Kerry Smith
Single parents and their children face income cuts of $20-$50 per week from July 1 as government changes to income support, child support and family law take effect, Dr Elspeth McInnes, convener of the National Council of Single Mothers
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The following reports give a flavour of the June 28 national protest against Work Choices around the country. Karen Fletcher reports that between 80,000 (police estimate) and 150,000 (Trades Hall estimate) workers gridlocked central Melbourne
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Welfare to Work Losing a job may be just the beginning of problems for workers when the Howard government's IR system interacts with its so-called Welfare to Work policies. Under the Social Security Act, losing a job for alleged misconduct, leaving
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Graham Matthews Following the successful June 28 protest called by the ACTU, many unionists are calling for nationally organised industrial action to intensify the struggle against Work Choices. "The time's now come to hit the grass for 24", Ian
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Emma Murphy, Adelaide Young people today are not just the "future work force" — many of us are already in it, while putting ourselves through uni and often supporting our family. So we know how disempowering and unfair the workplace can be, and
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Rohan Pearce Following Israel's missile attack on the office of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza City on July 2, the Israeli military issued a statement claiming it was intended to "secure the safe return" of Israeli soldier Gilad
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Sue Bolton Joan Doyle, Victorian Communication, Electrical and Plumbing Union postal division secretary, described the national June 28 protest against Work Choices as "sensational". It showed that, "three months after the laws have been
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Dick Nichols The second article in this four-part series on the Australian economy (see GLW #672) discussed the causes of the US economy's unprecedentedly large current account deficit (CAD), which reached 6.4% of gross domestic product at the end
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Jim Green The military and its civil arms have a history of forcing uranium mines, nuclear reactors, radioactive waste dumps and nuclear weapons tests on Indigenous peoples' lands. This history of radioactive racism is one of oppression, but also
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The Alliance Against Uranium, a network of Aboriginal and environmental organisations which was formed in 1997, declared after a September 2005 meeting in Quorn, South Australia, that current and future generations have a right to a clean
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Anna Samson Following last year's deal with four Liberal MPs, it seemed that the Howard government had finally acknowledged that children do not belong in immigration detention. It was tempting to believe this was the beginning of a reversal of the
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People who know me will agree I'm an unassuming and moderate person who doesn't like bad language. So I was shocked to hear that at a meeting of teacher unionists in Kempsey on June 21, Andrew Stoner, leader of the NSW Nationals, had called Kevin
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Tony Iltis, Melbourne Margarita Windisch, the Socialist Alliance candidate for the seat of Footscray in the November 25 Victorian state elections, has condemned a Footscray police proposed scheme, dubbed Project Reduction, that would give
News
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Pip Hinman Human rights activists have welcomed the US Supreme Court's decision, on June 29, declaring the military commissions for Guantanamo Bay prisoners illegal. Raul Bassi from the Cantebury-Bankstown Peace Group, which has campaigned to free
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Graham Matthews, Sydney Workers employed at the Esselte stationary warehouse in Sydney's south-west suburb of Minto have been "offered" individual contracts (AWAs) that would give them a pay rise of $47, but cut 18 allowances they currently enjoy,
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Green Left Weekly is taking a one-week break from publication. Our next issue will be dated July 19.From Green Left Weekly, July 5, 2006. Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.
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PERTH — On June 25, 50 people attended a rally organised by the Refugee Rights Action Network (RRAN) for World Refugee Day, to protest the Australian government's refugee policies and legislation that would send asylum seekers who arrive in
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Rachel Evans As the effects of climate change begin to be felt around the world and with the Howard government pushing for increased uranium mining in Australia, the need for a strong, grassroots environment movement has never been so urgent. The
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Emma Clancy, Sydney Radical young activists from around Australia will be converging on Sydney from July 8-10 for three days of political discussion and campaign planning at the 35th Resistance national conference, themed "Unfuck the world:
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In George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman, Act 3, a group of brigands sit near a road high in the Sierra Nevada in Spain, discussing politics. Mendoza, their leader, presides over a discussion ranging from anarchism to social democracy. Suddenly the
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MELBOURNE — Civil-rights campaigners have welcomed the US Supreme Court ruling to scrap the Bush administration's military commissions. "These commissions were about finding people guilty without evidence or proper procedures", Civil Rights Defence
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SYDNEY — Twenty unionists picketed the George Street Optus shop on June 29, to protest the sacking via text messages of 70 Optus technicians. The workers were told in a subsequent meeting that they could reapply for their jobs as individual
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Sandy Whelan In the lead-up to the June 28 union protests against the Work Choices laws, Australia Post issued a number of bulletins warning staff that taking industrial action under the current enterprise agreement was illegal and that
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John Vidovich & Rachel Evans After campaigning for over a year, queer students at Western Australia's Edith Cowan University (ECU) have finally won a space for the use of queer students, — as exists on most campuses. "Women's and indigenous
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In an earlier column, I wrote that capitalists, unlike earlier ruling classes, have no motive to preserve the environment because their exploitation is based on value rather than on physical products. Where the feudal lord sought grain or fine
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SYDNEY — Up to 400 people marched from Wiley Park to Lakemba on July 2 in support of a free Palestine and against the latest Israeli offensive. Chants at the protest included "Israel, you will see — Palestine will be free" and "Israel must
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Emma Clancy The Howard government's Higher Education Support Amendment (Abolition of Compulsory Up-front Student Union Fees) Act 2005 — also known as the "voluntary student unionism" (VSU) law — came into effect on July 1. The most serious
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SYDNEY — On June 27, 57 owner-drivers who deliver beer for the Tooheys brewery company voted to accept a new contract negotiated by the Transport Workers Union (TWU) with Tooheys and transport company Linfox. When it was announced that Linfox
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Commander-in-chief all at sea "I think — tide turning — see, as I remember — I was raised in the desert, but tides kind of — it's easy to see a tide turn — did I say those words?" — Emperor George Bush II, June 14, responding to a
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Kerry Smith Engineered nanoparticles are being used in virtually every type of personal care product on the market, from sunscreens and anti-aging creams to shampoos and toothpastes, despite preliminary scientific evidence that many types of
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Emma Clancy These three young activists will be special guests at the July 8-10 Resistance national conference in Sydney. Maria Rosa Jimenez, Venezuela Maria Rosa Jimenez is the head of student affairs of the Venezuelan socialist youth
World
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Tim Anderson "We did not expect that the elected leader of a party with an overwhelming mandate could be forced to stand down in this way in a democracy." — Fretilin press release, June 26, 2006. Backed by a foreign army, and with his country's
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Coral Wynter & Jim McIlroy, Caracas On the June 4 edition of his weekly television program Alo Presidente, President Hugo Chavez announced the formation of a new social mission — Mission Tree — commencing a major campaign to save Venezuela's
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Coral Wynter & Jim McIlroy, Caracas Hernan Durango is a Colombian journalist for the progressive Venezuelan daily newspaper Diario Vea, who was forced to flee his homeland eight months ago due to death threats from right-wing forces. In Colombia he
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Eva Cheng On June 16, Nepal's governing Seven Party Alliance (SPA) and the rebel Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), which has been waging an anti-monarchy, anti-landlord guerrilla war since 1996, reached agreement to form an interim government that
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Jon Lamb The political crisis in East Timor has deepened following the resignation of East Timorese Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri on June 26. As pro and anti-government protests and gang violence continue, a resolution of the present crisis has been
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On July 2, elections for a constituent assembly and a referendum on regional autonomy were held in Bolivia. A week earlier, Pablo Stefanoni spoke with President Evo Morales about the new assembly and Morales's first five months in government. The
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Alex Miller, London Some 220 members of the University and College Union (UCU) met at the London Metropolitan University on June 24 to launch the UCU Left, an organised progressive platform within the 120,000-strong union, which was formed when the
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Zoe Kenny The 20-year international moratorium on commercial whaling suffered a blow from the Japan-led campaign against it at this year's International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting, which was held on the Caribbean island of Saint Kitts on June
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Eva Cheng There has been a wave of support within India and internationally to an the appeal for solidarity by the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist Liberation) against the recent persecution of its general secretary, Dipankar
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Jim McIlroy& Coral Wynter, Caracas General Raul Isaias Baduel, commander-in-chief of the Venezuelan Armed Forces (FAN) and a key figure in restoring President Hugo Chavez to power after the April 2002 US-backed coup, warned that "One scenario that
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Long-time activist and national secretary of the All India Progressive Women's Association Ajanta Lohit was diagnosed recently with liver cancer after suffering from breast cancer since 2001. Chemotherapy has begun with the support of impoverished
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Doug Lorimer On June 25, the US-backed Iraqi prime minister, Nuri al Maliki, announced before the Iraqi parliament a 24-point "national reconciliation" plan, ostensibly an "olive branch" to Iraqi resistance fighters. At a Baghdad press conference
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The following is an abridged version of a statement issued on June 23 by the Laban ng Masa (Struggle of the Masses) coalition of left-wing political and social movemen t activists. Under President Gloria Arroyo's government, at least 124 leftist
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Allen Myers, Phnom Penh Several hundred members and supporters of the Women's Network for Unity (WNU), the union of sex workers, gathered on June 28 to celebrate the organisation's sixth anniversary. The events began on the bank of the Tonle Sap
Culture
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Sex WarsBy Marge PiercyPiatkus, 2005411 pages, $32.95 (pb) REVIEW BY PHIL SHANNON It is the last decades of the 19th century in the US and women are stirring. Elizabeth Cady Stanton lectures and writes on the right of women to vote. Her
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Australian peace activist Ciaron O'Reilly is awaiting his third trial in Dublin in July, on charges arising from the disabling of a US warplane en route to Iraq at Shannon Airport in February 2003. He is one of five activists charged, the other four
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Message Stick: Broken Borders — What impact is urbanisation having on Indigenous Australians and what does this mean for the future of Aboriginality? ABC, Friday, July 7, 6pm. Inside the Orange Revolution — Focuses on individuals' stories
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'Honour': crimes, paradigms, and violence against womenEdited by Lyn Welchman and Sara HossainSpinifex Press, Melbourne, 2005$39.95 (pb) REVIEW BY FRANCIE CAMPBELL 'Honour' is an informative collection of 16 essays on the theme of "honour