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INDONESIA: Protests call for ousting of Megawati

BY MAX LANE JAKARTA — On the evening of January 15, senior Indonesian cabinet ministers announced the postponement of a proposed 22% increase in telephone charges and the postponement and review of proposed increases to electricity and petrol

Wollongong No War rally

BY GRANT COLEMAN WOLLONGONG — In the lead up to the February 16 "Walk Against the War" in Sydney, the Illawarra NoWar collective is organising a February 8 protest against war on Iraq. Advertised with the slogan "No blood for oil", the rally

Cygnet Folk Festival supports refugees

BY ALEX BAINBRIDGE CYGNET — The Cygnet Folk Festival — held in Tasmania on January 10-12 — has become “one of the most progressive festivals in Australia today” according to one of the festival organisers, Geoff Francis. Notable progressive

BRAZIL: All eyes on Lula

BY FEDERICO FUENTES CORDOBA, Argentina — The inauguration of Luis Ignacio "Lula" da Silva as Brazil's president on January 1 gained huge media coverage in Argentina. The massive celebrations in Brazil, in which somewhere between 200,000 and

Refugee family wins partial victory

BY KAMALA EMANUEL LAUNCESTON — The refugees' rights movement has witnessed a painful partial victory. On January 14, Fatima Sarwari and her children — seven-year-old Asima, five-year-old Zahoor and the Australian-born twins, almost two years'

Stop Howard's march to war

BY ALISON DELLIT Australia's Prime Minister John Howard has to be the only person in Australia prepared to argue that the government has not yet decided to participate in a war on Iraq. While Howard keeps right on claiming that "no decision has

A woman's place is in the struggle: Code Pink: US women unite against war

Since November 17, Code Pink: Women's Pre-emptive Strike for Peace has maintained a vigil in front of the White House in Washington to protest against US President George Bush's planned war on Iraq. Women at the site have been fasting for days or

IRAQ: Inspections provide little joy for warmongers

BY ROHAN PEARCE The January 17 Washington Post quoted an anonymous UN official who stated that the discovery of a dozen rocket warheads in Iraq by UN inspectors was not a "smoking gun". In fact, the discovery of the 1980s-era warheads has lessened

INDIA: 15,000 demand global justice at Asian Social Forum

BY EVA CHENG The first Asia-wide "social forum" was held in Hyderabad, India, on January 2-7. It was attended by at least 15,000 people. The Asian Social Forum (ASF) was intended to be the Asian extension of the World Social Forum (WSF), which has

UNITED STATES: Airline workers' pay for bosses' crisis

BY MALIK MIAH& JENNIFER BIDDLE SAN FRANCISCO — How could the biggest airline in the world, with the most enviable route structure, largest and most diverse fleet, employing over 100,000 workers — an airline that made US$8 billion in net profit

CFMEU, teachers oppose war on Iraq

BY MICK BULL MELBOURNE — Victorian state secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), Martin Kingham, has urged all trade unions to participate in an afternoon rally on the day that the US launches its war

ACEH: Solidarity campaign wins activists' release

BY PIP HINMAN When Indonesian judge Asril Marwan on December 30 sentenced Joy-Lee Sadler to four months' jail and Lesley McCulloch to five months, he declared that McCulloch should have received a harsher sentence because her actions "could have