SYDNEY — The NSW coroner announced on June 15 that an inquiry will be held into the death of Australian journalist Brian Peters in East Timor in 1975. Peters' sister, Maureen Tolfree, made the application for an inquest a year ago.
Tolfree's
Issue 630
News
MELBOURNE — On June 17, 35 people rallied outside the Maribyrnong detention centre to demand the closure of the facility. The protest, part of a series of actions to mark World Refugee Day, was initiated by Resistance high-school activists.
CANBERRA — The June 1 meeting of the ACT Trades and Labour Council, commonly known as Unions ACT, voted to hold a rally on June 26 (a Sunday) outside the Liberal Party national council meeting at the Hyatt Hotel to protest against the federal
BRISBANE — On June 7, 40 people attended an anti-war forum jointly organised by the Stop the War Collective and the Brisbane Anti-Bases group.
Speakers included Marianne Hanson, a lecturer in the Department of International Relations at the
BRISBANE — On June 8, Kimberley College organised a refugee-rights focussed "Sophia's Day".
Sophia's family fled Chile because her father, a trade union activist, faced repression by the authorities. Whilst waiting for their application to be
BRISBANE — On June 3-5, 30 people attended the "Rage against the regime" socialist activist camp at the Maranatha camp site in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. Organised by the Brisbane branch of the socialist youth organisation Resistance, the camp
CANBERRA — At noon on June 9, around 40 staff working for Governor-General Michael Jeffery at Government House in Yarralumla walked off the job to demand a wage rise after almost nine months of negotiations. The staff had rejected a management pay
Jim McIlroy, Brisbane
Anti-war campaigners from Brisbane and other parts of Australia gathered in Rockhampton over the June 10-12 weekend to protest against Operation Talisman Sabre, the largest military exercise ever held in Australia.
Involving
Jim McIlroy, Brisbane
Queensland unions are well under way with plans for a mass mobilisation of members on June 30 against the Coalition government's new anti-union laws.
Transport Workers Union secretary Hughie Williams told Green Left Weekly
Peter Boyle, Melbourne
The June 11 National Trade Union Fightback Conference fired the spirits of the 200-plus delegates and observers at the fourth national conference of the Socialist Alliance, held at the Victorian Trades Hall over the two days
DARWIN — Letty Scott has reacted angrily to the Northern Territory Supreme Court's dismissal of the case against the NT government and three prison officers for the murder of her husband, Douglas Scott, in Berrimah prison on July 5, 1985.
While
PERTH — The anti-racism group Fight Dem Back! announced on June 9 that it uncovered evidence that white supremacists plan to set up a "hit list" website called Redwatch Downunder. The site will feature names, photographs, home and work addresses,
ADELAIDE — For the second month in a row, more than 30 young people picketed ANZ House in Grenfell street on June 3. Protesters condemned ANZ for profiting from the war in Iraq through its involvement in the Iraq Trade Bank.
The protest evolved
SYDNEY — On the anniversary of the human rights commissioner's deadline for the release of all children from immigration detention centres, ChilOut organised a rally in Martin Place to highlight the fact that there are still 68 children in
SYDNEY — The NSW branch of the National Union of Workers (NUW) has called on the Labor Party to commit to a reversal of PM John Howard's industrial relations agenda should it win office in 2007.
In a June 15 media statement, NUW state secretary
SYDNEY — On May 29, Redfern parish priest and Neocatechumenal Way sect member Dennis Sudla threw a cross painted in the Aboriginal colours onto the floor while saying mass, and smashed a table on which it had been standing. Later, three
SYDNEY — Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) employees in Sydney struck for an hour at lunchtime on June 16 to protest over stalled bargaining negotiations. Workers in the NSW state office rallied at Belmore Park, supported by
World
Kim Bullimore
Since early June, almost-daily peaceful protests in the Salfit district of the West Bank have been hit by teargas, stun grenades, live ammunition and rubber bullets by Israeli occupation forces. The residents of Salfit are trying to
Malik Miah, San Francisco
Working people don't just live on their hourly wages or salaries. The social wages — the benefits of health care, pensions, and other social programs — address fundamental and universal human needs to form the base of
On June 12, the International Labor Organization rejected a request by Fedecameras, Venezuela's largest employer group, to open an investigation into supposed abuses of workers' rights in Venezuela. Fedecameras's ILO delegate walked out in protest at
On June 16, Bougainville's first autonomous government was sworn in at a ceremony watched by its new president, Joseph Kabui, and Papua New Guinean Prime Minister Michael Somare. A 40-member parliament for the island province was elected on May 27, a
Harry Huijsmans, Amsterdam
A resounding 62% of Dutch voters rejected the European Constitution in the May 31 referendum, with a turnout of 63% of those eligible to vote. This margin — even greater than the May 29 vote in France, where 55% voted
On the night of June 11, General Pervez Musharraf's military regime sent army and paramilitary units to occupy important buildings and installations of PTLC, Pakistan's 88%-state-owned telco, arresting hundreds of striking workers in the process. The
On June 14, the US Senate finally apologised for its failure to pass a federal anti-lynching law. Between 1882 and 1968, 4700 people, almost all of them black, were lynched in the United States. Their offences ranged from murder to looking
Doug Lorimer
Six out of 10 US voters want Washington to withdraw some or all of its troops from Iraq, according to a Gallup opinion poll taken on June 6-8. Almost 28% want all US troops to be withdrawn immediately.
The US currently has about
Scottish Socialist Party parliamentarian Rosie Kane, recently returned from Cuba, reported in the June 12 Sunday Mail on her visit to a bar in the Cuban capital: "Over a rum and ice, I got chatting with the locals. They wanted to know about Scotland,
Duncan Meerding
Musician Bob Geldof has announced a sequel concert to the charity concert of 1985, Live Aid. The concert, named Live 8, will be demanding the G8, the world's eight most powerful nations, end Third World debt.
Unlike Live Aid, Live
Contending that water is a resource belonging to the people of Guam, I Nasion Chamoru organised a protest involving 30 members of indigenous rights organisations on June 13, protesting efforts to privatise the Guam Waterworks Authority (GWA). A
Hundreds of British prisoners held by the Japanese during World War II were denied compensation by the British government because of their race, the June 14 British Guardian reported. A 2001 secret government document written by a senior Ministry of
Stuart Munckton
"When the Argentine economy collapsed in December 2001, doomsday predictions abounded. Unless it adopted orthodox economic policies and quickly cut a deal with its foreign creditors, hyperinflation would surely follow, the peso
James Balowski, Jakarta
Although no-one has been charged with last year's murder of Indonesia's foremost human rights activist, Munir Said Thalib, evidence is mounting that the prime suspect in the case, Garuda Airlines pilot Pollycarpus Budihari
Federico Fuentes
No one can talk about the crisis in Bolivia, the site of continuous waves of mobilisation, road blockades and general strikes that have thrown out two presidents already, without mentioning Evo Morales. No matter what the viewpoint
Alex Miller
As the leaders of the world's top eight industrialised countries (Britain, France, Russia, Japan, Italy, Canada, Germany and the USA) prepare to gather for the G8 summit at Gleneagles in Perthshire, activists from all over the world are
Karol Florek & Steph Mawson, Warsaw
On June 11, 5000 protesters took part in an act of civil disobedience in support of gay and lesbian rights. The march's successful execution was a decisive victory in defence of civil rights and democracy; given
Duroyan Fertl
After almost five years, and countless thousands of people dead and disappeared, the US$7.5 billion initiative known as "Plan Colombia" has failed — politically and militarily — to bring an end to the crisis that characterises
In recent years, cheap imported chicken from the US and Europe — usually fatty chicken parts in unlabelled packages — has flooded Ghana's market, leading to a collapse in demand for local poultry. In 2004, an estimated 40,000 tonnes of chicken
Duroyan Fertl
On June 10, the 10th round of negotiations for a free trade agreement between the South American nations of Ecuador, Peru and Colombia, and the United States, ended in a stalemate, with neither side willing to budge, in yet another
Culture
Home renovating,Decorating,Auction.Swapping wives,Choosing women,Fashion.Models in a house,On an island,In a ship.Viewers watching,Viewing "life"As they sit.What does the TV industrydo to our reality?It bites and chews selectively,digests vitamins B
Stealing a NationDirected by John Pilger and Christopher MartinProduced by Granada Television
REVIEW BY MELANIE BARNES
If anyone is in any doubt about the illusion of democracy in Western nations, John Pilger's latest documentary Stealing a
Got a buddy in Najaf, he's playing it straightPrays to the Lord Jesus Christ every nightGot a homey in Samarra goin' up the wallsEvery time he hears an Islamic prayer callMe, I don't care much for Jesus or MohammedThey don't stop bullets to the best
Green Suede ShoesBy Larry KirwanThunder's Mouth Press, 2005
BY BILL NEVINS
Larry Kirwan despises US President George Bush's war policy. "Our troops have been betrayed by a bunch of grasping politicians who have cast them into this morally
Will They Ever Trust Us Again? Letters From the War ZoneBy Michael MoorePenguin Books, 2004218 pages, $24.95
REVIEW BY ALEX SALMON
In his latest book, Will They Ever Trust Us Again, Michael Moore set out to continue the work of his most recent
Editorial
Douglas Wood, the US-based, Australian construction contractor held for six weeks by Iraqi resistance fighters, has been freed. But what about the hundreds of Arabic- speaking and Turkomen Iraqis who have been abducted at gunpoint in the northern