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MELBOURNE — On September 10, a meeting of 52 taxi drivers at the Richmond Town Hall decided to promote the formation of the Victorian Taxi Drivers Association. Socialist Party Yarra city councillor Steve Jolly told the meeting that the VTDA needed
Jim McIlroy & Coral Wynter, Caracas Speaking to thousands of supporters during a September 6 election rally in Maracaibo, capital of the western state of Zulia, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced he would promote a recall referendum against
Dave Riley, Brisbane While many Queenslanders will probably recall September 2006 as the occasion of Steve Irwin's death, on September 9 the Queensland ALP was returned to office with another massive majority. Labor Party fortunes have not been so
BALLARAT — The Howard government has given the University of Ballarat a hefty reward for carrying out the most aggressive anti-union industrial relations' strategy in higher education. From 2005 to early 2006, the former vice-chancellor Kerry Cox
Dahr Jamail & Ali al Fadhily, Ramadi The US military has lost control over the volatile Anbar province, Iraqi police and residents say. The area to the west of Baghdad includes Fallujah, Ramadi and other towns that have seen the worst of the US
Federico Fuentes Reporting in La Epoca, Daniela Otero wrote of the September 8 "pro-autonomy" strikes across Bolivia's four eastern departments (Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni and Pando): "The government and the leaderships of the civic committees with
Trish Corcoran, Sydney Barry Hemsworth, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) delegate at Botany Cranes, one of the largest mobile crane businesses in Sydney, was sacked on September 6 for "gross insubordination". Hemsworth
The Wind That Shakes the BarleyWritten by Paul LavertyDirected by Ken LoachWith Cillian Murphy, Padraic Delaney, Liam Cunningham, Gerard Kearney and William RuaneIn selected cinemas now. Ken Loach's new film The Wind That Shakes the Barley is a
Kim Bullimore On September 13, Palestinian political leaders condemned Washington's refusal to lift its aid embargo against the Palestinian Authority (PA) after Hamas and Fatah, the two major Palestinian political parties, reached agreement on
Federico Fuentes During the swearing-in of more than 300,000 people to the "battalions" of the Miranda Command on September 9, Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez, who is seeking re-election through a massive grassroots effort led by the

In his comment piece, "Should Venezuela have entered Mercosur?" (GLW #682), Raul Bassi emphasises the incapacity of Mercosur — the "Common Market of the South" set up in 1991 between Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay — to

Jim McIlroy & Coral Wynter, Caracas National and state governments are attempting to tackle the threat posed to Venezuela by right-wing paramilitary groups that have infiltrated the regions of the country bordering Colombia, particularly the state