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EAST TIMOR: Debate begins on transition process

BY VANYA TANAJA DILI — Public hearings held here January 14-24 to discuss the timetable for East Timor's transition to independence have revealed sharply differing views among East Timorese leaders over the political mechanisms to be used to

WTO head says protesters make him vomit

BY JAMES VASSILOPOULOS CANBERRA — "The people who stand outside and say they work in the interests of the poorest people ... they make me want to vomit." This is how Mike Moore, the director-general of the World Trade Organisation (WTO),

INDONESIA: Golkar blames PRD for office burnings

BY MAX LANE Golkar chairperson Akbar Tanjung has accused the People's Democratic Party and two student activist organisations, Forkot and Jarkot, of being behind the burning down of its offices throughout East Java. Jakarta's main daily, Kompas,

M1 Sydney calls people to action

BY LISA MACDONALD SYDNEY — M1 Sydney has adopted a “call to action”, seeking the endorsement and active participation of organisations and individuals in building the mass anti-corporate protests planned for May 1, which are focused on a

Rod Quantock: Judge, jury and laughs

BY ARUN PRADHAN MELBOURNE — Lest We Forget is the latest offering by political rabble-rouser and comedian Rod Quantock. It is Quantock's inquiry into the police violence at the September 11-13 (S11) protests outside World Economic Forum meeting.

The myth of Aboriginal 'welfare dependency'

BY ALISON DELLIT In 1788, Captain James Cook justified land theft from Aborigines on the basis that they "set no value upon anything" and were incapable of "improving their lot". In 2000, Prime Minister John Howard justified further attacks on

Council workers rally

More than 100 Sydney City Council workers rallied outside the Town Hall on February 8 to protest contracting out of their jobs. The rally was called by the Municipal Employees Union as a warning to the council before the expiry of the workers'

Visit to a detention centre

BY SIMON TAYLER As we drive into Villawood Immigration Detention Centre, the first thing I feel is the place's isolation from the world around it. To the south, only just visible, is the local industrial area — book printers and truck yards.

Free traders to lure students

BY JODY BETZIEN MELBOURNE — Appearing alongside World Trade Organisation director-general Mike Moore during his February 6 visit here, federal trade minister Mark Vaile has announced a new government program to convince school students that "free

Gore Vidal: The failure of liberal leftism

REVIEW BY PHIL SHANNON Gore Vidal: A BiographyBy Fred KaplanBloomsbury, 2000850 pp, $24.95 (pb) "Listen, you queer! Stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I'll sock you in your goddam face and you'll stay plastered!" No, this scintillating oratory is

M1 Adelaide 'takes the initiative'

BY KATHY NEWNAM ADELAIDE — "With M1, the people's movement is taking the initiative to protest against the rule of the corporate elite", declares the rallying call of M1 Adelaide, adopted at the coalition's February 7 meeting. The statement

INDONESIA: Youth mobilise against Suharto forces

BY KERRYN WILLIAMS On January 30 more than 500 high school students and 300 urban poor youth, with the help of 15 buses, mobilised in Jakarta for the "Anti-New Order Tour". Organised by the Popular Youth Movement (GPK) and Jabotabek High School