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Socialist Alliance formed

BY PETER BOYLE SYDNEY — Seven radical left organisations — the Democratic Socialist Party, the International Socialist Organisation, the Freedom Socialist Party, the Workers League, the Worker-Communist Party of Iraq (Australian branch),

EAST TIMOR: Scrap the Timor Gap Treaty

BY JON LAND The Australian government is attempting to prevent East Timor from gaining full sovereign rights over vast oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea that are expected to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties over the next 20

Oppose corporate universities

BY VIV MILEY "Australia has definitely put a lot of time and effort into making education, whether it be vocational or higher or schools, be empathetic to the needs of business and the needs of what will make somebody employable", Rafik Mankarious,

SCOTLAND: Socialists arrested in anti-nuke protest

BY NORM DIXON The Scottish Socialist Party's member in the Scottish parliament, Tommy Sheridan, was among the more than 370 anti-nuclear weapons protesters arrested at the Faslane navy base near Glasgow on February 12. Scottish Labour MP George

PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Anger at government's pay hypocrisy

BY NORM DIXON Workers in Papua New Guinea have threatened to take action to have an increase in the minimum wage restored after it was revealed that members of parliament, ministers, judges and top public servants were secretly awarded massive pay

WA voters take sweet revenge

BY ANTHONY BENBOW PERTH — After eight years of attacks on workers' rights and living standards Western Australian Premier Richard Court's Coalition government is no more, swept from office by a backlash against its increasingly obvious

No Sweat Nora fights for outworkers

BY IRMA VEP MELBOURNE — With the dulcet tones of Dusty Springfield singing "Anyone Who Had a Heart" in the background, the Fairwear campaign launched its latest weapon in the campaign to end the exploitation of outworkers — a super hero by the

Union support gives boost to M1

BY SARAH PEART MELBOURNE — Major industrial unions look set to back the planned May 1 blockade of this city's stock exchange and nearby corporate headquarters, which is continuing to pick up steam both here and around the country.

ZIMBABWE: Mugabe escalates harassment of critics

BY NORM DIXON Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) have escalated the violent harassment and repression of their critics. Mugabe faces a presidential poll in 2002. He will be

LIBYA: Mandela: US, Britain have 'shifted the goal posts'

BY NORM DIXON Former South African president Nelson Mandela has accused the British and US governments of "shifting the goal posts" by refusing to honour a deal to lift UN sanctions against Libya. Mandela told the February 9 London Independent

Illawarra TAFE staff picket institute

BY CHRISTOPHER PERKINS WOLLONGONG — TAFE teachers set up a picket line outside Shellharbour TAFE College on February 15 to protest management's decision to close the innovative Engineering Flexible Training Centre. The teachers have vowed it will

Are the Coalition parties on the skids?

BY SUE BOLAND The question on everyone's lips is, are the Coalition parties on the skids? This question can be answered by looking at the voting patterns since Prime Minister John Howard's federal Coalition government was first elected in