Clinton attacks the victims
US President Bill Clinton has just announced draconian welfare "reforms" which are clearly racist and which reinforce reactionary attitudes in the area of social policy.
In a polemic against single mothers,
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ADELAIDE — A Green Left Weekly seller was assaulted by a member of the right-wing group National Action on Friday night, June 17, at the East End pub Crown and Anchor. Two police officers near the scene refused to render assistance or apprehend the
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MELBOURNE — Delegates and officials from the main unions in the oil industry met with ACTU secretary Bill Kelty on June 14 to discuss a campaign in response to the massive attack by Caltex on the wages and conditions of Kurnell
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The Cultural Dissent Alternative Culture Fund is a non-profit cultural organisation which aims to promote alternative culture in all fields of media. Cultural Dissent promotes alternative music through a range of performances it sponsors in
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Legal reform and anti-discrimination measures have been the focus of much debate and activity in the lesbian and gay communities over recent years. Legal recognition of lesbian and gay relationships has been a particular
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On the evening of June 13, a worker at the Bankstown Youth Refuge was murdered. Neena Bisen, a 34-year-old youth worker with experience in India and the United States, was allegedly stabbed to death by two girls, aged 15 and 17,
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CANBERRA — Public Sector Union National Challenge activists contesting national elections gained over one third of the vote in the recently completed ballot count. The incumbent Wendy Caird and Peter Robson team is
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A federal Liberal MP is playing a key role in the mobilisation of bigoted right-wingers in defence of Tasmania's anti-gay laws. Chris Miles, MHR for Braddon and opposition spokesperson for schools, vocational education and
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Tuntuni Bhattacharyya and Pat Brewer Abortion is a political issue On July 11, pro-choice activists held a picket outside the NSW ALP conference. The picketers were demanding from delegates that the ALP end its conscience vote on abortion
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True Stories: The Real Jurassic Park — This documentary asks, Was Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park fiction, or is it possible? The film by David Dugan involves molecular biologists, palaeontologists and embryologists in answering questions such as,
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ADELAIDE — A lively forum at the Resistance Centre on June 18 discussed the events of May-June 1968, when a massive movement of students and workers in France changed the face of politics. Speakers explained the events and explored the implications
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Postmodernism Intellectual games, like the debate about whether Marx is scientific or Post Modernism is radical, would have been more appropriate in past leisured times. To those interested, it might prove that human behaviour is subject to the
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Ear to the Ground — Burra: Transitions — Continuing a feature series on South Australian history, this program looks at the former copper mining town of Burra in the state's mid-north. Cornish miners, Chilean muleteers, pigeons in the mine
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SYDNEY — When the Hawke government suggested an Australia-wide identity system (the Australia Card), public opposition forced it to abandon the plan because of fears of potential misuse of the data collected for the card. Yet a
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The myth that Asian women are submissive, sexually willing and economically dependent may be contributing to the high rate of domestic violence in Filipina-Australian relationships. One of the Melbourne lawyers involved in
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Drugged injustice"Ms Benson was receiving higher than average doses of each of these medications [Robaxin, Nalfon, Tylenol 3 (with Codeine), Valium and Vistaril] ... The combination of medications ... very likely
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By Gareth W.R. Smith CANBERRA — Gareth Evans, speaking of the November 1991 Dili killings, described them as "horribly aberrant behaviour ... rather than a deliberate, centrally directed act of state policy". However, the experience of
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I'm going to use a word you never thought I'd use. I'll be describing something that can get you arrested. I'm going to tell you the dirtiest word you'll hear. It's filthy! Remember, you didn't read it here — not in this column, nor in the
News
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SA push for federal awardsADELAIDE — South Australia's 20,000 teachers are looking to the federal award system in an attempt to protect their wages and conditions and to prevent retrenchments. The move follows a
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Controversy over withdrawal from play By S. O'Dowd DARWIN — A controversy has erupted here over the withdrawal of two Indonesian women from performing in Salt, Fire, Water, a play which includes material and actors from diverse cultural
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SYDNEY — The NSW ALP state conference, June 11-13, appears to have settled, for the moment, the battle between left and right factions over preselections for state parliament. A casualty was right-winger Peter Anderson,
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There are streets in a Newcastle suburb where children are forbidden to live because of the health threat from industrial pollution. The company responsible is Pasminco, much in the news in Tasmania for its ocean dumping of industrial wastes —
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Activists from around Australia will be attending the Campus Activist Forum in Sydney on July 16. The day-long seminar will take up a range of issues, including the experiences of campus campaigners from overseas. Marina
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MELBOURNE — A fiery meeting of 250 community activists on June 15 launched a campaign against VicRoads' proposals to expand the F19 freeway. With the exception of the VicRoads' representative, a panel of speakers roundly
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Child-care meeting warns of changesWOLLONGONG — On June 16, 80 people met at Wollongong Town Hall to discuss proposed changes to child-care assistance. David Guy, manager of the Illawarra Child Care Services Action
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Enjoy "After a dinner of Peking duck, I'll sign anything." — US diplomat Henry Kissinger in Beijing in 1972, "late at night after a banquet of Peking duck and powerful mao tai liquor", according to a long-secret RAND Corporation study of how the
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NOWSA conference at Macquarie Uni By Kathy O'Driscall SYDNEY — "NOWSA has provided a fantastic networking opportunity for women student activists since it first began in 1987. Hopefully, this year we'll be able to have more concrete
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East Timor activist returns from Manila By Sally-Anne Watson DARWIN — Robert Wesley Smith (pictured), who attended the Asia Pacific Conference on East Timor (APCET) in Manila from May 31 to June 4, believes the furore which surrounded it
Analysis
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Health insurance should be unnecessary Recent reports to the federal health minister have once again raised the perennial problem of Australian politics — health funding. For ideological and self-interested reasons, the debate is unlikely to
World
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Indonesian warship fiascoA controversy has erupted in Indonesia over the refitting of 39 German warships purchased last year by the Suharto government. Technology and research minister Jusuf Habibie arranged the deal without
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Lagman freedMANILA — Filemon Lagman, the underground leader of the Manila Regional Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines, was released from detention on bail of 100,000 pesos on the evening of June 17.
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East Timorese face trialFive East Timorese independence activists are about to go on trial for peaceful protests they carried out during the visit of foreign journalists to Dili in April. They face up to seven years'
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Arson at PNG Forest AuthorityFire on the weekend of June 5 destroyed extensive records of the Papua New Guinea Forest Authority. The PNG police are treating the case as arson. It comes in the midst of attempts by logging
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LONDON — Elections for the European parliament, held on June 9 and 12, resulted in erosion of support for mainstream and government parties. However, the main beneficiaries were not the left alternative or Green parties, but
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The initial motivation for this comment came from reading articles on South Africa in Socialist Worker, the paper of the International Socialist Organisation. These articles don't vary much, at least not in theme, which
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MOSCOW — If Russia's economic crisis has brought any benefit, it has been to small animals. During the past two years there have been more hares in the forests, and more mice in the fields. In Siberian rivers, there are
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Mounting internal and international pressure has finally forced the Papua New Guinea government into peace talks with representatives of the Bougainville Interim Government. The talks are being held in the Solomon Islands
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Changes in Brazil's election law, voted in by the conservative majority in the Congress, have put new restrictions on opposition parties' rights to broadcast and disseminate their views. The original law, enacted before the 1989 election, gave
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Brazilian unionists murdered International protests are being called for after the brutal assassination of two Brazilian unionists on June 12. Rosa Hernandes, a leader of the struggles of the agricultural workers of the region, and Jose Luis
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On their next visit to the polling booths, New Zealanders will vote under a new, more democratic system for their national parliament.
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JOHANNESBURG — Prisons throughout South Africa were convulsed by protests which began on June 9. The South African Prisoners Organisation for Human Rights (SAPOHR) called on inmates to begin peaceful mass action after the new
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New trade union for Indonesia?In a statement issued on June 13, the Free Discussion Forum (FBB), a group with extensive links among Jakarta factory workers, called for the formation of a new national trade union. The FBB
Culture
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Return of the BuzzcocksBRISBANE — The Buzzcocks, back after an eight-year break, played to 1500 people at the Site on June 13. Their unmistakable fresh and energetic sound chopped through my subconscious with the same
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L'Ombre du Doute (A Shadow of Doubt) Directed by Aline Issermann Starring Mireille Perrier, Alain Bashung, Sandrine Blancke Opens at the Sydney Academy Twin, June 30 Reviewed by L. Pradhan Issermann says that all of her films deal with
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'Armed and Dangerous': My Undercover Struggle Against Apartheid By Ronnie Kasrils Heinemann, 1993. 374 pp., $15.95 (pb) Reviewed by Phil Shannon When Ronnie Kasrils touched down at Johannesburg airport in 1989, he had chalked up 30 years
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Solas Talitha MacKenzie Riverboat Records Reviewed by Jill Hickson Talitha MacKenzie, born and raised in New York, has been singing all her life. She came across a collection of field recordings of Gaelic songs and was so impressed with
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Treasure chest Andy's Chest Martin Plaza BMG Reviewed by Graham Matthews Martin Plaza is probably best known for his work with Mental as Anything. The Mentals' irreverent hits of the '80s marked an important stage in Australian pop