The trial of alleged SIEV X people smuggler Khaleed Daoed is scheduled to commence in the Brisbane Supreme Court on May 17 and will run for at least three weeks. The boat dubbed the SIEV X sank in international waters off Indonesia on October 19,
Issue 626
News
SYDNEY — The final Gaywaves program went to air on April 14 but its team of volunteers has vowed to fight 2SER's decision to axe it. Presenter Tim Govers criticised the station's decision to cancel the long-running gay and lesbian show, which
Sue Bull, Melbourne
In a massive show of defiance, 5000 building workers walked off the job on May 4 in protest against PM John Howard planned anti-union industrial relations legislation.
The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union
Vannessa Hearman
On April 29, Greens Senator Kerry Nettle met with local East Timorese in Darwin and condemned the "resource-sharing" deal offered to the Timorese by the federal Coalition government as "manifestly unfair". She said that the deal
BRISBANE — On May3, 400 people rallied in King George Square to protest against the state funeral held in Kingaroy that day for former premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen.
Speakers included veteran left activists Brian Laver, Drew Hutton, Carole Ferrier
ADELAIDE — On May 4, 1000 people attended a rally organised by the construction workers' union (CFMEU) to protest the Howard government's industrial relations agenda. The rally was timed to coincide with an employers' luncheon at which workplace
Karen Fletcher, Melbourne
La Trobe University was pretty much closed for business by a well-supported staff and student strike on May 4. Every major entrance to the university was blocked by union picket lines, campus coffee shops reported business
Kathy Newnam, Darwin
Another man has lost his life while being held under the federal government's policy of detaining foreigners caught fishing in Australian waters.
Muhammed Heri was the captain of a fishing boat taken into custody by
SYDNEY — On May 1, 100 people attended a meeting organised by the NSW Greens at the Newtown Hotel to discuss same-sex marriage laws. The meeting was addressed by Rodney Croome, gay rights advocate from Tasmania, Tasmanian Greens MP Nick McKim,
Sam Wainwright, Fremantle
On May 1, 300 maritime workers, their families and other unionists crammed into the North Fremantle office of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) for a "sausage-sizzle debate" on how to fight the federal government's
On April 29, Iranian refugee Ardeshir Gholipour was released from the Baxter detention centre after more than five years in detention. His release came after the release of some 30 Iranian and Afghan refugees during April, most of whom had spent
ADELAIDE — Thirty-five people picketed ANZ on May 6 to highlight the bank's involvement in war profiteering in Iraq. The protesters vowed to return on the first Friday of every month to maintain pressure on ANZ and other Australian companies
World
Kim Bullimore
More than 1200 Palestinians, Israelis and international activists peacefully demonstrated on April 28 in the West Bank village of Bili'in against the Israeli state's continued construction of the illegal Apartheid Wall.
The wall
The Turkish government has handed over 140,000 pages of documentation from the Ottoman era to the Palestinian Authority. The documents from the period between 1500 and 1914 include archives documenting Palestinian land ownership in the West Bank,
Eva Cheng
Beijing has gone to great lengths recently to intimidate anti-Japanese groups and activists to prevent further mass protests against Japan, such as those that occurred in April. The spark for the protests was Tokyo's new attempts to
A late February poll by Datanalisis, a company linked to the president's opponents, found that support for left-wing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has risen to 70.5%. This is a significant increase in support since August 2004, when a referendum
More than 1 million Cubans participated in this year's May Day march in Havana. Addressing a huge rally in the city's Revolution Square, Cuban President Fidel Castro denounced the US government for giving sanctuary to the terrorist Luis Posada
A clear majority of US voters (57%) do not believe that it was worthwhile going to war with Iraq, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll taken on April 29-May 1. In a similar poll taken in February, 48% of respondents said it was worthwhile and 50%
Norm Dixon
Revelations of a covert rendezvous in Washington between top CIA officials and the head of Sudan's secret police have starkly exposed just how hollow and hypocritical are the US administration's expressions of concern for the plight of
Doug Lorimer
On April 30, tens of thousands of Vietnamese participated in celebrations in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi on the 30th anniversary of the nation's great victory in 1975 over the US and its Saigon puppet regime.
In Hanoi, Prime Minister
According to the corporate finance group PricewaterhouseCoopers, US military expenditure will equal that of the rest of the world within 12 months. In a report released by PwC's global aerospace and defence division on April 27 — The Defence
On May 5, a union meeting of 300 police in PNG demanded that the Australian police serving in the country leave within 48 hours. In a statement, they explained that crime has risen since the 160 police arrived earlier this year. They also criticised
Between 500 and 700 people, most of Chinese descent, met at 10am on May 4 at the Chinese cultural center in Vancouver to march to the Japanese consulate to protest cover-ups and revisionism in Japanese textbooks. Protesters also demanded that Japan
On April 28, Mark Scott-Crossley and Simon Mathebula were convicted of murder by a Phalaborwa court. On January 31 last year, under Scott-Crossley's orders, Nelson Chisale, a worker who had just filed a complaint over unfair labour practices, was
Fred Fuentes
In the biggest march ever organised by the powerful Movement of Landless Workers (MST), around 13,000 peasants, accompanied by workers from occupied factories, indigenous peoples and others, set out from Goiania, Brazil, on May 2 to
Rohan Pearce
The post-9/11 rehabilitation of thinly veiled imperialist militarism, in the guise of the "war on terror", has been a massive windfall for "private military companies" (PMCs) — the preferred euphemism of the modern mercenary
The British elections were not good news for New Labour PM Tony Blair. Although New Labour will have a workable majority of 66 seats, the 36% of the popular vote it won is the lowest ever for an incoming British government. Voters abandoned Labour in
Roberto Jorquera, Caracas
May Day 2005 will go down in Venezuelan history as an significant date in the developing revolution. Although there was no official estimate release, it is speculated that around 1 million workers marched through Caracas
On May 3, Brazil's government rejected a $40 million grant from the US to fight AIDS, explaining that its conditions were "too severe". The grant was conditional on Brazil's government taking a "moral" stand opposing, among other things,
Jon Lamb
Six months after his election, the cracks are well and truly appearing in the promises and policies of Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. The half-hearted support of the Indonesian masses for his presidency is rapidly
Norman Solomon
Years from now, when historians look back at agenda-building for a missile attack on Iran, they should closely examine a story that took up the USA's most coveted space for media spin — the upper right corner of the New York Times'
Culture
Children of the Crocodile: The Australia-East Timor storyPassengers Gallery at the Australian National Maritime Museum, Darling Harbour, Sydney9.30am-5pm Monday-Sunday until 2007Visit <http://www.anmm.gov.au>
Children of the Crocodile is
"Your friends will never forget you",the fluttering leaflet said,"Your friends will never forget you",and then o'er the valley spread,The wide sky cowed in sorrow,and the eyes of the angels wept,For a promise made by the soldiersthat their leaders
Get Up Stand UpSaturdays, ABC TV at 10pm
REVIEW BY DAVE RILEY
As you grow older you forget. My ears have been listening to music for longer than I know and thousands of melodies have wafted between my two earlobes.
I have been treated to so
Rufino risked his life by helping to carry wounded Australian servicemen at Bazartete on March 2, 1942. Paddy Keneally was interviewed for the Timor Sea Justice Campaign advertisements shown on national television over the Anzac weekend. He is
The Party: The Socialist Workers Party, 1960-1988, a Political Memoir. Volume 1: The SixtiesBy Barry SheppardResistance Books354 pages, $29.95Visit <http://www.resistancebooks.com>
REVIEW BY FRED FELDMAN
How has the Cuban Revolution
Editorial
Federal treasurer Peter Costello's 10th budget, to be revealed on May 10, will continue the federal Coalition government's neoliberal "reform" — pushing increased "user-pays" and the privatisation of Medicare and higher education.
The dire state