Sarah Stephen
In the four months following the MV Tampa's dramatic stand-off with the Australian government in September 2001, 1830 asylum seekers were intercepted by the Australian Navy on their way to Australia and taken to Australian-funded
-
-
Sister Susan Connelly This anniversary is tinged with a lot of embarrassment for us as Australians. Despite all East Timor has been through, more often than not with Australian connivance and reluctance to help or tell the whole truth, today the
-
In a May 11 press release, childcare lobby group Community Child Care (NSW) stated that "by re-announcing old initiatives and talking up their additional out of school hours places, the prime minister and treasurer will attempt to hide the fact that
-
Pip Hinman One of the most important aspects of the leaking of pictures of tortured Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison is that they are shifting mass attitudes in the West to the war in a particularly potent way. The graphic pictures showing
-
No apologies In reply to Sam King's letter in GLW #580 regarding my description of Amanda Vanstone: Political cartoons in a sense "denigrate" the bodies of all politicians, male and female — look at the gift Howard is to the cartoonists, as was
-
Doug Lorimer The failure of US troops' bloody attempts to crush the Iraqi people's armed rebellions in Fallujah and Najaf — and the public outrage across the world sparked by the revelations of the systematic torture of Iraqi prisoners by US
-
[The following is abridged from a statement issued on May 20 by the Movement Against the Occupation of the Timor Sea (MKOTT).] Dear Australian people, Warm solidarity greetings from East Timor! We hope you share our joy in celebrating the
-
Sarah Stephen In the eight months leading up to the end of March, the Refugee Review Tribunal heard appeals from 132 Afghan refugees whose claims for permanent visas had been rejected by the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and
-
Jenny Long, Sydney In the NSW "minibudget" brought down by NSW Labor Treasurer Michael Egan on March 30, it was announced that the NSW Department for Women (DFW) would be abolished and responsibility for its programs would be transferred to the NSW
-
Jon Lamb Solidarity protests took place across Australia on May 20, the second anniversary of East Timor's independence. The actions condemned the Australian government for its refusal to negotiate a fair and just maritime boundary and for its
-
Rohan Pearce In 91̳ Weekly #582, Toma Hamid and Jalal Mohammad, members of the Worker-Communist Party of Iraq (WCPI) residing in Australia and of the Socialist Alliance, took issue with the analysis of the Iraqi armed resistance movement
-
Sue Bolton, Melbourne May 21 marked a victory for militant unionism. While many unionists were expecting former Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) Victorian branch secretary Craig Johnston to be imprisoned after he had pleaded guilty to
-
Tommy Sheridan, the best-known member of the Scottish Socialist Party, headed one of the chapters in Imagine, the book he co-wrote with Alan McCoombes,"A time to take sides". In it, he explains: "When resistance ... is divided into different
-
Speaking on BBC Radio on May 20, foreign minister Alexander Downer attacked a statement by Oxfam, which pointed out that the 40% of East Timorese living in abject poverty have no hope of improving their lives while their oil and gas resources are
-
Alex Tighe, Sydney According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the proportion of workers classified as casuals has grown rapidly since the mid-1980s — from 13% in 1984 to more than 26% of the work force today. That's a lot of workers who
News
-
Julie Sprigg, Perth The Port Hedland Immigration Reception and Processing Centre is set to be mothballed by the end of June. All 52 detainees will be moved to South Australia's Baxter detention centre. Thirty-three detainees were moved in two
-
Sarah Stephen A new report by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission (HREOC) details the horrifying conditions that refugees and their children are subjected to in Australia's detention centres — violence and despair, self-mutilation
-
Philippa Skinner NSW Premier Bob Carr is attempting to introduce legislation to counter a victory won by protests opposing filming of the movie Stealth in the Blue Mountains National Park, a world heritage area. In late April, the NSW Land and
-
BRISBANE — Queensland secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union Andrew Dettmer was reelected in a postal ballot on May 19. Dettmer, who was endorsed by former Qld secretary Dave Harrison and AMWU national secretary Doug Cameron,
-
SYDNEY — On May 20, "Public Education Day", around 60 teachers and supporters of public education rallied outside federal education minister Brendan Nelson's office in Lindfield. The rally, organised by the Middle Harbour Teachers Association of
-
Kathy Newnam, Darwin On June 18, the Northern Territory Supreme Court will hear an appeal to re-open the coronial inquest into the death in custody of Douglas Bruce Scott. The case has been lodged by his widow Letty Scott, who has been fighting for
-
News briefs #1 Murris march against ATSIC abolition BRISBANE — Around 200 Murris and supporters rallied in the Roma Street Forum and marched to the offices of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission on May 20. The protest
-
Noreen Navin, Sydney NSW Teachers Federation president Maree O'Halloran announced on May 21 that the union's executive would decide at its meeting on May 24 the date for a 48-hour strike of NSW public school teachers. The strike is being called
-
#3 Workers injured in BHP explosion. PERTH - Three workers are fighting for life in the Royal Perth Hospital after suffering horrific burns in a gas explosion at BHP Billiton's Boodarie hot briquette iron plant at Port Hedland on May 19. While a
-
Anthony Defraine & Tom Flanagan, Lismore Students and staff held a spirited protest outside the Southern Cross University council meeting on May 21. The council was initially expected to consider increasing HECS charges for 2005. Although a
-
Jack Smit Medical care in detention centres is still substandard, and is not at all confined to the past, contrary to former immigration minister Philip Ruddock's allegations on ABC's AM program on May 6. Project SafeCom has been able to confirm
-
Americans are honorary Iraqis "Iraqis are sick of foreign people coming in their country and trying to destabilise their country." — Emperor George Bush II, May 5. On Bushworld "You've got to understand that military options are always my
-
Pip Hinman, Sydney A "Statement for Peace" which calls for Australian troops to leave Iraq and the occupation to end, has already gained some well-known signatories and financial support, especially among union ranks. The statement was produced by
World
-
The US Socialist Worker's Gina Sartori, Conor Morey-Barrett and Elizabeth Schulte report on the victory for gay marriage in Massachusetts. Thousands of people gathered at city halls across Massachusetts on May 17 as the state took its place in the
-
More than 2000 people rallied in Trafalgar Square on May 15 to demand that the wall built by Israel be halted and dismantled. The rally called for the withdrawal of Israeli troops and settlers from the West Bank and Gaza Strip.From 91̳ Weekly,
-
Nick Everett On May 10, a Kuala Lumpur magistrate found Malaysian Socialist Party (PSM) central committee member V. Selvam not guilty of rioting after being arrested on August 17, 1995. The victory ends a nine-year political battle. When he was
-
Sam Pillay Responsibility for the abuse of prisoners in Iraq reaches all the way to General Richard Myers, who is the chairperson of the joint chiefs of staff, and defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld, according to the United States Army Times online
-
Doug Lorimer On May 18, at least 40 Iraqis, most of them women and children, were massacred in a US military assault on a wedding party in the village of Mogr el Deeb, near the border with Syria. Residents said 31 members of a single family were
-
Eric Ruder Israel has focused its reign of terror on Gaza. While on March 21, Israel announced it had "thinned out its presence" in the Rafeh refugee camp — home to 90,000 Palestinians — it remained under heavy siege. The Israel Defense Force
-
Robyn Marshall, Caracas On the morning of May 9, the government television channel announced that 55 Colombian paramilitaries had been captured by Venezuelan national investigative police, DISIP, at a farm in Baruta, a municipality in southeastern
-
Pip Hinman Jakarta's decision to lift martial law in Aceh, in favour of an "emergency status", won't change the lives of ordinary Acehnese for the better, according to a leader of the Acehnese community in Australia. Nurdin, who was once imprisoned
-
Leonel Vivas Since President Hugo Chavez won five years ago a national election with an overwhelming majority, a revolution is developing in my country — a very original revolution is being made by peaceful and democratic means, without violence,
-
Eva Cheng As a quick fix for China's worsening energy problems, in the first nine months of 2003 the country imported US$50 billion worth of energy resources and raw materials, mainly oil — 49% more than the same period in 2002 — according to
-
In the last few years, the NZ Alliance has undergone big upheaval. 91̳ Weekly's Sibylle Kaczorek spoke to Mike Treen, the foreign affairs spokesperson of the NZ Alliance, when he was in Australia for the Socialist Alliance's third national
-
This statement was released by the Cuban Institute for the Friendship of the Peoples in late May. On May 6, the United States government announced new measures to intensify its already hostile and aggressive policy towards Cuba. The document,
-
Doug Lorimer As US and British occupation troops fought fierce street battles with rebel Shiite cleric Sayed Moqtada al Sadr's Mahdi Army militia in four cities, Iraqi resistance fighters assassinated Izz al Din Salim, the president of the
-
Sol Salbe After a week of rallies and demonstrations, Israelis opposed to their army's attack on Rafah were still protesting. The week's final protest was a 1000-strong rally at the entrance to the Gaza strip. The week of action began on the late
-
Rupen Savoulian In a spectacularly defiant act, on May 9, Chechen rebels killed the Russian-sponsored president of Chechnya, Akhmad Kadyrov, by remote-controlled bomb in a stadium where dignitaries were gathered to commemorate the 59th anniversary
Culture
-
Johnny, get yourself up to the table, 'Cause you're not stalling for me. You represent the grubby interests, Of Shell, Woodside and BHP. Get yourself up to the table There's some serious talkin' to do You get your hands off Timor-Leste 'Cause their
-
The L WordCreated by Irene ChaikenChannel 7Wednesdays 10.30pm REVIEW BY RACHEL EVANS "There has been so much toxic TV in the last few years and this is just more of it. It's like TV shows glamorising cigarette smoking. This is double standard".
-
Bobby Fischer Goes to War: The True Story of How the Soviets Lost the Most Extraordinary Chess Match of All TimeBy David Edmonds and John EidnowFaber and Faber, 2004302 pages, $39.95(hb) REVIEW BY PHIL SHANNON "This little thing between me and
-
The Women of LockerbieBy Deborah BrevoortNIDAParade Studio, Kensington, Sydneyuntil June 6 REVIEW BY BRENDAN DOYLE On December 21, 1988, a bomb exploded on board Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all passengers and crew, and 13