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BY NORM DIXON The Nigeria Labour Congress, the country's peak council of blue-collar trade unions, early on July 8 "suspended" a general strike as it entered its ninth day. The strike had been called in response to massive petrol and kerosene price
Bus drivers resist split shifts PERTH — Drivers employed by Southern Coast Transit (SCT) walked of the job for six days beginning July 9. The drivers, members of the Transport Workers Union (TWU), were resisting attempts by management to force

"This man is, to me, a prophet!", declared Taos Pueblo recording artist Robert Mirabal on June 29 in welcoming legendary performer Harry Belafonte to the stage of the 2003 annual Taos Solar Music Festival.

BY STEPH MAWSON& KAROL FLOREK SYDNEY — On July 7, student activists picketed and disrupted a Sydney University Senate meeting. The meeting was to vote on a motion to support the federal government's tertiary education "reforms", and to
BY DEIRDRE GRISWOLD LOS ANGELES — US President George Bush flew into California on June 27 to raise millions of dollars from wealthy Republicans. He got the money, but he also got booed by thousands of protesters in Los Angeles and in Burlingame,
On July 9, workers took over a Pepsi-Cola bottling plant in Villa de Cura, south-west of Caracas. The workers charged that the company, part of Venezuela's Grupo Polar, plans to close the plant and lay-off hundreds of employees in an effort to
BY CARLENE WILSON On December 5, 1996, an armed group of paramilitary thugs walked into a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Colombia. They shot union negotiator Isidro Gil seven times, killing him. Later that day, another unionist was kidnapped from his
Ralph Miliband and the Politics of the New LeftBy Michael NewmanMerlin Press, 2002368 pages, $52.70 (pb) REVIEW BY PHIL SHANNON Many socialists in Britain have Ralph Miliband to thank for saving them from the sad fate of becoming a political
BY DALE MILLS What do you call a trial in which, even if found not guilty, you can end up in solitary confinement for the rest of your life? According to Attorney-General Daryl Williams, one in which "all the fundamental guarantees of the US and
BY NICK EVERETT SYDNEY — Sections of the anti-war movement are attempting to disband the Sydney Walk Against the War Coalition, the organisation that organised the 500,000-strong march against the war on Iraq on February 16. They have already set
BY GAELE SOBOT I've seen two films during which I desperately wanted to walk out of the cinema to escape the assault to my senses: Peter Greenaway's The Baby of Macon (1993) and Larry Clark's Kids (1995). Greenaway's excesses included murder,
BY PAUL OBOOHOV CANBERRA — At 5am on July 17, about 100 Australian Federal Police officers attacked the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, acting under orders from the federal government's National Capital Authority (NCA). The AFP confiscated a previously