627

Ian Jamieson, Perth Since the Coalition government was re-elected in 2004, workers around Australia have been waiting for the union movement to begin to organise against the federal government's anti-union agenda. Almost immediately after the
Barry Healy Possibly the most honest and forthright, if not bluntly enraged, voice of progressive Catholicism in Australia passed into silence on May 17 with the death of Ted Kennedy, long the priest of St Vincent's church in the Sydney inner-city
How long does it take employees at McDonald's restaurants in our region to earn enough money to purchase a Big Mac? Australia — 17 minutes New Zealand — 28 minutes Hong Kong — 41 minutes Malaysia — 1 hour, 26 minutes South Korea —
On May 10, the US Senate unanimously passed the Real ID Act, as part of a spending bill for the Iraq war. The law, which had already been (narrowly) passed by the House of Representatives, will come into effect in May 2008. From then, all US
MELBOURNE — On May 3, 100 people attended an "East Timor: Then and Now" evening organised by East Timor Women Australia, the Australia East Timor Association and the Timor Sea Justice Campaign. The featured speaker was Canadian filmmaker and
CAIRNS — "Aboriginal people were paid a pittance for their work over 100 years, and even that pittance was stolen", Terry O'Shane, chair of a rally held in the city mall on May 15, told the audience. Aunty Ruth Hegarty from the Stolen Wages
On May 4, Army judge Colonol James Pohl terminated the court-martial of Private Lynndie England, accused of torturing prisoners at the US-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, saying her guilty plea was "not believable". Pohl explained that if, as England's
BRISBANE — On May 7, 100 people attended a Middle Eastern dinner and benefit concert to raise funds for Union Aid Abroad/APHEDA projects to assist Palestinians adversely affected by the Israeli government's apartheid wall. Singer-songwriter Phil
Doug Lorimer Following a 1.2 million-strong march in Havana, Cuba, on May 17 demanding that the US government arrest CIA terrorist Luis Posada, US immigration authorities in Miami detained Posada on May 19 on the grounds that he had entered the US
On May 5, the Law Lords overturned the decision of an immigration official to grant asylum to a woman suffering from full-blown AIDS, deciding that it was permissible to deport her to Uganda where she will be denied the drugs needed to keep her
James Balowski, Jakarta At midnight on May 18, the Indonesian government declared an end to its two-year civil emergency in Indonesia's northern-most province of Aceh. But calls by the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and human rights groups for the troops
Ray Fulcher Most of people recoil at the use of torture, Most people would say that the perpetrators and their governments were guilty of crimes against humanity and should be severely punished. Not so according to two Australian academics who