By Aneurin Coffey
BRISBANE - Six people were arrested on January 14 after a picket to save the detoxification hospital at Biala.
The Goss government is planning to close the 29-bed detoxification hospital on January 16 as the first stage in
Issue 127
News
By Frank Enright
New South Wales Rugby League players have negotiated the best employment conditions of professional sports people in Australia. The players are members of the Rugby League Players' Union, which joined the Media, Entertainment
By Frank Enright
Port Kembla grain terminal workers voted unanimously on January 13 to ban exports to Papua New Guinea. The ban will prevent a scheduled shipment of grain from leaving Port Kembla on January 28.
Announcing the ban, South
By Frank Enright
Overtime rates should be cut to discourage workers working longer hours, says former Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS) president Julian Disney.
Professor Disney's comments follow last November's statement by the
By Dallas Rodgers
MELBOURNE - The year-long struggle over Richmond Secondary College appears to have entered its most critical phase. Despite its public agreement to re-establish a coeducational facility in the area, the Kennett government has
By Bill Mason
BRISBANE - Supreme Court Judge John Dowsett has said he is "heartily sick" of government agencies' applications to install secret listening devices in Queensland.
Speaking on January 12 during a Criminal Justice Commission
SYDNEY - Independent green councillor Nick Masterman died on January 2, after being diagnosed as suffering from the asbestos-related disease, mesothelioma, in late November. He is believed to have contracted the disease while working as an apprentice
By Bill Mason
BRISBANE - Meetings of members of the Public Sector Union in the Department of Social Security here have voted to impose additional half-day office closures as an expression of "deep concern" over funding cuts to salary budgets and
By Pip Hinman
SYDNEY - A range of exciting projects to develop links between socialists and progressive movements in Australia and around the world was discussed at the Democratic Socialist Party's 15th national conference, held January 3-8.
World
Medical staff, inhabitants and authorities of the besieged Bosnian city of Mostar have addressed an appeal for help to humanitarian organisations throughout the world.
The appeal, made on January 4, was translated and distributed by the Croatian
ALEX CHIS, a member of the editorial committee of Independent Politics in the United States, was in Moscow in October to attend the international labour conference "Modern Telecommunications: New Vistas for Workers' Solidarity", which was primarily
By Frank Enright
"Amnesty International urges the Government of Australia to halt any further provision of helicopters to the PNGDF and to conduct an immediate review of all military aid to PNG. It recommends that such aid be suspended until the
In Mexico, a new revolutionary organisation, the Frente Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional (FZLN) has been born. Made up mainly of indigenous people, it demands land, democracy and an end to the repression and massacres carried out by the military
Something unexpected has appeared in Zagreb - Women's Infoteka, a women's information and documentation centre. Women's Infoteka was founded and registered in December 1992, with regular activities beginning in March 1993.
The feminist/women's
NAFTA was overwhelmingly ratified by the Mexican parliament last month, following the close vote in the US Congress. From San Francisco, SEAN HEALY reports on the changes it will bring.
The North American Free Trade Agreement is ostensibly about
By Daniel Hellinger
The new left Causa R party emerged from elections on December 5 as a major force in Venezuela. From merely three deputies and no senators, official results indicated that the labour-based party would claim one-fifth of the
By Jose Gutierrez
Some years ago social psychologist Ignacio Martin Baro wrote that in El Salvador government officials had imposed an "institutionalised lie" upon society, which he defined in general terms as "the systematic screening of
By Pip Hinman
As internal debate within the Philippines Communist Party deepens, the Ramos government is seeking to exploit the situation. Within the first two weeks of 1994, a CPP leader aligned with the anti-Stalinist or "rejectionist" wing
By Mary Merkenich
BOCHUM - A 17-year-old pupil in Aurich, in the state of Niedersachsen, has had to go into hiding and receive police protection after neo-Nazis terrorised him and his family. This pupil is among 250 German citizens who, because
MANRICO MORO provides an update on the peace project promoted by Beati i Costruttori di Pace (Blessed Are the Peace Makers), a pacifist non-government organisation based in Italy.
It's now just over a year since I travelled to Sarajevo with 500
Viktor Ivancic, the chief editor of the well-known Croatian opposition satirical magazine Feral Tribune, was forcibly mobilised into the military on January 5.
According to a statement by the editors of Feral Tribune, Ivancic received a call-up
Culture
Cybergod
Nausea
More Songs About Plants and Trees
Various
Allied Recordings
Reviewed by Kest
"His omnipresent power is felt in every home/ Feel his warm static embrace, you'll never be alone/ His flickering gaze emanates the divine
Addams Family Values
Greater Union, Hoyts
Reviewed by Kath Tucker
It's twisted, funny, and even politically correct. That bizarre family turns traditional "American values" upside down in the most accessible way possible. If you're into
Chaos A.D.
Sepultra
Roadrunner Records
Reviewed by Kest
It sounds like the herald proclaiming the end of the world. Perhaps even more than in their previous album Arise, Sepultra have made a record of utter desolation and anger.
They
Mau Mau - a revolution betrayed
By Maina wa Kinyatti
Mau Mau Research Centre, New York. $10
Reviewed by Ndungi wa Mungai
Maina wa Kinyatti is the foremost researcher on the Mau Mau in Kenya. In this small book he summarises the most recent
Daens
Directed by Stijn Coninx
Academy Twin, Sydney
Reviewed by Frank Enright
Nominated for an Academy Award for "Best Foreign Film", Daens is a powerful film built on a solid story. There's no Hollywood glitter sprinkled all over this
Noel Counihan: Artist and Revolutionary
By Bernard Smith
Oxford University Press Australia, 1993.
568 pp., $59.95 (hb)
Reviewed by Phil Shannon
"Knock them off their feet with truth and reality", wrote an artist friend of Noel Counihan
The Long Journey: South Africa's quest for a negotiated settlement
Edited by Steven Friedman
Ravan Press, 1993. 206 pp., R66
Heroes or Villains? Youth politics in the 1980s
By Jeremy Seekings
Ravan Press, 1993. 108 pp., R44
Marabi
Youth Subcultures
Edited by Rob White
National Clearinghouse for Youth Studies, 1993
162pp. $28
Reviewed by Sean Malloy
Theoretical or analytical books on subcultures are not commonplace. However, discussion and debate are flourishing in
Editorial
The release of the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics employment figures was greeted with enthusiasm by the federal government and big business alike. "Sensational", exclaims Chris Caton, chief economist for the Bankers Trust Australia. "At last: