First Bougainvillean accorded refugee status
By Frank Enright
SYDNEY — The threat of imprisonment, rape and possible murder has been lifted from a Bougainvillean stranded in Australia with the outbreak of war on her island. On the verge
Issue 129
News
By Jo Brown
MELBOURNE — The campaign to save Northland Secondary College from the Kennett government's cuts has taken a new turn with the announcement on Monday, January 24, that the school would not reopen for the start of the school year.
Wilderness Society blockades forests
By Kest Courtice
HOBART — The Wilderness Society (TWS) blockaded a new logging road in Tasmania's southern forests from January 24 to 26. Public attention was focused on the action when ALP Senator
By Ian Jamieson
ROSEBERY, Tasmania — Amid the backslapping from pundits that Tasmania's economy has turned the corner, giant paper-maker Amcor is to retrench 300 employees. The retrenchments are part of a national package to sack 500 from its
By Karen Fredericks
SYDNEY — The International Green Left Conference, to be held at the University of New South Wales from April 1 to 4, is drawing unprecedented interest and enthusiasm from both local and international activists in the
Solidarity conference a success
Mick Houlbrook
PERTH — A conference held by the newspaper Solidarity here on January 23 was a resounding success. More than 50 people attended the one day event, entitled "Issues and action".
The first
Frank Hardy
Frank Hardy, novelist, political activist and campaigner for Aboriginal rights, died of a heart attack at his home in the Melbourne suburb of North Carlton on Friday, January 28, aged 76.
As a writer, Hardy was probably best
Concerns at 'Vampire' Project
Aboriginal people in Central Australia have learned of an international scientific proposal to take blood and hair samples from indigenous people in Australia.
The director of the Central Australian Aboriginal
By Dallas Rodgers
MELBOURNE — The Victoria Police are undertaking a six-month trial of a controversial chemical weapon. The police claim it's a non-lethal weapon for subduing violent criminals, but courts in the US, where the chemical is used,
'Health risk' from Telecom tower
ADELAIDE — Henley Beach residents are being "kept in the dark" over proposals to construct a six-metre telecommunications structure (for mobile phone services) on the roof of the Western Community Hospital.
Invasion Day march in Brisbane
By Maurice Sibelle
BRISBANE — Several hundred people marched on January 26 to commemorate the invasion of Australia. The march followed controversy in the media over the move by Premier Wayne Goss to have
Amen
"Kennett looks like he should have been on drugs." — Victorian Labor MLA Neil Cole, scoring a telling point in the debate on legalisation of marijuana.
Popular non-government
A New Zealand opinion poll in early January asked voters to
More than 10,000 Kooris and their supporters gathered at Survival '94 in Sydney on Invasion Day, Jan 26th, to celebrate Aboriginal culture and struggle. The day-long event brought performers and participants from all over Australia.
The range of
World
Mexico donates school pads for Cuban children
HAVANA — The Mexican government has donated three million note pads for school children in Cuba. A Mexican official in Havana, Cristina de la Garza, says the donation will help to support Cuba's
By Vesna Jankovic and Boris Raseta
ZAGREB — ARKzin (the name is a compound of two abbreviations — ARK for Anti War Campaign and zin for fanzine) is the monthly newspaper of Antiwar Campaign Croatia (AWC).
Between September 1991 and May
A leading member of the Green Party of California, HANK CHAPOT, says the that the pendulum of debate in the United States has swung away from the far right of the political spectrum, where it had rested under former presidents Reagan and Bush.
International appeal for Cuba
By Pip Hinman
On February 12, a rally demanding an end to the US blockade of Cuba will be held in New York City. Silvio Rodriquez, the world famous Cuban singer will attend, and preparations are now well under
By Renfrey Clarke
MOSCOW — Asked in a recent survey who really wielded power in Russia, more than 50% of respondents reportedly ticked "the mafia". Facetiousness? Or an accurate perception of the kind of people now rising to wealth and
The following appeal was issued by intellectuals and independent radio "Studio 99" in Sarajevo. Studio 99 is a multi-ethnic station that seeks to promote democracy, peace and progressive causes.
Stand up, friends, raise your voices, call upon
New Zealand Alliance supports Cuba
A call by US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson for the US government to end its illegal economic blockade of Cuba has been echoed in New Zealand by Alliance international affairs spokesperson Matt Robson.
BADDEGAMA SAMITHA is a member of the Central Committee of the New Socialist Party (NSSP) in Sri Lanka. In Sydney in early January to attend the conference of the Democratic Socialist Party, he was interviewed by REIHANA MOHIDEEN.
Could you
Two million hectares of rainforest at risk
On January 24, the Ecuadorian government opened 10 new rainforest blocks to oil development. The Quito-based environmental organisation, Accion Ecologica, has requested that faxes be sent to the
NEW YORK — Greenpeace on January 17 released a report documenting Britain's diversion of other countries' commercial plutonium into its nuclear weapons program.
The Greenpeace report, "Sellafield and the Bomb: Civil Plutonium in the UK
This summary of developments relating to the death penalty was compiled by Amnesty International.
Jamaica
On November 2, 1993, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London (which remains the final court of appeal for 16
By Richie Walsh
Some six months ago, Irish people and those around the world who wish for and work towards peace in Ireland were astounded to find that the leader of the Social Democratic Labour Party, John Hume, Westminster MP, and Gerry Adams,
NZ: Alliance support increases
By Frank Enright
In the weeks following the November 6 general election, which radically changed the shape of New Zealand politics, support for the 20,000-strong progressive coalition, the Alliance, climbed
Puerto Rican nationalist radiated, says family
SAN JUAN — The family of Nationalist leader Pedro Albizu Campos, a principal Puerto Rican independence figure of this century, is demanding that the US admit to torturing Campos by radiation.
By Robyn Marshall
The elections "of the century", as they are being called in El Salvador, are just two months away. The political parties had to present their final list of candidates for the presidential, legislative and municipal elections by
By Jana D.K.
JAKARTA — In late December, controversy erupted here after it was reported that the Portuguese newspaper Publico had printed a letter by jailed Fretilin leader Xanana Gusmao in which he requested that the Portuguese government
Culture
The Temple
By Louis Nowra
Sydney Theatre Company
Wharf Theatre to February 12
Reviewed by Helen Jarvis.
Sydney Theatre Company has kicked off its 1994 season with a powerful comedy about the venality of capitalism. Louis Nowra has
Labour movement history
By Catherine Brown
Social History of Australia Enterprises (SHAPE), based in Queensland, and Leftpress are selling bonds to finance the reprinting of Dawn To Dusk — Reminiscences of a Rebel by Ernie Lane.
Beat the Border
Geoffrey Oryema
Real World through Larrikin Entertainment
Reviewed by Norm Dixon
"African music" and "World music" are wholly inadequate terms to describe Geoffrey Oryema's beautifully crafted album. Lazy or ignorant record
Witness
An exhibition by Marija Zrno
February 1-6, in the crypt of St Mary's Cathedral
St Mary's Rd, Sydney
Reviewed by Jasmina Bajraktarevic
This is a confronting exhibition of images from the war in Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina.
Women and technology
A documentary by the Australian Women's Broadcasting Co-Operative for Radio National's Coming Out Show in March will examine the work practices and ethics of computer and technology-oriented industries and networks from a
Agriculture, Environment and Society — Contemporary issues for Australia
Edited by Geoffrey Lawrence, Frank Vanclay and Brian Furze
Macmillan Australia. 337 pp. $32.95
Reviewed by Dave Riley
When Dorothea MacKellar put her patriotic
Family life in New York City
Falsettos
Sydney Theatre Company
Drama Theatre, Opera House, to March 5
Directed by Wayne Harrison
Music and lyrics by William Finn
Reviewed by Graham Matthews
In this "Year of the Family", Falsettos
Taming of the Great South Land — A history of the conquest of Nature in Australia
By William J. Lines
Allen and Unwin. 337 pp. $19.95.
Reviewed by Dave Riley
When you fly the east coast of Australia on a window seat, you look down on a
Messengers of the Gods: Tribal Elders Reveal the Ancient Wisdom of the Earth
By James Cowan
Vintage Australia. 209 pp., $17
Reviewed by Dave Riley
If you have fished Port Phillip Bay this message is clear: When the tea-trees are blooming,
Editorial
War by other means
"America's ignoble isolation of Vietnam for the defeat it sustained in the Vietnam war is coming to an end — and not before time." responded the Australian editorial to the news that the US Senate had voted on January 28 to