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BY KAMALA EMANUEL HOBART — Hundreds of people have attended refugee solidarity activities here in recent weeks. This bodes well for a major rally against the mandatory detention of asylum seekers on June 22. On May 2, 250 people attended a
And ain't i a woman?: Fleeing domestic violence Naima Khawar and her three children came to Australia from Pakistan on visitors' visas in June 1997. She applied for refugee status in September, because she had suffered 11 years of domestic
BY BRETT MULLER On May 1, NSW planning minister Andrew Refshauge approved Australian Silicon Ltd's proposed development of a charcoal factory at Mogo, on the NSW south coast. The department received more than 1530 submissions from 1220
BY SUE BOLTON MELBOURNE — Showing breathtaking disregard for the wishes of his Victorian members, national secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union Doug Cameron convened a telephone hook-up of AMWU national council members on May
BY AMY McDONELL On May 13, the day before the federal government's budget was delivered, students mobilised around the country to demand more funds for education and social services. The national day of action was called by the National
BY HELEN SLANEY MELBOURNE — Six hundred outraged students attended a student general meeting at Melbourne University on May 15, protesting against the recent attacks on campus political activism by the Melbourne University Students' Union
BY RATHEESH KALIYADAN KERALA — Plachimada has never been singled out as a village that exemplifies the "Kerala model of development". It is a tribal area that is highly crowded with destitute people. Families own tiny plots of land. The only jobs
BY ALEX BAINBRIDGE HOBART — The Resource, Planning and Development Commission hearing into the proposed Southwood woodchip mill and wood-fired power station ended on May 14 — two weeks after what was meant to be a three-day hearing began.
BY LISA MACDONALD SYDNEY — "The ALP — whose party is it?" was one of the questions addressed in a lively debate between trade union and other left activists at a Socialist Alliance-sponsored seminar held at Parramatta Town Hall on May 11. The
BY OWAIN LEWIS-JONES DARWIN — Eleven protesters from the Network Against Prohibition (NAP) stormed the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly chamber on May 14. The group was protesting the introduction of the Labor government's "drug house"
BY TONY ILTIS MELBOURNE — At a May 16 "people's inquiry" into the immigration detention centres held at the Inner West Migrant Resource Centre in Footscray, a panel of health workers formerly employed at the Woomera detention centre spoke out
BY JON LAND As the official festivities wind down in East Timor following the May 20 independence celebrations and the international dignitaries fly back to their comfortable and privileged lifestyles, a beckoning question for most East Timorese