Green Left Weekly is temporarily altering our production schedule for the next two issues. GLW staff members are involved in a number of important conferences and meetings during the coming month, so our next issue will be dated October 12 and the
Issue 644
News
GEELONG — Some 200 people attended a public meeting on September 20 to discuss the impact of PM John Howard's industrial relations laws. ACTU president Sharan Burrow explained the federal government's agenda and its likely effect on unions and
Jim McIlroy
Members of the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) employed by Centrelink, the federal government's main social security agency, have voted at workplace meetings around the country to reject management's offer on a new industrial
Academic, solidarity activist and Green Left Weekly contributor Max Lane and radical Indonesian publisher Joesoef Isak, who was imprisoned under the Suharto dictatorship, were featured in the September 20 Good Weekend. They have been friends for
Nick Fredman, Lismore
In recent weeks, a bright orange bus emblazoned with the slogan "your rights at work" has been touring regional NSW, carrying a message of opposition to the federal government's industrial relations reforms and helping to
Nick Everett, Canberra
Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) members in the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) have voted overwhelmingly in favour of an offer by DEWR management for a new union certified agreement. This
Viv Miley, Sydney
Farouk Ismaal, international relations officer for Iraq's General Union of Oil Employees (GUOE), has begun a speaking tour of Australia, sponsored by a broad range of trade unions and anti-war and social justice organisations.
Susan Austin, Hobart
On September 22, 600 health professionals attended stop-work meetings in Hobart, Launceston and Burnie to discuss their current campaign for a new industrial agreement. Tasmania has about 1100 health professionals, including
Jac Taylor, Melbourne
On September 21, Dr Elspeth McInnes, convenor of the National Council of Single Mothers and their Children, criticised the Howard government's changes to its proposed "welfare-to-work" package as still failing for protect
BRISBANE — More than 100 people joined in an enthusiastic celebration of the Venezuelan revolution at the St Francis Church Hall in West End on September 24, as a culmination to the Green Left Weekly emergency appeal. Around $2500 was raised.From
Dale Mills
After US peace activist Scott Parkin was deported from Australia on September 15 for being a "threat to national security" many students he worked with at Sydney University are being put under surveillance.
On September 15, Sydney
Kim Bullimore and Ben Courtice, Melbourne
A motion by councillor Stephen Jolly for all City of Yarra council contract workers to have enterprise bargaining agreements (EBAs) rather than individual contracts (AWAs) failed to get up at the council's
MELBOURNE — On September 17, the National Coalition of Palestine Solidarity Groups met in Melbourne to discuss joint campaigns for the upcoming year. The coalition agreed to support the campaign to boycott Israeli products and the "Disinvest from
SYDNEY — NSW planning minister Frank Sartor's racist remarks on Koori Radio on September 19 have generated widespread calls for him to resign.
Sartor, in charge of driving through a land grab in the Redfern-Waterloo area under the former Premier
Pip Hinman, Sydney
"Labor has broken its first election promise, with [NSW] transport minister John Watkins admitting on September 20 that no train stations in the Marrickville electorate would be upgraded to include disability access", said Greens
Paul Oboohov, Canberra
The rank-and-file group Members First has announced it will contest the national governing council and agency-based section council positions of the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) in elections due later this year.
SYDNEY — A community forum organised by ALP MP Tanya Plibersek on September 22 drew 40 people to hear the former Leichhardt mayor, councillor Alice Murphy, professor Russell Landsbury from the University of Sydney and labour lawyer Daniel
Peter Boyle
$111, 045 in just 10 weeks — that is awesome! Thank you to all our readers and supporters who have helped make this happen. You have ensured that the dissident voice of Green Left Weekly will not be silenced.
We received 350
James Vassilopoulos, Melbourne
Sixty workers employed at Australian Envelopes in the south-eastern Melbourne suburb of Notting Hill — all members of the printing division of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) — have been on
World
On September 24, huge crowds attended anti-war protests in a number of US cities. In Washington DC, the White House was surrounded by a sea of protesters demanding the return of US troops from Iraq. The ANSWER anti-war coalition estimated that more
Louay Alzaher& Doug Lorimer
Tension ran high in southern Iraq on September 20 after British troops attacked the central police station in Basra, Iraq's second largest city, the previous day. The incident was sparked when British soldiers used
Alex Miller
The Scottish Socialist Party is contesting two parliamentary by-elections to be held on September 29. Its candidates — long-time local activist Ronnie Stevenson, standing in the Scottish Parliament seat of Glasgow Cathcart, and trade
Camilo Mejia was the first US soldier to serve in Iraq who went public with his refusal to re-deploy. He spent nine months in military confinement for deciding to follow his conscience. Since his release, he has been a tireless anti-war campaigner
The September 19 English online edition of the Baghdad Azzaman daily reported that the Iraqi Red Crescent Society has asked aid groups to provide urgent assistance to former residents of Tal Afar following the massive US military assault on the city,
Bronwen Beechey, Auckland
Provisional results from New Zealand's September 17 parliamentary election suggest that the Labour government of Prime Minister Helen Clark has narrowly won a third term in office. While the final result will not be known
Lourdes Garcia Larque is a solidarity activist and graduate of Latin American studies from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, which has 300,000 students. She will be speaking at the Third National Conference in Solidarity with Latin
Federico Fuentes, Valencia
Speaking of the nine-month-long struggle against the Aseven (KR) soft-drink company, one of the company's workers Luis Flugo told Green Left Weekly, "we have been on the streets, we have been the victims of so many acts
Rohan Pearce
On March 1, 1991, after the defeat of Iraq in the first Gulf War, US President George Bush senior told the American Legislative Exchange Council: "By God, we've kicked the Vietnam syndrome once and for all!" Since George Bush junior
Benjamin Dangl
Controversy is raging in Paraguay, where the US military is conducting secretive operations. Five hundred US troops arrived in the country on July 1 with planes, weapons and ammunition. Eyewitness reports prove that an airbase exists
Silke Stockle, Freiburg& Norman Brewer, Bremen
The results of the September 18 federal election in Germany have opened up heated talks over which parties will form a coalition government. Neither the centre-left government of Chancellor Gerhard
Kim Bullimore
The Israeli justice ministry announced on September 18 that it would close a police investigation into the murder of 13 Palestinians with Israeli citizenship at the beginning of the second intifada.
The 13 were killed in northern
Doug Lorimer
In a September 19 statement accompanying his latest report to a meeting of the 35-country board of governors of the UN's nuclear watchdog, International Atomic Energy Agency director-general Mohammed ElBaradei declared that "Iran
Green Left Weekly's Lara Pullin, participant in the first Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Brigade, interviewed Nelson Davila, Venezuelan revolutionary and charge d'affaires at the Venezuelan embassy in Canberra.
When we were in Venezuela, we heard a
Culture
Barking MadWritten and produced by Maree RobertsonMelbourne, October 11-13; Castlemaine, October 13; Hamilton, October 14; Camperdown, October 15Email <barkingmadproject@yahoo.com.au> or phone 0427 122 608 for more information.
REVIEW BY
The Body SnatchersBy Cyndi TebbelFinch Publishing, Sydney$25
REVIEW BY TAMARA PEARSON
Don't you think the concept of "diet" Coke is really bizarre? This is the rationale of a junk-dominated food industry trying to profit at the same time as a
John Tognolini
Green Left Weekly, the Democratic Socialist Perspective and the Socialist Alliance send our sincere condolences to Denis Kevans' daughter Sophia, his long-time partner Sonia Bennet and his many comrades and friends over his sudden
BY DALE MILLS
An exhibition critical of the "war on terrorism" has been withdrawn — the second time that a work funded by the Melbourne City Council has been banned in the last 18 months.
The work's title, Canberra's 18, refers to the 18 groups