573

CHINA: Workers demand wages, security

Eva Cheng Some 2000 workers and their retired counterparts from the Tieshu textile factory in Suizhou, Hubei province, staged an angry protest on February 8 denouncing the now-defunct plant's management for cheating workers of savings and benefits.

Victorian teachers to stage one-day strike

Mary Merkenich, Melbourne On March 3, Victorian public school teachers and their colleagues from the Catholic school system will stop work for one day. This collaborative action is unprecedented and is a sign of the desperation that teachers feel

News Briefs #2

GEELONG — On February 24, 30 members of four trade unions attended an emergency meeting called to discuss a defence campaign for Craig Johnston, former Victorian secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union. Johnston goes to trial in

Johnston defence committee gears up for court hearing

Michael Bull, Melbourne Since its first meeting on February 10, the Defend Craig Johnston Committee has planned a range of activities to defend the former Victorian secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU). Johnston is

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. Includes the Green Left news. CTS Sydney (UHF 31), every Sunday, 9pm. Phone 9564 1277. Visit

Racism kills: Struggling to survive in the lucky country

John Pilger Once again, the neat, placid surface of white Australia is disturbed by those who owned and cared for this country and remain its internal exiles. On February 15, a crowd of Aboriginal youths set fire to a railway station and fought

Our Common Cause: Equality, justice and freedom

This week, the Socialist Alliance launched its Gender Agenda: A Charter for Women's Rights. The charter aims to put women's experiences, needs and aspirations up front in the political discussion and activity of the Australian left. It reflects and,

A magical lesbian musical

A Twist of Lemon DeliciousWritten by the Lesbian IdolsDirected by Louise FisherNew Theatre, 542 King St, Newtown, SydneyMarch 6-13Bookings (02) 9519 8958$15 per ticket REVIEW BY RACHEL EVANS As part of the lead up to Sydney's gay and lesbian

CUBA: Gay rights: How much has changed?

In this interview by Eduardo Jimanez Garcia, which first appeared in Alma Mater, the journal of the University of Havana, Mariela Castro Espin, the director of the Cuban National Institute for Sex Education (CENESEX), advocates an amendment to the

Racism kills asylum seekers and refugees

Sarah Stephen Government policy that imposes ever harsher measures to "protect our borders" from desperate refugees doesn't just increase suffering, it kills. The people-smuggling disruption program that Australia was central to establishing in

The Petrograd of the West

REVIEWED BY ALEX MILLER Red ClydesideAlistair Hulett and Dave SwarbrickRed Rattler The extraordinary industrial and political militancy in the west of Scotland in the second decade of the 20th Century led Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir

A woman of independence

REVIEW BY PIP HINMAN A Woman of Independence: A story of love and the birth of a new nationBy Kirsty Sword GusmaoPan Macmillan Australia 2003320 pages, $30 (pb) Kirsty Sword Gusmao's book, A Woman of Independence, is not just a love story.