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The Murdoch effect

Here in Australia, the "threat" of the "flood" of illegal asylum seekers (no more than 4000 arrive in a year, most of them genuine) is said to have given Prime Minister John Howard his election victory last November. The decisive

'Labor MPs don't represent membership'

BY RYK MOLON DARWIN — Socialist Alliance candidate for Lord Mayor Ruth Ratcliffe and Independent Education Union organiser Simon Hall, who recently resigned from the Labor Party over its support for mandatory detention of refugees, addressed a

PALESTINE: Guerilla actions stun Israeli military

BY AHMAD NIMER RAMALLAH — Last week there was a massive escalation in Israel's military attacks against the Palestinian population of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. On a nightly basis, Israeli F-16 warplanes have dropped bombs over Palestinian

SOUTH AFRICA: Privatised power company sacks workers

BY PETER McINNES JOHANNESBURG — Around 480 voluntary retrenchments have been offered to municipal workers at the recently privatised Kelvin power plant. Kelvin, a coal-powered electricity station, provides 25% of Johannesburg's electricity

INDONESIA: Saying 'Long live the workers' gets you a prison sentence

BY MAX LANE Normalinda, an activist from the Indonesian National League of Students for Democracy (LMND) and Fransiscus "Black" Farneubun, an activist from the Peoples Democratic Party (PRD), were each sentenced to three months in prison by a

Loose cannons

Virtual monarch "We all know she doesn't really exist any more, but we can't quite bring ourselves to tell her or admit it." — New Zealand Herald columnist Brian Budman, on Queen Elizabeth II. Perish the thought! "I would have thought that it

Newtown rally: 'Close the camps!'

BY LISA MACDONALD SYDNEY — "How many more lies do we have to endure until the refugees are free?", Free the Refugees Campaign's (FRC) Paul Benedek, the 300 people who rallied outside the Newtown Neighbourhood Centre on February 22. "No more!",

YEMEN: Saleh joins Bush's 'war on terrorism'

BY BRIAN WHITAKER LONDON — Whatever authoritarian aspirations Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh may have cherished in the past, tribal and regional fiefdoms have always served as a brake on centralised power. Now, thanks to September 11, the

ARGENTINA: 'For a government of popular assemblies!'

BY FEDERICO FUENTES Protests against the government in Argentina continue to grow. Calls for new elections and the resignation of the government are being increasingly linked to the demand for a "workers' government". On February 15, 20,000

An expose of Australia's racism

Rabbit Proof FenceDirected by Phillip NoyceIntroducing Evelyn Sampi, Tianna Sansbury and Laura MonaghanWith Ningali Lawford, David Gulpilil, Deborah Mailman and Kenneth BranaghScreening at Dendy Newtown and cinemas across Australia REVIEW BY KIM

On the box

Actively Radical TV — Sydney community television's progressive current affairs producers tackle the hard issues from the activist's point of view. CTS Sydney (UHF 31), every Sunday, 9pm. Ph 9565 5522. Visit <http://www.channel31.org> for

INDONESIA: Fighter for democracy dies

BY MAX LANE On February 22, Haji Ponke Princen died. Princen, who was 76, was one of Indonesia's finest militant democrats. As a young man, Princen was sent to Indonesia as a Dutch soldier to fight against the Indonesian people's struggle for