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Tasmania to get 'best gay and lesbian laws in the world'

BY ALEX BAINBRIDGE HOBART — The Tasmanian Labor government announced plans in early November to allow gay and lesbian couples to adopt children and to register their relationships (although not marriages) with the Office of Births, Deaths and

Freedom to travel is a First World privilege

BY SARAH STEPHEN "The young of Australia will not be deterred from travelling in the years ahead... We will continue to live the lives that we regard as the birthright of all Australians." Prime Minister John Howard made these comments during the

VENEZUELA: Chavez looks for an 'axis of good'

BY STUART MUNCKTON Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has answered right-wing commentators who have attacked Brazil's new president, the Workers' Party candidate, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, with the claim that Brazil will, with Venezuela and Cuba,

AMWU Campaign 2003 takes shape

BY SUE BULL MELBOURNE — Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) metal division stewards arrived from all over Victoria to discuss their next enterprise bargaining campaign on November 14. Over 250 stewards gave unanimous support to a

Socialist Alliance says 'don't let UN trick us into war'

BY ALISON DELLIT On November 13, the Socialist Alliance condemned the November 8 United Nations Security Council resolution on Iraq, arguing that it helped pave the way for war. "Even with United Nations Security Council backing, a war on Iraq

ITALY: European Social Forum: 'Globalisation from below'

BY SEAN HEALY FLORENCE — It was always going to be a recipe for chaos. Take 40,000 European leftists, fractious at the best of times, shoe-horn them into a Renaissance-era Italian city and tell them to discuss, in half a dozen languages, the

Canto Coro's 'Voices of the Masses'

MELBOURNE — A South American folk mass, sung by a 60-strong choir and accompanied by an Andean band, will be the major piece in the "Voices of the Masses" concert in Melbourne on November 22-24. Over the last nine years, the community choir Canto

DSP: 'Alliance too valuable to risk breakdown in relations'

BY JOHN PERCY [The following letter was sent on November 11 by Democratic Socialist Party national secretary John Percy on behalf of the political committee of the Democratic Socialist Party to the national executive of the International Socialist

Candidate withdraws

MELBOURNE — With regret, the Aston branch of the Socialist Alliance has announced that Josephine Cox will no longer be standing for the alliance in the seat of Dandenong in the state elections. Aston Socialist Alliance members wish Cox all the best

Write On: Letters to Green Left Weekly

AMWU and N14 When it was announced the November 14 anti-World Trade Organisation (WTO) unity rally in Sydney would not be marching due to fears of "violence", I was appalled. When I found that the leadership of my union, the Australian

JAPAN: Pentagon praises role 'war on terrorism'

The 2002 US Department of Defense report on "Allied Contribution to the Common Defense" highly praises the Japanese Self-Defense Forces' participation in operations in the Indian Ocean the past year in support of US forces. The report, submitted to

PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Bishops call for refugees to be released

BY BILL SMITH The Papua New Guinea Catholic Bishops Conference on November 6 called on the PNG government to "respect human rights and accept the need to release the refugees from detention in Manus [Island]". The bishops said that the laws of PNG