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Support grows for campaign to save Ningaloo Reef

PERTH — Western Australia's Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) has given conditional approval for a massive marina and resort to be constructed next to the fragile Ningaloo Reef, 1200 kilometres north of Perth. However, the Save Ningaloo

NSW police to get extra powers

BY DALE MILLS SYDNEY — Police will be able to stop and search people without warrants after the NSW ALP cabinet approved new “anti-terror” laws in November. The laws are now being rushed through state parliament. Among other things, NSW

Could the anti-WTO protests been bigger?

BY PIP HINMAN SYDNEY — The NSW state government and corporate media's blitz in the weeks leading up to the World Trade Organisation mini-ministerial meeting, which claimed “violent protesters” and “society's dregs” were intent on “arson”

INDONESIA: State terrorism and the Bali bombings

BY JOHN PILGER "What passing bells for these who die as cattle?", asked the great WWI poet Wilfred Owen. His famous line might have been written for those who perish in today's secret wars and terrorist outrages. Owen's generation never used the

Loose Cannons

Free enterprise "Collectible cards depicting portraits of victims of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center are due to go on sale next month, leading to accusations their manufacturer is trading on tragedy." — Daily Telegraph,

Howard keeps mum over Nile's racist call

BY KATHERINE BRADSTREET The Prime Minister John Howard initially refused to rule out support for a call to ban Muslim women from wearing certain religious dress in public. The call was made by Fred Nile, a Christian fundamentalist MP in the NSW

ITALY: Firenze Assediata (Florence under siege)

BY STEPHEN BENNETTS FLORENCE — “Non ho mai visto Firenze cosi bella. Che bello vederla cosi piena di gente; di solito ci sono solo le bancarelle d'oro e le cartoline. E che palle!” (“I've never seen Florence looking so beautiful. How

Where is the Socialist Alliance going?

Over the past two months, life in the Socialist Alliance has been stormy. The International Socialist Organisation (ISO) threatened to disaffiliate if the Democratic Socialist Party went ahead with a proposal to its December congress to convert

Candidates speak out against war

MELBOURNE — Speak-outs against a possible war on Iraq were held in three Melbourne suburbs on November 23. The Footscray protest heard from Socialist Alliance candidate for Footscray Justine Kamprad, Shirley Winton from the Western Suburbs

National refugee summit 2003

BY PAUL BENEDEK SYDNEY — "We are a mass movement, we need to look like one" is the idea behind a broadly supported initiative to hold a National People's Refugee Summit in early 2003. The proposed summit, tentatively scheduled for February 1-2

Alternative visions of September 11

Episodes directed by Samira Makhmalbaf, Claude Lelouch, Ken Loach, Sean Penn, Denis Tanovic, Mira Nair, Shohei Imamura, Amos Gitai, Youssef Chahine, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Idrissa Ouedrago Now showing at the Nova and Cinema Europa,

Union solidarity committee holds first meeting

BY SUE BULL MELBOURNE — "Building rank-and-file unionism" was the topic of discussion at the first public meeting of the Trade Union Solidarity Committee, which was held on November 19 at Trades Hall. The committee was set up by the Socialist