Issue 491

  • PALESTINE: Israel covers up ethnic cleansing

    "It should be clear to us that there is no room in Palestine for these two peoples. No 'development' will bring us to our goal of independent nationhood in this small country. Without the Arabs, the land will become wide and

  • Who has really hijacked May Day?

    On May Day (May 1), the ABC's Sally Loane interviewed NSW Labor Council secretary John Robertson. When asked about M1, he objected strongly to M1 activists "taking over" May Day, declaring it was a day for "workers' struggles" not a

  • The high-tech poisoning of Asia

    The Australian Conservation Foundation argued in its 2000 Blueprint for a Sustainable Australia, "The digital revolution is merely the first taste of a complete industrial revolution, a sustainability revolution". The ACF did not

  • ISRAEL: 'Ethnic cleansing' is Sharon's real aim

    TEL AVIV — The real aim of “Operation Defensive Shield” was not to “destroy the infrastructure of terrorism”. This was merely a good slogan for uniting the people of Israel, who are angry and afraid after the suicide

  • M1 Melbourne: 10,000 workers strike for global justice

    MELBOURNE — More than 10,000 people took to the streets of Melbourne on May Day, protesting against attacks on workers' and refugees' rights and in solidarity with the Palestinian people. The protests' success was a step

  • Third World movements need women leaders

    Third World movements need women leaders Few of the Third World guests who attended the second Asia Pacific International Solidarity Conference in Sydney at Easter were women. This reflects the oppression women in the Third World face. It also

  • On the box

    The Truth About Maori — An engaging film about the Maori identity. SBS, Friday, May 10, 1.30pm. Movie: Leaf On A Pillow — The rough and tumble daily life of three homeless kids battling to survive on the streets of Java. SBS, Wednesday, May

  • The hijacking of May Day

    [The following comment appeared on Workers Online, the NSW Labor Council web site, on May 3. The author is the site's editor.] Unionists watching the shambolic and violent affair that was the M1 protest could be forgiven for

  • Write on: Letters to the editor

    Melbourne M1 "Hundreds of ordinary workers were unable to access the building for several hours", stated the Melbourne Herald Sun's May 2 editorial (headed "A misguided mob"), referring to the May 1 blockade of the immigration department offices at

  • Museworthy: Wooden Bird

    Museworthy: Wooden Bird painted crowd; unsurprised children quietly skipping; everyone where they are supposed to be following the announcement of a new world — until,into the very centre of the square from a juxtaposed tree and sky falls

News

  • Loose cannons

    Free World I “[The United States'] goal is not combating a rival, but maintaining our imperial position, and maintaining imperial order... we are in the business of bringing down hostile governments and creating governments favorable

  • Hobart, Darwin and Adelaide protest on M1

    100 protest for M1 in Adelaide ADELAIDE — Darcie Gannon reports that 100 people attended M1 protests in Adelaide outside the “department of racism” — the Department of Immigration, Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs. Protesters demanded an

  • Complaints about the police at Sydney M1?

    On the M1 demonstration in Sydney on May 1 2002 a number of concerns were expressed about the police. Individuals who have complaints should date and sign a written statement detailing the nature of their complaint. Please be

  • M1 protesters defiant in face of police violence

    BY TAMARA PEARSON & SIMON TAYLER SYDNEY — In a passionate show of defiance against police and media condemnation of militant protests, pro-refugee, anti-corporate and pro-Palestine activists converged on the Sydney offices of Australasian

  • 'No war' May Day

    PERTH — "How long will the US continue to cover up Israel's war crimes?" Ali Kazak, head of the Palestinian Delegation in Australia, asked M1 protesters. "We cannot have two sets of principles, one for Israel and one for everyone

  • 1000 march on May 1

    GEELONG — Almost 1000 people, mainly members of the the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), gathered to commemorate May Day on May 1 for the first time

  • Brisbane protests on M1

    BY TIM STEWART & JULIE GJENGEDAL BRISBANE — More than 400 people protested on May 1, as two separate actions demanded workers' and refugees' rights and freedom from corporate tyranny. Two hundred activists arrived at the city's main immigration

  • Labor, Liberal get M1 'awards'

    CANBERRA — The Liberal Party received a "Racists of the Year" award from 150 protesters on May 1, during the M1 rally and justice tour. Awards were presented by a "neo-liberal grim reaper" to several companies and organisations

  • Women and children march for Palestine

    SYDNEY — Calling for a free Palestine, 500 women and children — many wearing traditional dress and carrying olive branches — rallied in Hyde Park on May 4. Organised by the Palestine Human Rights Campaign, participants then

  • 'Why we protested'

    91̳ Weekly spoke to M1 protesters at the morning blockades of Australasian Correctional Management in Sydney and the immigration department in Melbourne, about why they decided to protest. Kylie Evans, a student at Melbourne University said

Analysis

  • Health care and income protection for all

    Health care and income protection for all Despite the federal government's $35 million handout to insurance fund United Medical Protection in March, on April 29 UMP’s directors announced its provisional liquidation. The collapse of the

World

  • PALESTINE: 'Intifada will continue until independence!'

    RAMALLAH — One month into Israel's all-out assault on the Palestinian people of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Palestinian activists are attempting to address questions that are being more sharply posed than at any time in the

  • UNITED STATES: Green illusions and Bush's war

    The Bush administration found September 11 to be a golden opportunity to push for control of world resources, to crush political dissent, and to trample the Bill of Rights. The cornerstone of its propaganda offensive is portrayal of

  • PAKISTAN: Public sector workers' strike

    A strike of public sector workers, launched on April 15 in Quetta, Baluchistan, continues to paralyse life in the city. Led by the militant Baluchistan Civil Secretariat Staff Association (BCSSA), the strike involves paramedics,

  • PAKISTAN: Boycott mars Musharraf's power grab

    General Pervez Musharraf has claimed that 70% of those eligible to vote in Pakistan's April 30 referendum participated, and that 97% endorsed his bid to remain the country's president for a further five years. However, a

  • VENEZUELA: The lies go on

    LONDON — More than a month ago, I wrote about Venezuela [see GLW #485], pointing out that little had been reported in this country about the achievements of Hugo Chavez and the threat to his reforming government from the usual

  • IRAQ: CIA picks war criminal to replace Hussein

    Iraq's President Saddam Hussein is the “only leader in the world to have used chemical weapons against his own people” — this has become a mantra repeated by US President George Bush, British PM Tony Blair, Bush's political

  • FIJI: Land reform for the rich

    SUVA — Parading as a champion of the poor and landless, Fiji's Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase is backing two parliamentary bills that will transfer government-controlled land to the Native Land Trust Board (NLTB), the authority

  • MADAGASCAR: Tottering on the edge of revolution

    Madagascar is best known for its unique wildlife and as a destination for Western tourists, who are keen, according to a recently published tourist guide, for a "taste of the exotic". However, largely ignored by the international

  • CUBA: Mexican president offers goat

    HAVANA — It's every host's nightmare: US President George Bush refuses to come if Cuban President Fidel Castro is there, and there will be the usual pack of terrorists and hired assassins who try to murder Castro whenever

  • PALESTINE: Israel has no monopoly on genocidal maniacs

    The outrages committed by Israel, not just in recent months, but since its creation in 1948, would not have been possible without the aid and protection of the United States. Although some in the Israeli government have expressed

  • UNITED STATES: A creative way to define democracy

    CHICAGO — People all over Latin America must have let out a hearty laugh when they heard US national security adviser Condoleezza Rice lecture Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez about his post-coup need to "uphold constitutional

Culture

  • White Strayia Policy

    What are we to do with the refugeeswhen we have racists to appease?What we needed was a specific resolutionbut had to make do with the Pacific solution.Just across from the Long White Cloudin the land of the John White Howardlived a people who once

  • Chaplin: 'A lyric clown with a conscience'

    Chaplin: His Life and ArtBy David RobinsonPenguin, 2001892 pages, $33 (pb) REVIEW BY PHIL SHANNON It would have been Charlie Chaplin's greatest performance. "I'd have turned up in my tramp outfit — baggy pants, bowler hat and cane — and when

  • Another American century?

    REVIEW BY JONATHAN STRAUSS Links #21New Course PublishersSydney 2002128 pages, $8 each or $39 for six issuesOrder at <links@dsp.org.au>Available form Resistance Bookshops (see page 2) or visit <;