World

Norm Dixon For at least 18 months now, Western governments have quietly stood by as the non-Arabic-speaking black farmers of the Darfur region in western Sudan have borne the brunt of a vicious ethnic-cleansing campaign carried out by

Steve Mather With punches being thrown and the odd chair flying through the air, it was clear there was a good old-fashioned union debate taking place on May 27. The different factions or currents within the National Union of Workers (UNT, the

Separate is not equal. That's the message of the gay civil rights movement that has burst forth across the US, inspired by the fight for the right of gays and lesbians to marry. Elizabeth Schulte, Steve Trussell and Sherry Wolf report. Thousands of

Azad Arman, an Iraqi Kurd now living in Melbourne, recently spent three months in northern Iraq. A member of the International Socialist Organisation, an affiliate of the Socialist Alliance, Arman spoke to Green Left Weekly's Chris Slee. The

Emma Clancy Watching television footage of the Qana massacre — the killing of dozens of civilians, including children — Beshara Doumani thought she was watching "the old footage of the Israeli massacre that killed one-hundred Lebanese civilians

Max Lane With only six weeks until the general election, there still seems to be very little popular interest in it. Even professional politicians, who are very interested, are focused on possible cross-party alliances, rather than competitive

Roberto Jorquera On July 9, Diego Bautista Urbaneja, a leader of the Coordinadora Democratica (CD, Democratic Coordination) coalition outlined the political program that the opposition plans to implement if it succeeds in ousting the radical

Steven Mather, Caracas The Venezuelan government's social programs, known as "missions", have marked new milestones. Mission Madres del Barrio ("Mothers of the Neighbourhood") has expanded to include 40,000 new participants, and Mission Robinson II

Murray Smith, Paris "The executive is in tatters, the ministers squabble, the [parliamentary] majority is rent by divisions". The quotation is not from one of the leaders of the mass movement against the CPE (First Employment Contract) that has

France has been absorbed by a debate over the right of young Muslim women to wear the hijab, which includes the Islamic headscarf, in state schools.

Allen Myers, Hanoi The International Conference of Agent Orange/Dioxin Victims, held in Vietnam's capital on March 28-29, drew some 150 participants, about half of them from outside Vietnam. After two days of discussion and a visit to Friendship

Norm Dixon The "foiling" of an alleged "terror plot" to bring down passenger planes between Britain and the United States has revealed the existence of a highly coordinated international network that aims to spread public panic and create distrust