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UNITED STATES: Corporate rip-offs

BY EVA CHENG Despite being the biggest in the US energy business and seventh biggest among all US firms before its December 2 collapse, Enron had not paid income tax in four of the five years before 2000, according to Citizens for Tax Justice.

Loose Cannons

Firmly inhuman "The approach I have taken in relation to these matters requires a degree of firmness, which sometimes people think demonstrates a lack of humanity. But I think your humanity has a greater potential to be evil than if you remain

Transport organised to Canberra demonstration

BY SIMON BUTLER SYDNEY — The February 12 refugee rights convergence on Canberra has been given a boost by decisions taken in Sydney, Wollongong and Melbourne to organise buses for activists to the protest. The socialist youth group Resistance

A web of solidarity with refugees

BY SARAH STEPHEN There is a huge range of refugee solidarity web sites popping up every day, reflecting the broadening of support and sympathy for the plight of people trying to find a safe haven in Australia. Children out of Detention

Argentina running out of medical supplies

A report in the January 26 British Medical Journal reveals that Argentina is running out of medical supplies and faces rising drug prices as the country sinks deeper into economic crisis. The report quotes Juan Carr, who heads Red Solidaria

A sense of working-class Ireland

REVIEW BY TRISH CORCORAN The Boys From BallymoreBy Anthony BrownPenguin Books Australia, 2001355 pages, $23 Liam O'Brien returns to Ballymore after living in Australia, he remembers. Ballymore is a small town in Tipperary, Ireland. Liam finds the

Action updates

Refugee rights protests HOBART — Hundreds of people signed petitions and tooted their car horns in support of refugees' rights at a series of lunchtime vigils, organised by Resistance, outside immigration department offices between January 27

Aboriginal Tent Embassy anniversary

BY MARK ABBERTON CANBERRA — On January 26-27, hundreds of people from Aboriginal and other communities across Australia came together outside Old Parliament House to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy. The gathering

Who protested at the WEF?

Act Now to End War and Racism — ANSWER held a rally on February 2 to demand "Declare war on unemployment, poverty and mass layoffs not on the people of Afghanistan" and "Money for jobs, education and health care not war in Afghanistan". Visit

UNITED STATES: Is the recession nearly over?

BY EVA CHENG The United States National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) officially declared on November 26 that the US had lapsed into recession, and had been in that situation since March 2001. Soon after, the capitalist media and mainstream

Coalition, ALP refugee policy condemned.

BY FEDERICO FUENTES PERTH — "The way we treat our most vulnerable and powerless will mark our society for years to come", Carmen Lawrence, ALP MP for Fremantle and the shadow minister for indigenous affairs, told 600 refugee-rights protesters on

Socialist Alliance stands for Lord Mayor.

BY KATE STOCKDALE DARWIN — Socialist Alliance's campaign for Lord Mayor of Darwin was launched on February 1 at a protest in support of refugees. The alliance will be running Ruth Ratcliffe in the March 16 poll. "The campaign is an excellent