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Crean and Carr's cop frenzy

NSW Premier Bob Carr's enthusiasm for vilifying protesters, police patrols with sniffer dogs and cooperating with Australia's secret police service is not an aberration for the ALP. Federal Labor is also bending over backwards to increase police

Iraqi asylum seekers offered 'voluntary deportation'

BY TERRICA STRUDWICK & SARAH STEPHEN At the end of September, Abdur Wahab Najim, an Iraqi asylum seeker in Villawood detention centre, was approached by an immigration department official who offered him a passport and claimed that the

Feast Festival refugees' rights forum

BY LUKE SMITH ADELAIDE — Around 100 people gathered at the Queens Theatre on November 17 for a refugees' rights forum. The event, part of the Feast Festival 2002, focused on the plight of refugees fleeing persecution because of their sexuality.

Opposing Bracks' privatisation

BY ANNE O’CASEY MELBOURNE — Arun Pradhan, the Socialist Alliance candidate for Melbourne district in the November 30 Victorian elections, has called for mass civil disobedience to stop the controversial Commonwealth Games village planned

The killing of Angelo Tsakos

SYDNEY — On November 11, a book was launched in the outer Sydney suburb of Blacktown. It coincided with the 17th anniversary of the killing by police of 16-year-old Angelo Tsakos. The book, A Mother's Story, details the agony of those 17 years

A story that must be told

Just Another Little Murder: A Brother's Pursuit of JusticeBy Phil ClearyAllen and Unwin, 2002$29.95 REVIEW BY ERIN CAMERON The murder of Vicki Cleary in 1987 shook her family to the core, but what was to devastate them even more was the outcome

Support grows for campaign to save Ningaloo Reef

PERTH — Western Australia's Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) has given conditional approval for a massive marina and resort to be constructed next to the fragile Ningaloo Reef, 1200 kilometres north of Perth. However, the Save Ningaloo

NSW police to get extra powers

BY DALE MILLS SYDNEY — Police will be able to stop and search people without warrants after the NSW ALP cabinet approved new “anti-terror” laws in November. The laws are now being rushed through state parliament. Among other things, NSW

INDONESIA: State terrorism and the Bali bombings

BY JOHN PILGER "What passing bells for these who die as cattle?", asked the great WWI poet Wilfred Owen. His famous line might have been written for those who perish in today's secret wars and terrorist outrages. Owen's generation never used the

Could the anti-WTO protests been bigger?

BY PIP HINMAN SYDNEY — The NSW state government and corporate media's blitz in the weeks leading up to the World Trade Organisation mini-ministerial meeting, which claimed “violent protesters” and “society's dregs” were intent on “arson”

Loose Cannons

Free enterprise "Collectible cards depicting portraits of victims of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center are due to go on sale next month, leading to accusations their manufacturer is trading on tragedy." — Daily Telegraph,

Howard keeps mum over Nile's racist call

BY KATHERINE BRADSTREET The Prime Minister John Howard initially refused to rule out support for a call to ban Muslim women from wearing certain religious dress in public. The call was made by Fred Nile, a Christian fundamentalist MP in the NSW