Congratulations to Green Left Weekly on its 500th issue. Like other supporters of this fine socialist newspaper, I know only too well the hard committed work that has achieved this landmark. I personally owe GLW a great deal. There are few other newspapers — radical or any other kind — that draw together news and analysis that is as well informed, credible and non-sectarian as GLW. Sarah Stephen's work on the Howard government's attacks on asylum seekers comes to mind. No journalist in the mainstream has equalled her incisive reporting. Norm Dixon's analysis of the "war on terrorism" is among the wisest and most comprehensive I have read anywhere. There are few to match Max Lane on Indonesia. Similar accolades are rightly due to Pip Hinman, Sean Healy and many others who have rescued the truth from media's memory hole. Their work has influenced mine and has been a beacon to those who believe the press ought to be an agent of people, not power — John Pilger, film-maker and independent journalist. Congratulations to Green Left Weekly on its 500th issue, a great feat in a difficult political climate. I urge all Scots Australians to read it every week — Tommy Sheridan, member of the Scottish Parliament and convenor of the Scottish Socialist Party.
The Scottish Socialist Party and its newspaper Scottish Socialist Voice sends congratulations to Green Left Weekly on the publication of its 500th issue. Your paper has been an invaluable source of information on international political struggles and the movements against war, racism and capitalist globalisation. It has played a key role in building solidarity with workers' struggles around the globe. We thank you for your coverage of the SSP over the years and wish you luck in building a united socialist alternative in Australia — Alister Black, international committee of the Scottish Socialist Party.
I congratulate you all on the 500th issue of GLW. Reading GLW every week is a pleasure. It adds a special touch to my routine every week — Farooq Sulehria, Labour Party Pakistan.
The Socialist Party of Labor in the Philippines salutes GLW on the celebration of its 500th issue. We also send our warmest greetings and congratulation to the DSP and Resistance who have made this achievement possible. Words cannot describe what a truly invaluable contribution GLW makes to the international revolutionary socialist movement. We educate ourselves and analyse the world through the coverage in GLW. The next 500 issues will truly see major strides forward by our forces the world over. Long live international solidarity of the revolutionary movement! Long live Green Left Weekly! — Reihana Mohideen for the Socialist Party of Labor. Philippines.
On behalf of Pembebasan and the all the members of the Peoples Democratic Party of Indonesia, we express our very highest salutaions, respect and soldiarity for the 500th edition of Green Left Weekly — Haris Rusly Moti, editor Pembebasan, Jakarta.
We congratulate you on the 500th issue of GLW, which has shown the example for left periodicals. Its coverage of world-wide class struggles and its non-sectarianism and non-dogmatism has been achieved through the sacrifice and commitment of GLW comrades. The Power of the Working Class produce the bi-weekly Power of the Working Class which shares the political militancy and the working-class internationalism of GLW — Lee Jong-hoi, chairperson, Power of the Working Class, South Korea.
On the occasion of the publication of the 500th issue of GLW, Liberation extends warm revolutionary greetings to everybody associated with the production and distribution of the journal. We salute the courage, consistency and commitment with which GLW has chronicled and inspired the onward march of the world-wide quest for freedom, democracy and socialism over the last 10 years. As globalising capital penetrates every pore of human life in every corner of the world, the struggles for human survival, and for a better and brighter tomorrow, are becoming both sharper and wider. Every page of GLW pulsates with the indomitable spirit of this growing international resistance. Keep it up — Dipankar Bhattacharya, editor, Liberation, magazine of the Communist Party of India Marxist-Leninist.
Labour Party Pakistan sends you the warmest greetings on the occasion of the publication of 500th issue of GLW. We have known the paper from 1997 and since then, GLW has been regularly read paper among the comrades of Labour Party Pakistan. It is no doubt one of the best left papers in the world at present. We regularly translate or use GLW articles as the basis for articles written for Mazdoor Jeddojuhd (Worker's Struggle). We hope that GLW will continue its publication until the ultimate victory of the working class internationally — Farooq Tariq, general secretary, Labour Party Pakistan. Green Left Weekly's role in providing space for on-the-ground, critical coverage on events in Palestine is not just valuable but absolutely essential. The scope of the debate and analysis in the paper is without par, and the articles are thoughtful and enriching. The Green Left project is the major success story of the left in Australia over the last decade. To all those who work on GLW, and especially to those who bring this critical voice to the streets, keep up the good work! — Adam Hanieh, Ramallah.
The New Left Front (NLF) and the Nawa Sama Samaja Party (NSSP) have benefited much from your journal. We have made use of your facts, figures and analyses in our documents and publications. We are surprised that you manage to publish such a weekly paper without a financial crisis. Please continue to carry on this exemplary work — Dr Wickramabahu Karunarathne, on behalf of the leadership of the New Left Front, Sri Lanka.
The Anti-Privatisation Forum congratulates the GLW on its 500th issue. Over the years many of us in South Africa and other parts of the world have been kept informed and inspired by your publication. Your contribution to the struggle for a better world has been immense. Keep up the good work. A luta continua! — Trevor Ngwane, secretary, Anti-Privatisation Forum, Gauteng, South Africa.
After a decade of the world's most reliable, steady progressive newspaper analysis, the GLW comrades have become the model of commitment! — Patrick Bond, Johannesburg.
Simply put, Green Left Weekly is one of the finest examples of contemporary revolutionary internationalist journalism. It is one of those rare publications that has successfully combined incisive, accessible and critical writing on a range of issues and struggles with a socialist grounding that provides meaningful political and organisational context. In South Africa, there are few things that are needed more than the an internationalist-inspired intellectual and political/organisational revival — GLW has been an important part of that revival. Here's to the next 500 issues of the international left's best weekly paper. A luta continua! — Dale T. McKinley, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Congratulations comrades! GLW is a great resource for the left and an inspiring read — Leo Zelig, a coordinator, Zimbabwe Indymedia. Any left newspaper that can get to 500 issues without faltering must be doing something very necessary and doing it well. Whenever I see your paper, it is informative and inspiring. Keep up the good work, we all benefit from it — Carl T. Brecker, Cape Town, South Africa.
I find Green Left Weekly very useful because it puts flesh and muscle on the global paradigm shift from the dying Money Values/violence paradigm to the emerging Life Values/nonviolence paradigm. Keep up the great work! — Kevin Danaher, Global Exchange, San Francisco.
Let me congratulate this fine celebration. In the early 1990s, our cooperation with GLW helped a great deal to understand our own situation better and to reshape the agenda of the left in Hungary. Despite the unusual accent, GLW correspondents in central and eastern Europe, particularly Peter Annear, helped improve our English as well. Let us work together for a better future — Laszlo Andor, editor, Eszmelet, Budapest, Hungary.
Congratulation on your "birthday". Don't mourn, organise! For Workers Power and International Socialism! — Linksruck, Hannover, Germany.
Green Left Weekly newspaper is known in our country, Germany. It is one of the first web addresses you look to for information about Australian policy from a reliable source. Connecting social and ecological issues is very progressive. It is a good strategy of the DSP in your political action. We hope that in a few years we can send you a solidarity message for the 1000th issue of GLW — Sascha Wagener, international commissar, Party for Democratic Socialism, Germany.
500 issues is an impressive achievement. I've my share of disagreements with the DSP, but GLW has got to be the most impressive-looking left weekly I've ever seen, with the possible exception of the old The Next Step in its heyday in the early and mid-1980s. Congratulations on your 500th issue and for being the best source of alternative information in this part of the world — Philip Ferguson, editor, Revolution, New Zealand.
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Producing this excellent paper every week is really an accomplishment. For us, it is a unique source of information about the class struggle in East Asia and the Pacific. But we certainly have noticed your intense coverage of the international movement against capitalist globalisation. And we appreciate your effort in informing your readership about the class struggle and the development of the left movement in Europe.
Recently, GLW has taken part in the work for building a united anti-capitalist left in Australia, the Socialist Alliance. This is uplifting news. Since 1989, our organisation have been an integrated as part of the Danish Red Green Alliance, helping mobilise against capitalist politics in Denmark and securing an anti-capitalist voice in the Danish parliament.
Just like us you, we are aware that organising internationally is as important as organising nationally for socialists and anti-capitalists. By reporting on socialist organisations in other countries and by reporting on attempts of international organising, your paper will contribute much to this work — Michael Voss, Socialist Workers Party, Denmark.
Congratulations! Green Left Weekly is an invaluable political tool and source of information for American political activists who have the good fortune to receive the paper directly or from your excellent web site. I have been a regular reader for nearly 10 years and have seen the paper grow and improve.
What is most useful is the international coverage. There is no left publication in the US that has GLW's wide range of articles from journalists and activists around the world. Your coverage of the anti-globalisation movement in particular has been superb. The articles from occupied Palestine and the analysis from Pakistan have been equally clear in political analysis.
As someone who has been to Australia and followed political developments there, your coverage of national politics has been insightful. The articles on the battles to free interned refugees, support for the rights of Aborigines and other people of color suffering from institutional discrimination and in defense of militant workers fighting to build genuine democratic unions have been positive and source in inspiration.
The coverage of the activities of the Democratic Socialist Party and Resistance are very important. Building strong socialist organisations in Australia is key to the strength of the progressive movements and future of the country. Winning workers and youth to socialist ideas requires political propaganda and socialist organizations. As a Marxist and internationalists, I consider GLW's reporting of the DSP's and Resistance's activities one of its most important tasks.
GLW, for me, is thus more than a socialist newspaper for Australians. It is an international socialist paper that justifies me proudly calling Green Left Weekly "my newspaper". I eagerly await the next 500 issues — Malik Miah, San Francisco.
We would like to congratulate GLW on the printing of its 500th issue. We acknowledge the role of GLW plays for the People's Democratic Party (PRD). GLW has been a prime supporter of our struggle in Indonesia and has informed readers in Australia and the world of its dynamics. It has also informed and inspired our members by documenting the experiences of people's struggle all over the world.
We would like to express our commendation to GLW for its consistent effort to implement the DSP's goals of building the movements, educating the masses and communicating between sections of the socialist movement. This is a fine example for vanguard parties, especially for PRD.
We hope that the number subscribers of GLW will always expanding, as one important growth indicator of DSP's and Resistance's influence. We hope that the territorial outreach of GLW will grow, especially on international level — Central Leadership Committee People's Democratic Party, Indonesia.
Please convey my heartfelt congratulations to all GLW staff for 500th issue. We gain a lot of theory from GLW! Long live workers! — Agus Januraka, PRD, Bali
The Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID) congratulates the dedicated men and women behind Green Left Weekly as it publishes its 500th issue. IID particularly commends GLW's critical views over Australia's foreign policies towards East Timor and its erstwhile coloniser Indonesia. GLW has consistently exposed the real interests of the Australian government, which not only formally recognised Indonesia's brutal occupation of the tiny half-island, but also helped train and arm the Indonesian soldiers who sowed terror among its peoples. More recently, GLW has exposed the Australian government's pressuring of the newly installed government of Xanana Gusmao to give up East Timor's rights over resources in its own territorial waters which Australia has laid claim to.
9point = GLW'
9point = With its hard-hitting brand of journalism and with its focus on both the social and the ecological, GLW has become an indispensable tool for all those fighting for social change, both nationally and internationally. Its extensive, wide-ranging and perceptive reports and analyses of the struggles both in the North and the South should be sufficient to make it an invaluable resource for all activists. However, what distinguishes it from other journals and periodicals which provide similar coverage is its presentation of such struggles within a framework which links past struggles to the present. As a result, readers are enabled to view "the present as history", a necessary perspective for all genuine activists. We look forward to the next 500 issues! — T. Rajamoorthy, editor, Third World Resurgence, Malaysia.
500 issues of revolutionary news, now that is quite an accomplishment. For over 10 years, Green Left Weekly has provided a consistent source of information on struggles world-wide. It has maintained its reputation as a true alternative news source. Here in the "belly of the beast", you can be sure we appreciate it even more in this time of war to "defend America's freedom". As a high school student, GLW provided me with the means to argue with reactionary teachers and expose my fellow classmates to something other than the racist, conservative mainstream media. Keep up the great work. Cheers to another 500 issues — Dani Barley, Solidarity member, United States.
Congratulations on your 500 issues of continuous publication! This is an important accomplishment. Green Left Weekly is not only Australia's most informative socialist publication on Australian politics, it is the best one in giving guidance to activists. Your role in helping to build the movement against neoliberal globalisation, against the US "war on terrorism" and the US-backed Israeli war against the Palestinians has been exemplary. Your international coverage makes GLW an important source for revolutionary socialists throughout the world. We look forward to it every week, and try to get it around to others. Keep up the good work — Caroline Lund and Barry Sheppard, San Francisco.
The 500th edition of GLW is rightfully an occasion for celebration. Your paper provides a valuable service to the international revolutionary and democratic left in offering solid journalism informed by an openly socialist political perspective. We greatly appreciate, in particular, your coverage of the long struggles for freedom in Indonesia, East Timor and the Asia-Pacific region. May your next 500 issues witness a decade of great advances for democratic and working-class movements around the world! — David Finkel, Solidarity (USA) and editor, Against the Current.
We have learn so much from your articles on the Asia-Pacific region, the struggles in Indonesia, Philippines and East Timor, the anti-globalisation movement in Australia and how the Melbourne S11 blockade was organised. We have translated many of your articles and printed them in Viento Sur, in Corriente Alterna or in Rebelion. Thanks to you, we know of so many comrades who are very far away but very close to our hearts. And we feel that our solidarity is bigger than the power of Capitalism — G Buster, for the Coordinadora Confederal de Espacio Alternativo (Spanish state).
Green Left Weekly is an intellectual spearhead in the struggle to build counterpowers to the global capitalist empire! — Johan Lonnroth, vice-chair, Swedish Left Party.
Congratulations and best wishes on the 500th edition of GLW. It is quite an achievement for anyone to produce a quality and reliable socialist publication for such a duration. And for your readers around the world, it is a pleasure to access a class struggle perspective on Australian politics and the international scene, which GLW provides so generously. Keep up the good work — Barry Weisleder, editor, Socialist Action, Toronto, Canada.
Green Left Weekly is a lightning flash against the bleak fascist clouds of this new world disorder. Keep the burn coming, comrades! And muchos gracias! — Bill Nevins, New Mexico, USA
Green Left Weekly,
Viva Green Left Weekly! Bravo, GLW for exposing the lies and bringing to light the reality of the death and destruction caused by corporate capitalism, and the intensification of the feminisation of poverty. Viva GLW for naming globalisation for what it really is, imperialism, and uncovering its evil. Viva GLW for referring to the people' resistance movements as liberation struggles, rather than as acts of terrorism — Rosanna Barbero, Womyn's Agenda for Change, Cambodia.
GLW is playing a vital role in providing critical analysis of the struggles against capitalism and imperialism around the world. For those of us working with the unemployed workers movements in Argentina, the rural landless workers in Brazil, and the anti-imperialist movements in Europe and the US, GLW's reportage on Asia is essential in building a new internationalism — James Petras. I have been a subscriber to GLW since its inception. It has been an invaluable source of information on the international struggles by working people for a new world free of injustice and oppression. As an activist in campaigns against US-led military intervention in the Gulf or Afghanistan I could rely on GLW to keep me up to date with the best analyses available. As member of the New Zealand Alliance I found its broad coverage of attempts to build left-wing electoral alternatives in various countries an inspiration for our own struggle. I salute your efforts and wish you every success — Mike Treen, international secretary, the Alliance, New Zealand. I was given Green Left Weekly by a friend who had been to Australia. When I have read through the paper I was quite overwhelmed by the issues being discussed and the struggles of the simple people everywhere. I like every aspect of GLW because it is the avenue where the voices of the oppresed, the powerless and the poor are seen, heard and expressed. GLW opens our eyes to the greed and corrupt practices of the capitalist tyrants in the world. GLW has broadened the scope of my understanding so far as the economic structure of the world is concerned. The world is divided into rich and poor nations. I now come to see capitalism as evil; it suppresses the opportunities of the Third World nations to prosper economic and politicaly in a positive manner — David Mandui, student, University of Papua New Guinea.
Congratulations on your 500th issue. Here's hoping that you carry on with the same clarity and commitment, breadth and depth, for another 5000 — Helena Sheehan, Dublin City University (<http://www.comms.dcu.ie/sheehanh/sheehan.htm>).
The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) extends its solidarity and support to the Democratic Socialist Party of Australia and its publication Green Left Weekly, which is going to present its 500th issue soon.
Humanity has stepped into the 21st century with manifold challenges confronting the toiling people of the world. Close on the heels of US military operations in Afganistan the world has witnessed a very critical situation in West Asia. Defying the UN Security Council resolution, the USA has laid a seige on the condition that the Palestanian people chose a leader other than Yassar Arafat. The US administration has proclaimed an "axis of evils" targetting countries like Iran, Iraq and North Korea, which is a pointer to the most aggressive, exploitative, oppressive and militaristic offensive of imperialism in the present-day unipolar world order. A durable peace in West Asia could be realized only by securing the rightful claim of Palestanians for a homeland and by raising a collective voice of all peaceloving forces against the US-backed Israeli atrocities.
India is a peace-loving developing country. It is unfortunate that the situation in the India-Pakistan border has lately developed into a matter of grave concern with the massive mobilisation of troops on both sides. However, the working people of India have raised their voice against any design to pitch for an armed conflict —limited or full scale, conventional or nuclear — with neighbouring Pakistan. We intensely desire that the two countries should come out of the shadow of the US rulers and genuinely resolve all outstanding disputes through negotiations.
Ours is a developing country comprising over a billion people with an economy ridden with acute crisis. The prescriptions handed over to us by the international financial and trade institutions have only served to intesify the crisis of our economy, the burdens of which are passed on to the shoulders of the vast millions of workers and the poor. The prime concern of our toiling people is, therefore, to counter the challanges of liberalisation, privatisation, and globalisation.
The last eleven years of economic reforms in our country have seen several countrywide general strikes and protest actions, in which workers have participated in ever-growing numbers. Almost all major central trade unions have come together on a single platform to oppose the capitalist globalisation and its adverse impact on the working class. A national platform of mass organisations consisting of farmers, agricultural and rural workers, youth, students, women and other sections of society has been formed to spearhead mass actions against neo-liberal globalisation.
An extraordinary event took place last year, when workers across the globe observed a day of global action against globalisation, the call for which was given by three big international TU organisations: ICFTU, WFTU and WCL. In India all national level TU centres came together to observe the day. We are determined to carry forward this united resistance to globalisation, which benefits only the Trans National Corporations (TNCs) and leads to further impoverishment of the poor and ordinary people. We are sure that the united resistance of the working class will defeat the anti-worker policies of globalisation, neo-liberalisation and privatisation and save the basic interests of the toiling people of the world at large.
Long live working class unity and solidarity !
Down with imperialist globalisation! — J Ballabh, international department, CITU.
From Green Left Weekly, July 17, 2002.
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