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EAST TIMOR: Canberra threats to cancel Timor Sea talks

Jon Lamb Australian Labor Party federal leader Mark Latham's comments on July 22 that a government led by him would start new negotiations with East Timor over the maritime boundary in the Timor Sea has provoked a threat from Prime Minister John

Mental health system reaching point of breakdown

Graham Milner, Perth The crisis in mental health care in Western Australia has reached severe proportions. There are now rumours that the state government is preparing a new funding package for the sector without community consultation. A

Is China still socialist?

REVIEW BY EVA CHENG China and Socialism: Market Reforms and Class StruggleBy Martin Hart-Landsberg and Paul BurkettMonthly Review July-August 2004130 pages Is China today still socialist, or has it turned capitalist? This is a nagging question

Carmen Lawrence: End 'time torture' of refugees

The following are abridged speeches to a June 22 Refugee Action Committee forum in Canberra, given by Kerrie Tucker, Greens Senate candidate in the ACT; Carmen Lawrence, ALP president and MP for Fremantle; and James Vassilopoulos, Socialist Alliance

UNITED STATES: Kerry v Bush: Is this really a choice?

Elizabeth Schulte, Chicago Call him the "me too" candidate. Republican President George Bush is for a stronger military. Democratic Party challenger John Kerry says "me too". Bush shredded civil liberties with the USAPATRIOT Act. Kerry says "me

VENEZUELA: New poll shows Chavez will win referendum

Roberto Jorquera A new opinion poll, conducted on July 15-22 by the US opinion research firm Evans McDonough Company (EMC), indicates that Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's radical left-wing president, could win the August 15 recall referendum with a

A woman's place in is the struggle: Racism is a feminist issue

The feminist struggle against the oppression of women has expressed itself in a commitment to gender equality — to winning equal rights for women, to gaining more access for women to jobs, to equal pay and to ending violence by men against women.

Deeper thinking on same-sex marriage rights

Jonathan Strauss, Sydney Discussion at the Marrickville Socialist Alliance's July 25 Politics in the Pub probed the significance of the demand for same-sex marriage rights. Rodney Croome, a spokesperson for the Equal Rights Network, and Bernard

CANADA: Ban on solidarity activist defeated

Federico Fuentes Toronto student Daniel Freeman-Maloy is finally able to return to his studies after York University dropped its bid to ban him for three years for taking part in political protests. Freeman-Maloy is an active member of Solidarity

Australia's mistreatment of refugees: a history

Refuge Australia: Australia's humanitarian recordBy Klaus NeumannUNSW Press128 pages, $16.95 pb REVIEW BY SARAH STEPHEN Refuge Australia has an explosive opening. It relates three stories of refugees, which could have been set in the present: the

News briefs

PERTH — PM John Howard came to Perth's working-class eastern suburbs on July 29 to campaign in the marginal Labor seat of Hasluck. He was met by a crowd of 100 protesters as he entered Midland Town Hall. "The crowd represented a fair cross

What would you do if your house was raided?

BY SARAH STEPHEN ASIO, the Police and YouAustralian Muslim Civil Rights Advocacy Network38 pagesAvailable at <http://www.amcran.org> or phone (02) 9349 7186 This pamphlet is big news, if the audience at its July 26 launch is anything to