and the Swaziland Solidarity Movement protested outside the Swaziland embassy in Pretoria on March 30, calling for democratic reform of the monarchy and condemning the current constitutional reform
-
Members of the Porgera Special Mining Lease Landowner Association have demanded the closure of the Porgera Gold Mine, in a letter sent to PM Michael Somare in late March. The landowners claimed that more than 21 people have been killed in the mine
-
US Treasury figures released on March 31 have revealed that US company profits soared 13.5% to US$1.3 trillion in the last quarter of last year, boosted by "labour's weak bargaining power". This brings profits to the highest portion of US income
-
Roberto Jorquera, Caracas On March 29, more than 5000 students gathered outside the National Assembly to support proposed changes to higher education. Inside, education minister Aristobulo Isturiz and higher education minister Samuel Moncada were
-
Lee Sustar, Chicago A mass uprising that chased the authoritarian president of Kyrgyzstan out of his country on March 24 went beyond Washington's scripted "people power revolutions" in the republics of the former USSR. But newly empowered
-
Kathy Newnam Among the most exciting developments discussed at the Asia-Pacific International Solidarity Conference held in Sydney at Easter was the rapidly changing map of New Zealand politics, in particular, the development of the Maori Party,
-
At dawn on March 6, 14 immigration officials raided the home of the Murselaj family — Tade, her husband Sadush and their three children Agnese (15), Gentian (12) and Leonard (9) — and took them into immigration detention. Roma refugees from
-
Doug Lorimer "The Iraqi people ... have lost much of their trust in the parliament, and some are regretting their participation in the [January 30] elections", Abd al Karem al Mohammedawi, a Shiite tribal leader, told the March 30 London Financial
-
Towards the end of March, the US media was consumed with an issue that even squeezed out Michael Jackson: the attempts by US President George Bush to intervene to "save the life" of Terri Schiavo, who has been in a vegatative state for the last 15
-
US Army documents released in early May have revealed that a US military "investigation" into the alleged rape of two Iraqi women by US soldiers was shut down for lack of evidence — without contacting the alleged victims. It is alleged that the
-
On March 20, the Royal Society released the results of its government-sponsored review of genetically modified winter seed oil crops, concluding that wildlife and the environment would suffer if the crops were allowed to be grown. According to the
-
Barry Healy The Movement Of United Farmworkers (MTC), a Guatemalan community organisation in the San Marcos region where the Canadian-US company Glamis Gold is operating, has issued an urgent appeal for international solidarity following the
-
Doug Lorimer Acute malnutrition among Iraqi children under five years of ago had doubled since the US invasion and occupation two years ago, Jean Ziegler, the UN Human Rights Commission's special expert on the right to food, told a session of the
-
The First People of the Kalahari, a Botswanan Bushmen organisation, has lodged a complaint with the World Bank about a BHP-Billiton venture in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, which is funded by the World Bank's private arm. BHP-Billiton has
-
Allen Myers, Ho Chi Minh City April 30 will be the 30th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War and the liberation of southern Vietnam from foreign occupation and domination. As part of the preparations for celebrating the anniversary, the Ho Chi
-
Allen Myers, Ho Chin Minh City The most commonly used addictive drug in Vietnam is heroin, according to officials of the Nhi Xuan rehabilitation centre for drug addicts. The centre is one of eight managed by the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union
-
Kim Bullimore Palestinian women in the Salfit district of the Israeli-occupied West Bank were joined by international and Israeli peace activists to marked the 29th annual Palestinian Land Day on March 30. Palestinian Land Day, known as Yom al
-
Roberto Jorquera, Caracas A coalition of pro-Chavez forces including the Venezuelan Communist Party, Socialist League and community organisations held a press conference on March 29 to explain that they are prepared to unite and present their own
Culture
-
RickyBy Ricky TomlinsonTime Warner, 2004448 pages, $24.95 (pb) REVIEW BY PHIL SHANNON "A window got broke, a door frame got knocked over and a couple of walls were toppled. Some guy slipped off scaffolding and sprained an ankle. Another claimed a
-
Someone said somethingand it flew overone ear and passedthrough the other. And the third worldrolled over and groanedfor it had been beaten.and its organs were seeping outof deep, blood red wounds. it was tired.hungry.its bed mate, unhurt,white
-
The making of Pregnant Woman 2002Queensland Art Gallery, Melbourne St, South BrisbaneMarch 12 - June 5Free admission REVIEW BY LYNDA HANSEN The first time I heard about Pregnant Woman 2002 was on the lifestyle show Brisbane Extra. Apparently the
-
BY DERRICK O'KEEFE Like so many, I've by now become used to my childhood heroes letting me down. I long ago accepted that hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, to whom I dedicated many an early adolescent hour of memorising statistics (just ask me how many
-
The Black Meteor — The arrival of a black South African soccer player to a small Dutch town challenges racism and small-mindedness. SBS, Monday, April 11, 11pm. Cutting Edge: Al-Qaeda in Europe — In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the locus