News

  • Socialists gain 3.5% in council election

    Jim McIlroy, Brisbane Socialist Alliance candidate Coral Wynter gained 3.5% (533 votes at the close of counting on polling night) in the Central ward in the March 27 Brisbane City Council election. The Greens won 17.5% in the same inner-city

  • 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

  • 2000 attend pro-refugee performance

    Tony Iltis, Melbourne On July 8, the Melbourne Town Hall was filled to capacity when at least 2000 people attended a performance put on by Actors for Refugees. Performers at the event included Daniela Farinacci, Helen Morse, Alison Whyte, Pamela

  • 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

  • News briefs 1

    1 Unions defend Age jobs MELBOURNE — The sacking of 86 printers and maintenance workers at the Age's Spencer Street plant has been stalled by a combination of industrial pressure and legal defence. In an industrial relations commission

  • Sydney University pro-choice rally

    SYDNEY — On August 17, pro-choice students at Sydney University held a protest rally outside an anti-abortion forum organised by the university's Catholic chaplaincy. The forum was addressed by Terri Herring, the former president of Pro-Life

  • 'Opera House 2' donate to Iraqi doctors

    SYDNEY — On May 23, David Burgess and Will Saunders gave $10,000 to Dr Salam Ismael from Doctors for Iraq. Burgess and Saunders were jailed for nine months in 2004 for painting "NO WAR" in giant letters on the Sydney Opera House two days before the

  • Socialist candidate backs heroin trials

    Bill Mason, Brisbane "The decision by Lord Mayor Tim Quinn to reverse previous ALP council policy of supporting safe injecting rooms and heroin trials in Brisbane is a major setback to a reasonable drugs policy in this city", Coral Wynter,

  • Cleaners protest against wage cuts

    Kerry Vernon, Sydney Office cleaners held two noisy rallies in the city on August 24, part of the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union's (LHMU) "Clean start — fair deal for cleaners" campaign. The action at Martin Place defended 20

  • NSW delegates approve June 28 rallies

    Liam Mitchell A series of delegates' meetings across Sydney approved a Unions NSW resolution calling for a rally in Blacktown, in western Sydney, on June 28, the national day of action called by the Australian Council of Trade Unions. The

  • Loose Cannons

    Bad rap "Capitalism gets a bad rap these days. Executives are seen as greedy shysters who do anything to make a buck. Companies are perceived as amoral exploiters of the poor, and polluters of the environment." — Chicago Sun-Times, February 23.