Peter Boyle
You will probably never meet Ken (not his real name). He's off to work at two o'clock each morning, a driver of a street-sweeping vehicle in a fast-gentrifying capital city suburb. He's been cleaning streets for 10 years. But it is not
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By the time you read this, we'll know the results of the March 18 Tasmanian state election. It's been an election dominated by efforts to keep the Greens out of government. Several years ago, in an effort to exclude the Greens, the state Labor and
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Jon Lamb On February 6, US President George Bush confirmed his intention to commit the US to a program of reprocessing nuclear fuel. Touted as a key measure in the "Advanced Energy Initiative", outlined in Bush's January State of the Union speech,
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Capitalism is a fundamentally inhumane system. Corporations controlled by a tiny handful of the ultra-rich monopolise society's wealth, technology and productive power. The land, natural resources, machinery and factories are owned by individuals,
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norrie mAy-welby, Sydney People imprisoned in the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre (IDC) are banned from talking to journalists, so what the immigration department and the private company GSL (Global Security Limited), which runs the centre,
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Doug Lorimer In a speech to the March 2002 annual conference of the Welsh nationalist Plaid Cymru party, Elfyn Llwyd, its parliamentary leader, branded Tony Blair "George's Bush's poodle" for the British Labour PM's willingness to commit British
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Denis Bright After almost six years of living outdoors, Dave Freeman has finally been allocated emergency welfare housing. Freeman is a veteran of the squalid conditions at "Tent City" in south Brisbane. This collection of shanties on private
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Sam Wainwright, Perth "With every dispute, it's only as good as the people involved and the families who are backing them. Everyone who was on the picket line had the support of their wives and children. This day is to say thank you to them", said
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Political censorship? Richard Neville, the Australian-born political satirist jailed in England after the Oz magazine censorship trial in 1971, created a website — johnhowardpm.org — modelled on PM Joihn Howard's official pm.gov.au, and put on
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Graham Matthews & Sue Bolton At its March 7 meeting, the Australian Council of Trade Unions executive passed a resolution that called for "A week of activities, June 25-July 2, with rallies to be held on Wednesday 28 June 2006, under the National
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Kerry Vernon Despite an emergency accommodation crisis, minister for community services John Cobb said on ABC Radio on February 27 that NSW will not receive extra funding for the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP). The NSW Council
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John Pilger In 1993, I and four others travelled clandestinely across East Timor to gather evidence of the genocide committed by the Indonesian dictatorship. Such was the depth of silence about this tiny country that the only map I could find
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Carlo Sands "The federal Treasurer's tax review will support the case for cutting the top tax rate as a way of discouraging tax avoidance", reported the March 8 Sydney Morning Herald. Reading that I did a double take. The solution to tax
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Kerry Smith The UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted a de facto moratorium on "Terminator" technologies in 2000. Terminator technology sterilises crop seeds, preventing the ancient practice of seed saving and giving patent owners
News
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Tony Iltis, Melbourne At a reception for Queen Elizabeth II on March 15, held at the Royal Exhibition Building and hosted by PM John Howard, Australian flags and Union Jacks were well outnumbered by Aboriginal flags. Royal well-wishers were also
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On March 14, Huang Hao, a Chinese detainee at the Villawood detention centre, attempted suicide by swallowing four razor blades.
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Peter Boyle Once a week I have a chat to Simon, an aged pensioner, who learned the meaning of real hunger as a child growing up in a poor family in Ireland. In his working life in Australia, first as a labourer in the Snowy Mountains scheme and
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Stella Riethmuller, Brisbane University of Queensland staff and students will meet on March 21 in response to proposed cuts to the arts faculty budget and plans to restructure the arts degree. "The university is responding to changing student and
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Niko Leka, Newcastle After nine months on strike, 25 specialist maintenance workers at Boeing at Williamtown returned to work on February 24. This followed a February 17 NSW Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) finding that the dispute could be
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HOBART — On March 16, 3000 people attended a rally organised by the Wilderness Society to protest against forestry practices in Tasmania. The theme of the rally was "Our state, not Gunns!", referring to the Gunns corporation's political
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Sarah Stephen On April 2, protesters will rally around Australia in support of a free and independent West Papua, and to demand immediate asylum for the 43 West Papuans who remain on Christmas Island awaiting the outcome of their applications.
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PERTH — A veteran peace campaigner has sent a complaint to the International Criminal Court in The Hague seeking the prosecution of the Australian government for war crimes committed in invading Iraq. In his letter, posted on March 13, Kevin
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Barry Healy, Perth Prominent Western Australian union leaders have called for the resignation of WA police minister John D'Orazio following revelations that he had not paid superannuation entitlements for 15 workers at his former pharmacy business
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Dave Riley, Brisbane Four-hundred anti-war activists — mostly young people — gathered on March 18 to protest the continuing occupation of Iraq. "Bring the troops home" was the main theme hammered home from a speaking platform that included
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Thousands of people protested in cities around Australia on the third anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq. On March 17, 1000 people marched in Melbourne against war and racism, angered by news of the largest US air strikes since the
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Paul Ferris & James Robertson, Sydney On March 16, Sydney University played host to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who spoke to a crowd of select students and members of the university administration at the Conservatorium of Music (the
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"It looks as though we'll have to have a memorial service for free speech, a state funeral for democracy. These arrests are a symptom of Australia's arrested development. Whilst the A-list enjoyed a tribal gathering at the expense of the
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Rachel Evans & Farida Iqbal, Sydney On March 14, the NSW Greens launched a campaign to win public support to remove loopholes from the 1977 NSW Anti-Discrimination (Equality in Education and Employment) Act, with a meeting at the Mori Gallery
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Sibylle Kaczorek, Sydney Across NSW, Queensland and South Australia, 150 technicians employed by National Cash Registers (NCR) stopped work from 6.30am on March 13 for a week of industrial action in support of a new enterprise agreement. The
World
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According to the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen website, the Trade Union Congress and a number of British parliamentarians are protesting attempts by the Iraqi government to take control of the country's emerging trade union
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Lara Pullin The March 12 National Assembly and municipal elections were marked by a record 52% participation of eligible voters. Yet the elections have been rife with irregularities and violence against the left-wing Farabundo Marti National
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Venezuela's communication and information minister Yuri Pimental has proposed the formation of Radiosur, a Latin America-wide radio station. Venezuela, with the participation of Cuba, Uruguay and Argentina, has already launched the Latin America-wide
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The Haretz newspaper reported on March 15 that a hospital in East Jerusalem refused to release a newborn baby until the mother's hospital bill had been paid. The baby was one of triplets born prematurely, and according to Haretz, "due to the
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Vannessa Hearman East Timor's 2006 Human Development Report prepared by the United Nations Development Program and the Timorese government shows the country is suffering from deep structural poverty. The report argues for "integrated rural
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Zely Ariane, Jakarta On March 15, at least 2000 poor people, most of them housewives, rallied outside the office of the minister for people's welfare, before marching to the presidential palace and the Jakarta governor's office, to demand that the
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Duroyan Fertl Several weeks of turmoil have escalated as thousands of workers, students and indigenous groups have taken to Ecuador's streets and highways, bringing the country to a standstill, forcing the resignation of the interior minister and
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On March 17-20, anti-war protests took place around the world on the third anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq, demanding the immediate withdrawal of the occupation forces.From 91̳ Weekly, March 22, 2006. Visit the 91̳
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David Spratt On February 26, Andrew Buncombe and Patrick Cockburn reported in the British Independent: "Hundreds of Iraqis are being tortured to death or summarily executed every month in Baghdad alone by death squads working from the Ministry of
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On March 17, Tirso Cruz from the United Luisita Workers Union was shot dead by gunmen as he walked home. Cruz is a key witness in the November 2004 Hacienda Luisita massacre, in which the army and police attacked a picket line, killing 14 people
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Islanders from three US nuclear test-affected atolls are filing lawsuits in US courts seeking more than US$1 billion compensation. Bikini Atoll will file a claim during March, 60 years after the US Navy removed their population to start the first
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On the back of years of struggle by Bolivia's social movements, the Movement Towards Socialism's (MAS) Evo Morales was elected president in December and announced his governmental cabinet on January 23. In the following article, abridged from
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On March 10, some 300,000 people protested in Chicago in defence of immigrant rights. Three days earlier, 20,000 people marched in Washington against proposed legislation that would criminalise undocumented migrants and those who support them, as
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West Papuan protesters demanding the closure of the US-owned Freeport-McMoRan gold and copper mine were attacked by police on March 16, who used tear gas and batons before firing on the crowd. Several police and protesters were killed in the clashes.
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Following the death of Tom Fox from the Christian Peacemaker Teams three months after he was kidnapped in Iraq, anti-war spokesperson Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq, sent a letter to Fox's family describing the death a "tragedy" and
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On March 14, after the sudden withdrawal of British and US observers, Israeli troops laid siege to the Jericho Prison for more than eight hours and arrested six Palestinian prisoners. Several people were killed during the attack, as Israeli armed
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Doug Lorimer While pushing for international sanctions against Iran for pursuing its legal right under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to research the production of nuclear fuel (low-enriched uranium), US President George Bush has agreed to
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On March 14, Nguyen Van An, chairperson of Vietnam's National Assembly, opened the new Vietnamese embassy in Caracas, with the aim of fostering closer relations between the countries. During Van An's visit, he met with various representatives of
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Venezuela has a new national flag, approved by the National Assembly and launched by socialist President Hugo Chavez on March 12, the 200th anniversary of the original flag. The most significant addition is an eighth star to honour the province
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Coral Wynter, Santiago On March 8, 5000 people rallied outside the Catholic University in the Chilean capital to celebrate International Women s Day (IWD). Contingents of students and members of the Central Organisation of Workers (CUT), the peak
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Doug Lorimer On March 12, Iraqi interior minister Bayan Jabr announced that four employees in his ministry had been arrested for being members of a death squad. This was the first time that the US-backed Iraqi government had admitted the existence
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Peter Boyle Six Pakistani left parties and groups have united to form Awami Jamhoori Tehreek (AJT — the People's Democratic Movement), which has the potential to become the fifth-largest political group in Pakistan. The AJT aims to contest the
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Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic died in his cell at the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague on March 11, where he was facing trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Balkans during the 1990s, including the 1995 massacre of
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On March 11, Congress of South African Trade Unions president Willy Madisha condemned Israel's apartheid policies at a Palestine Solidarity Campaign trade union conference in London. He said South Africa's apartheid was "characterised by killings,
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Eva Cheng As China reported a record-breaking economic growth rate of 9.9% for 2005, its workers were owed wages totalling 21.5 billion yuan (US$2.6 billion). This stark contradiction was revealed during the 10-day annual meeting of China's
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Stuart Munckton Associated Press reported on March 14 that the left-wing Venezuelan government has hiked up the rate of income tax being paid by oil multinationals that invest in Venezuela, from 34% to 50%. Multinationals have already had to
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Alex Miller Universities all over Britain were closed down on March 7 as higher education unions staged a national one-day strike over pay. The Association of University Teachers (AUT) and the University and College Lecturers Union (NATFHE) called
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The SupersizeMyPay.com campaign has pressured McDonald's into giving all workers a pay rise that the fast-food giant previously threatened to only give to non-union members. The reversal came two weeks after the Unite union filed legal papers to the
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Murray Smith, Paris Over the last four years, France's right-wing government has forced through a whole series of neoliberal policies. Sometimes resistance has been fierce, such as to the reform of the pension system in 2003. But overall the
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Farooq Tariq, Lahore More than 4000 people protested on March 18 in Lahore against the Iraq occupation by US imperialists and other allied forces. The rally, one of the largest held by progressive forces in some time, was organised by the Anti-War
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Stuart Munckton The sale of heavily discounted heating oil by the Venezuelan government to poor citizens inside the US continues to spread despite opposition from the US government. Venezuela uses Citgo, the refining and distribution subsidiary of
Culture
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The Chaser's War On Everything — The Chaser team confront and lampoon key players from the world of politics, business, religion, media and culture. ABC, Friday, March 24, 9.45pm. The Other Side Of Suez — On 26 July 1956, Gamal Abdul Nasser of
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TsotsiWritten and directed by Gavin HoodWith Presley Chweneyagae, Terry Pheto and Kenneth NkosiScreening in Australia from April 13 REVIEW BY PERCY NGONYAMA When the much talked about South African-produced movie Tsotsi won the coveted Oscar for
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Memoirs of a Rebel Journalist: The Autobiography of Wilfred BurchettEdited by George Burchett and Nick ShimminUniversity of NSW Press785 pages, $59.95 REVIEW BY BRENDAN DOYLE This weighty volume contains the full, unexpurgated autobiography of
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You Have to be Careful in the Land of the FreeBy James KelmanPenguin Books, 2004437 pages REVIEW BY ALEX MILLER I've been a fan of James Kelman's books for nearly 20 years, but I have to admit that his last two works of fiction left me feeling
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As it Happened: The Other Side of SuezDirected by Eron SheeanSBS, Saturday March 25, 7.30pm REVIEW BY JENNY LONG A ruthless and bloody imperialist policy, using dodgy intelligence, against an independent country of the Middle East, in order to