May 28 is the international day of action for women's health. It is an indictment of global capitalism that so many of the world's women cannot access even the most basic of health services. Even in the wealthy countries like Australia I am learning
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Sue Bolton, Melbourne Unions are alarmed by the actions of a Melbourne factory that is demanding all of its workers be treated as "independent contractors" instead of employees. The National Union of Workers (NUW) was negotiating a new enterprise
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Vietnam In my article "Vietnam 30 Years After Victory: Towards Capitalism or Socialism" (GLW #624), I accidentally wrote that "Primary school enrolment rose from 88% to 90% between 1990 and 2001", which does not sound very significant. The correct
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May 26 1938: The House Un-American Activities Committee begins its first session. May 27 1967: 90.8% of Australians vote to remove constitutional discrimination against Aborigines. May 28 1871: 25,000 people are killed as the Paris Commune
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Ray Fulcher Most of people recoil at the use of torture, Most people would say that the perpetrators and their governments were guilty of crimes against humanity and should be severely punished. Not so according to two Australian academics who
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Susan Price Workers at TAFE colleges across the country were issued with an ultimatum by the federal government on May 11: Unless state and territory employers offer TAFE teachers Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs), Commonwealth funding will be
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Linda Seaborn, Hobart Following the May 10 federal budget, anyone in receipt of a parenting payment, i.e., low-income people with children, will now have to work to support themselves after their youngest child turns six. PM John Howard's theory
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Andre Gunder Frank On February 23, Andre Gunder Frank, renowned left-wing academic, writer and activist, passed away after a lengthy battle with cancer. Once suggested as a possible Cuban economy minister by Che Guevara, Frank packed his 76 years'
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Norm Dixon On May 13, the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea ruled that legislative provisions granting immunity from prosecution to Australian Federal Police (AFP) officers and seconded Canberra bureaucrats in PNG were unconstitutional. In
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Former Victorian secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union Craig Johnston will be released from jail on May 26. Johnston was imprisoned for nine months on charges relating to an industrial dispute in 2001. Thousands of unionists and
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Sarah Bruce On May 5, the Federal Court handed down a landmark decision in a case brought by two Baxter detainees, known as "M" and "S", against the federal government. Judge Paul Finn found that the commonwealth had a duty to ensure that a level
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Susan Price, Sydney Union delegates will mobilise for mass delegates' meetings via Sky Channel across NSW on May 27, in the lead-up to the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) week of action from June 27 to July 1 against the federal Coalition
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Hula Girls — Explores the sexual mythology that has for centuries defined notions of Pacific Island women. SBS, Friday, May 27, 10pm. Russell Page: A Dance Tribute — Russell Page was the principal dancer for Bangarra Dance Theatre, the
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Alex Bainbridge, Hobart Tasmanian Labor Premier Paul Lennon shook hands and was seen to thoroughly support Coalition Prime Minister John Howard on May 13. The two were jointly announcing the dishonestly named Tasmanian Community Forest Agreement.
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Ian Jamieson, Perth Since the Coalition government was re-elected in 2004, workers around Australia have been waiting for the union movement to begin to organise against the federal government's anti-union agenda. Almost immediately after the
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"The federal budget steals from the poor to give to the rich. It's a sick case of Robin Hood in reverse." That's the verdict on Peter Costello's 10th budget from the Socialist Alliance, a party that mobilises in the interests of workers, the poor and
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Federico Fuentes In 1967, Che Guevara died at the hands of CIA-backed Bolivian soldiers while attempting to lead a guerrilla struggle in Bolivia. In the small town where his body was uncovered 30 years later, graffiti is scrawled declaring: "Che:
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Barry Healy Possibly the most honest and forthright, if not bluntly enraged, voice of progressive Catholicism in Australia passed into silence on May 17 with the death of Ted Kennedy, long the priest of St Vincent's church in the Sydney inner-city
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Stuart Munckton The 2005-06 federal budget, unveiled by Treasurer Peter Costello on May 10, included "across-the-board" tax cuts. However, while high-income earners received an average tax cut of $41.58 a week, most workers will receive only a
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How long does it take employees at McDonald's restaurants in our region to earn enough money to purchase a Big Mac? Australia — 17 minutes New Zealand — 28 minutes Hong Kong — 41 minutes Malaysia — 1 hour, 26 minutes South Korea —
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Sarah Stephen Many Afghan asylum seekers who are enduring their third or fourth year in immigration detention have remained there because of disputes over their identity — most commonly, the allegation that they are from Pakistan. In the past few
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Annolies Truman, Perth Twenty-four per cent of Aboriginal children in Western Australia are at high risk of clinically significant emotional or behavioural difficulties, a ground-breaking report has found. Adele Cox and Sven Silburn from the
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Sarah Stephen The trial of accused people-smuggler Khaleed Daoed began in the Brisbane Supreme Court on May 18. Daoed faces up to 20 years' jail for his involvement in the ill-fated SIEV X voyage in 2001, when a boatload of asylum seekers sank in
News
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Ben Reid, Newcastle On May 18, 400 people attended a joint student-staff "Save Our Uni" rally at Newcastle University to oppose the impending loss of 450 jobs from the campus. The rally was organised by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU)
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American Dream "Working and low-income families from New York to California face an affordable-housing shortage that threatens to spoil the 'American Dream' of a decent home if you get a decent job. A recent Center for Housing Policy study found
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BRISBANE — On May 7, 100 people attended a Middle Eastern dinner and benefit concert to raise funds for Union Aid Abroad/APHEDA projects to assist Palestinians adversely affected by the Israeli government's apartheid wall. Singer-songwriter Phil
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MELBOURNE — Up to 100 people picketed the Swanston Street branch of ANZ on May 12 to protest the bank's role in the corporate plunder of Iraq. The picket was organised by the Melbourne Stop the War Coalition. 'ANZ has a $6 million stake in a
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CANBERRA — A May 10 Australian Industrial Relations Commission decision delivered a wage increase of between $6 and $148 per week to more than 15,000 childcare workers in Victoria and the ACT. Joanne Schofield, Liquor Hospitality Miscellaneous
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BRISBANE — "We need to organise the community to stop black deaths in custody. We need to give the families and loved ones of those killed all the support we can", Aboriginal activist Sam Watson told a May 12 suburban meeting to highlight
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MELBOURNE — On May 19, British anti-war campaigner Tariq Ali told an audience of 800 people at RMIT's Storey Hall that the "hollowed out democracies" that existed in the US, Britain and Australia were "iron dictatorships of capital imposing
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BRISBANE — Forty people attended Queensland's Socialist Alliance Fightback conference on May 7 to discuss and organise resistance to the federal government's planned attacks on workers' rights once it takes control of the Senate on July 1. Among
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DARWIN — Protesters gathered outside the immigration department office on May 13 to speak out against the threatened deportation of 50 East Timorese refugees, including Darwin man Jose Jongue. The protest also demanded an end to the incarceration
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HOBART — On March 19, hundreds of health professionals around Tasmania stopped work for two hours to attend rallies organised by the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) and the Health and Community Services Union to protest the state Labor
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MELBOURNE — On May 18, 90 people, including Indigenous leaders from around Australia, meeting at the Victorian Trades Hall, bar called a mass protest of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Melbourne to coincide with the 2006 Commonwealth
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ARMIDALE — On May 17, 50 people braved cold and rainy weather to protest against foreign minister Alexander Downer when he visited the University of New England to deliver the annual Earl Page College politics lecture. The protesters voiced
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SYDNEY — On May 19, 23 people attended the launch of the Peace Coalition on Sydney University. The meeting was addressed by Donna Mulhearn, a humanitarian activist who has helped with aid projects and been a "human shield" in both Iraq and
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ARMIDALE — The Armidale Club, a quiet little pub in rural NSW, was rocked by the sounds of revolution on May 11, when Friends of 91̳ Weekly sponsored a screening of The Revolution Will Not be Televised. About 30 people watched the
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CAIRNS — "Aboriginal people were paid a pittance for their work over 100 years, and even that pittance was stolen", Terry O'Shane, chair of a rally held in the city mall on May 15, told the audience. Aunty Ruth Hegarty from the Stolen Wages
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NEWCASTLE — Five-hundred people attended the Newcastle May Day march this year. This was a bigger turnout than in recent years, largely because of a big contingent of people protesting against the NSW Labor government's plans to close down the
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MELBOURNE — On May 3, 100 people attended an "East Timor: Then and Now" evening organised by East Timor Women Australia, the Australia East Timor Association and the Timor Sea Justice Campaign. The featured speaker was Canadian filmmaker and
World
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On May 4, Army judge Colonol James Pohl terminated the court-martial of Private Lynndie England, accused of torturing prisoners at the US-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, saying her guilty plea was "not believable". Pohl explained that if, as England's
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Italian soccer club Inter Milan has accepted an invitation by the Zapatista National Liberation Army for a solidarity soccer match. Zapatista leader Subcommandante Marcos wrote in a letter to the team, "Given the affection we have for you, we're not
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Below is an abridged version of a statement made to the US Senate permanent committee on investigations on May 17 by left-wing British MP George Galloway. The senate committee, head by Republican Norm Coleman, had accused the anti-war MP of receiving
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"We made an incredible [US]$1.35 billion this quarter", a "shareholder" told the Dow annual general meeting on May 12. "For most of us that just means a new set of golf clubs. Instead, let's do something useful with it — like finally cleaning up
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Roberto Jorquera, Caracas Fifty-seven Australians will see the Bolivarian revolution at first hand when they visit Venezuela in July and August this year as part of the first solidarity brigade from Australia. Organised by the Australian Venezuela
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Doug Lorimer Following a 1.2 million-strong march in Havana, Cuba, on May 17 demanding that the US government arrest CIA terrorist Luis Posada, US immigration authorities in Miami detained Posada on May 19 on the grounds that he had entered the US
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Alex Miller In the May 5 British general election, the ruling Labour Party lost 46 seats and saw its parliamentary majority slashed to 67 seats. As a result of Britain's antiquated "first-past-the-post" electoral system, the Conservatives gained 38
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Doug Lorimer At a May 12 Pentagon press briefing, the top US military officer, Joint Chiefs of Staff head General Richard Myers, admitted that the Iraqi resistance would be capable of mounting a high level of attacks for years to come. "This is a
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On May 5, the Law Lords overturned the decision of an immigration official to grant asylum to a woman suffering from full-blown AIDS, deciding that it was permissible to deport her to Uganda where she will be denied the drugs needed to keep her
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James Balowski, Jakarta At midnight on May 18, the Indonesian government declared an end to its two-year civil emergency in Indonesia's northern-most province of Aceh. But calls by the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and human rights groups for the troops
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Reg Keys, whose son was killed on duty in Iraq in 2003, stood against British PM Tony Blair in his Sedgefield constituency in the May 5th general election and won 10.2% of votes cast. Blair retained the seat, although his share of the vote fell by
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Rohan Pearce Late on May 12 an armed group stormed a prison in Andijan, a town of 350,000 inhabitants in the east of the former Soviet Central Asian republic of Uzbekistan. The group liberated some 4000 prisoners, including 23 detainees accused of
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The Brazilian government has released new figures indicating that almost one-fifth of the Amazon rainforest has been chopped down. In the 12 months to August 2004, 26,000 square kilometres of forest were cut down, 6% more than in the previous year.
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The US Air Force has proposed a space weapons program, according to the May 18 New York Times. Air Force officials claimed that they are not seeking the militarisation of space. According to Air Force spokesperson Major Karen Finn, "The focus is on
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In February, Venezuelan bosses' organisation Fedecamaras lodged a complaint against the Venezuelan government with the International Labour Organisation. Fedecamaras accused the left-wing government led by President Hugo Chavez of violating trade
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On May 10, the US Senate unanimously passed the Real ID Act, as part of a spending bill for the Iraq war. The law, which had already been (narrowly) passed by the House of Representatives, will come into effect in May 2008. From then, all US
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On May 11, in a secret ballot, 92% of striking bus drivers rejected a company pay offer of $15 an hour in November, to be followed by an increase to $16 an hour in March 2007. The drivers are now demanding $16 immediately, and $17 by November. The
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South African Municipal Workers Union members clashed with police in central Cape Town on May 17, after 2000 workers marched through the city against the privatisation of water and electricity. One man was arrested. Union officials delivered a
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On May 17, 400 students and staff from universities in Wellington marched to parliament to protest against student debt and to call for free education, a universal student allowance and higher staff wages. For more information, visit
Culture
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Dirt Cheap: Life at the Wrong End of the Job MarketBy Elisabeth WynhausenPan Macmillan Australia, 2005246 pages, $30 (pb) REVIEW BY PHIL SHANNON When Elisabeth Wynhausen surprised her friends by taking nine months off from her job as a
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All the Troubles: Terrorism, War and the World After 9/11By Simon AdamsFremantle Arts Centre Press 2004412 pages $24.95 REVIEW BY BARRY HEALY "Weapons and technology may help win wars, but it is only ideas that have the power to truly change the
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The Edukators In German with English subtitlesStarring Daniel Bruhl, Julia Jentsch, Stipe Erceg, Burghart KlaussnerScreenplay by Katharina Held, Hans WeingartnerDirected by Hans Weingartner REVIEW BY SIBYLLE KACZOREK Set in today's Berlin, this