Fortress Europe: Out they Go — With Europe tightening its refugee policy and border control causing thousands of deaths, human rights are in jeopardy and international law is being violated. SBS, Monday, December 20, 1.55pm.
Chiefs: Sitting Bull
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Australian Manufacturing Workers Union food and confectionary division Victorian secretary Bronwyn Halfpenny spoke to һƷ̽ Weekly's Sue Bolton about the changes that jailed unionist Craig Johnston brought to the Victorian AMWU branch after he
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Sections of the international women's movement today call for gender equality and women's participation in Iraq's "reconstruction". Forums and conferences are organised calling for women's representation in the post-invasion administration and gender
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The Motorcycle DiariesWritten by Jose Rivera, based on the books of Che Guevera and Alberto GranadoDirected by Walter SallesWith Gael Garc¡a Bernal & Rodrigo De la Serna. REVIEW BY DUROYAN FERTL On January 4, 1952, 23-year-old Argentine Ernesto
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Zionist myths Rachel Freeman's diatribe (Write On, GLW #609) against Doug Lorimer's obituary for Yasser Arafat (GLW #607) repeats many Zionist myths created to demonise Arafat and the Palestinian people. If Freeman had done even an ounce of
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Since European settlement, half of Australia's forests have been cleared. Only 5% of the country has any forest cover remaining. Over 85% of the southern temperate woodlands has been completely cleared. Between 12 and 15 billion trees have been
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Norm Dixon Thousands of delegates from almost 200 governments around the world converged on Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, on December 6-17 for the latest in the seemingly interminable rounds of talks aimed at implementing the 1997 Kyoto
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Katelyn Mountford, Sydney When Zanny Begg set up 10 life size stencils of checkpoint soldiers around Blacktown for an Out of Gallery exhibit, she had hoped to provoke surprise and empathy for people in Iraq who face checkpoints and soldiers every
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Patrick Cockburn has been an invaluable source of information for anyone wanting to know what is going on in Iraq. As a correspondent for Britain's Independent newspaper, he has written regular reports from Iraq throughout the occupation. In
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Peter Boyle Ern O'Malley is the pen name used by Nige Edwards when he writes a satirical column called "Smoko" for the Online Opinion website. The pen name is a reference to the celebrated hoax of 1944, when a collection of writings from a
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The Socialist Alliance has joined the call for the dropping of all charges against four people accused of helping asylum seekers who had escaped from detention to obtain false passports so they could get to a country that would offer them protection.
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Four refugee supporters have been summoned to face charges of signing false passport statements in relation to escaped asylum seekers attempting to flee Australia to find safe haven in other countries. We the undersigned recognise that
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Mark Stephens The latest AIDS epidemic update released by UNAIDS for World AIDS Day shows that the majority of the 40 million are now living with AIDS will soon be female. Over the past two years, the number of women living with HIV has risen in
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Sarah Stephen, Sydney Sydney's Refugee Action Coalition (RAC) held a meeting on December 6, attended by 25 people, to organise a defence campaign for four refugee supporters charged with helping asylum seekers who escaped from detention obtain
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Jola Jones On December 2, immigration minister Amanda Vanstone handed down her decision on the future of the 41 Iraqi asylum seekers detained on Nauru. She announced that 27 Iraqis would be given refugee status and said this reflected the
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The following is a letter to the Cuban Five, who were charged with espionage and sentenced to long jail terms in the US. My name is Craig Johnston. I am in prison in Australia for crimes against the capitalist state. Myself and 16 other trade
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The following is abridged from a speech given by Stephen Jolly, Socialist Party member and Yarra city councillor, to the council's swearing-in ceremony at Richmond Town Hall on December 1. Last Saturday, 91% of voters in this area voted for what
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Joel Wilson, an Australian Manufacturing Workers Union member working at Coode Island and Stephen "Longy" Long, a Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) delegate at Coode Island spoke to һƷ̽ Weekly's Sue Bolton about their
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Jess Melvin Prime Minister John Howard's refusal to sign the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in South-East Asia (TAC) at the 10th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit — held in Vientiane, Laos, on November 29-30 — flows from
News
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Dave Riley Palm Island is 70 kilometres north-west of Townsville. The Indigenous settlement was established in 1918 after a cyclone blew away the Hull River reserve near Tully. While it was one of the last settlements to be created under the
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MELBOURNE — On December 10, 300 asylum seekers and refugee-rights activists marked Human Rights Day with a march to draw attention to the plight of refugees, in particular the threatened deportation of Sri Lankan asylum seekers, some of whom
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Tamara Pearson &Norman Brewer, Sydney On December 6, 300 people rallied in the inner- city suburb of Redfern to protest against the sale of Aboriginal Housing Company (AHC) land and the local public school under the NSW Labor government plan
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Bronwyn Powell, Sydney In February 1965, a group of Sydney University students called Students for Aboriginal Rights, led by Aboriginal students Charles Perkins and Gary Williams, set out in a bus across regional Australia to expose and confront
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Brendan Rosser & Lucy Palmer, Newcastle On December 10, 30 activists gathered outside the army recruitment centre for an international human rights day "die-in", in solidarity with the people suffering in Iraq. The protest proceeded to the
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BRISBANE — Thousands of Centrelink call-centre staff attended lunchtime meetings around the country on December 9. The meetings were called by the Community and Public Sector Union to condemn management's introduction of a new computerised
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On schedule "I noticed today that the elections are on schedule for June the 30th." — Emperor George Bush II, November 20, referring to the US-dictated January 30 Iraqi parliamentary elections. Free enterprise "A third or more of the
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Jim McIlroy, Brisbane Some 1500-2000 Aboriginal people and their supporters rallied at the Roma Street Forum on December 11 and marched in solidarity with the Palm Island Indigenous community. The rally coincided with the funeral service on the
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Nicole Hilder, Wollongong Land prices in the Illawarra region have quadrupled in the past five years, fuelled by a land shortage and an influx of Sydney "sea-change" buyers, according to the December 9 Illawarra Mercury. There has been a rush by
Analysis
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With the US presidential election out of the way, Washington has now begun the escalation of the war in Iraq — a war that has already cost the lives of at least 100,000 Iraqis and almost 1300 US soldiers. During the year-long US election
World
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Malik Miah, San Francisco Today four of the top 10 US airlines — United Airlines (UAL), US Airways, ATA and Hawaiian Airlines — are operating under chapter 11 of the US bankruptcy law, which allows corporations to seek protection from creditors
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Peter Maybarduk, Caracas It is nearly impossible to travel in Venezuela without hearing reference to the government's highly popular and controversial health-care initiative that invites Cuban doctors to treat, train and live with working-class
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A December 6 press release from the Anti-Racist Network has reported gross racial abuse of a Turkish stallholder during a Northern Ireland Police Service raid on unlicensed stalls in Belfast. Musa Gulusen, who has a pending application for a stall
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On December 3, a group of apartheid victims vowed to step up their fight for reparations after a New York district court rejected their claim against multinational companies including Barclays national bank, Ford Motor Company, Mobil,
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On December 7 the National Centre for Social Research released research showing that opposition to further immigration had increased from two-thirds of the population to three-quarters under the government led by New Labour's Tony Blair. The shift
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On November 26, the Venezuelan National Assembly passed a controversial new law on responsibility in radio and television. The legislation regulates broadcasts that promote violence, sexual exploitation and racism. This has been controversial in a
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Donna Mulhearn, Baghdad It all happened so fast as we turned the corner. The US humvee seemed to come out of nowhere. It drew close to the car, aimed its machine gun at us and forced the car off the road. A checkpoint heavy with Iraqi soldiers
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Jeff Shantz, Toronto December 6 marked the opening of asylum hearings for US war resister Jeremy Hinzman, who deserted the army because of his opposition to participation in the assault and occupation of Iraq. Hinzman was among the first of a
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Dick Nichols The Eighth Congress of Cuba's Union of Communist Youth (UJC) took place in Havana's Convention Centre, on December 3-6. At the centre of discussion was the Battle of Ideas: the campaign of cultural, educational and social work launched
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Fred Fuentes Writing in the Miami Herald, the day after Bolivia's December 5 municipal elections, Tyler Bridges commented: "Bolivians overwhelmingly rejected their traditional political parties in electing 327 mayors ... with the Movement Towards
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On December 6, Oxfam released a report showing that 45 million children will die, and another 97 million will be unable to go to school, because of poverty that could be eliminated if the seven most industrialized countries fulfilled their 1970
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Kim Bullimore, West Bank Palestinian presidential candidate Mustafa Barghouti was beaten by Israeli occupation forces as he toured the West Bank as part of his election campaign. Barghouti, a leading democracy and civil rights advocate and
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Linda Waldron, Lahore On December 6, 2000 protesters participated in an anti-imperialist rally organised by the Labour Party Pakistan (LPP). Following the rally, the protesters marched through downtown Lahore to Lakshmi Chowk, one of the largest
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Doug Lorimer The US military is discussing plans to turn the Iraqi city of Fallujah into a giant concentration camp. Most of the city's 300,000 residents were driven out by a massive US bombing campaign in the week prior to an invasion by 10,000 US
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On November 29, a US government committee "clarified" in a new regulation that it was illegal to publish books by Cuban, North Korean, Sudanese or Iranian authors without explicit government authorisation. Several groups, led by the PEN American
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Eva Cheng As the administration led by President George Bush expands its war spending, the US is digging itself further into a big financial hole. This adds to the country's fast growing negative external accounts. These two shortfalls now need
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Stuart Munckton At a government-sponsored World Forum of Intellectuals and Artists in Defence of Humanity, held in Caracas on December 2-3, Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's radical left-wing president, "pledged to provide an office and resources in
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Reihana Mohideen, Manila Thousands of people in the Philippines have been victimis of typhoons that ravaged several provinces in the first week of December. The typhoons swept through Bulakan, Nueva Ecija, Cagayan, Rizal, Quezon, and other areas
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Kim Bullimore, West Bank Israeli occupation forces detained over 40 Israeli peace activists and arrested four at the village of Budrus, west of Ramallah, on December 7. The activists were arrested as they took part in a non-violent solidarity
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In this interview with the weekly Nuestra Propuesta <;, Cuban Communist Party member Celia Hart Santamaria analysed the situation in Cuba, the challenges facing her every day, and current socialist and
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The Scottish Socialist Voice, newspaper of the Scottish Socialist Party, has celebrated the publication of its 200th issue. The Voice was initially published in 1996 as the fortnightly paper of Scottish Militant Labour, and became the paper of the
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Alex Miller Since Tommy Sheridan resigned as national convenor of the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) for personal reasons in early November, New Labour-supporting tabloid newspapers have been predicting the end of the SSP's remarkable political
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On December 8, the Indian parliament voted to rule out any possibility of sending troops to Iraq. Washington had petitioned the parliament to send troops around the time of the puppet election there in January. External affairs minister Natwar Singh,
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Anti-Privatisation Forum activist Matthews Ndlovu was convicted on December 5 of "malicious damage to property", and sentenced to a fine of 25,000 Rand (AU$6000) or two years' imprisonment. Ndlovu is a leader of the Phiri community resistance to
Culture
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Ice RoadBy Gillian SlovoLittle, Brown, 2004544 pages, $29.95 (pb) REVIEW BY PHIL SHANNON On the first day of December, 1934, Leonid Nikolayev brought the crisis of the Russian Revolution to a head. Nikolayev, an idealistic communist disillusioned
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Songs for MahmudDavid Rovics$25 from Hobart Activist Centre, phone (03) 6234 6397 or $US12 from <;. REVIEW BY ALEX BAINBRIDGE Like the other CDs David Rovics has released in the last few years, Songs for Mahmud
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Venezuela — A 21st Century RevolutionProduced by the Global Women's StrikeVHS, US$22.50 (includes postage and handling)Order from <;. REVIEWED BY KATELYN MOUNTFORD The women of Venezuela are fighting
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The Origins of the ALP: A Marxist AnalysisBy Jim McIlroyResistance Books, 200458 pages, $5.95Available from your local Activist Centre (see page 2) or email <info@resistancebooks.com> REVIEW BY CHRIS ATKINSON The further 2.4% swing to
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Christmas in East TimorSt Cecilia's Choir, DiliMary McKillop Institute of East Timorese Studies$20, plus postage and handling. To order, phone (02) 9623 2847 or visit <;. REVIEW BY SARAH STEPHEN The Mary
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North Korea: Another CountryBy Bruce CumingsScribe Publications, 2004256 pages, $26.95 REVIEW BY IGGY KIM When it comes to North Korea, fact and fiction have become so blurred that even many Marxists and socialists hold the country at arm's
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Your beak is the needle,The thread is your song,And you mend the torn air,When the madness is gone,And the harmonies old, of the bushland unfold,When you mend the torn air with your song. And when harmony reignedIn the forest of green,And no
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Honouring Leila Murray: Heart of JusticeEdited by Roderic Pitty and Ruth Braunstein$7.95, available from REVIEW BY CHRIS MARTIN "Leila Murray was a great source of strength and wisdom to all her large family, to all
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Walk in My ShoesBy Alwyn EvansPenguin Books, 2004349 pages, $18.95 REVIEW BY ANNOLIES TRUMAN At an October 2 launch of this novel hosted by the Hills No War Alliance, author Alwyn Evans recalled her shock a few years ago when a friend made a
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The Decline of the Tea LadyBy Jenny StewartWakefield Press, 2004195 pages, $24.95 REVIEW BY ALEX TIGHE This humorous, yet insightful contribution to discussion on management caused me to ponder my own memories of my early days working in the
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Guantanamo: What the World Should KnowBy Michael Ratner and Ellen RayScribe Publications, 2004166 pages, $22.73 REVIEW BY MATTHEW LAMB Of all the books that have come out recently examining the consequences of George Bush's presidency and the
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REVIEW BY ALISON DELLIT Absolute FriendsJohn Le CarreHodder & StaughtonLondon, 2004384 pages, $19.95 (Tpb) In the Cold War-spawned genre of tense spy thrillers, John Le Carre's work stood out. Not only did he have a sharp sense of humanity, but
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East Timor: TestimonyElaine BriereBetween the Lines Books128 pages, 64 photographs, $56.95 REVIEW BY STEPHEN LANGFORD For people involved in East Timor's struggle, this book is a must-read. I have Elaine Briere to thank for my start in East
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I hide in the rubble of your conscience, each bomb you drop implodes your invincibilityas rats tire of eating decomposing bodies,then turn and gnaw at your humanity.Whilst maggots invade the ears of the deadyour words are drowned in your