Poll 'free and fair'JOHANNESBURG — International observers have pronounced the elections free and fair.
While acknowledging widespread complaints about the Independent Electoral Commission's "incompetence",
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True Stories: War of Distance — Wives of men who returned from World War II tell how the war brought new freedoms and responsibilities. War of Distance discusses the long-term social effects of the war, how it changed the position of women and the
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ADELAIDE — At least 50 people gathered outside the Commonwealth Building on May 6 to protest against the Keating government's white paper on unemployment. The spirited demonstration, organised by Resistance, included speakers from the Young
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Comment on a debate The ongoing population debate is an important one, which I'm glad the paper is allowing to happen so fully. Many important ideas are leaping from it — like when Athena (goddess of wisdom) sprang directly from the mind of
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Millions celebrate victoryJOHANNESBURG — "You can proclaim it from the rooftops: free at last!" Nelson Mandela declared near the end of his historic victory speech. Within minutes, millions of South Africans were doing just
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Here, slightly abridged, we reprint the text of the victory speech of South African president-elect Nelson Mandela, delivered in Johannesburg on May 2. Fellow South Africans, this is indeed a joyous night. We are delighted by the overwhelming
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The American Chemical Society [ACS] recently affirmed (Chemical & Engineering News, January 31, 1994) the following phenomena: Sperm count in men worldwide has dropped to 50% of what it was 50 years ago. The
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Old and proud Is Green Left Weekly promoting ageism? Surely not — yet I notice your advert for "Cultural Dissent" describes dissenting alternative culture as "youthful". Which seems to imply that all old people are naturally too
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What future does the ANC see for itself after the elections? Will it have two "wings" — one inside parliament and the other in the streets? This edited ANC discussion paper tries to answer a few questions. It was first published in the April/May
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American Music and Popular Culture — Rock 'n' Roll — A folk art born and living out its entire existence at the height of commercialism, rock 'n' roll is the first popular music idiom where the intended market is defined by age rather than race
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If you bought this issue of Green Left Weekly on the street, outside a cinema or perhaps at a pub, chances are you bought it from a member of the Democratic Socialist Party or Resistance. The DSP and Resistance are currently undertaking a campaign to
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Following a fortnight of factional warfare in which more than 1000 people signed up to the Victorian Labor Party, its leader John "Cleanskin" Brumby said he will introduce a new rule governing what he euphemistically calls
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JOHANNESBURG — When the election results were at last announced on May 6, the African National Congress had swept in with 62.7% of the national vote and 252 seats in the 400-seat national assembly. The ANC won landslide victories
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Claudine Holt For abortion law repeal Justice Newman's April 18 ruling that abortion is still illegal in NSW is a dangerous threat to the limited legal access to abortion rights in the state. Unless we take up the struggle to decriminalise
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So much for independence "The independence of the Australian woman is now official", declared the Sydney Morning Herald on May 5. And how do we know? According to the government's white paper, women may now receive their unemployment benefit or
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NIMBIN — More than 200 people attended the Beyond Prohibition conference held in conjunction with the annual Harvest Ball here on April 30. The consensus emerging from the conference was to push for a national campaign
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The current factional brawls in NSW and Victoria are an all too familiar scenario in a party which lacks real democracy. Party members of branches and affiliated unions have little real influence over policy formation, and no
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PERTH — After two long years of battling against victimisation and sexual discrimination in employment, Gail McIntosh and Heather Horne on April 21 were awarded $92,000 in compensation by the Equal Opportunity Commission.
News
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Sydney: Pigsty 2000? The Waste Crisis Network (WCN) warns that Sydney is at risk of becoming a "pigsty" by the year 2000. The latest issue of the Waste Crisis Quarterly, the network's newsletter, points out that Sydney's waste levels have risen
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The government's long-awaited white paper, optimistically titled "Working Nation", has promised to cut unemployment to 5% by the turn of the century by implementing "reforms" in the labour market and in industry which will cost
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Ringing endorsement "Whatever my personal feeling is, I'm not going to go out and vilify the leader, no matter what I think of him." — NSW right-wing ALP MLA Peter Anderson, after losing his preselection. Anderson was reported to be upset with
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BRISBANE — New powers to allow police and security guards to forcibly move on "trouble-makers" at Brisbane South Bank were a return to the "police state tactics of the Bjelke-Petersen era", Susan Price and Ana Kailis said on May
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Operation Sweep to continuePERTH — On April 27 the state government confirmed that it would be reactivating "Operation Sweep", aimed at getting young people under 18 off the streets of inner city Northbridge and Fremantle.
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New Wollongong Resistance CentreWOLLONGONG — The Democratic Socialist Party and Resistance opened a new centre on Saturday, April 30, with a lunch and drinks after the May Day march. An informal occasion, the
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Anti-union repression exposed Repression of trade unionists is increasing worldwide, with 92 killed last year, says the International Federation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) in a report published on April 28. The report says that some 2300 trade
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Socialists oppose $10 a week jobs "The government's white paper does not create any permanent jobs. Instead, it hands billions of dollars to business. This is a direct transfer of social security payments into the pockets of employers", says
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Greens oppose 'employment merry-go-round' Greens (WA) Senator Dee Margetts, commenting on the release of the government's white paper, Working Nation, claimed it will merely create a nation of working poor. "To quote the prime minister, 'he
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No help to industry — Democrats The white paper fails almost totally to mention, let alone address Australia's structural problems, according to the Democrats. "It started life as an industry statement, but a sandwich shop got in the way
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MELBOURNE — Prison privatisation plans for Victoria are the most sweeping of any Australian state. Almost 40% of Victorian prisoners will be in a private prison if the Kennett government's plans go ahead., Victoria will also
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The campaign to restore Tasmania's Lake Pedder to its original condition is gathering momentum in Australia and overseas. The original Lake Pedder was a shallow glacial lake covering about 10 square kilometres and situated 320
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ADELAIDE — Stephen Bull reports that around 400 people rallied in Victoria Square on April 30 as part of the city's annual May Day celebrations. This year's march celebrated the victory of the ANC in South Africa and the end of white minority rule
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Agency bargaining in the ATOMELBOURNE — An agency bargaining agreement for the Australian Taxation Office, endorsed by both management and the Public Sector Union leadership, will be put to PSU members around Australia at a
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MELBOURNE — Workers at Shell's Geelong refinery returned to work on May 5, having won the reinstatement of six colleagues. The settlement of the dispute also set in place a procedure requiring management to prove that a refinery
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CANBERRA — Incumbent national officials in the Public Sector Union have embarked on a campaign of red-baiting and dirty tricks prior to national union elections in mid-May. The cause of their concern is a campaign being run by
Analysis
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Another beginning "It is not all that we wanted, but it is a beginning", were the words chosen by senior Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath to describe the signing of the accord between the Palestine Liberation Organisation and Israel on May 4
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In 1925, there was an international conference on drugs which focused particularly on opium. But it also looked at Cannabis sativa. Egypt was the chief mover in persuading other nations that Cannabis sativa should be banned.
World
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Manila 'cleaned' of peopleMANILA — On April 28 Metro Manila's police began an operation to sweep the many thousands of street people (peddlers, beggars and street kids) from the streets in preparation for
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Thousands of women took part in Germany's first national women's strike on International Women's day. From Bochum, MARY MERKENICH reports on the activities of the German women's movement. On May 28, 1993, the Constitutional Court, the highest
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JOHANNESBURG — South Africa's major union federation, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, has vowed to do everything it can to ensure that the ANC's Reconstruction and Development Program (RDP) is implemented. COSATU
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The Indonesian government has clamped down on the activities of East Timor solidarity and human rights groups in response to international attention to the plight of the people there. The release of John Pilger's film Death Of A
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ROBYN MARSHALL was one of a party of five Australian women who acted as observers of the Salvadoran elections in March at the invitation of the FMLN. Here she describes some of their experiences. We're not quite sure how we ended up in Ruben
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MOSCOW — On the afternoon of April 28, several hundred representatives of Russian state structures, political parties, trade unions and religious and social organisations gathered in the Kremlin to sign President Boris
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PORT MORESBY — Papua New Guinea has given the all clear for parliamentary fact-finding delegations from New Zealand and the Solomon Islands to visit Bougainville. Pleased with the April visit by an Australian delegation,
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Tens of thousands of people are expected to demonstrate in Paris on the weekend of May 28-29 to demand a 35-hour week with no loss of pay. Demonstrations and meetings will be the culmination of five separate marches from different parts of France
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Last month Prime Minister Paul Keating launched a "trade and cultural promotion" with Indonesia. Surrounded by businessmen and representatives of the arts, Keating made an extraordinary speech that was praised in the Australian
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BOCHUM — A thousand people on April 23 took to the streets here, in the heart of Germany's Ruhr Valley. The demonstrators demanded no deportations of Kurds, an end to the criminalisation of Kurds by the Bonn government,
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Eight years after the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor, the governments of Ukraine and Russia have opted to proceed with ambitious nuclear programs that they can't afford. While studies done by the International
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By M. Bandung in Jakarta and Max Lane One hundred students, workers and farmers crowded into the offices of the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH) on May 2 for the launch of Indonesia's first campaigning democratic organisation, the People's
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Following the massive May Day demonstration in Manila, when more than 100,000 workers demonstrated in a series of rallies, the Filipino left faces a serious challenge in an imminent resort to violence by one of its sections. The
Culture
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Eight Little Piggies: Reflections in natural history By Stephen Jay Gould Penguin, 1994. 479 pp., $16.95 (pb) Reviewed by Phil Shannon Stephen Jay Gould's latest book continues his engrossing series of essays on evolutionary biology —
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The Last Whale Directed by David Bradbury Available through Youngheart Productions, 187A Whale Beach Road, Whale Beach, Sydney 2107, phone (02) 974 1102, fax (02) 974 1064 Reviewed by Francesca Davidson The Last Whale is a moving
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Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer Directed by Nick Broomfield Ronin Films Now screening at Valhalla, Sydney and Melbourne Reviewed by Jon Land This film traces the life of Aileen Wuornos, a 35-year-old sex worker who killed
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The Songs of Dougie Young Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies and the National Library of Australia Reviewed by Jill Hickson This collection of songs relates the real life situation for many Aboriginal
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The Gift of the Gorgon By Peter Shaffer Sydney Theatre Company Reviewed by Helen Jarvis "Set aside what anyone thinks of the play, it does ask a serious question. Perhaps the most serious question you can ask of a civilisation. Do you