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D-Day for drug companies

BY JACQUIE MOON & RACHEL EVANS MELBOURNE — Ten years after the original "D-Day" for action on the HIV/AIDS crisis, activists in the group QUEER have called a D-Day of their own for June 6. The group, whose acronym stands for Queers United to

Tandem Thrust: why it should be stopped

BY SHANE HOPKINSON Tandem Thrust 2001 is the name of the joint US/Australia military exercise conducted during May in Shoalwater Bay Military Training Area, north of Rockhampton. Some 28,000 US, Australian and Canadian troops were involved and it

Socialist Alliance: same old sauce in a new bottle?

BY DICK NICHOLS  It was good to see two letters in last week's Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly question whether the Socialist Alliance has a future. Paul Petit's and Lev Lafayette's doubts about the project invite us all to think about the

PALESTINE: Israel the obstacle to peace

BY AHMAD NIMER RAMALLAH — The May 15 commemorations here of Al Nakba (the Catastrophe), the anniversary of the 1948 establishment of the State of Israel, held special significance for Palestinians — for not since 1948 itself have the

Law encourages vigilantes

BY TILLY ELDERFIELD SYDNEY — After 18 robberies, Sefton newsagent Les Clark armed himself with a pick handle. He declared, "It's a big relief to know you'll be able to defend yourself without breaking the law. I've got a pick handle beneath the

WORLD ECONOMY: Empty promises don't feed poor children

BY SEAN HEALY A funny thing happened on the way to the third United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries in Brussels: the representatives of the rich nations suddenly discovered that their restrictions on market access for poor

Solar power stalled as generating firms hunt profits

BY RENFREY CLARKE Mention electricity supplies to a South Australian, and the answer is unlikely to be polite. As well as summer blackouts, there are pool prices that doubled during 2000 in the now-privatised state grid, and the prospect of huge

and ain't i a woman?: Mothers' Day

Mothers' Day this year, again, was a bit of a horror. According to the commercialised tradition, it's a day when we are supposed to buy appliances, lingerie or flowers for mums who're overworked, underpaid and unrecognised. Particularly revolting

Police attack Nike protesters

BY SARAH PEART & SEAN WALSH MELBOURNE — In scenes reminiscent of the police violence at the S11 protests last September, 250 police officers, including 10 on horseback, assaulted and dispersed a crowd of several hundred protesters peacefully

Senate inquiry opposes Lucas Heights reactor plan

BY JIM GREEN A federal senate committee has slammed plans for a new nuclear research reactor in the southern Sydney suburb of Lucas Heights. The committee's majority report, released on May 23, is is a joint production of the Labor Party and the

Labor reverses onus of proof

BY TILLY ELDERFIELD SYDNEY — Police in New South Wales are to be given wide powers to arrest people seen entering or leaving suspected "drug houses" and those suspected of acting as lookouts. Officers will also be able to seize properties and

Socialist Alliance sets date for founding conference

BY DICK NICHOLS Through the first telephone hook-up of its National Liaison Committee since its founding in March, the Socialist Alliance last week decided to have its founding conference in Melbourne on the weekend of August 4-5. The conference