Analysis

Welfare through the looking glass If anyone has travelled through time, then Lewis Carroll, best known for writing Alice in Wonderland, has. Conclusive evidence is provided by his modelling of the companion novel, Through the Looking Glass, on the

A matter of life or death The national crisis in public health care was dramatised last week when emergency wards in at least five public hospitals in Sydney were closed to all patients except those with life-threatening conditions. "You don't get

A win for reaction The defeat of the republic referendum on Saturday was a victory for reaction. It was not an unmixed victory, however, and need not be a major one, provided progressive-minded people understand the reasons for it. The result of

End military ties with Jakarta, now! The federal government has made much of its supposed foreign policy "shift" on East Timor. Foreign minister Alexander Downer travelled to Indonesia on July 30 for discussions with Indonesian government and

Neither 'free' trade nor protection US President Bill Clinton announced on July 8 that Australia's quota of lamb exports to the United States would be subject to a 9% tariff, with extra shipments facing a 40% tariff. In subsequent talk-back radio

The theft of Telstra The Senate vote to privatise more of Telstra is another theft of public assets and is not in the interests of consumers or telecommunications workers. Last year, Telstra made a net profit of $3 billion, and it is expected to

Kosovars, not NATO, must decide their future The US-directed NATO air war against Serbia appears to have ended. NATO forces are occupying Kosova. NATO's bombing campaign continued by violent means its policy of seeking to preserve the political

East Timor's best chances for freedom Almost every day, more evidence emerges of the Indonesian regime's support and coordination of the pro-integration terror gangs in East Timor. These "militias" are carrying out a terror campaign against the

It is ironic that on the day the Business Review Weekly released its Rich 200 list, the Australian Democrats and the Coalition agreed on a GST deal to make those on the list even richer. Australia's richest tycoons increased their wealth by $9

Jill Barad is arguably the world's highest paid woman. According to the April 29 Sydney Morning Herald, despite her company's revenue decline during 1997, Barad's total remuneration package as chief executive officer for that year — inclusive of salary, bonuses, incentive pay and other compensation — was US$26.3 million.

East Timor and trade union solidarity Workers and their unions are starting to discuss how they can take action in solidarity with the East Timorese nation's fight to decide its own future. Aircraft maintenance workers' delegates at the Qantas

For more than 100 years, workers and socialists around the world have seen May Day — May 1 — as the international day of working-class demonstration and action.