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Tampa Day rallies

Chris Kerr & Jim McIlroy, Brisbane On August 27, 300 people rallied in Roma Street Forum for Tampa Day and marched across the Brisbane River to the Queensland College of Art. The protest, sponsored by the Refugee Action Collective and Amnesty

BRITAIN: The rise of the 'democratic' police state

John Pilger, London Thomas Friedman is a famous columnist on the New York Times. He has been described as "a guard dog of US foreign policy". Whatever America's warlords have in mind for the rest of humanity, Friedman will bark it. He boasts that

Write on: Letters to the editor

AWAs Krispy Kreme doughnut workers were bullied into signing individual contracts that left them thousands of dollars a year out of pocket, two former employees have said in submissions to a Senate inquiry. One former staff member, Thea Birch

IRAQ: The two 'Green Zones'

Dahr Jamail As the US-backed Iraqi puppet government flails about arguing over the so-called constitution, Iraq remains in a state of complete anarchy. There is no government control whatsoever, even inside the infamous "Green Zone" where the

Corporate crooks' 'future' rejected

Alison Dellit, Sydney Around 1500 protesters descended on the Sydney Opera House on August 30 to protest one of the grossest international gatherings of corporate crooks: the Forbes Global CEO Conference. Delegates to the Forbes conference paid

New Orleans crisis: Bush's Iraq war to blame

Lee Sustar, Chicago Decades of official neglect, racism and the impact of global warming magnified the destructive impact of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and other parts of the US south. The mainstream media have focused most on the big-money

Corporate power threatening our health

Selling Sickness: How Drug Companies are Turning Us All into PatientsBy Ray Moynihan & Alan CasselsAllen & Unwin, 2005254 pages, $26.95 (pb) REVIEW BY PHIL SHANNON Thirty years ago, the retiring head of the Merck pharmaceutical company told

VENEZUELA: Chavez to help poor in South and North America

Stuart Munckton The furore continues to grow over the call to assassinate left-wing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made on US national television on August 22 by Pat Robertson, a right-wing Christian televangalist and well-known supporter of US

Darwin residents oppose nuclear waste dump

Kathy Newnam, Darwin One hundred and twenty people attended the "Don't Waste the Territory" public meeting organised by the No Radioactive Waste Dump Committee on August 31. "This project can be stopped", the Australian Conservation Foundation's

SOUTH AFRICA: 'New UDF' sparks left debate

Dale T. McKinley, Johannesburg A great deal of excitement has been generated, among South Africa's general population and also in left-wing political and activist ranks, by the launch of what has been labelled by the mainstream media the "new

Is the ACTU giving up on the fight?

Dick Nichols What is ACTU secretary Greg Combet up to? On August 23 he addressed the Australian Industry Group (AIG), the umbrella organisation for the major manufacturing and construction bosses, and the main business organisation behind the

40,000 students denied ESL support

Noreen Navin, Sydney Across NSW, 40,000 public school students with a language background other than English (LBOTE) are being denied English as a second language (ESL) support because the NSW Labor government refuses to prioritise their needs. A