The collapse of the Ethiopian military regime, following the flight of Haile Mariam Mengistu to Zimbabwe, ends 14 years of brutal dictatorship and raises hope for an escape from the oppression, war and starvation that have made
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Next issue Next Monday, our usual printing day, is a public holiday in NSW. The next issue of Green Left, dated June 12, will therefore be printed a day late. The normal printing schedule will resume with the following issue.
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The nation was on tenterhooks, awaiting the momentous decision which would so change the future of True Blue Aussie With the Big Red Heart. The world's greatest worst treasurer Paul stormed into the office of our great and beloved
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Where's the madman now? During the prelude to and conduct of the recent Gulf war Saddam Hussein was repeatedly labelled as a madman by members of the press and various "expert" analysts. President Bush's recent medical history raises a very
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The Hawke-Keating government was a product of the speculative boom of the '80s. With the boom over, most of the big borrowers bankrupt and Australia in the midst of its deepest recession since the 1930s, the government is in
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Wildmen Do we need this? Sydney's media have found a lost tribe of "wildmen" in deepest inner-suburban Balmain after one was spotted by the Sydney Morning Herald's Richard Glover and exposed in print on May 25. Allan Tegg, of the Men's
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"Townships are dormitory towns — reservoirs of cheap labour, dumping grounds for dispossessed and displaced blacks. They are divorced from natural beauty and the green heritage. They are plagued by criminal violence and gangsterism; by disease and
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Democracy does not depend on dynastiesI am greatly distressed and disappointed by much of the Australian media's coverage of the assassination of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. Many of the reports show a lack of
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As everyone knows, 550 oil wells are burning in Kuwait. Six million barrels of oil — one million tons — are going up in smoke daily, creating a smog so thick that car headlights have to be used during the day, and dropping
News
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SYDNEY — In the wake of the report of the Royal Commission into Black Deaths in Custody, Aboriginal representatives here are calling for an Aboriginal ombudsman or crime authority. Commission evidence indicated that police
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and Kathy Raheb Photo by David Brazil SYDNEY — Clad in black, standing in silent vigil in Martin Place on June 1, Women in Black made their inaugural Sydney protest against the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and
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MELBOURNE — Opposition leader "Foot in Mouth" Jeff Kennett seems determined to live up to his nickname. His "quantum leap" attempt to force the Kirner Labor government to an early election fizzled when nearly everyone (even most
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Demand for real land rightsBRISBANE — Queensland Aborigines are not happy with "land rights" legislation passed by state parliament at 2 a.m. on May 31. The legislation does not give Aboriginal people real ownership over land
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Comalco moves for bans clauseBRISBANE — Boyne Smelters, owned by the giant multinational Comalco, has applied for a clause banning all strikes at the Gladstone aluminium plant, after workers walked off the job for the sixth time in
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PERTH — Metropolitan Perth could take a radical step forward in transport planning by scrapping the proposed controversial City Northern Bypass Road and Burswood Bridge link road, replacing it with a light rail transit (LRT)
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PERTH — "More public sector jobs not less" demands the log of claims being served on the state ALP government by the combined government sector unions. The log was adopted at a May 29 shop stewards' meeting. "The issue we
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About 1100 participants from around the country came to last year's Socialist Scholars Conference in Sydney, where they were able to hear, meet and discuss ideas with such renowned international guests as Ralph Miliband, Giovanni
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SYDNEY — Since April, when the ACTU launched its "campaign" for the full Accord Mark VI against the Industrial Relations Commission's "rotten egg" decision, industrial relations junkies have been speculating how the wage fixation
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MELBOURNE — The "Free Speech Committee" was launched here on May 30 in the offices of Joan Coxsedge, Labor MLC for Melbourne West. A group of activists representing various left and progressive groups came together to start a
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Integrity "Ministerial job offers have been flying thick and fast in the past two days as both sides try to stitch up the numbers for tomorrow's vote. Caucus sources claim the same jobs in the ministry have been offered to different MPs by the
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PERTH — Students from the University of Western Australia Austudy Reform Action Group completed 10 days of protests against cuts to education funding with a demonstration at the Fremantle CES Office on May 30. Approximately 50
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SYDNEY — It took a week after election day, but it now seems Nick Greiner's Liberal-National coalition will have the 49 seats needed to form a minority government with the support of National Party defector Tony Windsor. There
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Criminals exploit black youthPERTH — Aboriginal youth are being exploited by adults who are forcing them into housebreaking and theft, according to Aboriginal Legal Service executive officer Rob Riley. Riley said that an
Analysis
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Editorial: After the NSW elections The May 25 NSW election confirms the unpopularity of all the main parties. Around the country, there are now five minority governments relying on the support of independents: NSW, South Australia, Tasmania, the ACT
World
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WASHINGTON, D.C. — US oil companies, seeking petroleum exploration rights in a region of the Ecuadorian Amazon considered a jewel of biodiversity, are running into legal opposition under US law. The Corporación de Defensa de la Vida
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The postwar two-party system in Australia is undeniably facing its greatest challenge. Acknowledging evidence that there could be anywhere between 10% and 30% of the electorate looking outside the two main parties, NSW trade
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Large and militant demonstrations by university students, which rapidly gained broad popular support, have forced the PNG government to defer huge pay increases for national and provincial politicians and senior public servants.
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PRAGUE — A hardening political differentiation among Czechoslovakia's parliamentary parties has turned the popular coalition that emerged in November 1989 and won elections the following June into a thing of the past. "Civic
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AUCKLAND — New Zealand foreign minister Doug McKinnon has been visiting London and Washington trying to "bridge the impasse" between New Zealand's anti-nuclear law and British and US reluctance to disclose the presence of nuclear
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Now a member of the unified Bundestag (all-German parliament), THOMAS KLEIN was elected to the east German Volkskammer in March 1990 on the ticket of Vereinigte Linke (United Left), of which he was a founder. While working in the economics section of
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Development problems in ThailandEnvironmental consequences of development in Thailand were the topic of a Community Aid Abroad forum in Sydney on May 29. In 1988-9, the Thai economy grew by 10%. The country is looking to become
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The use of trees from virgin forest in the production of paper is a phenomenon of the latter part of this century only, though paper itself has been an integral part of human civilisation for thousands of years. Common
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On June 17, long-time peace activists Michael Randall and Pat Pottle will be tried for helping famous double agent George Blake escape from a British prison in 1966. Randall and Pottle admit they did it but insist that they committed
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Czechoslovakia's oldest party Established 130 years ago, in 1878, the Czechoslovak Social Democratic Party sees itself as part of the 19th century tradition of European Social Democracy and as the oldest party still active in Czechoslovak
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Jim Beatson, a freelance journalist who writes regularly for Time and the UK Guardian, recently returned from a three-week stay in embattled Bougainville. Beatson reports that an uneasy calm prevails after the PNG government's
Culture
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Jaywalkin' Big Jay McNeely and the Mighty Reapers ABC records. Available on CD and cassette The Big Jay McNeely Show can be seen on Thursday, June 6, at the Old Lion Hotel, Adelaide; Friday, June 7, at the Birkenhead Point Tavern, Sydney;
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Comedy Paul Kelly and the Messengers Mushroom Records Reviewed by Col Hesse "From Little Things Big Things Grow" is the song on Paul Kelly's new album which really grabs you. Written by Kelly and Kev Carmody, it's about "the Gurindji stockmen
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Communications for Progress By Graham Lane 1990. 152 pp. $22 Available from Pegasus Networks, PO Box 424, Byron Bay NSW 2481 Reviewed by Andrew Garton An unfortunate title, but a book that has come none too soon, Communications for Progress
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Manning Clark will be remembered by me in a series of vignettes of kaleidoscopic variety. Together they form a composite picture which explains why he attained the status of Australia's first great historian as much as do the
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By Kaarin Davies-Cassin Australian band Mixed Relations will not be touring France this month. Because of overspending by the French government on the Gulf War, half the gigs were cancelled. Steve Pauner, the band's manager, explained, "We were
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From Hanoi to Hollywood: The Vietnam War In American Film Linda Dittmar and Gene Michau (eds) Rutgers University Press, 1990. 387 pp. $26.95 (pb) Reviewed by Phil Shannon "Boy, I saw Rambo last night; now I know what to do next time", said
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Death in Brunswick Written and directed by John Ruane Rated M Reviewed by Angela Matheson Sam Neill is Carl, a downwardly mobile loser caught in the seamier side of life in ethnic inner-city Melbourne. Newly appointed as chef in a seedy night
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The seven day song cycle One: the wisdom of Solamundy em = By Tony Smith This is the tale of a man called David. At his black birth they estimated that things seemed well enough on Monday. Schooled, trained, but not indoctrinated his heart
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Art from the lounge roomBRISBANE — "If the unemployed are dole bludgers what the fuck are the idle rich?" asks one of the exhibits in a political poster display at the Queensland Art Gallery. The posters cover 1970-90
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Radio features World Environment DaySYDNEY — Public access radio station 2SER-FM will mark World Environment Day on June 5 with a full day of special programs, reports, interviews, features and music. "Public radio was