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'A historic moment for the left'

BY SUE BOLTON "An historic moment for the left in Australia" was the most common comment made by participants in the founding conference of the Socialist Alliance in Melbourne over the August 4-5 weekend. This is not the first attempt to unite

Write on: Letters to the editor

Stott Despoja Political spin doctoring does have its limitations not the least being that facts are often so easily verifiable by reference to documents of record such as Hansard. Alison Dellit compounds her initial errors of fact and analysis in

Anti-CBF alliance launched

BY SARAH PEART MELBOURNE — "We need to fight in the factories and in the communities to build a new international movement that is strong enough to take on the bosses' system", Martin Mitterhauser, an anti-corporate activist just back from last

Thousands of tax workers under threat

BY CHRIS SLEE MELBOURNE — The Australian Tax Office is preparing to sack thousands of its workers, following a 9% cut in the department's funding announced in the May federal budget. The tax office has taken on several thousand new workers in

Museworthy: Corazon Nuevo (New Heart)

These are born in your children. They go fishing. They shake everything out. Once there were men and women who tried to hide history, to bury it in the bed of the sea where they believed sound sleep possible. Their hands were huge but not real. They

INDONESIA: Unionist wins international award

BY MAX LANE Militant trade union leader and former political prisoner Dita Sari has been awarded the Raymond Magsaysay Award, considered an Asian Nobel Prize, for being a "leader of new forces in Asia". The chairperson of the Indonesian National

New! Corporate scumbag: Rio Tinto

Rio Tinto “Wherever we operate, we work as closely as possible with our hosts, respecting laws and customs minimising, adverse impacts and ensuring transfer of benefits and enhancement of opportunities.” — Rio Tinto 2000 Annual Review.

The challenge of return

Starting From ZeroA documentary by Mandy King & Fabio CavadiniScreening on SBS, Friday, August 17, 8.30pm REVIEW BY FIONA CROCKFORD Starting from Zero profiles the return home in October 1999 of three East Timorese exiles following the decisive

WORLD ECONOMY: No technofix for Third World poor

BY SEAN HEALY Humans have made all kinds of nifty things — the axe, the wheel, the spinning jenny, the aeroplane, the pill, the Pentium III computer chip — and achieved all sorts of things with them. But these inventions have not freed society.

Parties around the world greet conference

BY IGGY KIM Left parties and activists around the world have enthusiastically welcomed a further step in the international process of socialist renewal and regroupment. The Socialist Alliance's first national conference received 41 greetings of

SOUTH AFRICA: Grassroots struggles revive

Seven years after the African National Congress swept to office on the promise of "a better life for all", the patience of South Africa's working class and poor is wearing thin. Across the country, community organisation and mobilisation is beginning

Art for freedom

Just ArtShowing August 8-1531 Woods Street, Darwin REVIEW BY JO ELLIS Opened by Dadang Christano on August 8, this eclectic collection of artworks by local and international artists, explored the themes of democracy, peace and freedom. Taring