Zoe Kenny
The release by the South Australian government in December of the latest blueprint to reduce lead pollution in Port Pirie signals yet another chapter in the long, half-hearted effort by SA authorities to mitigate the impact of the town's
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Rohan Pearce It sounds like a heartwarming story: An African-American girl born in Alabama during the era of Jim Crow, growing up and getting a job that makes her almost inevitably be described as "the most powerful woman in the world", power she
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We live in a world dominated by war, racism, poverty and environmental destruction. We are told that these disasters are inevitable: they result from "human nature" and we can do nothing about them. But there is no human gene that causes misery. It
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Fred Fuentes The first revolution of the 21st century is occurring in Venezuela. With the election of Hugo Chavez as president in 1998, a process of political empowerment and social mobilisation has meant the country's poor are beginning to take
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Nathan Verney March 20 will mark three years since the US-led invasion of Iraq began, and demonstrations will be held around the world in a global weekend of action (March 17-19) to call for an end to the occupation, and for justice for the Iraqi
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Resistance provoked hysteria and outrage from shock-jocks and conservatives recently by selling Australian flag-burning kits to university students around the country during orientation weeks. The kits were inspired by Resistance member Azlan
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Aries You will spend 45 minutes in a queue at Centrelink today, only to find that they've suspended your student allowance for no apparent reason. They assure you it will be restored — if you fill out seven forms and attend three interviews.
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Lisa Macdonald After yet another week of factional frenzy, for which the Australian Labor Party is increasingly renowned, it is clearer than ever that the party is in serious crisis. Some in the party's inner circle are once again blaming the
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Alex Miller In the same week that British military fatalities in Iraq reached 103, British Prime Minister Tony Blair — who will be visiting Australia in late March — stunned viewers during a TV chat show interview by claiming that God would be
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Peter Boyle Delmae Barton, 62, an Aboriginal elder-in-residence at Brisbane's Griffith University, was on her way to work when she suffered a suspected stroke or diabetes attack next to a bus stop. For five and a half hours she was left lying in a
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Sue Bolton After several weeks of debate, the March 7 ACTU executive meeting decided to call a national day of protest on June 28 against the federal government's new workplace laws. This decision followed a meeting on February 21 of the ACTU's
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Stuart Munckton Last year, PM John Howard's Coalition government used its Senate majority to force through the Work Choices legislation, against widespread community opposition. This nasty piece of anti-worker legislation has the aim of shifting
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Doug Lorimer Faik Bakir, the director of the Baghdad morgue, has fled Iraq in fear of his life after reporting that more than 7000 people have been killed by Iraqi interior ministry death squads in recent months, John Pace, the outgoing head of the
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Emma Clancy "Time is short. If we do not change the world now, there may be no 22nd century. Capitalism has destroyed the ecological equilibrium of the earth. It is now or never!" — Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez speaking to thousands of
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Indigenous people from around Australia will gather in Melbourne during the "Stolenwealth Games" on March 15-26. Organised by the Black GST, the Indigenous gathering will discuss ways to bring international media attention to the following demands
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Tony Dewberry "You can judge politicians by how they treat refugees; they do to them what they would like to do to everyone else if they could get away with it." — Ken Livingstone, lord mayor of London It seems the Howard government wants to
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Cannabis In his attack on Liberal Party anti-drugs policy, Gary Meyerhoff (Write On, GLW #656) contends that "despite claims by some mental health professionals that some pre-existing mental illnesses can be exacerbated or 'brought on' by marijuana
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Annolies Truman Fear that depleted uranium (DU) weapons have been used at the Lancelin Bombing Range in WA and that they could be poisoning Perth has prompted a campaign to close the base. Anne Snow, a resident of Lancelin, a small seaside town 123
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Pip Hinman, Sydney In a powerful presentation that included a short "war correspondent" tour of Bosnia, Palestine and south Lebanon, Robert Fisk reminded a packed forum at Sydney's Seymour Centre on March 6 that the US-led invasion and occupation
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Tim O'Connor and Kate Wheen Trevor Flugge, the wheat farmer from WA who was recently splashed across the newspapers smiling, shirtless, sweating and aiming a handgun at the camera, may not be the first person you would associate with Australian
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Jim Green Friends of the Earth has condemned the irresponsible proposal from PM John Howard to sell uranium to India, which is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). As a nuclear weapons state outside the NPT, India is not
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Tamara Pearson April 11 will mark four years since the US-backed coup against Venezuela's democratically elected president Hugo Chavez. Within just 36 hours, the coup was defeated by a mass uprising of the poor, who, along with loyal 91̳ of
News
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SYDNEY — On March 7, a Students Against War group was established at the University of NSW. The group made plans for building the March 18 rally and march against the occupation of Iraq, and holding an anti-racism forum on campus. Any student or
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Peter McGregor The Packer Dis-Memorial Collective, named after our protest at Kerry Packer's taxpayer-funded funeral on February 17, is organising a "take-two" on March 14 at 8.30am outside the Downing Centre court in Sydney. Eight people are
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The following is abridged from an open letter from the construction workers building the city end of the Perth to Mandurah rail link. You have every right to know the reasons why we stopped work [on February 24] on the Metrorail project and why
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Pip Hinman Cindy Sheehan, from Gold Star Families for Peace; Hassan Jumaa, the president of the General Union of Oil Employees in Basra; Sabah Jawad from the Iraqi Democrats Against Occupation; Anas Altikriti from the Muslim Association of Britain
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NEWCASTLE — Venezuelan revolutionary Carolus Wimmer wound up his national speaking tour here on March 5 when he addressed 35 people at the Resistance Centre. Wimmer, a member of the Latin American parliament, explained the need for international
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SYDNEY — On March 7, 33 people met at the Gaelic Club to hear two left-wing activists — Tim Anderson and Rachel Evans — recount what they had seen in Venezuela. Both participated in the sixth World Social Forum (WSF) held in Caracas in January.
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Dale Mills A complaint by prisoners' pressure group Sisters Inside led to a 20-month inquiry that found that in a four-year period, 41,728 strip searches were performed on women in Queensland's prisons. Only two searches found "significant
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Ben Courtice, Melbourne Qantas Airways, Australia's major airline, announced on March 9 that it will close its Sydney Airport heavy maintenance base for its fleet of Boeing 747s, sack 480 workers, and transfer 140 of the positions to Brisbane and
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Ian Jamieson, Perth The return to work of 430 construction workers on the multi-billion-dollar Perth to Mandurah rail project has not eased threats from their employer, Leighton Kumagai, or from the Australian Building Construction Commission
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CANBERRA — The Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union's campaign for Filipino guest workers hit the streets on March 10 to expose a Canberra restaurant found guilty by the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations of more than $5000
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Door opener "As [AWB] chairman, I was trotted out to open doors or to be a figure head to take a political beating for the sake of doing business or to perform other ceremonial roles." — Trevor Flugge testifying on February 27 to the Cole inquiry
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Nick Everett, Canberra Airservices Australia announced on March 1 that it will cut its work force by 10%, making 300 workers redundant. The government-owned corporation manages Australia's airspace and oversees air-traffic control at 28 of the
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Linda Waldron, Melbourne "Stop the war on our unions, civil liberties and working people's rights!" was the theme of the March 8 International Women's Day (IWD) demonstration at the Victorian State Library. The rally, called by the Victorian
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WA Liberal opposition leader Matt Birney has backed state police commissioner Karl O'Callaghan's call for mandatory jail sentences for people who assault police. O'Callaghan advocated the measure after two police officers were bashed during a riot
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Paul Benedek, Brisbane "The history we are so often shown would have Australians believe that the ANZACs defended us against the Japanese in New Guinea", Marxist historian Humphrey McQueen told a meeting of 50 people at the Brisbane Activist Centre
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Stuart Martin, Melbourne The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) held the first of a series of national delegates' meetings at Storey Hall on March 8. The meeting updated delegates and union activists about the campaign against the
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NSW Libs worried about Work Choices The NSW Coalition parties must be worried that widespread anger against the federal government's Work Choices legislation could affect their election prospects at the state election in March 2007. On March 9,
Analysis
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As the US, British and Australian governments enter their third year of occupation in Iraq, opposition and resistance to the occupation by the Iraqi people continues to steadily grow. Last October, the London Sunday Telegraph revealed that a secret
World
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Stuart Munckton At the same time as the US government continues to escalate its hostile rhetoric towards the left-wing government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, March 8 marked the beginning of a week of solidarity with the US people. The
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Late February, PDVSA, Venezuela's state-owned oil company, announced its intention to re-open its program to replace some of the country's vehicular gasoline consumption with natural gas. The project was closed down some five years ago because of
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Stuart Munckton Workers from factories that have been expropriated by the government of socialist President Hugo Chavez, as well as factories currently occupied by workers, have established the Revolutionary Front of Companies Occupied or Under
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Harrison Healy, Jerusalem On February 8, Palestinian activist Mohammad Mansour made his 11th court appearance relating to "crimes" committed at a demonstration in 2004. For over a year-and-a-half, Mansour has been repeatedly required to appear
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Cindy Sheehan, whose GI son was killed in Iraq in 2004, has become a leading figure in the US anti-war movement. The following is abridged from a speech she made to a public meeting at the January World Social Forum in Caracas. It's great to be
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On January 22, Evo Morales — former trumpeter, llama herder and coca-grower union leader — became the first popularly elected indigenous president of Bolivia. His election followed five years of intense social struggle that kicked out two
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Wal-Mart has been pressured by women's rights activists in the US to reverse its discriminatory policy of refusing to stock the 'morning after' pill. The morning after pill, which if taken within days of unprotected sex has a very high chance of
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Faiza Mardzoeki & Max Lane A united front has developed among almost all women's rights organisations to campaign against a new law currently before the parliament, the Law Against Pornography and Porno-Action (UUAPP). Opposition to the law was the
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Doug Lorimer The March 1 Middle East edition of the US military's Stars and Stripes newspaper reported that a poll of active-duty US troops in Iraq found that 51% of them believe all US military forces should be withdrawn from Iraq within at least
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Walter Yoia, Buenos Aires The longest roadblock in Argentina's history reached a month on March 4, as residents and environmentalists protest neighbouring Uruguay's push to allow construction to continue at the Fray Bentos paper mill. What began as
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On March 6, environmental protesters demonstrated at Australian embassies and consulates in the US, Canada, Japan and Britain against the destruction of old-growth forests in Tasmania and the undermining of democracy by Forestry Tasmania and logging
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Three bills affecting temporary workers were blocked after a general strike led by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) on February 28 and March 2. The union federation says the bill will not improve the wages and conditions of contract
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On March 6 South Korean riot police launched an attack on the autonomous village of Daechuri, which along with the nearby community of Doduri has for over four years been resisting the siezure of local homes and fields for the expansion of the US
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Stuart Munckton Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez claimed on March 5 that the US is attempting to build a secessionist movement in the resource-rich state of Zulia. Venezuleanalysis.com reported on March 8 that Chavez accused the governor
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Max Lane The second congress of the Acehnese Peoples Democratic Resistance Front (FPDRA), held on February 23-26 in Aceh Besar, took a decision to form a new political party in Aceh. The FPDRA was established in the late 1990s and grew out of
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Benjamin Dangl Leonida Zurita Vargas, a Bolivian coca farmer organiser and alternate senator, was planning to be in the US as part of a three week speaking tour on Bolivian social movements and human rights. This tour would take her to Vermont,
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Ray Fulcher Pakistani General Pervez Musharraf's government plans to commence construction of a massive dam in 2016 on the Indus river at Kalabagh, near the border between the Punjab and North West Frontier provinces. Opponents of the World
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Harrison Healy, Ramallah Since January 2005, there have been regular demonstrations in Bil'in against the apartheid wall being constructed in the West Bank. The wall has divided Palestinian towns, destroyed homes, removed access to fertile land and
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Doug Lorimer The February 12 London Sunday Times reported that the US is drawing up plans for air and missile strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities. Giving the impression that such an attack was imminent, the paper reported that its source was
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Percy Ngonyama, Durban South Africa's local government elections — held on March 1 — were neither an expression of the "will" of the people nor a sign that "our democracy is maturing" as President Thabo Mbeki, in collusion with the Independent
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On March 8, demonstrations to mark International Women's Day took place across the globe, many focusing on opposition to war and occupation. Palestinians and Israelis joined together at the Ar Ram checkpoint near Jerusalem and marched along the
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Peter Boyle "The Pentagon plan, designed to fight what it describes as 'The Long War', envisages 'long-duration, complex operations involving the US military and international partners, waged simultaneously in multiple countries round the world'
Culture
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The Festival of SeditionHuskisson Community Centre, ShoalhavenMarch 18Phone Chris Nobel on (02) 4465 1285 Sandra Lee Like a large section of the Australian public, many artists, poets and musicians are concerned about the potential impact of the
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As It Happened: Life Behind The Wall — Looks at the now extinct German Democratic Republic 15 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. SBS, Saturday, March 18, 7.30pm. Message Stick: Julie Dowling — With the support of her identical twin sister
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Rough Music: Blair, Bombs, Baghdad, London, TerrorBy Tariq AliVerso, 2005104 pagesOrder at <; REVIEW BY ALEX MILLER On July 7, 2005, four young British Muslims blew themselves up on the London transport system,
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Corporate Social Responsibility Failures in the Oil IndustryEdited by Charles Woolfson and Matthias BeckBaywood Publishing Co., New York, 2005 216 pp. REVIEW BY BARRY HEALY Oil drilling on land or at sea is always risky but the oil giants
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Brown launches Recherche Bay book CANBERRA — Australian Greens Senator Bob Brown launched his new book Tasmania's Recherche Bay on February 28. The book launch caps off a successful campaign involving a buy-back of south-east Tasmania's