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Socialist Alliance establishes local campaign groups

BY NICK EVERETT SYDNEY — Five local campaign groups of the newly formed Socialist Alliance held inaugural meetings across Sydney on May 15 and 16. The meetings — held in Sydney city (Ultimo), Burwood, Parramatta, Marrickville and Chatswood —

Break the chains of eternal debt

BY EVA CHENG What does it say about the nature of the current world order when, despite expanded food production capacity and sophisticated life-saving technologies, more than 30,000 children under five still die each day in Third World countries

UNITED NATIONS: US booted off commission

BY ALISON DELLIT The United States government suffered a humiliating defeat on May 4 when it was voted off the United Nations Human Rights Commission for the first time since the commission's inception. It's not as if Washington didn't do its

Pro-choice campaign takes to streets

BY LYNDA HANSEN BRISBANE — The International Women's Day Collective launched its abortion law repeal petition campaign at the May 7 Labour Day festivities in Musgrave Park. The petition demands repeal of the Queensland criminal code sections

Josh White: The forgotten singer

REVIEW BY PHIL SHANNON Josh White: Society BluesBy Elijah WaldUniversity of Massachusetts Press, 2000336 pp, $69 (hb) Josh White is the forgotten singer of progressive blues and folk in the United States. Common coin has it that his obscurity is

Loose cannons

Egalitarian society "The annual Australian rich list was released last week estimating Kerry Packer's wealth at more than $6 billion. This is the equivalent of the wealth of 38,895 average Australians." — Sunday Telegraph, May 20. Toward a

Socialist Alliance launched in WA

BY SARAH STEPHEN @box text intr = PERTH — On May 9, 45 people attended a meeting to launch the Socialist Alliance in Western Australia. Roberto Jorquera from the Democratic Socialist Party and Wade McDonald from the International Socialist

Doctors win pay rise

BY ALEX BAINBRIDGE HOBART — "If doctors in public hospitals were only concerned about money, they wouldn't be working in the public system" said Dr Kamala Emanuel in defence of the campaign by doctors to win improvements in their conditions of

News briefs

Vodaphone workers face sackings MELBOURNE — Forty workers for telecommunications company Vodaphone turned up to what they thought would be an ordinary day of training on March 15, only to find themselves being marched out of the gates flanked by

IMF, World Bank can cancel debt

BY SEAN HEALY Opponents of debt cancellation claim that such a move cannot happen because it would bankrupt the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. While such a result might be good news for the world's poor, such a claim is false.

and ain't i a woman?: Criminalising miscarriage

On May 17 a South Carolina court sentenced a 24-year-old woman to 12 years in prison for homicide. The victim was her fetus; the method of the "murder" was cocaine use. Eight months pregnant when she miscarried, Regina McKnight is homeless, poor,

SCOTLAND: Support grows for socialists

BY SARAH STEPHEN The Scottish Socialist Party is causing a stir in the run-up to Britain's June 7 general election. The party will contest all 72 seats in Scotland, its most ambitious election campaign to date. "What we want from this election is