MELBOURNE 鈥 The Victorian Labor government's Blueprint for Government Schools, released on November 13, is notable for what it does not say, more than its recipe to fix the ailing public school system.
It falls far short of
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What would people think of Ernesto "Che" Guevara if he were around today? This leader of the 1959 Cuban revolution was anything but a moderate. He believed with extreme passion in the beautiful possibilities of humankind. Many
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December 10 marks the centenary of women's suffrage in Tasmania and will be celebrated at the state Parliament House with a commemorative photograph and get-together by a bunch of MPs. Local film-maker Karen Buczynski, together with
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In the two months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, University of NSW academic Kevin Dunn compiled a study on racism in Australia. More than half of the 5000 people surveyed said that they would be concerned about a relative
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On his second day as leader of the ALP, Mark Latham attempted to win some credibility as a pro-refugee compassionate. "Will the prime minister support Labor's call to have the 200 children in detention centres out by Christmas?",
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LAUNCESTON 鈥 Woodchip exports from Tasmania have passed the five million tonne mark for the first time 鈥 a 13% increase on last year 鈥 according to annual port records obtained by the Hobart Mercury. Report the finding on
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Clarrie Isaacs remembered My heart sunk at the news of Yaluritja's (Clarrie Isaacs) death. It was a life too short, but so full. His life was grounded in the Aboriginal community, but managed to weave its way through the socialist left, the trade
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BRISBANE 鈥 African-American socialist Angela Davis called for the abolition of all prisons during a public lecture at the University of Queensland on November 27. Davis was attending the international conference on Women in
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MARK LATHAM: "In recent years there has been a backlash against some of the poorest people in our society. The reason for this backlash is simple ... [Australians] object to helping people who are cheating the system."
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Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US, President George Bush's speechwriters have never been shy about employing grand, bombastic turns of phrase. The commentators of the corporate media treat his empty and dishonest phraseology as profoundly important. Despite the White House's deceptions in the lead-up to the Iraq war and the continuing lie that Iraq is being 鈥渓iberated鈥, Bush's November 6 announcement of Washington's 鈥渘ew policy鈥 鈥 鈥渁 forward strategy of freedom in the Middle East鈥 鈥 was not greeted with the derision it deserved.
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Mark Latham began his final run for the leadership with his September 20 "Light on the Hill" lecture in Bathurst. It was his second leadership-bid speech in six months thinly disguised as a declaration of loyalty to the serially
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"People are stopped for no reason, bashed for no reason, physically and spiritually abused. They target migrants and people from Third World countries", Hussein Farah from the Somali Youth Association and the Western Suburbs
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"It is not Vietnam, and there is no way you can make the comparison", Lieutenant-General Ricardo Sanchez, the top US general in Iraq, snapped at a reporter during a November 11 Pentagon press briefing in Baghdad. The reporter had
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BY PETER ROBSON &STUART MUNCKTON "This is what it feels like to have no access!", chanted 60 angry students as they blockaded the entrance to the Melbourne offices of the federal Department of Education, Science and Training on December 2 in
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PERTH 鈥 On December 2, as the morning sun sparkled from the river's quiet surface, more than a hundred people gathered at Gooniniup, the Nyungah women's sacred site, also known as the old Swan Brewery. We recalled the campaign
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In May, the Socialist Alliance national conference adopted a perspective proposed by a non-aligned caucus of 160 SA members to move the alliance towards becoming a united, multi-tendency socialist party. 91自拍论坛 Weekly's KERRYN WILLIAMS spoke to
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BY MAURICE FARRELL& RACHEL EVANS According to a UNAIDS/World Health Organisation report "AIDS Epidemic Update 2003", released on November 25, an estimated 40 million people are now infected with HIV. Three million died last year from AIDS. The
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The Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) currently being negotiated between Canberra and Washington has been criticised as attacking the interests of working people and the environment. However, much of the
News
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SYDNEY 鈥 Despite widespread opposition from council workers and communities, the NSW Labor government is steamrolling ahead with plans to force local councils to amalgamate at the expense of jobs, facilities and community
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LISMORE 鈥 One-hundred-and-fifty people gathered in Lismore's City Hall on December 4 to demand the retention and extension of rail services in the region. Organised by Northern Rivers Trains for the Future, the meeting called for
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International anti-war campaigner and radical left author Tariq Ali will be speaking at a 91自拍论坛 Weekly sponsored public meeting "Resistance and empire" at UNSW's Clancy Auditorium on the evening of Friday, March 19 next year. Booking for the
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BY AARON BENEDEK& MEGAN CONNOR SYDNEY 鈥 Fifty workers at the Insulation Solutions factory in the western suburb of Lidcombe went on strike on November 28. It was in response to more than four months of management opposition to their demand for a
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MELBOURNE 鈥 "We are facing the murder of Medicare", Doctors Reform Society president Tim Woodruff told 50 people at a public meeting in the town of Dromana, near Melbourne, on December 1. Woodruff pointed out that Medicare was
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True believers "The image of [Ben] Chifley jumping off his locomotive, like some noble savage covered in soot, and racing into parliament is mistaken. Like most Labor MPs, he served a long and testing apprenticeship inside the party... After losing
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DARWIN 鈥 On December 3, 70 people attended the Refugee Action Network's final event for the year, a public meeting on the politics of temporary protection visas. The meeting was addressed by lawyer Colin McDonald, Fran
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SYDNEY 鈥 Will Saunders and Dave Burgess, who were convicted on October 3 of maliciously damaging the Sydney Opera House for painting the words "No war" on it in March, will face a sentencing hearing on December 11. They may be
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HOBART 鈥 On December 3, the Australian Rail, Tram and Bus Industry Union said 24-hour strikes by Metro bus drivers in Hobart, Launceston and Burnie will take place in the week of December 8-14, after nine months of negotiations
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SYDNEY 鈥 Two-hundred people protested outside NSW parliament on December 2 as a closed meeting inside discussed legislation which would overrule the decision of the Land and Environment Court to rule against allowing waste management company Collex
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BRISBANE 鈥 Conservation organisations have backed plans to ban fishing on around a third of the Great Barrier Reef as a major step forward. Legislation tabled in federal parliament on December 3 will create the largest network of
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NEWCASTLE - Seven-hundred people rallied outside Newcastle railway station on December 5 to oppose state transport minister Michael Costa and Newcastle Mayor John Tate's campaign to close the rail line into Newcastle. The rally marched to the
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This is the last issue of 91自拍论坛 Weekly for 2003. Our next issue will be published on January 14, 2004. See you in the new year! From 91自拍论坛 Weekly, December 10, 2003. Visit the 91自拍论坛 Weekly home page.
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SYDNEY 鈥 At 140 stop-work meetings across NSW on December 2, members of the NSW Teachers Federation voted by a margin of 98% for stepped-up industrial action in support of their salaries campaign, including a 48-hour strike on
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DARWIN 鈥 Recent media reports that US war secretary Donald Rumsfeld told his Australian counterpart, Senator Robert Hill, that the Pentagon wants to set up US military bases in north Australia have angered anti-war activists in
Analysis
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On December 4, defence minister Robert Hill announced that the Australian government will participate in making US President George Bush's trillion-dollar National Missile Defence (NMD) shield 鈥 better known as "Son of Star Wars" 鈥 a reality.
World
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OTTAWA 鈥 The past year has been a busy one for a new left-wing party, the Union des Forces Progressistes (UFP 鈥 Union of Progressive Forces) in Quebec, Canada's French-speaking province. Founded in 2002, the party fielded
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On October 31, the 22-year-rule of Mahathir Mohammed ended, when he handed over Malaysia's prime ministership to his deputy, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Mahathir's rule ended with controversy, when he remarked at the Organisation of
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MOSCOW 鈥 A year ago, political life in Russia was like a stagnant swamp. President Vladimir Putin's victory in the presidential election had solved none of the country's problems, while providing ample demonstration that
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Abdul Teng is in his element. Teng is here to talk about his home, Gag Island in violence-ridden West Papua, the scene of a four-decade-long struggle for independence. The 56-square kilometre island is located 150km north-west of
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JOHANNESBURG 鈥 On November 19, the African National Congress (ANC) government finally conceded that it must begin providing anti-retroviral (ARV) medicines to hundreds of thousands of people who are HIV-positive. Activists hope
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Headlines such as "Workers strike against impossible quotas" and "Wildcat strike forces workplace reforms" abound in the Vietnamese media. They not only indicate the proliferation of labour struggles, but also the unabashed
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Opposition supporters stormed Georgia's parliament on November 23 and took it over, forcing President Eduard Shevardnadze, who held the position since 1993, to flee. Tens of thousands of protesters outside demanded his
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On the evening of December 2, tens of thousands of working-class supporters of Venezuela's radical left president, Hugo Chavez, poured into the streets of the country's capital, Caracas, to celebrate the defeat of the
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Latin America has emerged as the frontline of struggle against neoliberalism. This year alone: two mass uprisings have swept through Bolivia; trade union struggles have intensified in Peru and Chile; political opposition has grown
Culture
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SYDNEY 鈥 The Australian Arabic Communities Council (AACC) has criticised the decision of the NSW government's Powerhouse Museum to remove parts of the Treasures of Palestine exhibition following representations by pro-Israel organisations. It was
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John Pilger's latest documentary, Breaking the Silence, will be broadcast on SBS television on Tuesday, December 9 at 8.30pm. Pilger investigates Washington's "war on terror", which was launched following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US. It was
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Actively Radical TV 鈥 Sydney community television's progressive current affairs producers tackle the hard issues from the activist's point of view. Includes the 91自拍论坛 news. CTS Sydney (UHF 31), every Sunday, 9pm. Phone (02) 9564 1277. Visit
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From Nothing to Zero: Letters from Refugees in Australia's Detention CentresEdited by Janet Austin; introduction by Julian BurnsideLonely Planet, 2003193 pages, $22 (pb)"What a big joke with human rights. This regime is killing us
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REVIEW BY PHIL SHANNON Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon PapersBy Daniel EllsbergPenguin, 2003500 pages, $38(pb) On the evening of October 1, 1969, Daniel Ellsberg left the Rand Corporation offices in California after a busy day. His
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It's somewhere betweenthe obscene and uncleanbut John Howard is my inspiration. You work for the dole.You mortgage your soul,and he calls that liberation. Get off your fat arse,do a job that's first class.Yes, work is your obligation. A hand-up
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An acclaimed documentary film-maker, Arthur Dong has released his first DVD project. The three-disc collection is titled Stories from the War on Homo Sexuality, and contains three of Dong's feature-length films: Coming Out Under Fire