David Hicks was captured in Kandahar in the closing days of the war between the Taliban government of Afghanistan and the Northern Alliance insurgency supported by the US. The Taliban government, for which David Hicks was fighting, fell.
At the
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Tim Cobon & Susan Price Most workers understand the harsh future they face if the federal government's next round of draconian workplace "reforms" are implemented. Young workers will be among the most severely affected. Recent surveys reveal that
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Gavin Mooney As Peter McGregor noted in GLW #639, I recently resigned in protest from a committee of the federal government's National Health and Medical Research Committee (NHMRC) and called for a boycott by academics of government committees
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Dick Nichols What is ACTU secretary Greg Combet up to? On August 23 he addressed the Australian Industry Group (AIG), the umbrella organisation for the major manufacturing and construction bosses, and the main business organisation behind the
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Sarah Stephen "In the euphoria of their release, most of these people have little inkling of what lies in store for them outside the razor wire", former human rights commissioner Marcus Einfeld told guests at a recent fundraising dinner. There
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AWAs Krispy Kreme doughnut workers were bullied into signing individual contracts that left them thousands of dollars a year out of pocket, two former employees have said in submissions to a Senate inquiry. One former staff member, Thea Birch
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Federico Fuentes, Caracas Having been picked up from the front of Agua Salud train station, myself and two other members of the first Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Brigade to visit Venezuela were driven to our meeting place where we had arranged
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Peter Boyle The next ACTU-called national day of action against the proposed new federal industrial relations laws is not until November 15. But trade unionists in Geelong, Victoria, are determined to keep up the pressure. They have set an example
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Lee Sustar, Chicago Decades of official neglect, racism and the impact of global warming magnified the destructive impact of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and other parts of the US south. The mainstream media have focused most on the big-money
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ALP sells students out on VSU James Crafti ABC News Online on August 24 reported that Labor leader Kim Beazley had "challenged" the federal government to accept a compromise plan on voluntary student unionism (VSU). Beazley's plan involves a
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Alison Thorne The Melbourne group of Members First — a caucus of activists seeking to rebuild the Community and Public Sector Union as a fighting union — has criticised the national leadership of the union for calling on members to lobby Steve
News
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Jenny Forward & Susan Austin, Hobart The unions involved in Tasmania's Allied Health Professionals Campaign — the Community and Public Sector Union-State Public Service Federation and the Health and Community Services Union — are celebrating
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Chris Kerr & Jim McIlroy, Brisbane On August 27, 300 people rallied in Roma Street Forum for Tampa Day and marched across the Brisbane River to the Queensland College of Art. The protest, sponsored by the Refugee Action Collective and Amnesty
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Noreen Navin, Sydney Across NSW, 40,000 public school students with a language background other than English (LBOTE) are being denied English as a second language (ESL) support because the NSW Labor government refuses to prioritise their needs. A
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Alex Bainbridge, Hobart The Save Ralphs Bay campaign won a major victory on September 2 when the Walker Corporation announced that it would not proceed with the development. Walker proposed to develop a luxury housing estate with canals at Ralphs
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Alison Dellit, Sydney Around 1500 protesters descended on the Sydney Opera House on August 30 to protest one of the grossest international gatherings of corporate crooks: the Forbes Global CEO Conference. Delegates to the Forbes conference paid
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Graham Matthews, Sydney More than 300 people attended the Sydney Social Forum (SSF), held over the weekend of August 27-28 at Petersham West TAFE. A "super session" at the old mint building in Macquarie Street was held on the evening of August 29.
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Friends of Green Left Weekly in Sydney expresses its sincere thanks to Jamie Parker, Rochelle Porteous, Michele McKenzie and Kate Hamilton, the four Greens councillors on Leichhardt Municipal Council. These councillors argued for and won a waiver
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Jim McIlroy, Brisbane "Can you imagine being sued for trying to protect something irreplaceable?" That was theme of a public meeting of 150 people held in the Powerhouse on August 30. The meeting launched a national tour sponsored by the
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Kerry Smith SYDNEY — National Union of Workers members taking industrial action at the National Parts warehouse at Smithfield have been warned by police not to swear on the picket line or they will face police action. NUW NSW secretary Derrick
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'Keep going and you will get there' Chris Williams After seven weeks, Green Left Weekly's special emergency appeal is still on target, with $73,413 having been donated. The donations from subscribers and supporters are often accompanied by
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Kathy Newnam, Darwin One hundred and twenty people attended the "Don't Waste the Territory" public meeting organised by the No Radioactive Waste Dump Committee on August 31. "This project can be stopped", the Australian Conservation Foundation's
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Graham Matthews, Sydney Pip Hinman, the Socialist Alliance candidate in the September 17 Marrickville by-election, has issued an open letter to NSW Premier Morris Iemma calling on his Labor government to refuse to cooperate with the federal
Analysis
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Headscarves worn by Muslim women should be banned in public schools, federal Liberal backbencher Bronwyn Bishop declared on August 28, because they are "a symbol of defiance" and "an iconic symbol of the clash of cultures". Bishop told the ABC on
World
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Dale T. McKinley, Johannesburg A great deal of excitement has been generated, among South Africa's general population and also in left-wing political and activist ranks, by the launch of what has been labelled by the mainstream media the "new
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John Mage On August 8, Japan's upper house of parliament unexpectedly joined the French and Dutch electorates to give a sharp slap to neoliberal inevitability. Much to the totally delicious distress of all the usual suspects, from the London
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James Balowski, Jakarta On August 15, the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) signed a historic Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) as a first step in seeking a peaceful and lasting solution to the decades-long conflict in Aceh.
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Alex Miller The bitter Gate Gourmet airline catering firm dispute, which led to the temporary shutting down of London's Heathrow Airport last month, shows no sign of being quickly resolved. On September 2, Tony Woodley, general secretary of the
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John Pilger, London Thomas Friedman is a famous columnist on the New York Times. He has been described as "a guard dog of US foreign policy". Whatever America's warlords have in mind for the rest of humanity, Friedman will bark it. He boasts that
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Roger Annis, Vancouver The commander of Canada's armed forces, General Rick Hillier, is speaking out boldly in support of the US-led imperialist war effort in the Middle East and Asia. He is spending the summer months on a lecture circuit as the
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Dahr Jamail As the US-backed Iraqi puppet government flails about arguing over the so-called constitution, Iraq remains in a state of complete anarchy. There is no government control whatsoever, even inside the infamous "Green Zone" where the
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As the Tongan civil service strike entered its sixth week, New Zealand trade unionists, the expatriate Tongan community, social justice activists and church groups are organising support and solidarity.
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John Catalinotto, New York A group of right-wing members of the US Congress close to the Bush administration has pressured the Italian government into interfering with an October conference in Rome aimed at building solidarity with Iraqis fighting
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Kim Bullimore While the world has been distracted by the Gaza "disengagement", Israel has continued to approve plans for, and to build and expand, illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. In July, Israeli planners approved
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Stuart Munckton The furore continues to grow over the call to assassinate left-wing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made on US national television on August 22 by Pat Robertson, a right-wing Christian televangalist and well-known supporter of US
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Grant Morgan, Auckland On August 18, a draft Workers' Charter was finalised by a steering committee elected at a meeting of unionists and left-wing activists in Auckland on July 2. Over the next year there will be broad discussion of the draft
Culture
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Betrayed: The Story of Canadian Merchant Seamen Directed by Elaine Briere 55 minutes REVIEW BY CLINTON FERNANDES Betrayed is the latest documentary by renowned film-maker and photographer Elaine Briere. The film deals with the Canadian Seamen's
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REVIEW BY LANCE SELFA Chavez RavineRy Cooder with various artistsNonesuch Records (a division of Warner Music) Virtually every baseball fan knows that Los Angeles' Dodger Stadium is located in an area called Chavez Ravine. But few know Chavez
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Beholdthe ambassador of silenceaportfolio carrying grave responsibility in an age wherewordsspew like raw sewageintothecollective consciouswithsilencethe only insurancerealagainst the perverse influenceofpost truth double speakshut upplease Will
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Selling Sickness: How Drug Companies are Turning Us All into PatientsBy Ray Moynihan & Alan CasselsAllen & Unwin, 2005254 pages, $26.95 (pb) REVIEW BY PHIL SHANNON Thirty years ago, the retiring head of the Merck pharmaceutical company told
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Ladies First: Women Rebuild Rwanda — In 1994, women and girls made up 70% of the population in Rwanda — a result of the civil war and genocide that had devastated the country. They are now playing an unprecedented role in the country's