547

BY ARUN PRADHAN MELBOURNE — Blindfolded, giggling children trying to hit a pi¤ata is not unusual. But when the pi¤ata looks like "Uncle Sam" with a skull for a face, you know this is no ordinary fiesta. Fifty years after Fidel Castro led an
BY SUE BOLTON MELBOURNE — Fifteen Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) members and one Electrical Trades Union member appeared in the county court on July 21 and 22 over an industrial dispute involving Johnson Tiles and Skilled
BY NOREEN NAVIN& OWEN RICHARDS SYDNEY — Thousands of NSW teachers will stop work for two hours on July 29 to discuss the NSW Teacher Federation's negotiations with Premier Bob Carr's Labor government over teachers' salaries. NSW teachers have
BY MARIA ENGQVIST As in Iraq, the number of US military personnel being killed in Colombia continues to rise. The US military has lost at least eight soldiers and pilots since February, including three CIA intelligence experts who were taken
BY MARY MERKENICH MELBOURNE — On July 19, the annual conference of the Victorian branch of the Australian Education Union unanimously endorsed a resolution to support nationally coordinated action over the refusal of state governments to
BY DOUG LORIMER Disaffection is growing in the United States as an increasing number of people realise they were conned by the propaganda of US President George Bush's administration — which was uncritically parroted by the US corporate media —
BY MATTHEW EGAN LISMORE — Students and staff at Southern Cross University (SCU) were angered to learn their vice-chancellor, Professor John Rickard, was paid a staggering $460,000 in 2002. According to the July 21 Sydney Morning Herald, this was
BY SUE BOLTON MELBOURNE — Workers from OneSteel subsidiary Martin Bright Steels have been on strike since July 4. The Martin Bright dispute is part of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union's Campaign 2003. There are 80 workers on the site,
BY DAVE RENTON HARARE — The failure of the June's mass stayaway, called by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), has hardly made life easier for activists. The government of President Robert Mugabe has unleashed gangs of young