The distinguished US journalist ALEXANDER COCKBURN will be one of the featured international guests at the second Socialist Scholars Conference, being held in Melbourne July 18-21. This commentary by Cockburn on the Gulf War is abridged from the US
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Heavy metal Tippa Gore, wife of US Republican senator and presidential aspirant Albert Gore, describes herself as a progressive-minded woman who likes rock music and has even smoked marijuana (once). But, she says, some of the sentiments expressed
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ADELAIDE — Green Left Weekly was officially launched at Adelaide University during the week of April 29-May 3. More than 150 papers were sold during the week, generating a great deal of interest. The university was adorned with posters advertising
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By Eamonn O'Coileain Irish political prisoners suffer a peculiar form of "British justice" - punishment before conviction. Martina Shanahan, for instance, spent 13 months on remand before she reached trial charged with conspiracy to murder Tom
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During the early period of the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, the Palestinian community there was divided. Most were convinced from the outset that the invasion was a disaster. The Palestinian community in Kuwait was the richest of
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Purple and green have always been a harmonious feminist combination, but the colours look set to run in the 1990s. Will mainstream green organisations continue to block moves to adopt affirmative action policies (policies which
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Call to cancel African debt Black Americans have called on Western creditors, particularly the US, to cancel Africa's $100 billion debt. A joint statement last month by African heads of state and black American leaders, meeting on the Ivory
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The conscience vote for parliamentarians is becoming an important question for the green movement. The Denison Greens, set up in Tasmanian green independent MP Bob Brown's electorate as a prototype green party branch, has adopted
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The real cost of oilIt is Thursday night in Brisbane. Late night shopping is on in the suburbs. That means lots of traffic on the roads as people use their cars to dodge from department store to supermarket. I drive, alone for
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HOBART - Women who can afford it go to private hospitals. If you don't have that much money, you can pay to fly to Melbourne. If you're even poorer, you have the choice of going through the public hospital system - which requires
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The Solidarity and Good Luck Comrades Award this week was won by about 10 lengths by the NSW Laboring Party for its campaign theme, "Don't let Nicky Grinner-you-bear-it do to us what Johnny Pain did to Victoria". But those NSW
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Social Security speak-out SYDNEY — A statewide phone-in for people who have hassles with the Department of Social Security will take place on Friday and Saturday, May 10 and 11. The event is being organised by the Welfare Rights Centre, which
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May 5 was the 10th anniversary of the death on hunger strike of Bobby Sands in Long Kesh prison in northern Ireland. At the time of his death, he had refused food for 66 days in protest at the British government's attempts to paint
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Censorship and discussion Ian Murrell (letters GLW 9 & 10) seems more interested in censoring, rather than discussing, issues. Ian seems to think that any views he does not agree with are not green and therefore not worthy of publication. The
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The wonderful British actor Glenda Jackson, interviewed on television, was bemoaning the lack of good roles for women in their 40s and 50s. She was appearing in yet another revival of Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
News
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About $3 million has been allocated to improve security arrangements for Commonwealth Employment Service (CES) staff in preparation for increased harassment of unemployed people when the government's Active Employment Strategy
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Waterfront unions became the first to settle an Accord Mark VI deal outside the centralised wage fixing system when they agreed to a $12 rise from May 16 and a further 6% rise in three instalments between July 1991 and July 1992.
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SYDNEY - Public transport, housing, and the lack of city-wide planning are among the issues which the Sydney Greens will be raising in the May 25 state elections. Founding member and journalist Hall Greenland has been nominated as
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Vista workers win one round By Dick Nichols SYDNEY — Workers at the small outer-Sydney paper products plant Vista have won a round in their fight for reinstatement and the right to representation by their union, the Printing and Kindred
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Bathurst is a "Tidy Town", even though a very untidy incident is taking place within its famous district court building. Ten kooris find themselves at the mercy of Judge Bill Nash and an all-white jury, accused of
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SYDNEY — The first opinion poll released after New South Wales Liberal Premier Nick Greiner called a May 25 election here shows the Liberal-National coalition only three points ahead of Bob Carr's Labor (30% to 27%), with fully 35%
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Wodonga meatworkers sacked twiceWorkers at the Wodonga Meats abattoir have been on strike since management sacked their 10 union delegates in mid-April. A few days later their jobs were advertised in the local press, proof to
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and Peter Boyle MELBOURNE — The May 1 ACTU special unions conference to discuss the Industrial Relations Commission national wage decision fell in unanimously behind ACTU secretary Bill Kelty's proposal to reject the decision
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Not a second time anyway "I will not do anything that will damage the Labor government." — Brian Burke, resigning as ambassador to Ireland. Should have invested in stamps "I would like to re-establish myself economically ... being in
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ACT UP launches national campaignand Philip Baker SYDNEY — The Aids Coalition To Unleash Power (ACT UP) here on April 29 launched a six-week national campaign directed against the federal government and health minister Brian
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SYDNEY — A campaign against sections 45D and E of the Trade Practices Act was launched here by Greenpeace on May 1. BHP Petroleum threatened to use 45D against Greenpeace in March as a result of a protest action near
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PERTH — Farmers in Western Australia's wheat belt have formed the Rural Action Movement, with a perspective best summed up by Bindi Bindi farmer Stan Lewis: "Let us not be afraid of being militant: let us be afraid of not being
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SYDNEY — "The current phase of negotiations demands international solidarity if we are to reach a cease-fire", Commander Nidia Díaz, a member of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front's Political-Diplomatic Commission and member of
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Green Labor defection to Democrats Gordon McQuilten, a founder of the Green Labor faction of the Labor Party, has joined the Australian Democrats and will seek preselection for the Victorian state seat of Richmond. McQuilten is the second
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CANBERRA — Long-time anti-apartheid activist Kerry Browning, after two-and-a-half years of court hearings, will go to trial on May 27. Browning was originally arrested on charges of firebombing cars belonging to the
Analysis
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Editorial: A great party while it lasted In 1983, centralised wage fixing became holy writ, handed down by messiah Hawke and proselytised everywhere by disciples such as Laurie Carmichael (now Dr Laurie in honour of his services to big business).
World
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International Union of Students meetsPRAGUE — At an extraordinary congress here in mid-April, the International Union of Students, traditionally closely aligned with Moscow, relaunched itself as a decentralised and democratic
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BOCHUM, Germany - Since reunification, there has been an alarming increase in violence from the right, especially in the areas of the old East Germany. Skinheads here represent the extreme right wing, and they have made
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GURO, MOZAMBIQUE — War and drought are threatening thousands of lives in the central region. Mozambique is considered the poorest country in southern Africa because of the civil war, which has been going on for 15 years, and
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After the social upheavals of 1989 in Eastern Europe, there has been much speculation in the Western press that Vietnam would follow a similar path. STEPHEN ROBSON, recently returned from a three-week visit to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, describes
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Army building roads in East Timor According to the Jakarta Post, Indonesia is to construct 120 kilometres of roads in the southern part of East Timor. The government claims the roads "will encourage the development of the economic system of the
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The ruling Hungarian Socialist Workers Party (HSWP) voluntarily relinquished power in 1990 after 40 years of centralised state-socialist rule. In the first of a series of articles, LASZLO ANDOR and PETER ANNEAR trace the early origins of this
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MEXICO CITY - While the government attempts to obtain funding in North America and Europe for AIDS education and prevention campaigns, activist organisations here have denounced the government for using repression against them.
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PRAGUE - "If you go into the countryside in the West, perhaps you can drink water from the streams, but in our country it is all poisoned." Like so many Czechs and Slovaks, my friend Jana despairs over the environment in her country
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Representatives of the interim government of the Republic of Bougainville have sharply condemned the Papua New Guinea government's April 13 invasion of northern Bougainville and demanded the immediate withdrawal of the troops. "This
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AUCKLAND — When French Polynesia's 41-seat Territorial Assembly met on April 5 to decide the South Pacific territory's new president for five years, the choice marked a remarkable political comeback.
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A document based on research by the African National Congress has revealed why the recent Peace Accord between the ANC and the Inkatha Freedom Party has not stopped the violence ravaging black communities in South Africa. In
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Cuba condemns occupation of Iraq
HAVANA — The Cuban foreign ministry on April 24 strongly condemned the military occupation of parts of northern Iraq by the United States and its allies.
The statement said the occupation was being carried out under "the pretext" of creating a safe haven for Iraq's Kurdish population, and it demanded respect for the civil rights of the Iraqi population.
Culture
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Music I didn't need like thisWhenever I turn on my rented television, I'm confronted with what seems to be the longest commercial on our airwaves. Set to that old song "He ain't heavy, he's my brother", this ad is there to make us
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Al Qamareya ("The Moongate") Directed by Mishline Jammal TAQA Theatre with Al Sharek Music 8 p.m., May 10 & 11, 5 p.m. May 12 Sydney St Theatre Space, cnr Railway Pde and Sydney St, Erskineville Reviewed by Tracy Sorensen The lack of cultural
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MELBOURNE — Romanian Simona Jobbagy was one of several women artists who participated in the second exhibition of refugee women's art organised by the Foundation for the Survivors of Torture in Melbourne Town Hall on April 22-26.
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The Owl and the Pussy Cat em = By Phil Shannon The Owl and the Pussy Cat made an Accord in the year 1983 They made many promises and scorned doubting Thomases and signed it most gratefully. The Owl looked up to the dollar above and sang with a
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The Russia House Director Fred Schepisi Starring Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer Reviewed by Ian Bolas Predictable is the best word to describe The Russia House, both for its strengths and its weaknesses. There is nothing surprising either
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After the Gulf War: For Peace in the Middle East Edited by StJohn Kettle and Stephanie Dowrick Pluto Press, 1991. 134 pp. $9.95 Reviewed by Tracy Sorensen There is always a lag between the television news which hits us in 30-second grabs and