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Feast Festival refugees' rights forum

BY LUKE SMITH ADELAIDE — Around 100 people gathered at the Queens Theatre on November 17 for a refugees' rights forum. The event, part of the Feast Festival 2002, focused on the plight of refugees fleeing persecution because of their sexuality.

On the box

Actively Radical TV — Sydney community television's progressive current affairs producers tackle the hard issues from the activist's point of view. Includes the Â鶹ӳ»­ news. CTS Sydney (UHF 31), every Sunday, 9pm. Phone 9565 5522. Visit

NSW police to get extra powers

BY DALE MILLS SYDNEY — Police will be able to stop and search people without warrants after the NSW ALP cabinet approved new “anti-terror” laws in November. The laws are now being rushed through state parliament. Among other things, NSW

Where is the Socialist Alliance going?

Over the past two months, life in the Socialist Alliance has been stormy. The International Socialist Organisation (ISO) threatened to disaffiliate if the Democratic Socialist Party went ahead with a proposal to its December congress to convert

A story that must be told

Just Another Little Murder: A Brother's Pursuit of JusticeBy Phil ClearyAllen and Unwin, 2002$29.95 REVIEW BY ERIN CAMERON The murder of Vicki Cleary in 1987 shook her family to the core, but what was to devastate them even more was the outcome

Support grows for campaign to save Ningaloo Reef

PERTH — Western Australia's Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) has given conditional approval for a massive marina and resort to be constructed next to the fragile Ningaloo Reef, 1200 kilometres north of Perth. However, the Save Ningaloo

Crean and Carr's cop frenzy

NSW Premier Bob Carr's enthusiasm for vilifying protesters, police patrols with sniffer dogs and cooperating with Australia's secret police service is not an aberration for the ALP. Federal Labor is also bending over backwards to increase police

Howard keeps mum over Nile's racist call

BY KATHERINE BRADSTREET The Prime Minister John Howard initially refused to rule out support for a call to ban Muslim women from wearing certain religious dress in public. The call was made by Fred Nile, a Christian fundamentalist MP in the NSW

Union solidarity committee holds first meeting

BY SUE BULL MELBOURNE — "Building rank-and-file unionism" was the topic of discussion at the first public meeting of the Trade Union Solidarity Committee, which was held on November 19 at Trades Hall. The committee was set up by the Socialist

Could the anti-WTO protests been bigger?

BY PIP HINMAN SYDNEY — The NSW state government and corporate media's blitz in the weeks leading up to the World Trade Organisation mini-ministerial meeting, which claimed “violent protesters” and “society's dregs” were intent on “arson”

Candidates speak out against war

MELBOURNE — Speak-outs against a possible war on Iraq were held in three Melbourne suburbs on November 23. The Footscray protest heard from Socialist Alliance candidate for Footscray Justine Kamprad, Shirley Winton from the Western Suburbs

National refugee summit 2003

BY PAUL BENEDEK SYDNEY — "We are a mass movement, we need to look like one" is the idea behind a broadly supported initiative to hold a National People's Refugee Summit in early 2003. The proposed summit, tentatively scheduled for February 1-2