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Protesters vow to close Baxter detention centre

Tim Daughney Refugee-rights supporters came from all over Australia. Packed into crowded buses, cars and mini-vans, we travelled for up to 48 hours to spend the Easter weekend camping in the desert. The Baxter '05 convergence numbered about 450

A big, working-class heart

RickyBy Ricky TomlinsonTime Warner, 2004448 pages, $24.95 (pb) REVIEW BY PHIL SHANNON "A window got broke, a door frame got knocked over and a couple of walls were toppled. Some guy slipped off scaffolding and sprained an ankle. Another claimed a

Loose cannons

'Free' market at work "Halliburton ... charged the Pentagon $27.5 million to ship $82,100 worth of cooking and heating fuel.. In the latest revelation about the company's oft-criticized performance in Iraq, a Pentagon audit report disclosed Monday

KYRGYZSTAN: What's behind the revolt?

Lee Sustar, Chicago A mass uprising that chased the authoritarian president of Kyrgyzstan out of his country on March 24 went beyond Washington's scripted "people power revolutions" in the republics of the former USSR. But newly empowered

Unity in the face of permanent war

Max Lane, Sydney More than 500 people participated in the biggest gathering of social justice and international solidarity activists in Australia since 2002, when they attended the Third Asia Pacific International Solidarity Conference (APISC

Greens MP slams Boeing discrimination decision

Graham Matthews, Sydney The decision by the NSW Labor government to allow defence contractor Boeing exemption from the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act was slammed by NSW Greens MP Lee Rhiannon as nothing more than the government sponsoring racism.

Newcastle students oppose VSU

NEWCASTLE — On March 23, 170 students braved the rain and cold at the University of Newcastle to protest the federal Coalition government's assault on student unions. The university's vice-chancellor, professor Nick Saunders, stated his

'They are afraid of you'

The following remarks were made by independent journalist John Pilger to a March 20 anti-war rally in Sydney. The other day, the Aboriginal filmmaker Richard Frankland said this: "When you've got a voice, you've got freedom, and when you've got

On the box

The Black Meteor — The arrival of a black South African soccer player to a small Dutch town challenges racism and small-mindedness. SBS, Monday, April 11, 11pm. Cutting Edge: Al-Qaeda in Europe — In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the locus

Single mothers' group condemns welfare attacks

Selena Black Parents may be forced to choose between meeting compliance demands and their children's interests under proposed welfare changes to force single parents of primary school age children into work, according to the National Council of

Bono stage right: Empire moves and co-opts in mysterious ways

BY DERRICK O'KEEFE Like so many, I've by now become used to my childhood heroes letting me down. I long ago accepted that hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, to whom I dedicated many an early adolescent hour of memorising statistics (just ask me how many

Speak-out condemns VSU

CANBERRA — More than 100 students gathered at the Australian National University on March 31 for a speak-out organised by the student association's education department against the federal government's moves to introduce "voluntary student