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Poor Indonesians scapegoated in people-smuggling trial

BY SARAH STEPHEN A Perth District Court judge on September 27 sentenced two Indonesian fisherpeople to jail for their role in transporting 438 asylum seekers to Australia in August last year. The people responsible for organising the journey and

GERMANY: Anti-war rhetoric puts SPD-Greens coalition back in office

BY JIM GREENThe German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democratic-Greens coalition government was narrowly re-elected in the September 22 national elections.The Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the conservative Christian Democratic

Let Timorese stay!

Let Timorese stay! The immigration department's September 25 announcement that it had rejected 168 asylum claims made by East Timorese refugees is a national disgrace. These are the first of more than 1700 applications which have been

Activists plan to shut down the WTO meeting

BY MARINA CARMAN& DALE MILLS SYDNEY — A meeting initiated by the No WTO network was held on September 21 to discuss protest actions against a World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting of trade ministers to be held on November 14-15. Around 100

George Georges a fighter for socialist principles

BY JIM McILROY BRISBANE — Former Labor senator George Georges died in Canberra on September 23 after a long illness. He was 82. Georges was from a rare breed: an ALP politician who stood up for his principles at the cost of his

COLOMBIA: MP flees Uribe's death squads

BY ROBERTO JORQUERA According to independent left-wing Colombian MP Gustavo Montealegre Almario, Colombia's president, Alvaro Uribe Velez, is the leader of the country's right-wing paramilitary death squads groups. Montealegre told Green Left

Humanitarian crisis in Palestine

BY SOBHI ALBADAWI& NOREEN NAVIN SYDNEY — Mustapha Barghouthi, president of the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees, gave a presentation on the situation in Palestine at the Trades and Labor Council on September 20. Barghouthi was in

COVER STORY: Bush's Iraq war threat based on lies

On September 24, British Prime Minister Tony Blair presented his much-anticipated "dossier", Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction, to the parliament. Supporters of a US attack on Iraq had promised that Blair would provide the definitive "evidence" that

Thousands march against war

BY ANDY GIANNIOTIS SYDNEY — Around 2000 people marched on September 26 to oppose the coming US-British war on Iraq and to demand a stop to Israel's US-backed war against the Palestinian people. The rally was jointly organised by the

Labor's real plan for Telstra

BY ALISON DELLIT On September 19, federal ALP leader Simon Crean, accompanied by Labor's candidate for the Cunningham by-election, Sharon Bird, announced that the party would vote against the Coalition's proposed changes to Telstra's price controls

CFMEU set to win pattern bargaining campaign

BY MICK BULL MELBOURNE — The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) and the Federated Engine Drivers and Fireman's Association (FEDFA) have reached an in-principle agreement with the Master Builders Association (MBA) over

Loose cannons

Santa's little helpers "The HIH royal commission has heard the company threw extravagant Christmas parties for staff a little over a year before the company collapsed. The commission has been told HIH spent almost $1.2 million on Christmas parties