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and ain't i a woman?: Getting more women into parliament

At its special rules conference on October 5-6, the ALP adopted a first: parliamentary quotas not just for women, but for men. The compromise motion passed by the delegated conference guaranteed women 40% of safe Labor seats and men 40%, with the

Aussie cops implicated in refugee drownings

BY TONY KEVIN Until the Senate "children overboard" committee began to enquire into SIEV-X, the boat that sank on its way to Christmas Island on October 19, 2001, drowning 353 people, mostly women and children, we knew nothing about a clandestine

Anti-war and anti-racist activists contest student elections

BY GRANT COLEMAN WOLLONGONG — “War and racism affect us all and students have an important role to play in struggles against injustice”, Belinda Selke told Green Left Weekly. Selke is part of the “No War No Racism” ticket running in the

UNITED STATES: Bush, employers take at aim dockers

BY SHANE BENTLEY US President George Bush has thrown his weight behind the bosses of the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) in their struggle to break the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) which covers 10,500 US west coast dock

UNITED STATES: Anti-war protests grow

BY ELIZABETH SCHULTE CHICAGO — The San Francisco Chronicle called it "a rising rumble". On October 6, opponents of George Bush's war drive against Iraq hit the streets in cities across the United States in the biggest numbers yet. Up to

NTEU discusses enterprise bargaining, opposes war

BY DANIEL JARDINE MELBOURNE — Meeting on October 3-6, the national council of the National Tertiary Education Industry Union discussed its agenda for the fourth round of enterprise bargaining with universities. The pattern bargaining

CFMEU leader quits ALP

BY NIKKI ULASOWSKI PERTH — “I've been knocked off by the Tories, I've been knocked off by stinking grubby builders, I've been knocked off by the [building industry] task force, but it was a bit hard to cop getting knocked off by the Labor

Canberra anti-war protest

BY JAMES CAULFIELD CANBERRA — Three hundred people gathered in Civic on October 11 for a rally against the US drive to war on Iraq. The event was organised by the ACT Network Opposing War. Speakers included ACT Labor MLA John Hargreaves, health

45,000 march against war

BY GRAHAM MATTHEWS MELBOURNE — In a massive outpouring of anger against proposed Australian support for war on Iraq, 45,000 people rallied on October 13. Jammed shoulder to shoulder across several city blocks, the participants marched

A cosmetic change

A cosmetic change Like most ALP conferences during the past three decades, the “special” rules conference held on October 5-6 was a carefully stage managed affair. It was designed to bolster the image of federal Labor leader Simon

BRITAIN: Not in our name!

BY JOHN PILGER LONDON — If Tony Blair uses the royal prerogative, "the absolute power of kings", to join George Bush's attack on Iraq, he acts in a manner no different, in principle and deed, from Germany's unprovoked attacks that ignited the

Write on: Letters to the editor

Socialist Alliance I The value and necessity of a united response from the left on key issues has been borne out during the current debate around asylum seekers. The Socialist Alliance has consistently been present in (and often driving) community