449

Socialist Alliance launched in WA

BY SARAH STEPHEN @box text intr = PERTH — On May 9, 45 people attended a meeting to launch the Socialist Alliance in Western Australia. Roberto Jorquera from the Democratic Socialist Party and Wade McDonald from the International Socialist

Loose cannons

Egalitarian society "The annual Australian rich list was released last week estimating Kerry Packer's wealth at more than $6 billion. This is the equivalent of the wealth of 38,895 average Australians." — Sunday Telegraph, May 20. Toward a

Doctors win pay rise

BY ALEX BAINBRIDGE HOBART — "If doctors in public hospitals were only concerned about money, they wouldn't be working in the public system" said Dr Kamala Emanuel in defence of the campaign by doctors to win improvements in their conditions of

IMF, World Bank can cancel debt

BY SEAN HEALY Opponents of debt cancellation claim that such a move cannot happen because it would bankrupt the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. While such a result might be good news for the world's poor, such a claim is false.

News briefs

Vodaphone workers face sackings MELBOURNE — Forty workers for telecommunications company Vodaphone turned up to what they thought would be an ordinary day of training on March 15, only to find themselves being marched out of the gates flanked by

SCOTLAND: Support grows for socialists

BY SARAH STEPHEN The Scottish Socialist Party is causing a stir in the run-up to Britain's June 7 general election. The party will contest all 72 seats in Scotland, its most ambitious election campaign to date. "What we want from this election is

and ain't i a woman?: Criminalising miscarriage

On May 17 a South Carolina court sentenced a 24-year-old woman to 12 years in prison for homicide. The victim was her fetus; the method of the "murder" was cocaine use. Eight months pregnant when she miscarried, Regina McKnight is homeless, poor,

UNITED STATES: Hawaii protests ADB

BY JAMES ARVANITAKIS Seattle, Washington, Melbourne, Prague, Quebec and now Honolulu — the protests against corporate-led globalisation continue to grow. While smaller than its predecessors, the May 9-11 protests and parallel people's forum

ALGERIA: Behind the Kabyle riots

BY HEBA SALEH Ten days of rioting, beginning in late April, in the Algerian Berber-speaking region of Kabylia have led to the death of scores of demonstrators — all killed by the security forces' gunfire. As ever in Algeria, there are no

SRI LANKA: Human cost of war mounts

BY JAMES VASSILOPOULOS More than half a million people have been displaced as a result of the war between the Sri Lankan government and Tamils in the country's north demanding self-determination. Diseases like malaria and tuberculosis are spreading

Anti-sweatshop activists vow to defy crackdown

BY SARAH PEART MELBOURNE - On May 18, for the eighth Friday in a row, anti-corporate protesters peacefully blockaded the entrances to Nike's superstore on Swanston Street, in the centre of the city. The authorities are hitting back, however, in

East Timor: A nation betrayed

Analysing Australia's role in reconstructing East Timor, Lansell Taudevin, Jefferson Lee, JON LAND, East Timor, Indonesia, Australia, Timor Gap, militia, Andrew Plunkett, Dateline"> East Timor: A nation betrayed East Timor: Making amends?