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Billy Elliot: defeat and triumph in Thatcher's Britain

Billy Elliot Directed by Stephen Daldry With Jamie Bell and Julie Walters  REVIEW BY ADAM GOLDSTEIN The depiction of British working-class life in films, beginning in the late-1950s, emerged full-bloom in the 1990s. It has taken

Power workers take desperate action

BY GEORGINA DAVIES MELBOURNE — A 24-hour stop work meeting by 250 members of the Latrobe Valley branch of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) caused power blackouts and restrictions across Victoria. The workers voted to

UNITED STATES: How the media backs Israeli colonialism

BY EDWARD SAID The events of the past four weeks in Palestine have been a near-total triumph for Zionism in the United States for the first time since the modern re-emergence of the Palestinian national movement in the late 1960s. Political as well

and ain't i a woman?: What real choice in the US?

In September, Mifepristone, better known as RU486, was finally approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in early pregnancy abortions. Despite having been safely administered in France, where it is now used in one third of

Loose cannons

Peddling baloney Eating McDonald's hamburgers and fries reflects "an individualistic relationship between man and God which goes back to [Martin] Luther". — Catholic theologian Massimo Salami writing in the Italian bishops' daily Avvenire.

Students outraged by Newcastle Uni election decision

BY MELODY COUTMAN & ALISON DELLIT NEWCASTLE — The ballots cast in the Newcastle University Student Association (NUSA) presidential by-election on November 6-7 are to be destroyed uncounted, following a decision by the NUSA executive to uphold the

Hunger stalks trade talks

BY SEAN HEALY While trade bureaucrats from the rich countries begin negotiations in Geneva to extend the World Trade Organisation's Agreement on Agriculture, a new report released by the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) shows

Palestinian refugees and their right to return

SARI KASSIS from Friends of Palestine spoke at a Green Left Weekly forum in Sydney on November 1. The following is an abridged version of his speech. I am a card-carrying Palestinian. The card is a small orange identity card. This card doesn't so

Student conference for global justice gathers support

BY KERRYN WILLIAMS In the past week, the University of Canberra Students Association and the Wollongong University Student Representative Council have added their support to the "Global Action for Global Justice" student solidarity conference

EAST TIMOR: Facts and fictions about the militias

BY JON LAND On November 5, the Channel 9 Sunday program screened a special report titled "On Patrol in Timor", which claimed to show "how moderate militia factions are politically battling hardline groups still ready to attack the UN peacekeepers".

BHP moves to slash maintenance workforce

BY MELANIE SJOBERGAND BRONWEN POWELL WOLLONGONG — Four thousand BHP Port Kembla workers voted for a 24-hour strike after an angry debate at a stopwork meeting here on November 9. "This is about job security", Graham Roberts, Australian Workers

Brownbuilt: seven weeks locked out

BY BEN COURTICE MELBOURNE — How can you fight the boss for a pay rise when the boss locks you out of work for the next six months? This is the question workers had to grapple with at Brownbuilt, an office furniture factory in Oakleigh South.