BRISBANE Queensland nurses are seeking an interim wage rise of
10%, backdated to June 1, while they wait for an Australian Industrial
Relations Commission hearing on their claim for an 18% rise. The AIRC hearing
is set for
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"Barry ... said Sammy looked a little bit blue and he was gasping... [Barry] went to ... use the phone and it didn't work, so then he said 'I'll run [to the farm down the road] and I'll get an ambulance'... Later, Sammy made this
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The Australian government is attracting international condemnation for playing a spoiling role at the United Nations-organised World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. The Australian delegation of 50 people is led by
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It's now been a year since Pauline Hanson's advice to turn away boatloads of desperate refugees became Australian government policy. But the unjust treatment meted out to refugees has sparked a movement of anti-racist
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Once again, higher education has come under attack, this time through federal education minister Brendan Nelson's "Higher Education at the Crossroads" review. The review claims to take stock of how far the higher education
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and aint i a woman: Repeal, don't reform, abortion laws The August 21 decision by the ACT Legislative Assembly to remove abortion from the Crimes Act has re-drawn attention to the difficulties that Australian women face in accessing abortion.
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MELBOURNE Despite much adverse publicity, 400 supporters of the Skilled Six turned out on August 30 at Williamstown Town Hall for a dinner to raise funds to help cover their legal costs. It was a tremendous show of
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Abortion The August 21 passage through ACT parliament of legislation to decriminalise abortion is a welcome development. Its scope makes it a first in Australia. Not only does the law repeal 91̳ 44-46 of the criminal code (which had made
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JOHANNESBURG — The South African government has repeatedly resorted to police repression to stifle protests by critics of the African National Congress' anti-poor, anti-worker, pro-corporate policies during the August 26-September 3
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Dinny Tumbler, a sixty-five-year-old Aboriginal man, camps in a small room attached to the home of his daughter and son-in-law at the Bellary Aboriginal community, between Paraburdoo and Tom Price in north-west Western Australia.
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Basslink is a proposed under-sea cable linking the Tasmanian and Victorian electricity grids. The Tasmanian government is a strong proponent of the Basslink project and has officially approved it, while the Victorian and federal
News
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MELBOURNE — The Socialist Alliance lodged its application for registration as a political party with the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) on August 29, submitting the details of its 763 Victorian members. Success in the
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SYDNEY — On August 28, 5000 workers, chanting "Stop the bias, stop the lies, hands off the union!", marched down George Street before rallying outside the Family Court in Goulburn Street. High above the spirited rally, on the
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Curtin University JANE ARMANASCO & MARK HEWITT report that Curtin University Refugee Rights Action Network activists set up a mock detention centre and campaigning stall on August 26. More than 1000 leaflets were distributed to questioning students
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MELBOURNE — As the picket line set up by Victorian Australian Manufacturing Workers Union officials and their supporters reached its 12th day on August 26, an emergency AMWU national council was meeting. The workers, striking
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In the early hours of August 26, activists from the We Are All Boat People group decorated statues around the city in barbed wire, Tampa sashes and black armbands. Her Majesty Queen Victoria at the Queen Victoria Building
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MELBOURNE The Melbourne West branch of the Socialist Alliance on August 27 selected Justine Kamprad as its candidate for Footscray in the next Victorian election. Kamprad is an activist in the Australian Manufacturing
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BRISBANE — Five-hundred people took the water on August 14 to protest the Queensland Labor government's plan to allow the Sun Aqua company to build a multi-million dollar sea cages and fish farms in a pristine part of Morton
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Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, Wollongong, WILL WILLIAMS, Brisbane"> Tampa Day across Australia Tampa Day across Australia Brisbane BILL MASON reports that around 150 people rallied and marched in inner
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WOLLONGONG On August 22 it was announced that Sandon Point was named in the Australian Council of National Trusts' Endangered Places List 2002. ACNT chairperson Simon Molesworth said the key threats to these 23 places
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SYDNEY — On August 24-25, just before the anniversary of the Tampa incident on August 26, a conference was held in Sydney titled, "The Tampa: one year on". Pax Christi Australia (NSW) and the Buddhist Peace Fellowship organised an
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Via cruise missile "We don't seek revenge. We seek justice out of love." — George "The Crusader" Bush, August 28. As long as they don't live in Iraq "My call to people in this country is that if you want to join on the war on terror, if you
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SYDNEY — On August 26, more than 130 students and teachers wore black armbands to mark Tampa Day at Fort Street High School. Fortians for Refugees hoped to promote increased awareness of the inhumane nature of mandatory detention
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MELBOURNE Three thousand people turned out on August 30 for a rally outside the State Library organised by the Melbourne Refugee Action Collective (RAC) to demand freedom for refugees. The very youthful crowd marched
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BRISBANE — To a packed Kurilpa Hall of 90 people, Craig Johnston, Victorian state secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU), gave a gripping account of union struggle Workers First-style. Organised by the
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BRISBANE — A crowd of 1500 people packed City Hall on August 28 to commemorate one year since the Tampa refugee crisis. The public meeting, convened by Australians for Just Refugee Programs, heard from a panel of speakers who
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Dinner raises $1500 PERTH — Around 150 people gathered at the State School Teachers Union hall to attend the a dinner to raise funds for 91̳ Weekly on August 24. Greetings were heard from SSTU organiser Michelle White, Socialist Alliance
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From October 4 to 11, anti-nuclear campaigners around the world will be marking Keep Space for Peace Week. The week, an initiative of the Global Network against Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, is an effort to stop the
Analysis
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As supporters of refugees' rights prepared to mark August 26, the anniversary of the rescue of 433 refugees by the MV Tampa, as Tampa Day to shame the federal government, immigration minister Philip Ruddock fought back. On August 24, Ruddock had
World
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On August 15 an Indonesian court convicted Abilio Soares, the former Jakarta-appointed governor of East Timor, of failing to rein in subordinates in September 1999 as pro-Jakarta militias rampaged, killing at least 1000 East
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The democracy movement in the tiny southern African country of Swaziland is celebrating the August 22 High Court acquittal of opposition leader Mario Masuku on a charge of sedition. The charge against Masuku, leader of the
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Until July 31, the latest official statistics reported that the United States last year suffered only one quarter of negative GDP growth. But on that day, revised figures — based on more comprehensive data — revealed that the
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LONDON — The Blair government was told in January by the Americans that there was no justification for attacking Iraq in the "war on terrorism" and that their main aim was getting rid of Saddam Hussein, who stood in the way of the
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What should be the response of workers in the higher education sector towards the Israeli occupation of Palestine? This question has been posed over the last several months by a petition circulated by two Australian academics
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Indian court upholds Bhopal charges On August 28, an Indian court rejected the United States government's push to reduce culpable homicide charges against former Union Carbide chairperson, Warren Anderson. In 1984, a gas leak at the US company's
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SUVA, Fiji — As the South Pacific region's major imperialist power, Australia is in a strong position to influence regional political and economic decisions. At the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), held here on August 19-20,
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YOGYAKARTA — Indonesian workers are braving police repression to oppose President Megawati Sukarnoputri's IMF-inspired draft labour laws. So far strikes and protest rallies across the country have succeeded in pushing back the
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KABUL — In Afghanistan, it is possible to go from hell to hell. The first circle of hell is the "waiting area", the faeces-encrusted dustbowl in which 60,000 Afghans rot along their frontier with Pakistan at Chaman — a
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PORTLAND, Oregon — There is a significant amount of dissenting noise regarding President George Bush's mad rush to war against Iraq coming from portions of the US right-wing. Brent Scowcroft, George Bush senior's national
Culture
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WOLLONGONG — A refugee solidarity quilt was started earlier this year by the Illawarra Refugee Action Collective. Detained refugees and members of the community continue to contribute 30-centimetre square patches to be added to the quilt, which is
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Viet Nam VoicesAn exhibition of art, photos and videosQueensland Museum, South Bank, BrisbaneDeveloped and toured by the Casula Powerhouse Arts CentreUntil September 29 REVIEW BY JIM McILROY The Viet Nam Voices exhibition is deeply moving,
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SYDNEY — The national and Victorian leaderships of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union are in dispute. The national leadership recently stood down the Victorian secretary Craig Johnston and, against the wishes of the Victorian branch,
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The Rising Bruce Springsteen Sony Music REVIEW BY RICHARD PITHOUSE Bruce Springsteen's new album, The Rising, has been marketed as vigorously as his 1984 Born in the USA album and, as with that album, has achieved massive
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JerusalemSteve EarleArtemis RecordsAvailable form <; REVIEW BY BILL NEVINS Steve Earle is unrepentant, as one of his toughest songs declares. He makes no apologies for his past dissent and rebellion, and he