Kevin Rudd's first few months have seen important symbolic breaks with Howard's legacy. The highpoint so far was his apology to the Stolen Generations, reversing Howard's attempt to hide the racist policies of previous governments.

Kevin Rudd tells us that he is pulling together the "best and brightest" 1000 Australians for his 2020 summit in Canberra in April. Rudd has already been hammered for selecting only one woman, Cate Blanchett, among the 11 prominent Australians who will help select the participants. But it is not just Rudd's gender blindness that is a problem.

In February, the National Union of Students released their new policy alternative to the Howard-era Voluntary Student Unionism (VSU) legislation. The policy calls for the introduction of a compulsory, deferred HECS-style "student support and services levy".

Israel has unleashed a new murderous offensive against Palestinians in the Gaza strip.

After five years, war in Iraq continues without pause. Turkey's invasion of northern Iraq is further evidence that the headaches for US imperialism in controlling the region continue to grow.

Thirteen people arrested and charged with riot following the G20 protest in Melbourne in 2006 have resolved to fight the charges. Another four people facing riot charges in the Children's Court are also pleading not guilty.

There is growing criticism of the welfare quarantining measures within the "intervention" into Northern Territory Aboriginal communities. But the federal government has signalled its intention to expand the scheme into selected communities in WA, Queensland and NSW.

Students returning from the Canberra Convergence against the NT intervention have begun organising on their campuses.

THOUSANDS OF union members marched last month against the NSW government's plans to privatise electricity. Despite industry claims otherwise, two-thirds of the state is opposed to the policy.

On Saturday March 8, 300 delegates at the NSW Teachers Federation (NSWTF) state council voted unanimously to strike in opposition to the Iemma government's plan to deregulate the supply of teachers to schools.

PROFESSOR ROSS Garnaut, establishment economist and China expert, dropped a bombshell in his interim report on climate change, jointly commissioned by state and federal governments.

HOW DO we make governments act on the climate crisis? The organisers of Earth Hour believe "the simple action of turning off the lights for one hour"-at 8pm on March 29-will "deliver a powerful message about the need for action on global warming".

On March 1 more than 80 activists met to create "Climate Code Red Network" (CCRN). This came after more than 200 activists from across Victoria came together in February to begin a new movement to stop global warming.

AGAIN AND again, Kevin Rudd talks of the need to help "working families". He insists that Labor's priority is to fight inflation and that to do this the Reserve Bank (RBA) must be independent of the government.

BRITISH PM Gordon Brown has nationalised the Northern Rock bank after attempts to fend off its collapse failed. In a humiliating back flip, his New Labour government has used

Rudd's aggressive determination to support NATO in Afghanistan is almost the flip side to that of his position on Iraq, seeing it as the "good" war, with the occupation of Iraq the "wrong" war. The Labor government sees Afghanistan as the real war on terror, where the west is confronting "Islamofascism" and fighting to "liberate Afghani women".

by Jean Parker

THE US tried for 49 years to assassinate Fidel Castro and bring down his regime, which made his voluntary retirement as Cuban leader last month yet another act of defiance against Washington.

In late February the Balkan mini-nation of Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, sparking protests by Serbs in Kosovo, Serbia and Australia.

GEORGE W. Bush has vetoed the bill, proposed by the Democrats, that would have outlawed the use of torture by the CIA. He is not the first US President to explicitly endorse the CIA's use of torture.

ON 8 March 1908 15,000 women garment workers marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights. In 1911 socialist women chose to commemorate this day, calling it International Women's Day. "Official" celebrations of IWD are now so mainstream that you could be forgiven for not knowing that it was founded by the militant struggle of women fighting the system.

IN LATE February Alex Gibney's Taxi to the Dark Side won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Not long ago you wrote that, "An official interest rate of just 6.75 per cent would inflict as much pain as 17 per cent did back in 1990." We're now talking about 7.25 per cent. Why is the impact so much greater today?

ONE HUNDRED years ago the United States was the biggest oil producer in the world. California alone accounted for 22 per cent of global output.