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Issue 144
Editorial
General
Indonesia 'willing to talk' to East Timorese
By Jon Land
A new development in diplomacy concerning East Timor took place at the fourth round of UN-sponsored negotiations between the foreign ministers of Indonesia and Portugal on May 6 in
A sample of on-line UN information:
unic.news: Daily highlights and profiles of United Nations activities. Also includes special press releases and announcements of activities and press conferences at the United Nations Information Centre in
By Domenica Sgambellone and Natasha Simons
MELBOURNE — More than 5000 angry and vocal students and student union employees from tertiary campuses across Victoria marched from Melbourne University to Parliament House on May 19 in response to
Privatised information
I now realise why the Brown government has been denigrating public servants at every opportunity since the election. It was so that the rest of the state's working people would more readily accept the impending savage cuts
Ay
By Angelique Kidjo
Distributed by Mango Records
Reviewed by Pip Hinman
It's not surprising that the unfolding of these historic times in South Africa should be reflected in African music. Angelique Kidjo's new album Ay or Life's
These interviews were conducted by SUJATHA FERNANDES, a member of Resistance and the Network of Women Students Australia. NOWSA is having its annual conference at Macquarie University from July 11 to 15. KIMBERLY O'SULLIVAN is the co-editor of Wicked
Women, the State & Revolution: Soviet Family Policy & Social Life, 1917-1936
By Wendy Z. Goldman
Cambridge University Press, 1993. 351 pp., $39.95 (hb)
Reviewed by Phil Shannon
The official organisers of the International Year of the
By Tom Kelly
WELLINGTON — The question whether the New Zealand Greens should go it alone or remain within the five-party Alliance was the key focus of debate at the Greens' annual conference, held here on the weekend of May 14-15.
After
Due to popular demand, the special South Africa celebration subscription offer to Green Left has been extended by two weeks. For a further two weeks, you can subscribe to Green Left Weekly for six months (22 issues) for only $20, one-third less than
By Jon Land
The Philippines government is under pressure from Indonesia to prevent the first Asia Pacific Conference on East Timor (APCET) from taking place in Manila. The conference, scheduled at the University of the Philippines May 31-June 3
Ok Tedi: PNG and BHP run scared
By Frank Enright
The Papua New Guinea government will attempt to legislate retrospectively to protect itself and the Australian mining company BHP from a $4 million environmental lawsuit being brought by
The United Nations Security Council, at US direction, has announced an economic embargo of Haiti. President Bill Clinton has hinted broadly at military invasion if the embargo is not sufficient to force withdrawal of the military rulers who overthrew
By Frank Noakes
Rupert Murdoch's News Limited (more accurately Limited News) is one of the biggest media empires the world has known. Its Australian chief executive, Ken Cowley, told the parliamentary inquiry into the print media: "We take the
By Max Lane
Carlos Forte, secretary of the Manila Rizal branch of the underground Communist Party of the Philippines, released a statement on May 9 "fully supporting the call of comrades and concerned progressive sectors for a peaceful
Members of the Sydney Peace Squadron and other solidarity groups held a vigil of support on May 20 for Robert Samsa, on trial for a protest action he was involved with on October 24 against visiting Indonesian warships. Sydney Peace Squadron used the
Water supply workers strike
By Chris Spindler
ADELAIDE — A mass meeting of more than 700 Engineering and Water Supply (E&WS) workers on May 20 voted to strike from Friday May 20 to Monday against the government's audit commission report,
SAM WATSON of the Aboriginal Legal Service in Brisbane was interviewed for Green Left Weekly by John Nebauer on May 20.
Can you outline what happened on the night in question?
On Tuesday, May 10, between 3 and 4am, three Aboriginal
By Lara Pullin
The April 18 NSW Supreme Court ruling by Justice Newman that abortion is illegal in that state has caused a furore in the ACT mainly because it is unclear how the ACT will be affected.
In the first instance, it is seen as a
By Steve Rogers
CANBERRA — As Public Sector Union members across Australia start voting in national elections, incumbent officials are out in force. But only some are doing so under the election banner. Most are out campaigning for the
ERIC EARLEY spent three weeks working in the community of Loma Chata in the foothills of the Guazapa mountains, 60 kilometres from San Salvador. He writes here of the people's attempt to rebuild their community and their lives after the signing of
Homeless Murris bused out of Cairns
By John Nebauer
BRISBANE — On Monday, May 16, a group of 24 homeless Murris was stranded on the Wenlock River in the Cape York district after being forced to leave Cairns.
Brendon Baker, managing
By Eileen Herbert
Since an Argentinean company established the first Antarctic whaling station at Grytuken on South Georgia in 1904, more than 1.5 million whales have been slaughtered in the Southern Ocean alone. Eight out of 10 species are now
Australia's youth were lied to this year. They were told in classroom after classroom that Australia wants them to become outstanding doctors, lawyers, nurses, scientists and academics.
No-one wants any such thing. What is really required of
By Vivienne Porzsolt
The National Pay Equity Coalition held a seminar on May 7 in Sydney on the impact of enterprise bargaining on the pay and working conditions of women workers.
Di Fruin and Philippa Hall outlined the results of studies
By Craig Cormick
"Gusmao's bullets are always his thoughts." — Agio Pereira, East Timor Relief Association
One year ago, on May 21, the East Timorese resistance leader, Xanana Gusmao, was found guilty of plotting against the Indonesian
By Jolyon Campbell
A constitutional crisis has been precipitated in Croatia by the growth of organised opposition to the regime of Franjo Tudjman and the desertion of parliamentary members of the ruling Croatia Democratic Forum (HDZ) to form a
By Andrew Garton
The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) is a growing international partnership of networks providing low-cost public access computer communications services to individuals and organisations working for peace, human
Buzzcocks doing their thing, again
Trade Test Transmitions
The Buzzcocks
Reviewed by Neville Spencer
The Buzzcocks, one of the first punk bands, started playing as a group of teenagers in 1976. In 1976, the music industry had largely
Burma — Democracy Denied
By Sue Bolton
Burma — Democracy Denied is a striking collection of photographs and text. The people of Burma today suffer under an iron-fisted military dictatorship; there are extensive human rights violations;
News briefs
BRISBANE — A peanut farmer has been accused of destroying the home of the sacred Rainbow Serpent at historic Ban Ban Springs near Gayndah, central Queensland. Local Aboriginal tribes say a farmer, who sank a bore near the now
By Tim E. Stewart
DARWIN — The campaign to have military air exercises removed from the city has scored its first victory. With Territory elections set for June 4, the Singaporean Air Force was temporarily moved to Amberley air base
By Kath Gelber
Tasmanian gay rights activists are stepping up their campaign for the repeal of the state's archaic anti-gay laws. Despite the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) finding that Tasmania's laws are in breach of the
Young people speak out against budget
By Nikki Ulasowski
BRISBANE — Seventy young people picketed on May 16 outside the Greek Club, where Prime Minister Keating was addressing a meeting. The picket was against the 1994 federal budget's
New Music Australia — With John Crawford. David Chesworth is a composer gaining in popularity, especially since his piece Recital has been performed the world over. The ABC commissioned a new piece from Chesworth called Exotica, and this program
By Sean Healy
PERTH — Since its election in February 1993, and more particularly since the Glendalough by-election in March 1994, the Richard Court Liberal state government has heavily pushed the law and order issue.
In the by-election,
The Australian Council for Lesbian and Gay Rights (ACLGR) needs urgent help to bring equal family leave for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenderists before the federal Industrial Relations Commission. On July 18 the ACTU is bringing a case
Hostage
SBS Television
Friday, June 3
Reviewed by Barry Healy
This is a strangely uncompelling documentary about a fascinating subject — the thoughts and feelings of Terry Waite, the personal representative of the archbishop of
By Eileen Herbert
Conservationists around the world are expecting a landmark victory this week as the 46th annual International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting convenes in Mexico from May 23 to decide on a proposed Antarctic whale sanctuary.
By Renfrey Clarke
MOSCOW — Imagine that in your country, every sixth vote supposedly cast in recent national elections was shown to have been fraudulent. Imagine, further, that the same expert study showed the constitution to have been
Nol
Joan Baez
Vanguard
Hits/Greatest & Others
Joan Baez
Vanguard
Reviewed by Allen Myers
I am told that someone recollects, they think, that Joan Baez has become quite a political conservative â even supporting Reagan in the '80s,
The Cutting Edge: Deadly Hurt — This documentary by Australian film maker Don Parham looks at domestic violence. Although it focuses on one case, that of an Italian family living in Victoria, the program takes up the broader issues with a large
Comment by Iain Aitken
Lisa Macdonald's polemic characterisation of postmodernism as another form of bourgeois individualism (GLW #139) fails to recognise the polymorphous nature of postmodernism and the potential it offers for radical politics.
Doing the block
Written by John Romeril
Music by Irene Vela
Directed by David Carlin
Thursday to Saturday until May 28
George Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre, Melbourne
Reviewed by Sofi Chapman
The "block" in question is a Melbourne
By Bronwen Beechey
MELBOURNE — At least 10,000 people rallied on May 15 in opposition to the holding of the 1996 Australian Formula One Grand Prix in inner-suburban Albert Park.
Premier Jeff Kennett also turned up, but didn't stay long.
Prefer 1880s
"He [John Howard] may pick up some extra numbers, but the bulk of the party room is just not interested in revisiting the 1980s." A Liberal MP on Howard's leadership chances, quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald, May 20.
Not all
By Frank Noakes
I first heard the late John Smith speak when he addressed the British Labour Party's conference in the windswept seaside town of Blackpool in September 1992. It was his first address to conference as leader, and much was expected
By Anne O'Callaghan
Says Bernice Johnson Reagon, founding member of Sweet Honey in the Rock, "The only moment you know you have is the one you occupy. That's the moment you should express yourself." Expressing themselves sums up what these five
This is an abridged version of a talk presented at the International Green Left Conference in April by CARL BLOICE, a National Executive member of the Committees of Correspondence (USA). It was one of three talks on a panel presentation on the topic
Go-ahead for Kuranda Skyrail
By Kate Minnett
Federal minister for the environment John Faulkner on May 13 announced government approval for the 7.5km cableway, the Kuranda Skyrail, near Cairns.
It was also announced that there will be
International Abortion Rights Day
CANBERRA — A public meeting on May 18 was outraged to learn that the ACT still has references to abortion in the Crimes Act 1900 and that a woman could be liable to prosecution and up to 10 years' jail if she
Big Green vote in Coburg
By Chris Slee
MELBOURNE — Labor candidate Carlo Carli won the May 14 by-election for the state parliamentary seat of Coburg with 53% of the vote, up 3% from 1992, but the vote was not impressive in a working-class
VIVIENNE PORZSOLT of Green Left Weekly spoke with CAROLINE ALCORSO of the Association of Non English Speaking Background Women of Australia. Alcorso is one of the authors of a study, Bargained Away: Enterprise Bargaining and Non English-speaking
By Reihana Mohideen
"Today is a historical day in Palestine", Radwan Abu Ayyash, chair of the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation, told Green Left Weekly on May 19 as the last Israeli troops withdrew from Gaza and Jericho.
Under the Oslo
90,000 starve in Bougainville camps
Papua New Guinea's National newspaper reported on May 10 that more than 90,000 people in 35 "care centres" on Bougainville are at risk of starvation after food ran out on the weekend of May 6-7. These PNG
Killers in blue
By Jolyon Campbell
Victoria has been the scene of an alarming wave of homicides. Two shootings in the past week bring to 24 the number of people shot dead by Victorian police since 1988.
In episodes the police persist
By Nick Johnson
PHNOM PENH — This year's dry-season offensive has ended disastrously for the government. Aiming to take key Khmer Rouge positions in the far north and west, the four month campaign by the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces has ended
By Mike Karadjis
While the Greek government insists that there are no (Slav) Macedonians in Greece and therefore they cannot be oppressed, when actual people put holes in this convenient theory by claiming to exist, the government's response is
How much is that justice in the window?
By Brandon Astor Jones
"I can't say I approve it, but I got all the parties together and they worked out whatever settlement they wanted on the case." — District Attorney Tom Charron, Cobb County