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Money for health and education, not war

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

CUBA: US stages new provocation

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

Song of a wondering Anubis

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

NORTH-EAST ASIA: Beijing's and Moscow's stakes in Korea crisis

BY EVA CHENG For more than five decades, Washington has justified its strong military presence in north-east Asia in the name of countering "communism". Even though pro-capitalist governments now rule Russia and China, Washington has shown no

Loose cannons

Expert opinion I "If you had hired actors you could not have gotten better coverage" — Kenneth Bacon, a former Pentagon spokesperson, commenting on the corporate media's coverage of the US invasion of Iraq. Expert opinion II "Everyone knows

Medicare is 'a right not a privilege'

BY CHRIS SLEE MELBOURNE — Medical care is "a right not a privilege", declared Victorian Trades Hall Council secretary Leigh Hubbard on May 14. Hubbard was launching a campaign to defend and extend Medicare. Hubbard said people need to "get out

KOREA: Seoul, Tokyo fund nuclear plant in North Korea

BY DOUG LORIMER Despite their joining the US campaign claiming that Pyongyang is seeking to develop nuclear weapons, both the Japanese and South Korean governments continue to fund the construction of a nuclear power plant in North Korea.