499

BY PERRY BROWN & KATHY NEWNAM FORSTER — "This meeting is very encouraging", began Pat Thompson, in her address to the inaugural meeting of the Great Lakes Rural Australians for Refugees group, held in Forster on June 29. Thompson, one of the
BY FRANCES SHEEHAN SYDNEY — Fed up with being asked to perform miracles on the smell of an oily rag, staff at the Department of Community Services (DOCS) have taken industrial action to secure the extra staff and resources needed to protect
BY JOHN PILGER  LONDON — In May, the Glasgow University Media Group, distinguished for its pioneering media analysis, published a study on the reporting of the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. It ought to be required reading in newsrooms

Although Stephen Spielberg emerged side-by-side with George Lucas as a purveyor of juvenile film fantasies during the Reagan era, he has evolved into one of the more important social commentators in Hollywood.

BY CHRIS LATHAM On June 22, delegates at the Western Australian state conference of the Labor Party passed a motion that opposed the construction of a marina near Coral Bay. The motion recognised the development's "potential to impact severely on
REVIEW BY EVA CHENG The New Nuclear Danger: George W. Bush's Military-Industrial Complex By Helen Caldicott Scribe Publications, Melbourne, 2002 320 pages, $30 (pb) Although the risk of India and Pakistan launching a nuclear war
BY KATHRYN KELLY  The occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip by Israel which has been in place since the June 1967 Arab-Israeli war represents a slow death for the Palestinian people. I've recently returned from an Australian
BY PIP HINMAN August 26 marks one year since the Coalition government refused to allow the Norwegian freighter MV Tampa to deliver those asylum seekers it had rescued to Christmas Island — it marks one year of the “Pacific Solution”.
Could have been the wedding cake "We are aware of reports of civilian casualties, but don't know if casualties were caused as a result of the bomb." — Pentagon spokesperson Lieutenant Comm- ander Jeff Davis, commenting on the US military's July
BY SUE BOLTON MELBOURNE — As attacks on the militant leadership of the Victorian branch of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union are stepped up, the Skilled Six Campaign has begun meeting. The campaign group was set up by Melbourne
BY SARAH STEPHEN The information available from the hunger strikers in Woomera detention centre, whose protest passed the two-week mark on July 7, is heart-rending. The July 5 Canberra Times spoke by telephone to Ramzi, who said "We are very weak
BY SAM WAINWRIGHT SYDNEY — Seventy-five workers employed by Nonferral Pty Ltd in Wetherill Park have been locked out for two weeks after refusing to work in unsafe conditions. The workers were concerned about the dangers of transporting molten