Kevin Healy, Melbourne
Since Bill Hartley died at the age of 76 on February 18, a number of friends have spontaneously proffered that it is the end of an era. Looking at Bill's 76 years, it is not hard to understand why — he became part of the
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We live in a world dominated by war, racism, poverty, environmental destruction and oppression. We are told that these disasters are inevitable: they are part of "human nature", and there is nothing we can do about them. But there is no human gene
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Kerry Smith, Sydney Public sector unions have condemned the NSW Labor government's announcement on February 23 that it will seek to save $2.5 billion over four years by cutting 5000 jobs from the NSW public service. In response to Premier Morris
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Sue Bolton, Melbourne During the last half of 2005, almost 3400 union-negotiated workplace agreements were certified as unions rushed to get new three-year agreements before the federal government's Work Choices legislation is enacted. Many
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Maurice Farrell On February 19, 5000 paper hearts were planted on the lawn of the Mardi Gras fair day under the banner, "All love is equal", organised by the NSW Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby (GLRL). The same day, Community Action Against
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Brianna Pike The RSL has weighed into the debate over Resistance distributing Australian flag-burning kits on campus, claiming that it is not "decent". But Resistance says the campaign is useful because it has generated a wide-ranging discussion
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AWB I The Howard government is hiding behind the AWB's company status arguing that it only has remote oversight over its business operations. Although this is a dishonest excuse the disaster would then be the direct result of its failed small
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Zoe Kenny, Sydney The pressure on the NSW government to solve the cross city tunnel fiasco is continuing and Premier Morris Iemma is feeling the heat. On February 10, at a Council of Australian Governments meeting, he described the new CEO of
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Peter Boyle On March 2, John Howard will have been prime minister of Australia for 10 years. Sadly, if the pollsters are right, more than 60% expect his government to win the next federal election. This despite the fact that his main policies are
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Anne Goddard Shadow minister for resources Martin Ferguson has joined the "nuclear push". This is despite the fact that the ALP's policy recognises that uranium mining presents "unprecedented hazards and risks", including threats to human health
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Graham Matthews Since its adoption as the national flag in 1901, the Australian flag has stood for colonialism, racism and militarism. So it was no coincidence that the anti-Lebanese rioters at Sydney's Cronulla beach last December draped
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Bring them all back now! The Socialist Alliance views the February 21 announcement by the Australian government to send 200 more troops to Afghanistan as a regressive development, and calls on it to reverse the decision and to remove all the
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The following statement was endorsed by a large number of women and women's organisations across Australia last week following PM John Howard's latest anti-Muslim comments. We are a group of Australian women from diverse ethnic and cultural
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Lisa Macdonald Last December, Armidale ALP branch president Tony Ramsay voiced the views of many rank-and-file ALP members when he addressed a meeting of Citizens Concerned 4 Democracy about the "insidious" slide to repressive governance in
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Articles in the Sun Herald and Canberra Times last week indicated that British PM Tony Blair will be addressing a joint sitting of the Australian parliament on March 27, after attending the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. The ACT Network Opposing
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Stuart Munckton "In another era, the alliance between an oil-rich joker in Venezuela, an ageing Cuban dictator and a jumper-wearing Bolivian peasant leader would hardly be worthy of superpower attention, but Latin America's shift to the Left is
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Farida Iqbal Debates about same-sex marriage are intensifying internationally. On December 1, the Constitutional Court of South Africa ruled that it is unconstitutional to prevent same-sex marriages. The government has confirmed that it will
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Melissa Hughes The passing of the federal "voluntary student unionism" (VSU) legislation means that universities now face an uphill battle to ensure that student organisations continue to receive funding. There is evidence already that this will
News
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SYDNEY — On February 15, Iranian members of different left-wing groups in Sydney travelled to Canberra to join with representatives of trade unions to protest outside the Iranian embassy. The action was one of a series held around the world, called
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SYDNEY — Members of Resistance, the Greens, the Uniting Church's Tertiary Students Association and Socialist Alternative picketed the University of NSW military recruitment stall on February 23 during the campus orientation week. "People come to
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Simon Butler, Newcastle The three-year community campaign to save the heavy rail line into Newcastle has won. The NSW Labor government announced on February 21 that it was abandoning the unpopular plan to remove the rail line into Newcastle's CBD.
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A victory BBQ was held in Canberra on February 24 for three Filipino guest workers who spoke out against racist harassment and wage discrimination by their employers in the hospitality industry. The Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union
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KURANDA — The Wet Tropics Management Authority is considering an application from the Department of Main Roads to downgrade the zoning of a high-conservation Wet Tropics World Heritage Area to accommodate the proposed Kuranda Range four-lane
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Alex Bainbridge, Sydney Sixty unionists and their supporters gathered to defend specialised maintenance workers at the Sydney Opera House on February 24. The protest was directed against a new anti-union contractor who has refused employment to the
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PERTH — Campaigning in the Victoria Park electorate for John Tattersall, the Socialist Alliance candidate in the March 11 by-election, is well under way. Tattersall, a committed trade union activist, is using the campaign to circulate an open
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Duncan Meerding, Hobart The Socialist Alliance will be contesting Tasmania's March 18 state election, standing two candidates in the south of the state, in Franklin and Denison. The socialists will be running on a platform of opposition to the
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Peter Boyle On February 23, Australian treasurer Peter Costello belted out this warning to Muslim migrants: "Before becoming an Australian you will be asked to subscribe to certain values. If you have strong objections to those values, don't come
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During a February 24 "doorstop interview" in Ballarat about federal treasurer Peter Costello's demand for greater Australian patriotism from Muslims and others, federal Labor leader Kim Beazley commented: "If somebody has a revolutionary view, I
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Susan Price, Sydney On February 21, staff at the University of NSW launched their 2006 enterprise bargaining campaign. The launch, organised by the UNSW branch of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), coincided with the first day of
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Shoot first, find target later "Vice President Dick Cheney apparently broke the No. 1 rule of hunting: be sure of what you're shooting at. Cheney wounded fellow hunter Harry Whittington in the face, neck and chest Saturday, apparently because he
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DARWIN — The proposed expansion of the McArthur River lead and zinc mine near Borroloola has been rejected by the NT government. Environment minister Marion Scrymgour announced on February 23 that the environmental impact statement submitted by the
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BRISBANE — One hundred people participated in a 91̳ Weekly twilight river cruise on February 19, with entertainment from Adrian and Andrew (pictured), Nelson Mansilla and Ovidio Orellana, and delicious Mediterranean food. The cruise
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SYDNEY — More than 200 people packed a February 25 forum to hear Venezuelan revolutionary and deputy to the Latin American parliament Carolus Wimmer speak. Participants engaged in several hours of thought-provoking discussion about Venezuela's
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PERTH — On February 20, 250 people attended a forum organised by the WA Peace Network and addressed by Zaki Chehab, an Iraqi journalist for the British Guardian newspaper and author of the recently published book Iraq Ablaze — Inside the
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GEELONG — A young workers' network is being set up to organise a conference in May dealing with young workers' issues. The February 22 meeting of the Geelong Trades Hall Council (GTHC) voted to endorse and support the conference. Tim Gooden, GTHC
GEELONG — A young workers' network is being set up to organise a conference in May dealing with young workers' issues. The February 22 meeting of the Geelong Trades Hall Council (GTHC) voted to endorse and support the conference.
Analysis
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Under a front-page banner headline "Iraq on brink of religious war", the February 24 Australian claimed that "Iraq was on the brink of civil war with up to 50 Sunni mosques destroyed and three imams slain in a wave of violence to avenge the bombing
World
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The US National Counterterrorism Centre has 325,000 names on its list of terrorists or people who aid them, according to the February 15 Washington Post. An unnamed official told the Post that "The vast majority are non-US persons and do not live in
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Bernie Stephens, Harare With the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) divided down the middle, President Robert Mugabe would have celebrated his 82nd birthday in February with temporary respite. The MDC split in the lead-up to last
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In 1986, Mordechai Vanunu, an engineer at Israel's Dimona nuclear centre, revealed to the London Sunday Times the existence of the secret Israeli nuclear weapons program. He was kidnapped in Italy by Mossad, the Israeli secret service, following his
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On February 22, the giant US-owned Freeport gold and copper mine in West Papua was forced to suspend operations following a demonstration by hundreds of people who live in the surrounding area. The demonstrators blocked the mine's access road after
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At the January World Social Forum in Caracas, 91̳ Weekly's Rachel Evans and Maurice Farrell caught up with Ricardo Hung from the Alianza Lambda gay-rights organisation and Moises Rivera Lopez, the coordinator of the Sexual Riverside Network
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Max Lane Warrantless arrests appear to be one of the first results of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyos's February 24 declaration of a state of emergency, professor Randy David from the University of the Philippines told 91̳ Weekly from
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Doug Lorimer On February 15, the US House of Representatives adopted a resolution by 404 to 4 votes condemning "the government of Iran for violating its international nuclear non-proliferation obligations and expressing support for efforts to
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Leo Zeilig, Johannesburg The March 1 municipal elections in South Africa have again triggered questioning of the future of the Tripartite Alliance, the coalition led by the governing African National Congress (ANC) that includes the South African
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Kerryn Williams On February 20, four members of the Left Socialist party (VS) were arrested and three others had arrest orders issued against them. The activists were accused of violating the section of Denmark's criminal code relating to support
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On February 18, the 43 US members of the World Council of Churches issued a statement denouncing the US-led war on Iraq "launched in deception and violating global norms of justice and human rights. We mourn all who have died or been injured in this
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The first issue of the Workers Charter newspaper was published in February, establishing a new forum for "workers to talk to workers". The paper's editor, well-known leftist John Minto, wrote in the first edition that the paper and the Workers
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Doug Lorimer In a report filed on February 15 from the Iraqi city of Samarra, 125 kilometres north of Baghdad, US Knight Ridders Newspapers correspondent Tom Lasseter described seeing a 21-year-old Texan named Michael Pena blast away from a school
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On February 22, a new law was passed in South Dakota outlawing abortion. Proposed amendments to the bill to allow abortions in the case or rape or incest, or where a pregnant woman's health is affected, were defeated. Abortion will only be legal in
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Coral Wynter & Jim McIlroy, Santiago On February 18, Chilean President Ricardo Lagos denied that Chile was involved with the United States in forming a common front to counteract the influence in the region of the Venezuelan government of Hugo
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Benjamin Ball, Kathmandu Since King Gyanendra seized direct power in February 2005, the Nepalese security forces have arrested hundreds of political leaders, trade unionists, student activists, journalists, and human rights defenders. More
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Max Lane The application for asylum by 43 West Papuan political activists and their families, who arrived on Australia's Cape York peninsula in January after a five-day voyage on a rickety boat, brought the political and social situation in the
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Kim Bullimore On February 18, the newly elected, Hamas dominated, Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) was officially sworn in, despite attempts by the Israeli military to disrupt the ceremony, which opened the way for a Palestinian government to
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On February 17, Aceh Referendum Information Centre (SIRA) offices in West Aceh were attacked by militia, who destroyed a typewriter, radio and other office equipment. They also took documents including records of SIRA meetings and pushed SIRA staff
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British singer Morrissey has been questioned by British intelligence and the FBI after expressing his opposition to the US-led war on Iraq and Britain's involvement. According to British MTV, Morrissey, who has described US President George Bush as a
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The February 19 British Sunday Times featured a new Green Audit report indicating that depleted uranium from the 2003 bombing of Iraq spread across Europe and reached Britain within nine days. Radiation detectors in Britain recorded a quadrupling of
Culture
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Socialism on TrialBy James P CannonResistance Books, 1999200 pages, $17.95Available at Resistance bookshops (see page 2) or order at <; REVIEW BY JON PICCINI AND STELLA RIETHMULLER The Howard government
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RANDirected by David Caesar and Catriona McKenzieWritten by John Alsop, Alice Addison and Sue SmithWith Susie Porter and Charles PassiSBS-TV, Thursdays 8.30pm REVIEW BY DAVE RILEY There's a very successful tradition of serials on Australian TV
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JarheadDirected by Sam MendesScreenplay by William Broyles Jr, based on the book by Anthony Swofford With Jake Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard, Chris Cooper and Jamie FoxxShowing at major cinemas REVIEW BY CHRIS DUGAN In the book Jarhead, author
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Marx in SohoWritten by Howard ZinnIron Age TheatreWith Bob Weick Imagine if Karl Marx could return from the grave — but only for one hour — to answer the 120-plus years of bad press since his death. This is the concept of the Howard Zinn play
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Message Stick: Pay it Forward — Inside the lives and characters of Indigenous Australians with stories presented from their own perspective. ABC, Friday, March 3, 6pm. One Night in Bhopal — Tells how a deadly chemical gas escaped from the Union