The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), a network of more than 200 non-government organisations, has attacked Israel's refusal to allow United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan's fact-finding mission to the ravaged West Bank refugee camp of
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Soldiers and officers continue to refuse to serve in Israel's reoccupation of the West Bank and Gaza. More than 450 reserve officers have signed the "Combatants letter", a statement pledging refusal to "continue to fight beyond the
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Seventeen seafarers aboard the CSL Yarra docked in Port Pirie, South Australia, began a sit-in on May 1 in an attempt to stop Canada Steamship Lines (CSL) replacing them with poorly paid Ukrainian labour. Maritime unions are
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Disaster Day On October 19, 2001, an asylum-seeking vessel sank and 353 refugees drowned while on the way from Indonesia to Christmas Island. If we are to accept the possible explanation by former Australian diplomat Tony Kevin, writing in the
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Because Grandmagrew old twiddlingthumbs, hands clasped, eightfingers locked together neatas a carpentry join,thumbs barreling roundand round, over andover in useless activityreleasing the blocked energy— the hint was there. Yet I lived without
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Astonishing! I am becomea communist, a leftie, a red-ragger, revolutionary surely not! Che, that handsomehero on the wall is one ofthose — not me?Yet I want a socialism that's funa green onewith no national flag. No more false grim imagesof
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Museworthy: Smile (Affirmative Action) I was a tooth on an adAnything brightAnd white white white For the audition they saidShow us what you can doAnd I sat rooted to the spotLooking as much like a toothAs I could There was a black woman
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Soursobs. Bitter sobs?Can you hear them crying?I don't think so. Wrong name.Defiant of lawnmowers, in cracks, understones conserving future colourin summer-silent bulbstill they can again thrustthough in the middle of winterin the middle of human
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and ain't I a woman: US 'aid' used to deny right to choose What does the United States government have to do with deciding whether women in Nepal can access safe abortion services? Well, everything. Even though the sovereign state of Nepal
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Immigration minister Philip Ruddock announced on May 7 that Australia's immigration intake for 2002-03 would rise for the fifth consecutive year. The federal government will allow between 100,000 and 110,000 new migrants into the
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In Italy, one man with wealth valued at over $25 billion has major influence over 90% of all television stations. He also owns newspapers, magazines and video outlets. Now, he is running a campaign to strip away the rights of Italian workers. This
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SYDNEY — The Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) held a rally on May 6 outside the offices of Canada Steamship Lines in support of CSL Yarra seafarers. The "Australian workers for Australian jobs" rally was greeted by the Sydney
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BY MELANIE SJOBERG& JOHN MCGILL Connie Frazer died, aged 76, on May 6 after a struggle with breast cancer. She was a poet, a feminist and a member of the Democratic Socialist Party. Connie's presence will be missed from the Adelaide political
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Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's visit to Washington presented few surprises. It was so predictable that journalists could have written the story even before he left Israel. US President George Bush backed Sharon's bloody
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On May 8, the Senate Legal and Constitutional Legislation Committee delivered its report on the package of "anti-terrorist" legislation currently before the Senate. The committee proposed a series of amendments to the legislation
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The "war on terrorism" is the big lie of the 21st century. It has nothing to do with a civil defence against people who fly planes into buildings. Before September 11, there were already laws against that in almost every country on
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The Australian government is using dental and wrist x-rays as a means of determining the age of refugees. Critics say these tests are highly inaccurate and scientifically unfounded. Legislation was passed by the Senate in
News
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Manufacturing Workers Union, firefighters, maritime unions, Graham Matthews, Communist Party of Australia, the Socialist Alliance, Treasury Gardens, Nikki Ulasowski, Unions WA, Fremantle, peace and justice, Wollongong's May Day march, Jim Tannoch,
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MELBOURNE — Melbourne University Student Union staff are on indefinite strike and students are occupying MUSU's education office, in protest at student officials' attacks on campus activists and staff. On May 2, students using
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Blaming the victim I "As Israeli forces pursued militants, civilians continued getting in the way and dying as a result." — New York Times report, April 21. Blaming the victim II "The trouble is that we are facing a Palestinian leadership
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Plans for large protests on June 22-23 to "welcome refugees and end mandatory detention" are well underway in cities across Australia. Rallies and marches are already being planned for the weekend, which falls within World
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CANBERRA — "Protection overboard" was the theme of a May 9 Refugee Action Committee forum, attended by 140 people. Former diplomat Tony Kevin, once the Australian ambassador to Cambodia, outlined evidence submitted to the
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ARMIDALE — A May 8 public meeting discussed how to galvanise public support for ending the federal government's brutal asylum-seeker policy. The 50-strong meeting was titled "Refugees: what is to be done". Organised by the
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DARWIN — The fourth solidarity brigade to East Timor organised by Action in Solidarity with East Timor/Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific will leave for Dili on May 13. “We will be helping build a well in
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SYDNEY — "We have no relationship with Indonesia anymore. We have to find our own way", was how Erwanto, a visiting Acehnese democracy leader summed up his people's determination to win their independence. Speaking at a meeting
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Palestine solidarity protest planned WOLLONGONG — At a May 11 meeting, Palestinian solidarity activists decided to call a protest on May 25 to help free Palestine. The rally will begin at 10.30 am outside Fred Moore House in Lowden Square and
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MELBOURNE — On May 11 300 Palestinian supporters commemorated Al Nakba — otherwise known as "the catastrophe" — the destruction by Israel, between 1947 and 1950, of 415 Palestinian villages, creating a million refugees. The
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WOLLONGONG — On May 3, the Land and Environment Court gave Stocklands Construction permission to restart its development of Sandon Point. The development, which had been halted by a court injunction, now looks set to go
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CANBERRA — The May Day meeting of the ACT Trades and Labour Council/Unions ACT (ACT TLC) debated motions on Palestine, in the presence of Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) national secretary Sharan Burrow. ACT TLC
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ROCKHAMPTON — Consolidated Meat Group employees voted to return to work on April 27 after a five-month dispute over a new enterprise agreement. However, CMG has broken its promise to reinstate all employees who were working
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MELBOURNE — On May 6, Anne Duggan, the Victorian training officer of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), was ordered by Commissioner Terence Cole to give the royal commission into the building industry the
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SYDNEY — On May 7, about 80 protesters converged outside the Immigration and Population Conference at the Australian Technology Park in Redfern where immigration minister Philip Ruddock was due to speak. Fortunately for
World
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Hard on the heels of the US House of Representatives' May 2 approval of a bill containing a mammoth US$249 billion, six-year package of farm subsidies, the US Senate endorsed the legislation on May 8. US President George Bush has given
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Four of Pakistan's oppressed national groups — the Sindhi, Pashtuns, Baluchi and Seraiki — are joining forces to oppose their domination by the Punjabi ruling class. In Sydney to attend the second Asia Pacific Solidarity
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MALAYSIA: May Day gathering terrorised by police KUALA LUMPUR — What was to be a peaceful gathering of progressive workers and social justice activists on May 1 at Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC Twin Towers) turned into mayhem when
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HARARE — More 6000 workers gathered for the May 1 rally in the Gwanzura stadium here enthusiastically supported socialist MP Munyaradzi Gwisai's criticism of the participation of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in
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The New Zealand government announced on May 6 that it would accept 140 refugees — 71 Afghans and 69 Iraqis— to ease pressure on United Nations refugee camps in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Nauru. Fourteen of the refugees
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Dita Sari is a former Indonesian political prisoner and is chairperson of the militant Indonesian National Front for Labour Struggle (FNPBI) union federation. She is also a leading member of the left-wing Peoples Democratic Party (PRD). 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳
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Last September, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark announced that the Labour-Alliance coalition government she leads would be willing to take a small number of the 430 refugees aboard the MV Tampa, which was then stranded in seas off Christmas Island by the Australian government's refusal to let it dock.
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A federal judge in Houston in April ruled that, under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, it is legal for an executive from a US company to bribe a foreign official to reduce the company's tax burden or customs duties in another country. The case
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LAHORE — It has been a stunningly beautiful spring in Pakistan. But the surface calm is deceptive. When the war in Afghanistan began, I suggested that the Taliban would be rapidly defeated and that the jihadi organisations and
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The commemoration of the forced integration of West Papua (formerly known as Irian Jaya, now Papua) with Indonesia on May 1 was marked by peaceful protests by pro-independence supporters across West Papua's major towns. The demonstrations condemned
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NEW YORK — The administration of US President George Bush lumped Cuba into its “war on terrorism” on May 6 — placing the country on a second-tier “axis of evil” list with Syria and Libya. The US
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CHICAGO — A pro-Palestinian student group at the University of California-Berkeley has won its free speech fight against the administration's attempts to silence it. After an outpouring of support — both on campus and around the
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Kautsar, chairperson of the Acehnese Peoples Democratic Resistance Front (FPDRA), attended the second Asia Pacific International Solidarity Conference in April to build support for the Acehnese people's struggle for self-determination. Kautsar spoke
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Representatives from nine Third World countries, led by Cuba, proposed during a February World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiation session that future agricultural trade rules should be geared towards meeting the Third World's development needs.
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On the eve of East Timor's independence on May 20, the crucial issue of the Timor Gap has still to be fully resolved. East Timor may lose billions of dollars in oil and gas royalties if the Australian government and the large
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The Indonesian National Front for Labour Struggles (FNPBI), the militant trade union federation, organised mass actions across the country on May 1. Pro-democracy groups joined the workers' rallies. The workers' demands included legalising
Culture
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The New Intifada: Resisting Israel's Apartheid Edited by Roane Carey Verso, 2001 354 pages, US$20 Order at <> REVIEW BY ERIC RUDER Most stories about Israel's war on the occupied territories refer to
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ABC TV's Media Watch on May 6 revealed that the Melbourne Age refused to publish a cartoon drawn by Michael Leunig that was critical of Israel's war against the Palestinians. The first panel of the cartoon shows a Jewish
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Embrace the ChaosOzomatliInterscope Records REVIEWED BY MARGARET ALLUM& CHUCK STEMKE Ozomatli's new album, Embrace the Chaos, has a different feel to the Los Angeles-based band's self-titled debut album. But it is still full of the joy of life
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Hey you, stop beating meyou can't scare me to be silentyou may blame the refugeesyou, you can't see the realenemy, behind the wallwhere the refugees sing,singing softlyjerking tearsblame them, beat the silencetheir sown up lipstheir ripped up
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The rise and fall of the Pankhursts The Pankhursts By Martin Pugh Allen Lane, Penguin Press, 2001 537 pages, $49.95 (hb) REVIEW BY PHIL SHANNON What foul crimes did this family commit? Emmeline and her daughters — Christabel,