Issue 663

ADELAIDE — On March 27, 80 people picketed Liberal Senator Nick Minchin's electoral office to protest against the Coalition government's new industrial relations regime. A breakfast was cooked for the picketers by workers from the Teys Brothers

Paul Oboohov, Canberra In a typical barnstorming media stunt, ALP federal leader Kim Beazley breezed into the tea room of the Action bus depot in Belconnen on March 29 and let rip, vowing to tear up the Coalition government's new industrial

PERTH — One hundred and fifty people joined a 'You're sacked!' demonstration outside the Australian Industrial Relations Commission office on March 27 to protest against the enactment that day of the federal Work Choices legislation. The action

Ben Courtice, Melbourne PM John Howard is "Public Enemy No 1" and "we must get him out of office", Victorian Trades Hall Council (VTHC) secretary Brian Boyd told 1800 union delegates on March 29. Boyd announced the next union protests against

Graham Matthews, Sydney On March 23, Qantas closed its heavy maintenance facility at Mascot, making 480 workers redundant. While the company has promised that it will not outsource maintenance to China, the 140 extra jobs promised for Melbourne and

Nick Everett, Canberra On March 28, 100 teachers from the ACT's 27 Catholic schools, meeting at the Manuka Oval, voted unanimously to strike. The ACT's 780 Catholic school teachers are seeking a pay increase of 13% over three years after their most

SYDNEY — On March 23, NSW Labor and Coalition MPs voted to deny a request by Greens parliamentarian Lee Rhiannon to join a NSW Legislative Council inquiry visit to the "Supermax" (maximum security) wing of the Goulburn prison. "The major parties

Nick Everett, Canberra British PM Tony Blair received a 21-gun salute and gushing praise from both PM John Howard and Labor leader Kim Beazley when he arrived at federal parliament on March 27. But a more fitting tribute was provided by 150

Ray Fulcher, Melbourne Joseph "Jack" Thomas was sentenced to five years' jail on March 31 for receiving $3500 and an airline ticket from an al Qaeda operative. Thomas was convicted by the Victorian supreme court in February of receiving support

MELBOURNE — On March 28, 20 students disrupted military and ASIO recruiters at the Careers Expo at Melbourne University with eggs and paint bombs. Students made the point that the university should be a place to learn how to live, not how to kill.

Ian Jamieson, Fremantle Despite the spin from the Howard government about "choices" for workers and their unions under its new industrial relations laws, the big construction companies in Western Australia are gunning for the construction workers'

Jim McIlroy & Coral Wynter, Caracas Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez announced a major housing program on March 26, pledging the construction of 150,000 new homes by the end of the year and the possible expropriation of houses being sold

Doug Lorimer The UN Security Council unanimously approved a statement on March 29 urging Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment research activities, despite the fact that such activities are allowed under the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

Millions of students and workers marched on March 28 against the First Employment Contract (CPE) law, which allows employers to sack workers aged under 26 years without reason within the first two years of their job. On March 30, France's

Dale Mills The FBI has long been known to engage in extensive surveillance of activists in the United States. However, the sheer extent of those operations has shocked civil libertarians following the release of a large amount of material under

Patrick Elie has been a leading figure in the popular movement in Haiti since his youth, during the years of the Duvalier tyranny. He was a minister of the first government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, 1991-96. He helped found a political

Pip Hinman, Karachi It had been touch and go for this six-day World Social Forum, postponed from January because of the devastating earthquake last October. But in the end, more than 35,000 people attended — mostly Pakistanis but also activists

Raul Bassi On March 24, 1976, when the Argentine armed forces staged a coup, those of us who were politically active expected hard times. But what followed was a horrific sequence of events that could never have been imagined, the results of which

"Electricity output has dipped to its lowest point in three years in Iraq, where the desert sun is rising toward another broiling summer and US engineers are winding down their rebuilding of the crippled power grid", Associated Press reported on

Barry Sheppard, Los Angeles In what the LA Times called "A thunderous display of clout", up to 1 million immigrants — with immigration papers and without — and their supporters marched through the streets of Los Angeles on March 25 demanding

Edward Mercado For the last seven years, a great majority of Venezuelans, including myself, have defended a new democratic administration being built under Venezuela's new constitution. This is the only constitution in our history that has ever

Associated Press reported on March 29 that Venezuela's socialist president Hugo Chavez, "long critical of big transnational companies", was promoting a free open-sourced software as an alternative to "market-dominating" Microsoft. AP reported that

BUENOS AIRES — On March 24, more than 100,000 people gathered at the Plaza de Mayo, made famous by the mothers of the disappeared, who, along with unions, human rights organisations, students and people from all walks of life, demanded justice

James Balowski, Jakarta According to a survey conducted by the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) on March 8-18, an overwhelming majority of Acehnese want local political parties to be established. To date the only such move has been the launch of

Noreen Navin, Sydney On March 31, the management of community television station TVS Sydney instructed the producers of the half-hour Sunday night Actively Radical TV program that they were not to screen a 10-minute segment from ARTV's documentary

Iraq Ablaze: Inside the InsurgencyBy Zaki ChehabIB Tauris, 2005Distributed in Australia by Palgrave MacMillanRRP $45. REVIEW BY ROHAN PEARCE Much of the Western media has presented one-dimensional reporting of the armed rebellion gripping Iraq,