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Why Australia should open its borders to Afghan refugees

BY ALEX BAINBRIDGE Few people could admire the morality of deliberately setting fire to someone's house and then locking all the doors and windows to prevent the occupants from escaping to safety. Neither action is justifiable by itself and both

Socialist Alliance wins education debate

BY JEREMY SMITH BALLARAT — A forum organised jointly by the local National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) and the University of Ballarat scrutinised the education policies of local and Senate candidates on October 31. Following an anti-war

Socialist Alliance does well in student elections

BY BELINDA SELKE WOLLONGONG — Despite contesting the Student Representative Council (SRC) elections for the first time at Wollongong University, the Socialist Alliance won the highest number of primary votes for education officer and came a close

Anti-war movement on the march

BY WILL WILLIAMS WOLLONGONG — More than 400 people gathered on November 3 for a march and rally to oppose the US war on Afghanistan. Marchers poured scorn on pro-war Prime Minister John Howard and the equally gung-ho Labor "opposition" leader Kim

Knowing about refugees

BY JONATHAN STRAUSS SYDNEY — The public's right to know about asylum seekers is being limited by the major parties' agreement on the issue, Peter McEvoy, producer and journalist for the recent ABC Four Corners program on the refugee detention

Vote Socialist Alliance on November 10

@box text intr = The November 10 federal election is unlikely to change much in Australian politics. The choice of an ALP or Coalition government offers no choice to stop the war against the Afghan people or to free the refugees or to reverse more

'Long grass' people demand their rights

BY SCOTT WHITE DARWIN — An Aboriginal family was forcibly removed from the Lee Point recreation area by 15-20 police officers on the afternoon of October 9, one day after the "long grass sleep-out" at Parliament House was organised to address

Criticism of asylum stand grows, but not from Labor

BY SARAH STEPHEN Refugee-bashing has proved a winner for Prime Minister John Howard, helping him boost his government's popularity to the highest it has been since the 1998 election. Yet while opinion polls are backing the government's draconian

AFGHANISTAN: A new colonialism?

BY SEAN HEALY While the relentless bombing of Afghanistan hasn't resulted in the quick collapse of the Taliban regime that Pentagon officials hoped for, the negotiations are well under way on the regime which will, at the point of US bayonets,

Coalition's anti-feminist carrot and stick

BY ALISON THORNE The "First Child Tax Rebate", the centrepiece of the Liberal Party's election launch on October 28, is, as we have come to expect from Prime Minister John Howard, anti-feminist to the core. When John Howard argues that the family

High school students hold detention centre vigil

BY ROSA ELLEN, KATE LAHIFF & TERESA FOARD MELBOURNE — Fifty people, including many high school students, held a vigil outside the Maribyrnong detention centre on October 28. The vigil was organised by Princes Hill Secondary College students and

'A nation hostile to its foundations'

BY SARAH STEPHEN Borderline: Australia's treatment of refugees and asylum seekersBy Peter MaresUNSW Press240 pages, $32.95 pb "There is a contradiction at the heart of Australian society", writes Peter Mares in Borderline. "Like the United States