Fight to save Hillview hospital
By Michael Boswell
PERTH — A community group fighting to save the Hillview adolescent psychiatric hospital has walked out of discussions with the Health Department. The Friends of CAPS (Child and Adolescent
Issue 146
News
By Ray Fulcher
MELBOURNE — An agency bargaining deal between the Department of Social Security and the Public Sector Union will not go ahead following a decision by the PSU National Delegates Committee (NDC) to withdraw from discussions and
By Andrew B. Rens
CAIRNS — Students have condemned a plan by the Queensland government to sell off rainforest hill slopes surrounding the future James Cook University campus at Smithfield, north of here.
The land, which adjoins World
By Melanie Sjoberg
ADELAIDE — 7000 public sector workers, including teachers and nurses, mobilised on May 24 in opposition to massive job cuts proposed in the SA government's audit commission report on state finances. The establishment media,
Kumarangk Coalition fights bridge construction
By Stephen Baker
ADELAIDE — The decision to construct a bridge from the mainland to a small island near the mouth of the Murray River has been strongly opposed by local residents, Aboriginal
Campaign aims to save Victorian ambulance services
By Ray Fulcher
MELBOURNE — Seventy people attended a public forum here on May 29 to discuss Victoria's ambulance service and work out ways of campaigning for improvements. The forum,
CSIRO staff work in
By Bill Mason
BRISBANE — The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation division of tropical and animal production facility at Long Pocket, on 7.2 hectares of prime riverfront land, is under threat of
Shoalwater sand mining dumped
By Bill Mason
BRISBANE — In what the mining industry has described as its biggest setback since the banning of mining at Coronation Hill in the Northern Territory, a federal government inquiry has recommended
World Environment Day, June 5, was marked by marches, rallies, and festivals in Australia's major cities. Nationally more than 1000 young people, including large numbers of high school students, mobilised to highlight their concerns, both global and
Murri community targets skyrail
By John Nebauer
BRISBANE — The Djabugay community has claimed native title over the Barron Falls National park near Cairns to prevent construction of the $35 million Kuranda Skyrail.
The skyrail, for
By Anne Pavy
PERTH — The West Australian Forest Alliance (WAFA) and the Wilderness Society have decided to take direct action in an attempt to block the destruction of valuable forests. A blockade has been planned, which will start with a
By Tom Kelly
The declaration of a whale sanctuary in the Southern Ocean is a " major victory", says Greenpeace whale campaigner Robbie Kelman. The International Whaling Commission (IWC) approved the creation of the sanctuary, which excludes
By Ray Smith
HOBART — The 1992 honours thesis of Alexandra de Blas, which studied the impact of the Mt Lyell Mining and Railway Company on Macquarie Harbour and Strahan, was published last week. Its appearance was delayed 16 months by threats
By Natalie Moxham
MELBOURNE — Community groups have united once again to fight government plans to increase the traffic capacity of Alexandra Parade.
"There is strong community concern about this plan to push a six-lane freeway through
World
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has responded to the latest threats to Venezuela's sovereignty from US President Donald Trump, in which the US leader promised "swift and strong actions" if Venezuela decides to proceed with the July 30 elections for a National Constituent Assembly.
Maduro called Trump's threats "vulgar", TeleSUR English reported. He said: "The process of the constituent assembly is already in the hands of the people who will exercise their right to vote. This is my response, the constituent assembly does not belong to me.
RACHEL EVANS and RAY FULCHER visited the Philippines for three weeks in April. Here they describe, in words and pictures, life in Payatas, the largest active rubbish dump in Manila.
The infamous Smoky Mountain proved too much of an embarrassment
By Jon Land
Situated 4000 metres above sea level, amongst the glaciers and tropical alpine valleys of the central highlands of West Papua, is Indonesia's biggest and most controversial mine, the Freeport-McMoran copper and gold operation at
The following is slightly abridged from a statement issued by the African National Congress government of the province of PWV.
World Environment Day offers the new South Africa and our province the chance to address the pollution legacy of
Greenpeace finds 'barbaric forestry' in Russia
VLADIVOSTOK — Greenpeace on May 23 called for an end to destruction of the unique forests of the Russian far east by Russian and multinational logging companies. A three-week expedition based on
The treatment of Grbavica, the suburb of Sarajevo occupied by Serb Chetnik forces, is as uncertain as the future of the city as a whole. The suburb remains an inglorious symbol of the collective traumas suffered by the city during two years of siege
By Jon Land
SYDNEY — Forty people gathered outside the office of the Philippines Department of Tourism here on May 31, protesting against the attempts by the Philippines government to stop the Asia Pacific Conference on East Timor in Manila
Greenpeace delays missile tests
At the third attempt, the British Navy test fired a Trident nuclear missile for the first time from a submarine off the Florida coast on May 26. Two earlier attempts by the submarine, HMS Vanguard, to fire the
Anti-Shell campaigner arrested in Nigeria
Ken Saro-Wiwa, leader of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) in Nigeria, was reported on May 26 to have been charged with the murder of four Ogoni elders. A representative of the
By Jill Hickson
SYDNEY — "Clearly, with the expansion of all forms of punishment in NSW, what we are seeing is not a crime wave but a punishment wave", states a review of prisons in NSW by the Inter-Church Committee on Prison Reform. The
By Irina Glushchenko and Renfrey Clarke
MOSCOW — Every spring since the Chernobyl catastrophe in April 1986, the Russian press has returned to history's worst nuclear disaster. In the first years, the articles focused on the heroism of the
ZOLILE MTSHELWANE interviews SAM SHILOWA and ZWELINZIMA VAVI, Congress of South African Trade Unions general secretary and assistant general secretary, about the main issues to be discussed at the 5th national congress of COSATU in September. This
By Phil Clarke
Hungary's May 29 elections brought a triumphant return to government of the Socialist Party (HSP), the "reformed" Communists, who ruled the country from 1945 until 1990. But it is unlikely that this victory of the HSP will give
By Phil Clarke
When Ukraine declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, it seemed likely to be the most viable of the ex-Soviet states aside from Russia itself. The country had a hugely productive domestic agriculture, enabling it to
Thirty women have been murdered in Algeria in the last few months for not wearing the veil. Other women have been raped or abducted. These crimes followed the circulation of a leaflet by Islamic fundamentalists stating that any woman not wearing
Kazakhstan miners need support
The following message was issued by Vassilli Myasnikov, president of the Independent Miners Union of the Western Donbass (Ukraine) on May 28.
The miners of Karaganda from Kazakhstan have been on strike since
By Peter Montague
A white male of the baby boom generation is about twice as likely to get cancer as his grandfather was, and a white female of the same age has about a 50% greater chance of getting cancer than her grandmother did, according to
Culture
Baraka
Baraka
A film by Ron Fricke
Reviewed by Andrea Carroll
"Baraka" is an ancient Sufi word meaning a blessing or the breath/essence of life. Through a series of stunning images, the film explores the theme of the essential unity of
By Alex Cooper
MELBOURNE — This year's 3CR Radiothon will be held June 13-26. The station has been broadcasting for 18 years, providing a voice for many groups and interests which find it hard to gain access to the establishment media.
Accidental Death of an Anarchist
By Dario Fo
Director: Robyn Archer
Cast includes: Mick Molloy, Stephen Rae and Vince Sorrenti
Footbridge Theatre, Sydney, until June 19
Reviewed by Arun Pradhan
The twisted perspective of the comic book
The Culture of Complaint
By Robert Hughes
Oxford University Press, 1993
Reviewed by Bill Doyle
Robert Hughes is probably best known in this country as the author of the excellent The Fatal Shore, or perhaps as the cheeky, slightly lairish
By Vivienne Porzsolt
Last week I saw Ordinary Fascism, a fascinating documentary on Nazism by Soviet film maker Mikhail Romm. Made in 1961, it is remarkable both for its portrayal of that weird brand of fascism and for the way it does so.
Australia's Spies and Their Secrets
By David McKnight
Allen & Unwin, 1994. 350 pp., $24.95 (pb)
Reviewed by Phil Shannon
David McKnight takes the knife to the boil of Australia's secret police in his history of ASIO. In a very detailed and
Blues, bluegrass and classical
Peculiaroso
Leo Kottke
BMG Records, Private Music Label
Reviewed by Jill Hickson
Leo Kottke, billed as one of the most innovative steel-string guitarist of all time, has produced an album of beautifully
Editorial
His master's voice
"Caved in to employer pressure" and "Brereton's backflip" were the typical responses of the establishment media to the announcement that industrial relations minister Laurie Brereton would modify the unfair dismissals