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BY AARON BENEDEK SYDNEY — Despite Washington's military victory in Iraq, residents of Sydney's south-western suburbs are determined to maintain the anti-war organisations established in the area earlier this year and build opposition to the US
BY PETER BOYLE Two questions dominated the May 10-11 second national conference of the Socialist Alliance: What space is there for an explicitly socialist party in Australian politics today and what program and focus should the alliance adopt to
When the Socialist Alliance was founded in February 2001, Green Left Weekly supported the new political organisation. The social problems created by the capitalist profit system — war, unemployment, poverty, racism, the oppression of women, etc —
BY DOUG LORIMER In a new act of provocation aimed at creating a confrontation with Cuba, the US government on May 12 ordered seven diplomats at Cuba's United Nations mission to leave the US within 48 hours. The next day, the US State Department
BY DERMOTT RYDER Peter Costello, Liberal leadership hopeful and feral federal treasurer, in his budget has perpetrated the most savage attacks on the living conditions, medical care and welfare of workers, unemployed, disabled, the sick and elderly
BY ELISABETH KEAN On May 9, the Israeli military raided the office of the International Solidarity Movement in Beit Sahour, Palestine. During the raid, two ISM volunteers and a visitor from the Human Rights Watch organisation were detained. ISM
BY EVA CHENG For more than five decades, Washington has justified its strong military presence in north-east Asia in the name of countering "communism". Even though pro-capitalist governments now rule Russia and China, Washington has shown no
BY CHRIS SLEE MELBOURNE — Medical care is "a right not a privilege", declared Victorian Trades Hall Council secretary Leigh Hubbard on May 14. Hubbard was launching a campaign to defend and extend Medicare. Hubbard said people need to "get out
BY DOUG LORIMER Despite their joining the US campaign claiming that Pyongyang is seeking to develop nuclear weapons, both the Japanese and South Korean governments continue to fund the construction of a nuclear power plant in North Korea.

A surprise tax cut in this year's federal budget, released on May 13, saw the corporate media happily seize on one of the least significant elements of the Howard government's eighth budget. The question the media should have been

SYDNEY — Supporters of Green Left Weekly packed into the Fairfield Community Centre on May 17, to enjoy a night of music, good food and fabulous company while raising much needed funds for the paper. Activists from anti-war, feminist, refugees'
BY LISA MACDONALD SYDNEY — Treasurer Peter Costello's 2003 budget was giving a caning at a "People's reply to the budget" on May 16. At the meeting, organised by the Socialist Alliance, a range of speakers described the greater disadvantage and