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and ain't I a woman: Abortion access for all women

and ain't I a woman: Abortion access for all women Many believe the myth that abortion is easily accessible to all women in Australia. It is not. For women living in rural areas, abortion is extremely expensive and disruptive. In Queensland,

ARGENTINA: What caused the world's largest default?

BY EVA CHENG "If I rob a bank, they throw me in jail. But if they rob me, then they say that's OK", screamed a protester who had joined thousands of others outside the office of Argentina's President Eduardo Duhalde on January 11 to demand

Who protested at the WEF?

Act Now to End War and Racism — ANSWER held a rally on February 2 to demand "Declare war on unemployment, poverty and mass layoffs not on the people of Afghanistan" and "Money for jobs, education and health care not war in Afghanistan". Visit

Refugees: 'A mental health crisis'

BY KERRYN WILLIAMS CANBERRA — More than 350 people packed into the Labor Club on January 29 to express their concern about the treatment of refugees in Australia's detention centres. The meeting was convened be the Refugee Action Committee

Coalition, ALP refugee policy condemned.

BY FEDERICO FUENTES PERTH — "The way we treat our most vulnerable and powerless will mark our society for years to come", Carmen Lawrence, ALP MP for Fremantle and the shadow minister for indigenous affairs, told 600 refugee-rights protesters on

Action updates

Refugee rights protests HOBART — Hundreds of people signed petitions and tooted their car horns in support of refugees' rights at a series of lunchtime vigils, organised by Resistance, outside immigration department offices between January 27

BRITAIN: Labour steps up attacks on asylum seekers

BY TERRICA STRUDWICK The British Labour government's policy towards asylum seekers can be summed up in three words: detention, deportation and dispersal. There has been a major increase in the number of men, women and children incarcerated in

PHILIPPINES: Opposition to US troops grows

BY NICK SOUDAKOFF On January 31, US and Philippines military officials launched the “Balikatan 2002” exercises, which bring together US troops and the soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). While the exercises are supposedly

Loose Cannons

Firmly inhuman "The approach I have taken in relation to these matters requires a degree of firmness, which sometimes people think demonstrates a lack of humanity. But I think your humanity has a greater potential to be evil than if you remain

The left and union affiliation to the ALP

BY LEON PARISSI Alison Dellit's article "Labor flounders rightward" (GLW #474) cheers on those voices who are in favour of decreased union influence in the ALP. She wrote: "It would be no loss for workers if trade unions' votes within the ALP

Socialist Alliance stands for Lord Mayor.

BY KATE STOCKDALE DARWIN — Socialist Alliance's campaign for Lord Mayor of Darwin was launched on February 1 at a protest in support of refugees. The alliance will be running Ruth Ratcliffe in the March 16 poll. "The campaign is an excellent

Marysville forest blockade attacked

BY NATALIE ZIRNGAST MARYSVILLE, Victoria — On January 23, a forest blockade near Marysville was broken up by police. David Marsden, a spokesperson for the blockade organising group, Actively Conserving Marysville Environs (ACME), described the