On Sunday, 3 February, a conference of three socialist groups, the International Socialist Organisation - publishers of Socialist Worker - Socialist Action Group and Solidarity voted to merge their organisations into a united group to be called Solidarity. As a result, for now, Socialist Worker is in hiatus. But we do intend to be back soon, albeit in a new form. In the meantime, we reprint a statement issued by the new organisation - Solidarity - that we are a part of.

BHP Billiton’s recent $140 billion takeover bid for rival resource giant Rio Tinto has revealed the still immature nature and direction of the rapidly growing Chinese economy.

On Sunday 9th December in Hurlstone Park, in Sydney’s inner-west, 500 supporters of Earlwood’s Sheikh Mansour Leghaei came together and enjoyed a warm atmosphere and sunny barbeque. These supporters included local Christians, peace activists, and persons from across the community who wanted to show their support for the Sheikh, in addition to the many members of the Sheikh’s own congregation.

The lying rodent is gone and the Liberals are in total disarray. For all the talk of economic management, Howard's claims about interest rates were exposed as a fraud, and WorkChoices has exposed him as arrogant, out of touch and power-hungry.

The conviction of Richard Pratt, Australia’s third richest man, for running a cartel tells us who is really responsible for inflating prices, writes Tom Orsag.

Giles Ungpakorn, from Workers' Democracy in Thailand, writes that while the mainstream media concentrate on the pronouncements of foreign governments and the role of the U.N. in stopping the bloodshed perpetrated by the Burmese junta, the real struggle is on the streets and in the cities around Burma.

BURMA IS rising up again. Monks, students and workers are showing extreme courage in challenging the police and army. Mobile/internet technology sends images of their bravery around the world almost as it happens.

FIJI’S MILITARY ruler, Commodore Frank (Voreqe) Bainimarama, declared martial law in early September, after deposed former Prime Minister Laisenia Quarase returned to Fiji, for the first time since the December 2006 coup. The state of emergency is set to last for a month.

Freelance journalist Antony Loewenstein spoke at a Socialist Worker public meeting last month on the topic of ‘Why the West Hates Hamas’. Antony is the author of the recently updated book, My Israel Question, which caused a sensation when it was published last year during the height of Israel’s disastrous war in Lebanon. Here is an edited version of his speech.

Socialist Worker lists APEC protest details and related events, meetings and forums. Join the main protest: Saturday 8 September, 10:00am at Sydney Town Hall.

John Howard’s luck has run out. Already floundering in the polls, he now has to prepare for one of the most unpopular US presidents ever—the man responsible for almost a million deaths in Iraq, and thousands more in Afghanistan—to visit Sydney for the APEC conference.

With the NSW Labor government promising to oppose any decent pay rises for public sector workers, it's worth reminding ourselves that NSW workers have a proud history of defiance. Tom Orsag recounts 82 days that shook the NSW government to the core 90 years ago.

Filipino leader Gloria Arroyo will join 20 other world leaders, including John Howard and George Bush, at next month's APEC summit in Sydney. But, argues Gill Boehringer, she is feeling the heat at home because of her government's crackdown on democracy activists—a crackdown carried out in the name of 'fighting terrorism'.

In the last couple of months Kevin Rudd has taken great pains to put distance between himself and trade unions. But, as Vince Caughley and Tom Barnes argue, he is taking Labor down a dangerous road.

It's often said that North Queensland is a different country. But, writes Tom Orsag, ultra-conservative MP Bob Katter's recent call for North Queensland to become a separate state has it roots in the region's past, when slave labour was used to build up the sugar industry.

Brendan Nelson thought he was among friends when he candidly announced that the real reason for the war in Iraq was about oil. The defence minister's blooper provided a glimpse of establishment views on the US alliance, argues Tom Orsag.

Tom Engelhardt writes that sometimes numbers can strip human beings of just about everything that makes us what we are. Numbers can silence pain, erase love, obliterate emotion, and blur individuality. But sometimes numbers can also tell a necessary story in ways nothing else can.

John Morris reports that the first two trials arising from the February demonstrations opposing the visit of Vice President Dick Cheney have seen dismissal of all charges for both defendants, Jo Ball, a disability worker, and Jasmine Ali, a student. More broadly, arguments raised by the defence in both trials raise significant operational and legal responsibilities for the NSW Government and its police force.

Tom Barnes writes that outrage is growing across the country in response to the federal government's takeover of remote Aboriginal communities in the NT—despite the shameful response of Labor leader Kevin Rudd and one-sided media coverage.

John Morris writes that Jo Ball and the legal team from DLA Phillips Fox succeeded in overturning charges of obstruction and hindering police during the first of 8 trials arising from the American Vice President Cheney demonstration of February.

Jarvis Ryan, in Alice Springs, reports that defendants in the "Pine Gap 4" trial are celebrating after receiving only relatively minor fines, despite being found guilty of breaking into a US military base in Central Australia.

What attitude should socialists take to Labor's shift to the right as it prepares for power? And how should we communicate with a range of people who will mostly be voting Labor because they see it as the only feasible alternative to a Liberal re-election? Mitch Glocking writes that the classical Marxist tradition provides us with important intellectual tools to help answer these questions.

France’s new president, Nicolas Sarkozy, will meet stiff resistance to his neo-liberal offensive, writes Alex Callinicos.

Leading Zimbabwean opposition activist and socialist Munyaradzi Gwisai addressed public meetings in Sydney and Melbourne in April. Here we re-print his speech delivered in Sydney on April 18, Zimbabwe’s Independence Day.

While much of the media sees the presidential elections as a return to “mainstream” politics in France, the true picture is more complicated, explains Alex Callinicos at the British Socialist Worker.