News

  • Mandurah union-community solidarity group launched

    Annolies Truman, Perth On July 26, a union community solidarity group was launched in Mandurah, a city with 50,000 residents situated 60 kilometres south of Perth. Attended by 26 people, the meeting was organised by Ian Bray, assistant secretary of

  • Whistleblower Wilkie takes on "honest" John

    Emma Lord, Sydney Andrew Wilkie has announced that he will run as the Greens' candidate in Prime Minister John Howard's seat of Bennelong. Wilkie made headlines last year when he resigned from the Office of National Assessments (ONA) over the

  • News briefs 1

    1 Labor uses Howard's anti-worker laws MELBOURNE — The Victorian state council of the Ambulance Employees Association voted on August 11 for paramedics' work bans to remain suspended while conciliation talks with the government continued.

  • West Papuan refugee finally gets asylum

    Pip Hinman Refugee-rights campaigners and supporters of a free West Papua welcomed the Refugee Review Tribunal's (RRT) ruling on July 31 to overturn the government's decision not to grant a temporary visa to the last of the 43 West Papuan asylum

  • A plea from Iraqis on Nauru

    On February 27 we had a meeting with a senior DIMIA [Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs] officer, and we [were] told that DIMIA will find [a solution to] our problem within two months. Now, the two months have

  • Save the old-growth forests!

    MELBOURNE — Thousands of people marched on June 4 to mark World Environment Day and call on the state Labor government to protect Victoria's old-growth forests. The world's largest "tree hug" took place when a 70-metre-long banner, representing the

  • News briefs 3

    3 Central Queensland protests US base Over 10% of the population of Yepoon, central Queensland, rallied on August 1 against plans for a joint US-Australia military "training centre" in nearby Shoalwater Bay. Hundreds of people took to the town

  • Hundreds salute Fidel

    SYDNEY — "Viva Fidel" was the sentiment of the night as 350 people took part in a solidarity fiesta in support of the Cuban Revolution and its central leader Fidel Castro on August 13 — Castro's 80th birthday. Cuba solidarity activist and NSW

  • Socialists rally through Hobart

    Socialist Alliance members took to the streets in the northern working-class suburbs of Hobart on April 17 to promote Socialist Alliance legislative council candidate for the seat of Elwick, Kamala Emanuel. Eight cars displaying Socialist

  • New laws threaten workers' lives

    Sue Bull, Melbourne Anonymous late-night phone calls, threats of jail for non-appearance at interviews or for withholding information, allegations of illegal conduct at events up to two years previously and closed courts — such police-state