Jim Green
Have the nuclear industry and its supporters suddenly gained an environmental consciousness? While they're not planning to close their dangerous, polluting reactors nor begin dealing responsibly with their legacy of toxic radioactive
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Terry Costello& Sue Bolton, Melbourne The Community and Public Sector Union's national leadership has responded to the new political environment of increased attacks on unions by battening down the hatches and reinforcing the bunker. At its
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April 13 1949: 10,000 people attend the Australian Peace Congress in Melbourne. April 14 1930: More than 100 Mexican and Filipino farm workers are arrested in California, USA, for union activity. April 15 1944: Fred Paterson becomes
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Zoe Kenny On March 16, federal education minister Brendan Nelson introduced his anti-student union legislation, euphemistically referred to as "voluntary student unionism" (VSU), into federal parliament. VSU is a strategic part of Nelson's higher
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The article in GLW issue #621 entitled "UNSW Guild staff strike over redundancy pay" stated that the previous year's guild executive officer had agreed verbally to the NTEU's demands. It was the staff management committee negotiating team that agreed
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Socialist Alliance Hear hear, Dave Riley (GLW #620), a broad-based Socialist Alliance is essential, and it is this very quality that gives it its strength and attraction for so many. If the Socialist Alliance did not speak out for refugees, for
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PM John Howard's top priority after winning control of the Senate is to attack Australian workers and their unions. He has introduced a wave of legislation that will, if passed, severely restrict workers' rights. This legislation will: Remove
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Farida Iqbal "Voluntary student unionism" legislation (VSU) is designed to crush student organisations by ending universal student union membership. Federal education minister Brendan Nelson is framing the VSU debate in terms of Lego clubs and
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Tim Anderson The federal government, backed by mining company-funded "think tanks", has a new agenda for Aboriginal land rights: privatise them. And privatisation here, as elsewhere, means that the sharks will move in. In February, Indigenous
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Dani Barley Two years after the invasion of Iraq, which generated the biggest protests in history, the anti-war movement in the United States is re-gathering strength. At the forefront of this movement has been the families of soldiers in Iraq, and
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Dr Michael Dudley I think that the Four Corners program showed (among other things) how immigration department (DIMIA) and detention centre staff were very slow in responding to Cornelia Rau's distress, despite the signals given from visitors,
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Farida Iqbal, Wollongong On April 4, queer rights activist Annaliese Constable appeared in court under the charge of trespass. Constable led the 2004 campaign at Wollongong University for a safe queer space. The existing campus queer space was a
News
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Permanent war will bring peace "We're talking about a part of the world in which, uhh, you know, our foreign policy was, let's just hope for the best and tolerate the fact there's no free societies. And — what ended up happening was, there was a
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Kathy Newnam, Darwin The re-autopsy of the body of Douglas Scott has found further evidence that the Aboriginal man was tortured and murdered in the Northern Territory's Berrimah prison on July 5, 1985. Douglas Scott's widow, Letty, has fought
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SYDNEY — The NSW branch of the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU) is challenging an attempt of one of its officials to seek compensation in the Industrial Relations Commission (IRC). CEPU NSW branch vice-president Peter Jones
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Sue Bull, Ballarat Negotiations towards an enterprise agreement at the University of Ballarat have broken down. In response to the news, a meeting of 100 members of three unions voted on March 23 for a campaign of industrial bans, a series of
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Carlene Wilson, Melbourne When the Coalition takes control of the Senate in July, abortion rights will be one thing likely to come under attack. The Campaign for Women's Reproductive Rights (CWRR) has been collecting signatures for a petition
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Karl Miller, Melbourne More than 80 people turned up to the Victorian state conference of the Socialist Alliance, the theme of which was "Organising a community and trade union fight-back against Howard's new attacks". This included around
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SYDNEY — National Tertiary Education Union members at the Wagga Wagga campus of Charles Sturt University (CSU) leafleted students and their families at graduation ceremonies on April 6-8 to highlight their campaign to force the university to return
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BRISBANE — On April 4, about 1000 teacher aides and teachers attended protest meetings in Brisbane and 12 Queensland regional centres jointly organised organised by the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union (representing teachers' aides) and
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Jo Williams, Melbourne On April 6, members of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) at meetings on two separate campuses of the Victoria University of Technology (VUT) decided to go ahead with a planned 48-hour strike, scheduled for April
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SYDNEY — A handful of protesters took their anti-war message to the Fleet Base East, where HMAS Tobruk was leaving for Iraq, on April 4. The supply ship is to provide sealift for Australian troops deploying to the Al Muthanna Task Group in
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Alex Bainbridge Socialist Alliance member Kamala Emanuel was labelled one of Tasmania's "top ten protesters" by the March 29 Mercury, alongside the likes of Greens Senator Bob Brown, gay rights activist Rodney Croome and Gardening Australia
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GEELONG — On April 6, about 100 union delegates and members attended a cross-union meeting at Geelong Trades Hall to discuss the federal government's anti-union legislation. Leigh Hubbard, outgoing secretary of the Victorian Trades Hall Council
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Paul Oboohov German-born, Australian permanent resident Cornelia Rau was abused by jailers, and immigration detention officials knew about her mental condition, ABC TV's Four Corners revealed on April 4. Rau, a former Qantas flight attendant, was
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Lara Pullin, Canberra Arabunna elder Kevin Buzzacott appeared in the ACT Supreme Court on March 29-April 6 on charges of stealing a coat of arms. On January 27, 2002, Buzzacott removed the metal Australian coat of arms from Old Parliament House,
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MELBOURNE — Workers sacked from the ABM Plastics factory in Braeside held a barbeque outside the K&K Plastics factory in Clayton on March 8. They had received information indicating that some of the production formerly carried out at ABM Plastics
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Sue Bolton, Melbourne On March 23, a mass delegates' meeting called by the Victorian Trades Hall Council (VTHC) voted for a work stoppage and mass protest on June 30, the day before the federal Coalition government takes full control of the Senate.
World
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Around 200 East Timorese protesters were attacked on April 9 by police, including special branch paramilitary forces.
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On February 18, the Israeli government set up an x-ray machine at the Rafah International Crossing Point, and forced all Palestinians trying to leave Gaza that way to submit to an enhanced x-ray process, that included taking naked photographs. The
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From March 31-April 30, the US-Mexico border in Arizona will be flooded with dangerous, armed idiots, as an estimated 2000 volunteers join the "Minutemen Project", which describes itself as "Americans doing the job Congress won't". The volunteers
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On April 11-17, events around the world will develop solidarity with the Venezuelan revolution. The week of solidarity will mark the third anniversary of the defeat of a US-backed coup against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, whose government is
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Ewa Jasiewicz is a human-rights activist and journalist from London who lived in US-occupied Iraq from June 2003 to February 2004. For much of her time there, she lived in Basra, working closely with a crucial union for workers in the oil industry.
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The following message from Carolus Wimmer, a member of the political bureau of the Communist Party of Venezuela and director of international relations for Venezuelan parliament, was sent to the Third Asia Pacific International Solidarity Conference
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On March 19, 14 people were arrested for "public violence" after 750 people from the Kennedy Road Informal Settlement in Claire Estate blockaded a major road with burning tyres for four hours. On March 21, 1200 people marched to the local police
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Farooq Tariq, Lahore Yasmeen Kanwal, a leading activist with the women's rights organisation Women Workers Help Line (WWHL), was killed on April 4 in Shahdra, a suburb of Lahore. A medical investigation is being carried out to confirm reports she
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Five US soldiers were arrested on March 29 for trying to smuggle 16 kilograms of cocaine out of Colombia on US military aircraft. The news was leaked to the media on April 1, and confirmed by a statement issued by the Colombian defence ministry on
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Allen Myers, Ho Chi Minh City Ho Chi Minh City is booming. As you approach from the outskirts, signs of economic growth are all around you. Buildings and roads are under construction everywhere. Neat three to five storey dwellings line the roads,
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Limerick City Council is considering a motion to declare Limerick city the world's first Caterpillar-free zone. In 2003, a Caterpillar bulldozer ran over human rights activist Rachel Corrie as she attempted to stop a house being demolished in Gaza,
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On April 6, members of the People's Democratic Party in Jakarta protested against Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, demanding his government be replaced. Yudhoyono has begun increasing the price of fuel, which is already causing price
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The following letter was sent to Amnesty USA by Australian academic Tim Anderson on March 22. I write as an Australian prisoners' rights campaigner who has been watching Amnesty's interventions over the arrests and jailing of several dozen
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The Cuban embassy in Bolivia announced on April 4 that Cuba would award 100 university scholarships to poor Bolivian young people. The bulletin explained that the program was part of Cuba's policy of international solidarity and collaboration. There
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One of the guests at the third Asia-Pacific International Solidarity Conference, held in Sydney at Easter, was Helmuth Markov, who is a member of the European Parliament from the German Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS). This is an abridged version
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Roberto Jorquera, an activist from the Venezuelan Solidarity Network in Australia, is in Caracas to help prepare for the solidarity brigade the network is organising from July 25-August 15, and to report on the unfolding revolution there. Regular
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The Harvard Corporation, the university's highest governing body, announced on April 4 that it would sell its shares in PetroChina, because the company is "too closely tied to genocide in Sudan". The decision was greeted with jubilation by black-clad
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Rose Gentle, the mother of Gordon Gentle who was killed in Iraq last year, announced on April 5 that she would stand against minister for armed forces Adam Ingram in the May 5 British general election. The Scottish Socialist Party immediately
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Roberto Jorquera, an activist from the Venezuelan Solidarity Network in Australia, is in Caracas to help prepare for the solidarity brigade the network is organising from July 25-August 15, and to report on the unfolding revolution there. Regular
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On April 2, hundreds of people across Britain joined protests organised by asylum seekers facing deportation from that country. Actions were held in Glasgow, London, Nottingham, Oxford, Canterbury and Manchester, where more than 700 marched. Three
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Israelis believe Palestinians should leave In an April 4 poll of Israelis carried out by the Madar Palestinian Centre for Israel Studies, 42% agreed that the Israeli state should encourage Palestinians with Israeli citizenship to leave the country,
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Washington University's admissions office was taken over by chanting students armed with leaflets and petitions on April 5, as members of the Student-Worker Alliance began an indefinite sit-in to demand better wages for the university's lowest paid
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Kim Bullimore On March 17, the Israeli state moved to re-arrest and charge nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu with 22 counts of violating the restrictions placed upon him when he was released from jail in April last year. Vanunu's arrest came
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Nicole Colson, Chicago Getting away with murder. There's no other way to describe the Pentagon's announcement that it is refusing to prosecute any of the 17 US soldiers who contributed to the deaths of three prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan in
Culture
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America's Military Today: The Challenge of MilitarismBy Tod EnsignNew Press, 2004430 pages, $37 Will They Ever Trust Us Again? Letters from the War ZoneBy Michael MooreSimon and Schuster, 2004218 pages, $25 REVIEW BY ERIC RUDER Since September
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I saw the pricks pricking balloonsI saw them seizing kitesthey were protecting ignorance for the sake of all uptights.They all wore coppers' uniformsthey all had coppers' minds,barely a brain cell between them,these are John Howard's times.When
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Message Stick: Koori Court — "Broken Bones" is a gritty tale of social realism, portraying both the negative and positive aspects of Indigenous family culture. ABC, Friday, April 15, 6pm. Get Up Stand Up: We Shall Overcome — Identifies the
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Resistance: A History of the Democratic Socialist Party and Resistance Volume 1: 1965-72By John PercyResistance Books, Sydney 2005338 pages, $29.95 (pb) REVIEW BY JIM MCILROY This is an important and timely book, given the transitional period the