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Class war in feudal England

Summer of Blood: The Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 By Dan Jones Harper Press, 2009 238 pages, $49.99 (hb)

Greens mayor: 'Save our ferries'

SYDNEY — Leichhardt Council, and Greens mayor Jamie Parker, will host a public meeting on November 7 to show support for Sydney Ferries against a state government proposal to privatise the service.

Michael Moore versus capitalism

In France, you pay nothing to go to college. In Britain, the National Health Service is free. And in Sweden, any woman who gives birth receives two years of paid maternity leave.

Write On

Ethical elitism My article "Ethical elitism on climate change?" (GLW #814) and Simon Butler's response, "Ethical elitism?", (GLW #815) are both unnecessarily caustic. This culture that sees it as acceptable to humiliate political opponents (or

Time to revive the refugee rights movement

At first, the flow of people fleeing horrors like the Sri Lankan government’s concentration camps for Tamils and Afghanistan’s killing fields didn’t test the capacity of the Christmas Island detention centre

'No shooters in national parks'

SYDNEY — "No shooters in national parks", and "Hunters: Our parks and animals are not fair game", were two of the placards carried by 300 people outside the NSW state parliament on October 27.

Socialist Alliance conference to prepare for struggle

Watching the terrible plight of the Tamil asylum seekers aboard the Australian customs ship Oceanic Viking last week brought home the depressing continuity in policy and perspective between the previous John Howard Coalition government and Labor rule under PM Kevin Rudd. Australia's razor-wire enclosed refugee detention centres are once again filling up with desperate victims of war and oppression.

Vale Dr K. Balagopal — human rights fighter

With the death of Dr K. Balagopal at age 52 on October 8, India and in particular his home state of Andhra Pradesh, have lost an untiring worker for human rights. Over almost three decades of activism as a human rights investigator, a public intellectual and 10 years as a lawyer, Balagopal had become synonymous with the human rights movement in India.

Rudd expands refugee detention centre

The Rudd government plans to double the capacity of Christmas Island detention centre to maintain its of policy mandatory detention of all refugees that arrive by boat. Plans are under way to expand the prison-like facility to house up to 2300, the Age said on October 31. Already, the government has installed an extra 200 bunks. It has also transported cramped and unsafe shipping containers to the island to house new arrivals.

Cuba: World opposes US blockade again

The administration of US President Barack Obama administration tried to defend the nearly half-century-old US economic blockade on Cuba at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) October 28. The result was another overwhelming vote, 187-3, telling Washington that enough’s enough.

Cuba tops the class in UN development report

The United Nations Development Program's Human Development Report 2009 was released on October 5. It again highlighted some of Cuba’s extraordinary achievements.

Venezuela: Power workers fight against bureaucracy

A 14-month struggle by Venezuelan electrical workers for an industry-wide collective contract culminated with the resignation of the president of the state-owned electricity company Corpoelec on October 22.