538

BY PETER BOYLE Two questions dominated the May 10-11 second national conference of the Socialist Alliance: What space is there for an explicitly socialist party in Australian politics today and what program and focus should the alliance adopt to
BY GRAHAM MATTHEWS MELBOURNE — In a "private settlement", three Victorian unions have agreed to pay $300,000 in fines to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) for violating the secondary boycott provisions of the Trade
Unions Most unions have criticised the budget for attacking public health and education. Some have also condemned the promotion of individual agreements on campuses and anti-union funding. Victorian Trades Hall secretary Leigh Hubbard blasted the
BY MAX LANE JAKARTA — A report issued on May 9 by the conservative Brussels-based International Crisis Group, headed by former Australian foreign minister Gareth Evans, declared: "The Indonesian military is not using the phrase 'shock and awe',
BY ELISABETH KEAN On May 9, the Israeli military raided the office of the International Solidarity Movement in Beit Sahour, Palestine. During the raid, two ISM volunteers and a visitor from the Human Rights Watch organisation were detained. ISM
On June 3, the Sharia Court of Appeal of Katsina State in Nigeria will hear an appeal from Amina Lawal, who is fighting for her life after being convicted of adultery last August by an upper area court in Katsina because she gave birth to a child
BY PIP HINMAN SYDNEY — With the likelihood of all-out war erupting in Aceh, solidarity campaigners have launched an emergency campaign directed at getting the Australian government to end military ties with Indonesia and pressure Jakarta to get
BY AARON BENEDEK SYDNEY — Despite Washington's military victory in Iraq, residents of Sydney's south-western suburbs are determined to maintain the anti-war organisations established in the area earlier this year and build opposition to the US

A surprise tax cut in this year's federal budget, released on May 13, saw the corporate media happily seize on one of the least significant elements of the Howard government's eighth budget. The question the media should have been

Greed-based policy The federal budget announced plans to subject disability pensioners, as a group, to an additional 61,000 eligibility reviews per year and the government still wants to change eligibility rules to force many onto the lower-paying
BY DOUG LORIMER In a new act of provocation aimed at creating a confrontation with Cuba, the US government on May 12 ordered seven diplomats at Cuba's United Nations mission to leave the US within 48 hours. The next day, the US State Department
BY DERMOTT RYDER Peter Costello, Liberal leadership hopeful and feral federal treasurer, in his budget has perpetrated the most savage attacks on the living conditions, medical care and welfare of workers, unemployed, disabled, the sick and elderly