648

SOUTH AFRICA: Mhlengi Khumalo is gone

Richard Pithouse, Durban On October 21, 16 shacks burnt down in the Kennedy Road shack settlement in Durban. One-year-old Mhlengi Khumalo was very badly burnt. He died the following night. This was the third conflagration that month. The fire

Councils affirm free speech

Pam Walker Leichhardt Council brought the matter before the Local Government Conference last month. Councils across the state voted overwhelmingly to affirm "the basic right of all citizens and organisations to freely distribute printed material on

'Axe murderer has more rights than building worker'

Paul Benedek, Brisbane "Secret listening devices, secret recording devices, no right to silence — this is not Nazi Germany in the '30s, this is Australia 2005 for building workers", explained Scott Wilson, an organiser for the Electrical Trades

The gains of Venezuela's Bolivarian revolution

Stuart Munckton Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's government has attempted to implement policies that benefit the working majority via redistributing the nation's oil wealth. Despite being the fifth largest supplier of oil in the world, when

BOLIVIA: Towns strike for road construction

Steph Mawson& Karol Florek, Tupiza Beginning on October 17, the Bolivian towns of Villazon, Tupiza and Cotagaita went on strike to pressure the government to complete a "highway" asphalting project. The planned "highway" runs between these towns

VENEZUELA: Paper factory under workers' control

Nick Everett In September last year, the owners of Venepal, a paper mill in Venezuela's Carabobo state, decided to cease operations and not pay their workers' wages. A year later the paper mill, now known as Invepal (Venezuelan Endogenous Paper

BOTSWANA: Bushmen win court victory

On October 28, Botswana's High Court ruled that the government must allow Amogolang Segootsane and his family to return to their land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, and must return his goats to him and allow him to bring water into the

The new IR bill: it's about choices

You don't mean, do you Minister, that under these proposed IR changes that an unemployed person will need to accept any job regardless of the conditions offered? — Well, yes. He has no choice. If he doesn't take the job no matter what the

On the box

Shorts on Screen: Circa — What do we do with these boat people? The question is asked by an Indigenous person in this re-creation of when white Europeans began arriving. SBS, Sunday, November 13, 12.05am. Cutting Edge: Karl Rove, the Architect

PHILIPPINES: Trade unionists murdered

Ron Perkins On October 26, Ka Ric Ramos, president of the Central Azucarera de Tarlac Labor Union (CATLU), became the latest victim in the year-long strike of sugar mill and agricultural workers at the Hacienda Luisita in central Luzon. Shot dead

A joyous moment for Bougainville

New BougainvilleBy CliveAvailable as VHS for $28 (including postage)Email <clive@mekamui.org> New Bougainville is about Bougainville gaining a new autonomous government, a joyous moment for Bougainvilleans after ten years of blood and

mX deal done, sealed and delivered

Pam Walker, Sydney Nationwide News, a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, has been granted permission to hand out its newspaper mX on city footpaths in exchange for a $362,000 yearly fee, payable to the City of Sydney. And if you're