Analysis

Here in Australia, the "threat" of the "flood" of illegal asylum seekers (no more than 4000 arrive in a year, most of them genuine) is said to have given Prime Minister John Howard his election victory last November. The decisive

According to a Melbourne Age poll, conducted by AC Nielson last August and September, Prime Minister John Howard's government enjoyed 71% support for its policy of mandatory detention of asylum seekers who arrive without permission. However, a

Anti-refugee policy can be abolished Prime Minister John Howard and immigration minister Philip Ruddock stood firm throughout the two-week hunger strike by asylum seekers in the Woomera detention centre. Some said this was proof that

In his Australia Day address on January 26, Labor opposition leader Simon Crean argued that women and children asylum seekers should be released from refugee detention centres. He called for a "solution that is lasting, bi-partisan and firm, but

The Coalition government is facing a serious political crisis. The desperate and heroic actions of more than 300 hunger strikers at Woomera and Maribyrnong detention centres have again focused the spotlight on the inhumanity and illegality of the

It is one year into the 21st century, but you could be forgiven for thinking we were back in the 19th century. In the imperialist capitals there is ominous talk of the "clash of civilisations" and the need for the "enlightened" West to lend a firm

@box text intr = Capitalist governments are no friends of civil liberties and democratic rights at the best of times. Since the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center in New York, they have been seizing the opportunity all around the world to

Ever since the US war against Vietnam provoked normally passive civilians into demonstrating against the war, the ruling class has been acutely aware that when it wants to wage war against another country, it needs to control the information which

In the wake of the November 13 ousting of the Taliban regime from Kabul by Northern Alliance troops aligned with the exiled government of Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani, a number of groups involved in the anti-war movement in Australia have

No other country in the world has gone to such lengths to close its borders to those fleeing repression and terror than Australia has. No other country turns back leaky fishing boats packed with hundreds of asylum seekers and refuses to take

BY PETER ROBSON& TROY SAXBY "I really feel that it's not our problem. They call it an act of terrorism, but if you understand the religion and our life, it's not about terrorism — it's about fighting for God's laws, and America's brought it upon

[The following statement is being circulated throughout the union movement.] We share the horror of people around the world and condemn the terror attacks in the US on September 11. The killing of almost 7000 people, including many trade unionists,