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Geelong rallies against Bracks

BY JEREMY SMITH GEELONG — Five hundred people rallied on August 9 to protest against Labor Premier Steve Bracks, in town to open the Geelong Sheraton Hotel. Most of the crowd were workers at Target whose jobs are under threat. Unionists in the

COLOMBIA: Coca-Cola sued over death squad link

BY SEAN HEALY Giant US soft drink company Coca-Cola is being sued in a US federal court for allegedly collaborating with death squads to kill, threaten and intimidate workers at Coca-Cola bottling plants in Colombia. The suit was filed on July 20

University breached agreement by sacking academic

BY VIV MILEY Sacked academic Ted Steele and the National Tertiary Education Union have won their federal court case against Wollongong University, in a decision the union believes is an important win for academic freedom. Steele and the NTEU

and ain't i a woman?: Are campus women's officers unnecessary?

Feminists on the University of Tasmania need to begin a fight to defend the women's officer position, following a proposal by the Student Representative Council to integrate the post's functions into the duties of a general welfare officer. The

INDONESIA: Jakarta demonstrates for Aceh

Eighty supporters of Solidarity for the Acehnese Peoples Movement, mostly non-Acehnese, held a protest in Jalan Thamrin, a central Jakarta thoroughfare, on August 7. The demonstration, which included supporters from the People's Democratic Party,

Hundreds of jobs under threat at BHP

BY STUART MARTIN WOLLONGONG — Determined to outsource maintenance work at its Port Kembla steelworks, BHP executives announced on August 7 that 436 jobs in the general and rail maintenance crews are to be axed and the contracts for them handed to

'A historic moment for the left'

BY SUE BOLTON "An historic moment for the left in Australia" was the most common comment made by participants in the founding conference of the Socialist Alliance in Melbourne over the August 4-5 weekend. This is not the first attempt to unite

SPAIN: 'TRIPS-plus' a big minus for biodiversity

BY SEAN HEALY As if the World Trade Organisation's Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights agreement wasn't stringent enough, a new study of bilateral trade treaties has found that many contain even stronger protections of corporations'

TriStar: a victory for all workers

BY NICK EVERETT SYDNEY — The 350 workers employed by the Marrickville-based car components maker TriStar Steering and Suspension won victory on August 8 in their dispute over pay and the protection of their entitlements. Militant action forced

A class act

Who's Afraid of the Working Class?Written by Andrew Bovell, Patricia Cornelius, Melissa Reeves and Christos TsiolkasDirected by Tanya DennyNew Theatre, Sydney Playing until September 1 REVIEW BY BRENDAN DOYLE "Strong language", the program

Write on: Letters to the editor

Stott Despoja Political spin doctoring does have its limitations not the least being that facts are often so easily verifiable by reference to documents of record such as Hansard. Alison Dellit compounds her initial errors of fact and analysis in

Loose cannons

Fascinating bore "In a boring way, he's fascinating" — comment on Prime Menzies John Howard by "one of his closest advisers", reported in the August 4-5 Australian Financial Review. Prefers being hostage to financiers "I would imagine that if