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Protests mark refugee convention anniversary

BY KERRY RIDGEWAY SYDNEY — In the week that marked the 50th anniversary of the UN refugee convention, human rights activists in Sydney and Melbourne mobilised to oppose the government's policy of forcible detention for all onshore asylum

TURKEY: Prisoners still firm, despite deaths

BY FEDERICO FUENTES One hundred and eighty prisoners are still on hunger strike in Turkey's jails, staying firm despite the deaths of more than 60 hunger strikes since the protest began on October 20. The health of many of the hunger strikers has

For an ABC of, by and for the people

BY ADAM MACLEAN The Australian Broadcasting Corporation is stuck in the middle of a very nasty global trend: with publicly-funded media increasingly under financial and editorial threat from hostile governments, important alternatives to the

Job Network scams under review

BY BILL MASON The federal government has been forced to order an overhaul of the Job Network after allegations of "phantom jobs" scams. Guidelines governing the $3 billion labour market program will be tightened and the Productivity Commission will

We can do better than Labor

BY ALEX BAINBRIDGE HOBART — The state conference of the Australian Labor Party will be held at the prestigious Wrest Point Casino on the weekend of August 11-12. As is typical at these conferences, it will be an opportunity for Labor leaders like

WTO to 'sell' itself to youth

BY DEANNA SWIFT GENEVA, Switzerland — Ever since the disastrous "Battle of Seattle" in 1999, the World Trade Organisation has been trying to remake its image, trading in the persona of global tyrant for that of a "hip", "with it" agent of change.

Write on: Letters to the editor

Aston I Make up your mind Green Left. Your editorial on July 25 is headed "Why nobody won in Aston", and then it goes on to say that the Greens' preference policy handed the Liberals a propaganda victory. Shouldn't your headline then have been:

Socialist Alliance to run in NT election

BY RUTH RATCLIFFE DARWIN — The Socialist Alliance has decided to run at least three candidates in the Northern Territory elections called for August 18, the alliance's first-ever foray in a state or territory election. Youth worker and

INDONESIA: 'The old forces are back in power'

The ouster of President Abdurrahman Wahid and his replacement by Megawati Sukarnoputri has opened up a new, and likely volatile, era in Indonesia. Reprinted here, in abridged form, is an interview with Budiman Sudjatmiko, the prominent and

Labor backdown on closure of women's refuge

BY ANNE PITSTOCK HOBART — On July 27 Tasmanian health minister Judy Jackson announced that the state's Labor government had backed off from its May 11 decision to close the Caroline House women's refuge. Up to now, Caroline House has been

TAFE library staff protest

BY CHRISTOPHER PERKINS WOLLONGONG — Illawarra TAFE library unionists and their supporters staged two spirited demonstrations against job cuts and work casualisation on August 2. The NSW Labor minister for education, John Aquilina, was in the

Creative protesters puts Nike to shame

BY SEAN WALSH MELBOURNE — Anti-Nike protesters have held the most colourful and energetic demonstration this city has seen since the S11 blockade of the World Economic Forum. Swelling to 250 people, the August 3 protest was the 19th weekly