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Free speech under attack at Sydney Uni

BY BRONWYN POWELL In a crackdown on political activists at Sydney University, two people have been arrested and a Resistance stall shut down in the space of two weeks. On August 25, Lian Jevey, an activist in Socialist Alternative, was arrested

Meeting discusses attacks on militant unions

BY CHRIS LATHAM FREMANTLE — Chris Cain, the recently elected Western Australian secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA), spoke at an August 30 Politics in the Pub discussion on defending militant unions against the attacks of federal

Toscano: 'Health care is a right, not a charity or a luxury'

BY CHRIS SLEE Dr Joe Toscano has worked as a doctor in private practice for 21 years and is joint national coordinator of Defend and Extend Medicare (DEM), a group initiated in Victoria but aiming to extend nation-wide. Toscano spoke with Green

WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION: Fake medicine deal to kick-start trade talks

BY EVA CHENG On August 30, on the eve of the September 10-14 World Trade Organisation ministerial summit in Cancun, Mexico, the US government succeeded in having the WTO issue a "breakthrough" draft agreement that it claims will allow poor

Kingham addresses Socialist Alliance seminar

BY MELANIE SJOBERG SYDNEY — Martin Kingham, the Victorian secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), was a keynote speaker at a Socialist Alliance organised trade union seminar held in Parramatta on August 30.

30 years after Chile coup: Revolution in Venezuela

BY JORGE JORQUERA My only vivid childhood memories are from Chile in September 1973 — the gunfire, the burning of documents and the waiting. Like thousands of Chilean workers, my father did not return home from work on the afternoon of September

A whistle-stop tour through the global justice movement

REVIEW BY DANNY FAIRFAX One No, Many Yeses: A Journey to the Heart of the Global Resistance MovementBy Paul KingsnorthEarthlight 2003$24.95 (Pb) Former deputy editor of the British Ecologist magazine Paul Kingsnorth set himself an ambitious task

SOUTH AFRICA: 'Away with pre-paid water meters!'

BY DALE McKINLEY JOHANNESBURG — Johannesburg Water Company (JOWCO) has embarked on a program of installing pre-paid water meters throughout Soweto, as part of "Operation Gcin'amanzi". The move is being resisted by the community. JOWCO claims it

AWU betrays Pilbara workers

BY SUE BOLTON An attempt by trade unionists working in the Pilbara mines in Western Australia to end rivalries between their unions, to present a united face to the mining industry bosses, has been sabotaged by the Australian Workers Union. At

Queensland teachers debate class size deal

BY BILL MASON BRISBANE — A statement issued by Queensland Teachers Union members in the Socialist Alliance has sparked considerable discussion among teachers in this state. Teachers are currently voting on whether to accept the government's

EGYPT: Anti-war activists may be jailed

Five anti-war activists in Egypt are facing years of imprisonment for the "crime" of protesting against the US invasion of Iraq. Ashraf Ibrahim, Nasser el Beheiri, Yehia Fekri Amin, Mustafa Mohamed el Bassuini and Reymon Edward Guindy have been

Tampa refugees welcomed in Brisbane

BY BILL MASON BRISBANE — Fourteen refugees from the MV Tampa, released from behind the barbed wire of the Nauru detention camp, were welcomed by supporters of refugees' rights when they arrived at Brisbane airport on September 3. The 14 Afghan