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EAST TIMOR: 'Your struggle is our struggle'

[The following is a slightly abridged version of a speech given by Sarah Stephen, a member of the Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific brigade to East Timor, at a protest organised by a number of East Timorese groups in Dili on

Action Updates

Melbourne greets Tampa MELBOURNE — On May 16 the MV Tampa was greeted by a flotilla of boats organised by both the Refugee Action Collective-Victoria and the City of Port Phillip. Messages of support for Captain Arne Rinnan's rescuing of

Loose cannons

Frustration "It's a frustrating war. The reason it's so frustrating and aggravating is because the enemy is not fighting." — US Lieutenant-Colonel Patrick Fetterman in Afghanistan, quoted in the May 16 Washington Post. Deja vu "We're trying

AMWU leaders charged

BY SUE BULL MELBOURNE - The Victorian branch of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union has found itself under major attack from both its national office and the state government, in what many of the union's supporters believe is an

ANGOLA: The crisis you aren't hearing about

BY SEAN HEALY Out of sight of the world, a humanitarian crisis of enormous proportions is unfolding in Angola, as perhaps hundreds of thousands of people flee the “grey zones”, the 90% of the country which have until now been closed to

Ruddock continues persecution of Kayanis

BY PAUL OBOOHOV CANBERRA — Relatives of Shahraz Kayani, who died as a result of setting himself alight on the Parliament House forecourt on April 2, 2001, have been prevented from coming to Australia on the anniversary of his death. On May 27,

On the box

Actively Radical TV — Sydney community television's progressive current affairs producers tackle the hard issues from the activist's point of view. Features the Green Left News. CTS Sydney (UHF 31), every Sunday, 9pm. Phone 9565 5522. Visit <

Nobody's Somebody's

BY SUE CAMPBELL-ROBERTS SYDNEY — How do 17 emerging artists respond to the Australian government's treatment of asylum seekers? With an exhibition of powerful new art works focussing on the individual and collective meaning of journey,

What next for Melbourne University democracy campaign?

BY MATTHEW RICH & KYLIE MOON MELBOURNE — In a victory for democracy in the student movement, activists at the University of Melbourne have quashed attempts from the ALP-controlled Melbourne University Student Union Incorporated (MUSUi) to evict

EAST TIMOR: Timor Gap protests dog Howard

BY SARAH STEPHEN DILI — May 19 marked the turning point of a historic period of transition for the East Timorese people. It was the last day of operation for the UN Transitional Administration of East Timor (UNTAET), bringing to a close

Breach the corporate bludgers!

In another predictable round of dole bludger bashing, federal employment minister Mal Brough announced on May 19 that government-commissioned research, largely based on Centrelink surveys, had shown that some 16% of the unemployed were "cruisers" —

BRITAIN: The great betrayal

BY JOHN PILGER LONDON — In his first few weeks as prime minister, Tony Blair made a number of symbolic gestures. One of them was to visit the Aylesbury estate in South London, where the poor lived. The stairs of the rough-cast concrete estate