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NEW ZEALAND: Echoes of France in 'work probation' bill

Grant Morgan, Auckland Slap workers in the face and call it a helping hand. That's the strategy behind a "work probation" bill sponsored by National Party MP Wayne Mapp. Ross Wilson, president of the NZ Council of Trade Unions (CTU), wrote in an

Geelong union solidarity meeting

GEELONG — On May 9, 25 members of the Geelong Community and Union Solidarity Group (GCUSG) met to discuss the fight against the Howard government's Work Choices laws. Joan Doyle, Victorian branch secretary of the communications workers' union,

NEW CALEDONIA: Indigenous people take on mining giant

The New Caledonian islands lie 1200 kilometres off the east coast of Australia. A French territory that is co-governed by a provincial New Caledonian parliament and the French government, New Caledonia (or Kanaky) is a biodiversity

Rich get richer, military grows larger

Graham Matthews The Coalition's 11th budget delivered on May 9, which gave tax cuts to all, was an attempt to distract us from the Australian Wheat Board scandal, Work Choices, and rising fuel and mortgage costs. But of the $36.7 billion to be

Cindy Sheehan on Iraq: 'Howard's a fool for supporting Bush'

Pip Hinman John Howard is a "fool" for supporting US President George Bush's war on Iraq, the courageous and outspoken anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan told a Mother's Day anti-war protest outside the White House on May 13-14. Sheehan was at the

VENEZUELA: Colombian paramilitaries accused of murders

Jim McIlroy & Coral Wynter, Caracas Paramilitaries infiltrated across the border from Colombia have murdered 1700 people in the south-western region of Venezuela over the past two years, according to Luis Tascon, the May 5 daily Diario Vea

SOLOMON ISLANDS: New PM criticises Australian domination

Doug Lorimer Newly elected Solomon Islands Prime Minister Mannasseh Sogavare hit out on May 7 at Australian leaders for interfering in the internal affairs of the archipelago-nation after they publicly criticised his decision to include two

VENEZUELA: 'We must unite our forces', says Communist union leader

Jim McIlroy & Coral Wynter, Caracas "The Venezuelan revolution is a very popular mobilisation, which was revealed especially in the opposition to the counter-revolutionary coup in April 2002 and the bosses' strike of early 2003", Pedro Eusse,

Tales of "the Split"

The Great Labor Schism: a retrospectiveedited by Brian Costar, Peter Love & Paul Strangio Scribe, 2005 384 pages, $35 (pb) REVIEW BY MATTHEW LAMB Although the essays collected in The Great Labor Schism are said to be a retrospective of the

On the box

Message Stick: The Lost Ones — Academic Henry Reynolds and Queensland woman Bron Nurdin are trying to trace their Aboriginal heritage, their families and where they belong. ABC, Friday, May 26, 6pm. The Chaser's War on Everything — Confronts

Unstable compound

The Vote: How It Was Won And How It Was UnderminedBy Paul FootViking (Penguin) 2005 506 pages REVIEW BY ALEX MILLER Paul Foot, who died in July 2004, began this ambitious book in 1990, and completed it shortly before his death, having been

Residents protest against developer

NEWCASTLE — On May 12, 80 residents rallied outside the government's planning department office to protest developer Hardie Holdings' proposal to construct a "village" on a 2300-hectare site between North Rothbury and Branxton, with 28,000