SYDNEY — The New South Wales Labor Council decided on January 27 to ban maritime, dredging and transport work associated with a proposal to mine sand from the seabed offshore from Botany Bay, Cronulla and the Royal National Park. The proposal has
Issue 130
News
By Andrew Watson
HOBART — Pasminco Metals-EZ has been given the go-ahead by the federal government to continue dumping the toxic waste product jarosite into the sea until 1997.
Federal environment minister Ros Kelly has extended the
Darwin political activist bashed
By Deb Sorensen
DARWIN — A well-known political activist and Green Left Weekly distributor, Shell 63, has been bashed over the head with a long-handled police torch. The wound required seven stitches. The
Scare over killer algae
By Amy Phillips
SYDNEY — Signs were posted around Berowra Waters on January 22 warning against swimming in the water after 50 dead fish were collected from Berowra Creek.
This was the fifth algal bloom this
By Kerry O'Callaghan
MELBOURNE —Tram services on the January 26 Australia Day holiday were hit by a 24-hour strike over timetable cuts.
The strike action was initiated by members at the Preston tram depot, who were given special Australia
By Frank Enright
and Max Watts
The Gibraltar-registered grain carrier Gopali, bound for Papua New Guinea with a load of Australian grain, was delayed from sailing from the Grain Handling Terminal in Wollongong on February 1 by trade
Postal workers against privatisation
By Jon Land
SYDNEY — Some 1000 Australia Post workers attended a stop-work meeting here called by the Communications Workers Union (CWU) on February 4, to protest against federal government
Northland Secondary College needs you
MELBOURNE — The following appeal has been issued by supporters of Northland Secondary College, who have been fighting since December 1992 to keep open the school, which the Kennett government is trying to
Queensland riot squad condemned
By Bill Mason
and Kerry Vernon
BRISBANE — The Queensland Civil Liberties Council has condemned the introduction of a new riot squad to deal with street offences in the city and Fortitude Valley malls as a
Senators declare forests 'World Heritage'
By Tom Kelly
In a ceremony at Hensleigh Creek on February 5, Greens (WA) Senator Christabel Chamarette, Democrat Senator Sid Spindler and members of the East Gippsland Forest Alliance (EGFA)
World
By Renfrey Clarke
MOSCOW — On January 13 Russian President Boris Yeltsin assured his US counterpart, Bill Clinton, then on a visit to Moscow, that economic "reform" in Russia would continue, and that in some areas it would even be
By Stephen Robson
The Vietnamese Communist Party held a six-day conference in late January, midway between the Seventh Party Congress of 1991 and the Eighth Congress scheduled for 1996.
The conference, attended by 647 delegates, expanded
Greenpeace calls for greening of GATT
THE HAGUE — As representatives from the US and the European Union met here to begin a round table on environment and trade, Greenpeace on January 27 called on delegates to green the Global Agreement on
By Pip Hinman and Peter Boyle
MANILA — Arrests and murders of Philippines leftists have increased in recent weeks. This is the response of the Ramos government and armed forces as they have come to realise that the left has been revitalised by
US gay activist wins case
NEW YORK — The state of New Jersey has dismissed all charges against gay activist Stephen Durham, who was arrested for leafleting at the Walt Whitman Turnpike rest stop while on his way to the National March on
By Jana D.K.
JAKARTA — Some 1000 prominent human rights activists, intellectuals and politicians have signed a statement expressing their opposition to the detention of 22 students arrested in a wave of mass demonstrations which broke out in
Chamarette slams blockade of medicine to Burma
WA Greens Senator Christabel Chamarette has spoken out against the Thai government's confiscation of medical supplies intended for ethnic minority groups inside Burma. The supplies were a private
By Renfrey Clarke
MOSCOW — How was Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin able to force a sharp change of economic strategy on an obviously reluctant President Yeltsin?
The basic explanation is that the strategies of economic
Turkey deports refugees
The Turkish government has been deporting refugees from Iran and Iraq back to those countries in recent weeks, according to the Council of Iranian Refugees and Migrants, in Sydney. In addition, says the council, Iranian
Jana D.K.
JAKARTA — There have been comments recently on President Soeharto's apparently poor health during public appearances. According to a journalist from the Indonesian Observer, prior to his trip to India in December, Soeharto was
By Ndungi Wa Mungai
A strike by the teaching staff in all four public universities in Kenya has entered its third month. This is one of the most successful and most organised strikes in the country for years.
The strike by 3700 academic
Prince rescued from Bosnian reality
By Muris C.
SYDNEY — On January 26, as a representative of a Bosnian organisation, I was invited to the lunch given in honour of Prince Charles in the Old Parliament Building, Parramatta Park.
Culture
Opa: A Sexual Odyssey
Written and directed by Patricia Cornelius
Musical director Irine Vela
Actors: Anna Butera, Eugenia Fragos, Helen Trenos, Laura Lattuada, Maryann Sam
Musicians: Carolyn Connors, Christella Demetriou, Irine Vela, Rachael
The New Reich: Penetrating the Secrets of Today's Neo-Nazi Networks
By M. Schmidt
Random House Australia, 1993. 255 pp. $25
Reviewed by Kate Shannon
"'You have reached the main educational office of Wotans Volk ... Your call will be
European anti-racist conference
Delegates from 134 European anti-racist organisations, coming from 34 countries, will meet in Strasbourg from February 13 to 20. They gather for the conference "European Youth: United Actions Against Racism and
By Pip Hinman
Ever fancied yourself as a barefoot foreign correspondent? Spending nights on trains (to save money) on the way to conferences, meeting dignitaries and famous people and being the first to break the lead story. Apart from the
Towards best practice unionism: The future of unions in Australia
By Max Ogden
Pluto Press, 1993. 85 pp. $9.95
Reviewed by Jon Singer
"Management is too important to be left to managers" — this is the fundamental theme of Towards best
By Frank Enright
"I know very well that there are many people that have very good reason to believe me to be bad tempered and an arrogant bastard. You can judge a man by his friends ... but you can also judge a man by his enemies — I've got a
Zapatista-government meeting imminent
MEXICO CITY — The rebels in Chiapas have announced that negotiations with the government to end the rebellion are imminent. A Zapatista Army communique on February 1 said that the basics have been agreed
SINGAPORE — Toxic wastes from Australia and other industrialised countries are flooding into Asia, according to a new Greenpeace report released on February 1. The wastes, shipped to Asian countries ostensibly for "recycling", are taking a
Octopus 6
With Vittorio Mezzogiorno, Remo Girone and Patricia Millardet
SBS TV, Saturday, February 19, 8.30 p.m. (8.00 Adelaide)
Reviewed by Kate Shannon
In the opening scenes, Inspector Davide Licata (Vittorio Mezzogiorno) is gunned down
Editorial
Let Bosnia defend itself
"What has changed in Yugoslavia above all is that the Bosnians have refused to play their assigned role as victims. From the very beginning, western and particularly British policy has been driven by the view that the