New briefs

Issue 

Young women and the media

SYDNEY — Newtown Neighbourhood Centre is running an arts project for young women on how the mass media (mis)represents them, affecting body image and cultural expectations. Participants will explore realistic and positive representations of women through a variety of visual arts, including performance.

Performance workshops and creating an interactive web site have already begun. Young women are invited to submit visual art to the "How do I see myself" competition, which will finish with an exhibition. Phone Robin Hooper, 516 4755 or visit the web site, http://www.magna.com.au/~nnc/YWAM.html.

Steelworks closing?

NEWCASTLE — Following a recent announcement that profits from BHP's steel division have weakened seriously, BHP executive management has announced a review of all expenditure in its steel group. Newcastle steelworks is under the knife because it didn't make a profit at all. If the works cannot be made competitive, the plant will close.

The Newcastle works already planned to introduce new machinery that would eliminate two-thirds of the current 3000 work force. Amidst speculation that BHP is using creative accounting to exaggerate its weak profitability, the two main unions in the steel works, the AWU and the AMWU, have called on BHP to honour its commitment to Newcastle and for widespread industrial action to save jobs.

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