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End support to Afghan narco-regime: Bring the troops home now!

In a new study, entitled Stumbling into Chaos: Afghanistan on the Brink, the Brussels-based Senlis Council international policy think-tank said that the Taliban is now the de facto governing authority in large portions of southern Afghanistan.

Bali - beyond the bazaar

Under the Volcano: the story of Bali
By Cameron Forbes
Black Inc., 2007
286 pages, $32.90 (pb)

New same-sex civil unions push in ACT

ABC Online reported on November 29 that the Australian Capital Territory’s attorney-general, Simon Corbell, intended to introduce a bill that would give legal recognition to same-sex “civil unions”.

Iraq: Green Zone again hit by mortar rounds

“More deadly violence occurred north and south of Baghdad as insurgents appeared intent on sending a message to US and Iraqi officials that their recent expressions of confidence in the nation’s security were premature”, the November 24 Los Angeles Times reported, adding that the attacks were “marked by hits on targets that lately had escaped attack”.

Racist police violence in Melbourne suburb

Twenty-one police cars swarmed on the inner-western suburb of Flemington on November 28 after allegations a teenager of African descent swore at two police cars on patrol.

Labor to retain NT 'emergency intervention'

The November 24 electoral victory of the ALP was based largely upon public opposition to the Howard Coalition government’s Work Choices laws. But in the Northern Territory, opposition among Aborigines to PM John Howard’s “emergency intervention” into their communities was a major factor in boosting support for Labor.

Save the whales

Harpoon: Into the Heart of Whaling
By Andrew Darby
Allen & Unwin, 2007
296 pages, $29.95 (pb)

Palestine: The Annapolis charade0

On November 27, as Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met, with the backing of US President George Bush in Annapolis, Maryland, to discuss a possible peace treaty, Israeli troops invaded a number of West Bank cities and attacked the Gaza Strip, killing at least four people. Abbas’s US-trained Palestinian Security Forces attacked thousands of unarmed demonstrations against the conference in Ramallah, Bethlehem, Nablus, Tulkarem and Hebron.

Bernie Banton, working-class fighter

Bernie Banton, the widely-recognised face of the legal and political campaign to achieve compensation for the many sufferers of asbestos-related conditions, which they contracted after working for the James Hardie company, died on November 27, at the age of 61.

A thank you

Thank you very much for your support for the Socialist Alliance’s 2007 federal election campaign.

History of the Comintern: Colonised peoples take the lead

This year marks the 90th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. In the years following the revolution, its leaders initiated the formation of the Communist (Third) International (Comintern), an international grouping of communist parties. In Venezuela, the leadership of the country’s unfolding socialist revolution have issued a call for a new international of Latin American left parties. In this article, part of a series on the early years of the Comintern, John Riddell looks at the relationship between communist revolutionaries and colonised peoples.

Bali summit unlikely to meet climate change challenge

The first round of official talks to negotiate a global climate change agreement to follow on from the Kyoto Protocol in 2012 will be held in Bali, Indonesia, on December 3-14. Representatives of 130 countries will attend, ostensibly to begin a two-year negotiating process.