Analysis

Editorial: Free East Timor! Free East Timor! The ALP foreign affairs spokesperson, Laurie Brereton, on May 24 attacked foreign minister Alexander Downer for his "mealy mouthed failure" to call for the release of East Timorese resistance leader

Let the refugees in! Dutch colonial rule left Indonesians of Chinese ancestry owning many of the shops, making them an easy scapegoat for the Indonesian military regime. When there is popular anger against the regime, it seeks to deflect that anger

Editorial: Big Brother is watching How times change. Eleven years ago, John Howard and the Liberal Party were leading big demonstrations against the Hawke Labor government's attempt to introduce an ID card, called the Australia Card. Howard

Editorial: Dancing on Arab graves Dancing on Arab graves Television news viewers last week saw hundreds of thousands of Israelis fill the streets to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the state of Israel. As the cameras focused on boisterous,

Asia Pacific Solidarity Conference: continuing the struggleMore than anything else, the Asia Pacific Solidarity Conference in Sydney on April 10-13 was a conference of struggle. International conferences of community organisations

Everybody is talking about waterfront reform — the federal government, Patrick Stevedores, P & O Ports, the ALP and the ACTU. "The need for waterfront reform" has been hammered in the media for so long that for several months, opinion polls have shown a majority of Australians supporting it.

Editorial: The uses of racism The uses of racism Just over two years ago, John Howard coasted into office promising to make us all feel "comfortable and relaxed". That was only one of countless broken promises — all of which were intended to

Editorial: Beware of soft cops Beware of soft cops The wharf dispute must be pretty serious: after a couple of decades indoors, be-suited ALP politicians have been appearing on (well, alongside) picket lines. Last week, Kim Beazley did a photo

When Patrick Stevedores, with the support of the Howard government, locked 2000 waterside workers out of their jobs at 11pm on April 7, the government and Patrick gave the impression they were on a winner. But the strong community and union support for the maritime union has shown that many workers understand that the future of trade unionism is at stake in this dispute.

Editorial: Racism and the Hindmarsh decision In its decision in the Kumarangk (Hindmarsh Island) case, announced on April 1, the High Court found a way to evade the central issue. This was the government's claim that it has power, under the

Editorial: Transport madness Transport madness In Sydney last week, haze from bushfires hung over the city, mixing with "normal" pollutants to produce a pollution index reading more than double the "acceptable" limit. Coincidentally, the Sydney

Editorial: What conflict of interest? What conflict of interest? Rejecting Labor claims that his minister for resources and energy, Senator Warwick Parer's, ownership of $2 million worth of shares in a coal mine amounts to a conflict of interest,