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People's power comes to Adelaide streets

BY BRONWEN BEECHEY ADELAIDE — Four hundred people participated in the five-hour blockade of the Australian Stock Exchange, located in the Santos Building, in a powerful statement of how strongly they felt about the need to fight the ravages of

Police assaults fail to deter blockaders

BY GRANT COLEMAN PERTH — May 1 will be remembered for two connected reasons: it was the first sitting of parliament under Geoff Gallop's new Labor state government, and it was the day of one of the most violent police operations against

Callinicos to speak at Sydney conference

BY JOHN PERCY SYDNEY — British Marxist intellectual Alex Callinicos will be a keynote speaker at the second Asia Pacific International Solidarity Conference, scheduled for Easter 2002 in Sydney. Callinicos will represent the Socialist

EAST TIMOR: UN lets Indonesian military off the hook

BY VANYA TANAJA DILI — News that Indonesia has formally agreed to set up an ad hoc tribunal to try those responsible for mass murder in East Timor around the period of the 1999 independence referendum was welcomed by Sergio de Mello, head of

Audacity inspires Hobart to protest

BY ALEX BAINBRIDGE HOBART — Months of hard work by organisers paid off on May 1 when hundreds of people participated in the largest anti-capitalist protest this city has ever seen. Organisers admit that even on the morning of the blockade, they

Write on: Letters to the editor

Free trade Speaking at the recent Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in support of the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas, George Bush said that "trade not only helps spread prosperity, but trade helps spread freedom". If this is true then it

Unity rally a victory for coalition-building

BY FELICITY MARTIN MELBOURNE — The joining together of 7000 unionists with 3000 stock exchange blockaders in a single unity march was a display of May Day solidarity not seen in this city for more than 60 years. Long negotiations between the M1

M1 and trade unions

BY PHIL DAVEY I confess I made a wrong call with the May Day "M1" protest this week. I predicted with great confidence a few days before that M1 would max out at maybe 1000 protesters. The march from Bridge Street to Martin Place at lunchtime May

and ain't i a woman?: Populate or perish: where sexism and racism collude

Early last month, family services minister Amanda Vanstone released a discussion paper calling for incentives for Australian women to have more children. The reason? At 1.75 births per woman of child-bearing age, Australia's fertility rate has fallen

BRITAIN: 'Oxford Circus Internment Camp' condemned

BY NORM DIXON For weeks before May 1, British Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair, London's mayor Ken Livingstone, the Metropolitan Police and the Britain's capitalist mass media relentlessly demonised and criminalised people intending to peacefully

Vox pop

"We went to M1 planning a peaceful mass blockade, but the cops attacked us using pain and violence to force us off Pitt St. Getting arrested didn't faze me, because third world debt is serious, poverty is serious, capitalism is serious. So we have to

A day like few others

The first May Day of the new century should be remembered for a long time — possibly even as a new turning point in the centuries-long struggle for global justice. For one day, it seemed like the working people of the world rose as one: workers