John Pilger
"The propagandist's purpose", wrote Aldous Huxley, "is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human". The British, who invented modern war propaganda and inspired Joseph Goebbels, were specialists in the
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Doug Lorimer At an October 16 media conference where Prime Minister John Howard announced the Australian government's intention to double the number of people directly employed by its ASIO secret police agency by 2010, he dismissed concerns that
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On November 5, 1855, the great US socialist Eugene Debs was born in Terra Haute, Indiana. Debs was to play a leading role in the formation of the American Railway Union (ARU), and was jailed in 1894 for his part in an ARU strike against the Chicago
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WorkChoices At an invitation-only BBQ in Canberra, Stephen Jones, assistant national secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union, eloquently outlined his battle plan to defeat the Howard government's WorkChoices legislation. Plan A:
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BRISBANE — Around 50 people gathered outside state parliament on October 25 to protest against proposed "anti-terror" laws. The demonstrators held up placards reading "We will not be silenced", and received honks of support from many peak-hour
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resistance.org.au"> New high school zine launched Emma Murphy, Adelaide Over the recent school holidays, a group of Adelaide high school students, in association with Resistance, produced the first issue of a new zine, The Bench. The zine has
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Brianna Pike & Emma Clancy Since its re-election last year with control of the Senate, the federal Coalition government has moved to introduce a range of new attacks, targeting disability pensioners and sole parents, trying to force through the
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Sean Seymour Jones, Melbourne It is becoming more and more obvious that the so-called war on terror is being used in countries like Australia as a pretext for significant attacks on civil liberties. The Australian government has tried to sell these
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Liam Mitchell "Billy", who features in the federal Coalition government's WorkChoices booklet promoting its planned industrial relations "reforms", has to sign an individual contract (Australian Workplace Agreement) to get a job. He is currently
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Stuart Munckton US multinational corporation IBM was recently fined and had its Caracas offices forcibly closed down for 48 hours by the Venezuelan government for attempting to avoid paying its taxes, according to an October 6 Canadian Press
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Amanda Zivcic The federal government's apparent decision not to attempt to pass its controversial "voluntary student unionism" (VSU) legislation in time for it to be implemented in 2006 is evidence that community opposition, expressed in student
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Tony Kevin ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope has done all Australian citizens and residents a great service by making public on October 14 the proposed raft of counter-terrorism legislation that PM John Howard had laid confidentially before
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Simon Cunich, Sydney Students have claimed all year that the Howard government's proposed "voluntary student unionism" (VSU) legislation is really aimed, not at giving freedom of choice as the government claims, but at silencing dissent against its
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Emma Clancy In the aftermath of the destruction unleashed by Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans, the brutal reality of US capitalism was exposed for all to see — its massive inequality, its institutionalised racism, and the huge gulf between the
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With its fourth-term agenda, the Howard government has launched a vicious attack on working people, both in and out of work. Its proposed changes to industrial relations are aimed at crushing the ability of workers to organise collectively, and
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Graham Matthews Unemployed workers will face no choice but to accept any job offer, regardless of its lack of penalty rates, public holidays or breaks, under the Howard government's proposed changes to industrial relations laws. Failing to take
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Margaret Gleeson With female work force participation rates at an all-time high of 57%, the federal government's plans to cut income assistance to single parents while implementing a new industrial relations regime will exacerbate the long-term
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Peter Woodward $484.40 That's the weekly rate an employer will be able to pay an adult employee under John Howard's new industrial laws in John Howard's new Australia. "But why can't they pay me that now?" you may ask. Because most people are
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Ian Rintoul "Two boys betrayed", the October 7 Australian editorial proclaimed, referring to Alamdar and Montazar Bakhtiyari, the two eldest sons of Australia's most high-profile asylum seeker family. The Australian editorial was railing against
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Chris Peterson, Melbourne "Howard is trying to silence us, and stop us from organising for our rights", Melbourne Resistance organiser Brianna Pike told һƷ̽ Weekly. "But here in Melbourne, Resistance is throwing ourselves into the broad
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Liam Mitchell Most of the people in the Howard government's TV advertising blitz for its planned new industrial relations laws are highly paid actors receiving $6000 each to appear in the ads, vastly above the standard rate. They were even given a
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Graham Matthews, Sydney An October 26 public forum organised by members of the Labor Party on the topic of whether the ALP could win the next federal election (in 2007) drew 200 people, many of whom were upset with Labor's inability to distinguish
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On October 28, we sent the following letter to Gary Kennedy (secretary, Newcastle Trades Hall Council), Alison Peters (deputy assistant secretary Unions NSW), Wayne Reynolds (Newcastle university branch president, National Tertiary Education Union)
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Dale Mills Australia is the only industrialised country without a human rights act or its equivalent. Despite being a founding member of the United Nations and a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, successive Australian
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Amanda Zivcic, Wollongong A landslide victory was recorded in the elections for the Wollongong Undergraduate Students Association (WUSA), held October 7-12, for the left-wing ticket Grassroots. Grassroots stood on a platform of support for social
Amanda Zivcic, Wollongong
News
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15 union protests PERTH — The anti-union West Australian has stepped up its campaign of demonising the CFMEU construction union. In what appears to be an attempt to dissuade construction workers from attending the November 15 community day of
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Kathy Newnam, Darwin Opponents of the nuclear industry took their message to the federal parliamentary inquiry into uranium resources when it met in Darwin on October 24. Deceptively calling itself "the inquiry into developing Australia's
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CANBERRA — On October 27, 100 people attended a public forum at the Australian National Library on the federal government's planned new anti-terrorism laws. Organised by Civil Liberties Australia ACT, the forum was told by the group's secretary
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Alex Bainbridge, Hobart The Recherche Bay Protection Group held a commemoration on October 28 for the 250th anniversary of the birth of French botanist Jacques-Julian Houtou de Labillardiere. The group used the occasion to call once again on the
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Andrew Martin, Brisbane On October 19, workers at James Hardie's Meeandah concrete pipe factory arrived for their usual start time of 6.30 am to find factory's gates locked. The company had initiated a 28-hour lockout in response to workers holding
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DARWIN — The Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union (LHMU) launched a campaign on October 22 to win better wages and professional recognition for child-care workers in the Northern Territory. The LHMU has targeted low wages as one of the key
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HOBART — After a lengthy recess, the Tasmanian Council for Civil Liberties recommenced activity in August in response to recent government attacks on democracy. Demanding "no police state in Australia", the council will hold a rally on November 12
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Sue Bull, Geelong Trades halls and labour councils throughout regional Victoria are mobilising their members for big rallies in November against the federal Coalition government's proposed industrial relations laws. There will be community
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Pot calls kettle black "Bin Laden says his own role is to tell Muslims, quote, 'what is good for them and what is not.' And what this man who grew up in wealth and privilege considers good for poor Muslims is that they become killers... He assures
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Kerry Vernon, Maitland Two-hundred women, their relatives and supporters marched along Maitland's main street on the night of October 28 in the first Reclaim the Night event to be held in this city of 54,000 residents. Led by 83-year-old feminist
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Kerry Vernon, Newcastle The University of Newcastle will expel the offices of staff unions from its campus in November in order to receive an extra $6 million in funding from the federal Coalition government. A letter of expulsion was sent to the
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PERTH — More than 200 people crammed into the Maritime Union of Australia's North Fremantle office on October 29 to hear discussion about how to fight the Howard government's proposed industrial relations laws. Speakers included former
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WOLLONGONG — With only a few days' notice, 700 people protested PM John Howard's visit on October 18, when he opened the office of a local Liberal MP. The South Coast Labor Council coordinated the action and contingents from many unions
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Sarah Stephen Following a coordinated series of raids by Australian Federal Police and immigration department (DIMIA) officers on houses in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane last December 1, four refugee supporters in Sydney were charged with helping
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Help get GLW around! Pip Hinman It seems that PM John Howard is keen to make Melbourne Cup week this year very memorable. He wants to introduce his terror bills — aimed at dissenters, including us — and more of his anti-worker bills into
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Andrew Hall, Canberra Members of the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) working in Centrelink are set to stop work nationally for several hours on November 15 to attend the ACTU's national SkyChannel broadcast and protest rallies against the
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Jeremy Smith, Ballarat A long campaign for an enterprise agreement at the University of Ballarat came to a head in the middle of October with a ballot on a management-drafted non-union enterprise agreement. At stake was a 5% increase in
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BRISBANE — Ambulance officers around Queensland stopped work on October 26 to demand improvements in staffing and working conditions, in the first statewide strike in history. Around 500 paramedics and their families demonstrated outside the Kedron
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MELBOURNE — More than 80 people attended a double-header launch on October 28. The Melbourne west district of Socialist Alliance launched its campaign for the Maribyrnong Council elections and new activist band The Conch gave its first ever
World
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While much of Venezuelan's attention is focussed on the December 4 National Assembly elections, another set of important elections are scheduled to take place during November in the municipality of Sucre.
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On October 27, some 1000 people rallied in Port Moresby to highlight the struggle for West Papua's independence. West Papua was annexed by Indonesia in 1969 after a sham "act of free choice" and both the PNG and Australian governments support
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Ike Okonta, Lagos It's nearly 10 years since Nigerian activist and writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other members of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) were hanged on the morning of November 10, 1995. Today, Nigeria faces fresh
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Doug Lorimer Argentine President Nestor Kirchner emerged as the victor after the country's October 23 mid-term legislative elections. Kirchner's Peronist governing Front for Victory (FPV) won 43% of the popular vote in the lower-house Chamber of
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Marce Cameron On November 8, Cuba will once again present a resolution to the UN General Assembly calling for an end to the US economic blockade of the island nation. Last year, the assembly voted by 179 votes in favour, four against (the US,
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American Civil Liberties Union analysis has found "irrefutable evidence that US operatives tortured detainees to death during interrogations", according to ACLU attorney Amrit Singh. The ACLU studied the cases of 44 prisoners who died in US military
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Max Lane It has been almost a month since the Indonesian government increased the retail price of petrol by 126% and of kerosene by 300%. The increases are a part of the Jakarta government's commitments made to the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
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Margarita Windisch & Susan Price, Caracas In January, the Sixth World Social Forum will take place on three continents: Africa (in Mali), Asia (in Pakistan) and Latin America (in Venezuela). The Caracas forum is scheduled for January 24-29 on the
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Kim Bullimore On October 9, Israel's Ministerial Committee for Legal Affairs approved the Criminal Law Procedures Bill. If implemented, it will enable Israel to implement a two-track law — one for Israelis and one for Palestinians — to govern
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Duroyan Fertl In the last couple of weeks, Ecuador's fragile democracy has threatened once again to come apart at the seams. On October 20, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) ruled that President Alfredo Palacio's call to hold a referendum in
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Alex Miller A British Royal Air Force officer is facing a court martial after refusing to return to Iraq on the grounds that the war is illegal. The October 17 British Guardian reported that Flight-Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith is facing four
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Dave Airhart, an anti-war activist and an Iraq war veteran, is being threatened with expulsion from Kent State University for his anti-war activities. On October 19, the Kent State Anti-War Committee disrupted US Army recruiters as they attempted to
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һƷ̽ Weekly has officially opened its Caracas news bureau, sharing an office with the web news service Venezuelanalysis.com, in the administrative division of TELESUR, the new pan Latin American television channel. Pictured are GLW
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Nicole Colson, Chicago Force-feeding of prisoners on hunger strike at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is being used as a form of torture, says a lawyer for several detainees. According to the Center for Constitutional Rights, Julia
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Pablo Stefanoni, La Paz Bolivia is once again on the path of political uncertainty, after the Constitutional Tribunal (CT) on September 22 ordered the Congress to modify the electoral law (used to convoke the December 4 general elections) to
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At the Tyson Foods slaughterhouse in Brooks, more than 2300 workers have been on strike since October 12 to demand better wages and conditions. The United Food and Commercial Workers members are demanding an end to harassment, improved safety
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The October 13 Scottish Socialist Voice reported that the Labour government's work and pensions secretary, David Blunkett, says that applicants for welfare benefits should undergo lie-detector tests. Blunkett is especially qualified to comment on
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On October 26, Venezuelan ambassador Fermin Toro Jimenez told the UN Security Council that his country has begun processing an extradition request for Reverend Pat Robertson from the US. Robertson has publicly called for the assassination of
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On October 13, the US government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that the average global temperature for combined land and ocean surfaces for September 2005 was 0.63ø C above the 1880-2004 long-term mean. It was the
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Doug Lorimer A secret survey of Iraqi public opinion undertaken in August for the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) shows that up to 65% of Iraqis support attacks by the Iraqi armed resistance on the US-led occupation forces. Reporting on the
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Peter Boyle, Auckland The first national Workers Charter conference, attended by more than 100 activists, was held on October 22 in Auckland. The draft charter (see <; ) was endorsed and will now be taken
Culture
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The PessoptimistDirected by Don MamouneyUntil November 19 at the Sidetrack Theatre, Addison Road Community Centre, Marrickville, SydneyPhone (02) 9294 4655 or email <theatre@sidetrack.com.au> REVIEW BY SIMON TAYLER Based on the novel by
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Blowin' in the WindDirected by David BradburyLimited national season commencing in Sydney and Melbourne at Dendy cinemas on October 27, other cities to follow REVIEW BY LACHLAN MALLOCH David Bradbury needs almost no introduction to һƷ̽
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Refusenik! Israel's Soldiers of ConscienceCompiled and edited by Peretz KidronZed Books120 pages REVIEW BY KIM BULLIMORE On October 20, 1956, Israeli soldiers killed 47 Palestinians from the village of Kafr Qasem, who were returning home from
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Frida Kahlo: Between Passion and Pain — Tells the story of world-renowned Mexican artist and iconic figure Frida Kahlo, in her own words using extracts from her diary. SBS, Saturday, November 5, 3.05pm. Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of