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Afghanistan: teetering on the edge of an apocalypse

I is for InfidelBy Kathy GannonPublic Affairs Books, 2005 REVIEW BY BILL NEVINS Kathy Gannon is an "old Afghan hand" and her book on Afghanistan is crucial reading. Four years after 9/11 and well into the third year of the US-led occupation, Iraq

IRAQ: Sunnis make big election turn out

Doug Lorimer At a December 17 Baghdad new conference, the main Sunni-led alliance that contested the December 15 elections for a new Iraqi parliament hailed the high voter turn-out by Sunni Muslims. Participation by Sunnis in the election had

ACTU passes resolution in solidarity with Venezuela

The following resolution was passed by the Australian Council of Trade Unions in November. The ACTU Executive congratulates and supports the Venezuelan government for its utilisation of the country's wealth and resources for reforms to benefit

CANADA: Kyoto - all talk, no action

Stephanie Long, Montreal From November 28 to December 9, more than 170 countries are engaging in negotiations under the Kyoto Protocol and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. To date, 157 countries have ratified the Kyoto

Invisible threads of history

Manifesto: Three Classic Essays on How to Change the WorldKarl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Rosa Luxemburg, Ernesto Che GuevaraPreface by Adrienne RichIntroduction by Armando HartOcean Books, 2005168 pages REVIEW BY ALEX MILLER Given 170 or so

News briefs

NEWCASTLE — Sixty people attended a forum at the Panthers Club on November 29 to discuss the federal government's new "anti-terror" laws. The speakers — Pauline Wright, vice-president of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, and associate

On the box

Upstaging: Leah Purcell — Profile of Indigenous artist Leah Purcell, who has performed as a singer, actor, writer, choreographer, producer and director for theatre, film and television. ABC, Friday, December 9, 1.20am. Living Black — Indigenous

Where to now for the IR campaign?

Sue Bolton After the tremendous success of the November 15 protests, the union movement is debating how to maintain the momentum against the federal government's Work Choices legislation. A motion was unanimously passed by the November 15 Geelong

Coalition 'wets' cave in on new sedition laws

Doug Lorimer A meeting of Coalition MPs on November 30 agreed to support the Howard government's Anti-Terrorism Bill (2005) with some minor alterations. Only two days earlier, government and Labor senators on the Senate committee examining the

CUBA: Taking on the CIA

Rachel Evans & Samuel Pala Fabian Escalante joined the Cuban revolutionary movement in 1950 at the age of 15, when he became active in a socialist youth organisation. This extraordinary man was imprisoned a number of times before Cuba's 1959

VENEZUELA: US fails to stop military deal

Stuart Munckton "In what Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias has declared a victory for sovereignty, Spain proceeded with its sale of 12 aircraft and 8 patrol boats to the South American nation", reported Venezuelanalysis.com on November 28.

Task force attacks country work site

Tim Gooden, Geelong An important test case for the federal government's new industrial relations laws, which aim to destroy organised labour, has arisen involving all building unions on an isolated construction site in Victoria's west. The