For many Australians, Fairfax Media is a benign alternative to Rupert Murdoch鈥檚 right-wing media empire. Well-meaning people buy Fairfax newspapers such as the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age because they believe they present a fairer picture of the news. But just how fair is Fairfax?
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Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind behind the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States that killed about 3000 people, will not be mourned by many people around the world. But his killers used Bin Laden鈥檚 crimes to justify wars on Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq that have killed many thousands more. These wars are continuing. The May 3 US Socialist Worker article abridged below says bin Laden鈥檚 death should not be used to justify further killings in the name of the 鈥渨ar on terror鈥.
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The Roman Catholic Church has sacked the bishop of Toowoomba after 18 years of service for his belief that women can be priests.
In his 2006 Advent pastoral letter to priests in his diocese, Bishop William Morris questioned the practice of sourcing Catholic priests from Africa, and suggested the shortage of Catholic priests in Australia would be better addressed by considering admitting married men and women to the priesthood.
Morris met with Pope Benedict in 2009 about his views. He is now taking 鈥渆arly retirement鈥 at age 67. The usual retirement age for bishops is 75.
Coalition leader Tony Abbott wrote to PM Julia Gillard in March calling for a bipartisan approach to Aboriginal issues and a in the Northern Territory. He flew to Alice Springs in late April to further these calls.
June will mark four years since former PM John Howard launched the Northern Territory Emergency Response 鈥 or NT intervention.
After 12 hours on the road, travelling 800 kilometres from Newcastle through Gunnedah, Narrabri, Moree and Goondiwindi, just after sundown, our big blue bus pulled into Tara showground for four days of workshops and direct action as part of the Rock the Gate festival against coal seam gas mining.
The Iran Solidarity Network (ISN) and Australia-Asia Worker Links held a meeting on May 7 to commemorate Iranian Kurdish activist Farzad Kamangar, who was executed last year.
ISN member Afshin Nikouseresht told the meeting that Kamangar was a teacher, poet, author, human rights activist and unionist. He had campaigned around environmental issues, women's rights and poverty as well as union rights.
He was arrested in 2006 and executed in 2010, accused of being a member of an armed Kurdish group 鈥 an allegation he denied.
Our goal, as socialists, is to raise women (and for that matter, all of humanity) to a level where they are regarded as true human beings.
By that I mean, people whose ideas, opinions and desires are worthy of consideration, rather than machines which exist to provide sexual pleasure, offspring, and free/cheap labour in the form of caregiving/housework.
Young women face much pressure in our society, in the form of media and pornography, which tell them how they must behave, look and relate to men.
Every once in a while a book comes along that changes a mass audience's view of the world. Naomi Klein鈥檚 2000 book No Logo, which deconstructed consumer culture, was one. Treasure Islands, a revealing expose of tax havens written by financial journalist Nicholas Shaxson, is equally groundbreaking.
Australian born WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange, who began publishing thousands of leaked US diplomatic cables last year, received the Sydney Peace Foundation鈥檚 Gold Medal at a special ceremony at the Frontline Club in London on May 10.
The award, which differs from the foundation鈥檚 annual Sydney Peace Prize, is for "exceptional courage in pursuit of human rights" and has only been awarded on three previous occasions: to the Dalai Lama in 1998, Nelson Mandela in 2000 and Japanese lay Buddhist leader Daisaku Ikeda in 2009.
The Feminist Futures Conference is being organised for May 28-29 by the newly formed Melbourne Feminist Collective (MFC): a group of mainly young activists who were inspired by a similar conference they attended in Sydney last year.
James Muldoon from the MFC told 麻豆传媒 Weekly: 鈥淲e are a non-aligned loose knit group of feminists who are keen to build on the movement鈥檚 past successes by focusing on shared goals and strategies for the future.
鈥淲e are seeking to move beyond the old divisions by focusing on what unites us
Laura鈥檚* mother was in Dara鈥檃 in southern Syria when the military attacked youths who had graffitied anti-government slogans in mid March.
An audience of more than 600 people at a forum debate in Sydney on May 10 voted by a margin of 69% to 23%, that, "All drugs should be legalised."
The forum was sponsored by Intelligence2, a project of the St James Ethics Centre. It heard arguments for and against the proposal and questions and comments from the audience.
Dr Alex Wodak, president of the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation, and a founder of Australia's first needle exchange, argued: "As a starting point, we must recognise that the 鈥榳ar on drugs鈥 has failed. Legalisation is the only answer.
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