Issue 110

News

By Michael Tardif Labor promised a "business as usual" education policy at the last federal election, and if current proposed cutbacks are any indication, they intend to remain true to their record. Having already destroyed free education,
By Maurice Sibelle BRISBANE — Over ten thousand teachers rallied across Queensland on August 5 to protest the cutbacks to the education budget by the state government. The 4000-strong meeting at Brisbane's Festival Hall, plus some 50 other
300 XXXX brewery workers face the sack By Bill Mason BRISBANE — In a drastic rationalisation of its XXXX brewing operation, Castlemaine Perkins Ltd, owned by Lion Nathan, is pushing through a plan to retrench 300 workers. Despite
Call to 'ground Garuda' By Chris Spindler ADELAIDE — On August 6 the Campaign for an Independent East Timor (CIET) held a protest vigil outside Garuda airlines highlighting the gross human rights violations of the Indonesian
Rallies commemorate Hiroshima Day By Pip Hinman Nearly 50 years after the atomic bomb was dropped on the Hiroshima and Nagasaki, peace activists in Brisbane, Hobart and Sydney rallied to remember those who died and to demand an end to the
By Greg Adamson CANBERRA — A fake Public Service Union (PSU) campaign over job security has focussed attention on dubious dealings in the ACT branch of the Labor Party. The PSU executive cried foul in the employment of former Trades and
By Max Lane The first meeting between representatives of the Bougainville Interim Government and the BRA with the North Solomons Peace Negotiating and Monitoring Committee (NSPNMC) concluded in Honiara on July 30. The committee includes
Paying for enterprise bargaining By Ray Fulcher MELBOURNE — A document circulated to DSS managers on July 19 advises them of the amount of salary dollars and ASL (Actual Staffing Level, i.e., jobs) they will be losing in order to pay
By Peter Boyle An historic meeting of about 500 Aboriginal organisations and communities from around Australia met in Eva Valley in the Northern Territory between August 3-5 to work out a united response to the Mabo case. It firmly rejected

World

Police state powers in PNG Continued from page 32. Giving police more repressive powers will not solve the "law and order problem", Brunton added. "The police have very little credibility in PNG because they illegally raid villages, they
By Nilotpal Basu A massive popular struggle is rocking Nepal. The struggle is reviving the memories of the huge people's movement for the restoration of democracy in 1990-91. But the political forces that fought the struggle for
By Hugh Williamson Japan's economic boom of the late 1980s has run into trouble. Workers are the first to bear the burden — lower wages, higher unemployment, worsening working conditions, and so on. Wage increases agreed to late March
By Shush Mula and Shlomo Tsazanah JERUSALEM — In the centre of the city, children between the ages of 8 and 14 are working in a child slave market. It's the Mahane Yehuda market. The children, residents of East Jerusalem, work there every
By Will Firth BERLIN — This city is one of seven in the running to host the 27th Olympic Games. In the last several years Berlin's Senat (local government) and a number of corporations have made major investments in support of the city's
By Karen Lee Wald HAVANA — Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega renewed his calls for a sharp turn in Nicaraguan President Violeta Chamorro's economic policies and the establishment of a "government of national unity", in light of the recent
By Larry Douglas On July 26, 1993 the San Francisco Labor Council voted to oppose the US blockade of Cuba and endorsed the US Cuba Friendship Caravan which is delivering supplies to Cuba. The council, which represents trade unions
Henry Thiagaraj gave the following speech at the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna in June. It is in achieving the supreme goal of "all human rights for all" that we bring to the attention of this august body the plight of the 250
By Sara Ford KUWAIT — The first word any Westerner ever picks up in Kuwait is "Inshalah". Its literal meaning is "with God's will or help". But having heard it most often when coupled with unfruitful requests for supplies, assistance,
By Sean Malloy Palestinian academic, Dr Ilham Abu Ghazaleh, toured Australia recently for the United Church, speaking on a range of issues relating to the occupation of Gaza and the West Bank by Israel. A linguistics professor at Jerusalem's
July 31 marked the 72nd anniversary of the South African Communist Party. After it had been outlawed for 40 years, 50,000 people attended the public launch of the SACP as a legal party, outside Soweto in July 1990. Since then its membership has

Culture

Pocket-sized legal advice Activists Rights Handbook By the Activist's Defence Network Reviewed by Karen Fredericks Most of the time a political action committee needs a lawyer like Madonna needs more publicity. The presence of a
These hands Neil Murray Aurora Records through Festival Reviewed by Ignatius Kim It must be firm evidence of the anarchic nature of the market oriented recording industry when a singer-composer like Neil Murray has difficulty obtaining
Face to face with Fidel Castro Interview with Tomás Borge Ocean Press, 181pp. $19.95 Reviewed by Sean Malloy Why do so many people interview Fidel Castro? Beatriz Pagés, Gianni Min, Frei Betto, Tomás Borge, Maria
Cutting Edge: The Colour of Gold SBS Television Screening Tuesday August 17, 7.30 p.m. (7 p.m. in Adelaide) Reviewed by Norm Dixon "We dig out the gold but we have never seen it with our own eyes. So if you tell us about the glitter of
Jazzmatazz Volume 1 Guru Chrysalis Records through EMI Reviewed by John-Paul Nassif Jazzmatazz, an experimental fusion of hip-hop and live jazz, is one of the first full-fledged attempts to fuse rap and jazz. It is hosted and compiled
Connections: The Spirit of Crazy Horse SBS TV Thursday, August 19, 8.30 p.m. (8.00 Adelaide) Reviewed by Ignatius Kim To understand a people, one must understand their origins, says a Lakota activist interviewed in this moving

Editorial

The ugly logic of enterprise bargaining It appears that the Keating government is about to strike a new deal with the ACTU to allow enterprise bargains to be stitched together without unions. At present the Industrial Relations Commission can