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NUS votes against on-line education

BY SHUA GARFIELD HOBART — The National Union of Students (NUS) education committee met on January 25 to plan its campaigns for 2001. One of the main issues discussed was how NUS should respond to the Labor Party's federal election policy

Loose cannons

Echos "The problem facing both leaders is that the more they try to distance themselves from each other, the more they are sounding the same." — Paul Coorey, the Adelaide Advertiser's chief political reporter comparing Prime Menzies John Howard

SWITZERLAND: Avalanche of gloom hits Davos

BY SEAN HEALY Suddenly all the triumphalism is gone and the erstwhile "Masters of the Universe" are sounding like whining rich kids whose snowboards have been taken away from them. Over the last decade, the World Economic Forum's annual meeting,

INDIA: Communists join earthquake relief

BY EVA CHENG The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) has taken an extraordinary series of measures to contribute to the efforts to relieve the devastating impact of the January 26 earthquake in Gujarat, in India's north west. The

Second Asia-Pacific solidarity conference planned

BY JOHN PERCY At its 19th congress in January, the Democratic Socialist Party decided to support the holding of a second Asia-Pacific international solidarity conference over the 2002 Easter weekend (March 29-April 1). The 2002 conference — to

Legionella outbreak in the health department

BY PHIL SHANNON CANBERRA — The federal Department of Health and Aged Care has been publicly embarrassed by a recent outbreak of legionella in one of its Canberra buildings. The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) reports that staff in the

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. CTS Sydney (UHF 31), every Sunday, 9-11pm. Ph 9565 5522. Access News — Melbourne community TV,

BURMA: Military begins talks with opposition

BY SEAN HEALY The Burmese military regime has revealed that it has been in secret talks with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi since October, the first face-to-face meetings between the Nobel Peace Prize winner and the generals since 1994. But

Socialists call for red-green vote in WA

BY JACQUI LEE PERTH — The Democratic Socialist Party's candidates in the February 10 Western Australian state election are calling on their supporters to give their first preference votes to socialist and Green candidates and to return a Labor

BRAZIL: Thousands attend World Social Forum

BY DICK NICHOLS PORTO ALEGRE — What exactly was the World Social Forum (WSF) that ended here on January 30 after 16 plenaries, 400 workshops, 20 testimonials, and endless concerts, artistic exhibitions and "happenings" dedicated to the theme that

Activists call for halt to new prison

BY GAIL LORD SYDNEY — Community activists from Richmond, Penrith and across the Blue Mountains are organising to stop a new women's prison from being built in Windsor, on the city's western outskirts. They say the state government should

Who's inside jail?

BY ZANNY BEGG SYDNEY — The Department of Corrective Services has released statistics for the September quarter on imprisonment rates in Australia. These figures show that the average daily number of people in prison has steadily increased from