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Students defend democracy

BY HELEN SLANEY MELBOURNE — Six hundred outraged students attended a student general meeting at Melbourne University on May 15, protesting against the recent attacks on campus political activism by the Melbourne University Students' Union

INDIA: Coca-Cola swallows villagers' fresh water

BY RATHEESH KALIYADAN KERALA — Plachimada has never been singled out as a village that exemplifies the "Kerala model of development". It is a tribal area that is highly crowded with destitute people. Families own tiny plots of land. The only jobs

Commission considers woodchip mill

BY ALEX BAINBRIDGE HOBART — The Resource, Planning and Development Commission hearing into the proposed Southwood woodchip mill and wood-fired power station ended on May 14 — two weeks after what was meant to be a three-day hearing began.

Unionists debate relationship to ALP

BY LISA MACDONALD SYDNEY — "The ALP — whose party is it?" was one of the questions addressed in a lively debate between trade union and other left activists at a Socialist Alliance-sponsored seminar held at Parramatta Town Hall on May 11. The

Drug laws opponents invade parliament

BY OWAIN LEWIS-JONES DARWIN — Eleven protesters from the Network Against Prohibition (NAP) stormed the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly chamber on May 14. The group was protesting the introduction of the Labor government's "drug house"

Inquiry exposes concentration camp horror

BY TONY ILTIS MELBOURNE — At a May 16 "people's inquiry" into the immigration detention centres held at the Inner West Migrant Resource Centre in Footscray, a panel of health workers formerly employed at the Woomera detention centre spoke out

EAST TIMOR: Independence poses new challenges

BY JON LAND As the official festivities wind down in East Timor following the May 20 independence celebrations and the international dignitaries fly back to their comfortable and privileged lifestyles, a beckoning question for most East Timorese

Socialist Alliance debates ALP and unions

BY MARCEL CAMERON BRISBANE — "One hundred years of ALP control of the trade unions is enough" — Community and Public Sector Union delegate Jim McIlroy, who is the Brisbane secretary of the Democratic Socialist Party, told a May 18 seminar.

IRAQ: Terrorist connection that never was

Another of the US government's post-September 11 lies has been exposed — and from the horse's mouth. According to the April 28 Newsweek magazine, US officials have confirmed that the alleged leader of the September 11 hijackers, Mohamed Atta, could

Washington's 'stirred up Muslims'

Taliban: The Story of the Afghan WarlordsBy Ahmed RashidPan Books 2001250 pages $20 REVIEWED BY CHRIS SLEE Re-published with a new foreword after September 11, Taliban: The Story of the Afghan Warlords by Far Eastern Economic Review journalist

What are the laws?

2, 2002, Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism Bill 2002, Criminal Code Amendment (Suppression of Terrorist Bombings) Bill 2002, Kurdistan Workers Party, PKK, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, ETA,

PALESTINE: Israel's land grab

BY ROHAN PEARCE A report released on May 13 by B'Tselem, the Israeli centre for human rights in the Occupied Territories, exposes the continuing illegal appropriation of Palestinian land by the Israeli government and Israeli colonial settlers.