News

  • Deeper thinking on same-sex marriage rights

    Jonathan Strauss, Sydney Discussion at the Marrickville Socialist Alliance's July 25 Politics in the Pub probed the significance of the demand for same-sex marriage rights. Rodney Croome, a spokesperson for the Equal Rights Network, and Bernard

  • Little Johnny helps festival go left

    CANBERRA — A statue of Prime Minister John Howard titled 'If the boots don't fit', helped set the scene for one of the most radical national folk festivals in years, over the Easter weekend. The statue, by Melbourne sculptor Greg Taylor, was

  • Campaign for Habib and Hicks launched

    Vannessa Hearman, Melbourne A meeting of 500 people packed the Coburg Town Hall on July 11 to discuss the plight of David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib, two Australians detained in the US base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The meeting was organised by the

  • Anti-nuke protesters target engineering company

    Michaela Stubbs, Melbourne On August 30, anti-nuclear campaigners staged protest actions at the offices of engineering company Parsons Brinckerhoff as part of a national day of protest against the federal government's plan to set up a nuclear waste

  • Workers contaminated at Ranger mine

    Jon Lamb, Darwin Twelve workers at the Ranger uranium mine near Jabiru were sent home on March 24, after they were poisoned by uranium-contaminated water. The workers complained of bad nausea and headaches after drinking "strange tasting" water.

  • Seventy refugees arrive from Nauru

    Sarah Stephen On June 29, the first group of 35 Afghan asylum seekers arrived in Australia from Nauru. A second group of 35 Afghans arrived on July 6. The remaining 76 Afghan asylum seekers on Nauru who have been assessed by the immigration

  • AAWL meeting on Sri Lanka

    MELBOURNE — Lionel Bopage, the former general secretary of Sri Lanka's People's Liberation Front (JVP) party, told a September 5 meeting hosted by Australia-Asia Worker Links that hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankan workers had taken industrial

  • Tariq Ali: 'Punish the politicians with blood on their hands!'

    Norm Dixon, Sydney US President George Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Australian PM John Howard — "politicians with blood on their hands" — should be "punished" at the ballot box for invading and occupying Iraq, renowned political

  • Venezuelan envoy visits Australia

    On September 7, Hector Navarro, the former Venezuelan minister for higher education, arrived in Australia as a presidential envoy for Venezuela's socialist president, Hugo Chavez. Navarro, who is visiting the Pacific region on behalf of Venezuela's

  • Injured construction workers support group set up

    Ruth Ratcliffe, Sydney On March 11, 35 workers attended the first meeting of the Construction Workers' Compensation Support Group. An initiative of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), the meeting was organised by Wayne

  • Yallourn workers face three-month lockout

    Cameron Vincent On September 12, Mechanical Engineering Services Pty Ltd notified the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) that the company would be locking out 45 of its employees from its Yallourn premises for up to three months.

  • Troops out of Iraq!

    Pip Hinman Around the globe, anti-war activists are gearing up for the protest rallies to mark the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Across Australia, activists are doing the same, spurred on by the oil-for-food scandal, the new terror