By Paul Oboohov
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,
Issue 148
News
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 —
By Jeremy Smith
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
By Sam Wainwright
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
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
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
SA push for federal awards
By Anthony Thirlwall
ADELAIDE — 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
Child-care meeting warns of changes
By Sean Moysey
WOLLONGONG — 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
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
World
New trade union for Indonesia?
By Max Lane
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
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
East Timorese face trial
By Jon Land
Five 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'
By Irina Glushchenko
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
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
On their next visit to the polling booths, New Zealanders will vote under a new, more democratic system for their national parliament. Their ballot papers are likely to look quite different too, with a number of new parties entering what may end up
By Phil Clarke
LONDON â 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
Indonesian warship fiasco
By Jon Land
A 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
Comment by Jorge Jorquera
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
By Frank Enright
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
Lagman freed
By Sonny Melencio
MANILA — 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.
By Norm Dixon
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
Arson at PNG Forest Authority
By Jon Land
Fire 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
Culture
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
Return of the Buzzcocks
By Lynda Hansen
BRISBANE — 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
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
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
'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
Editorial
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