Phil Shannon
CANBERRA — Members of the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) employed in the Commonwealth Department of Human Services & Health (HSH) have completed a series of meetings on the lack of progress in achieving an agency
Issue 163
News
Bougainville nurse describes suffering
By Jim Green
WOLLONGONG — Ruby Mirenka, deputy matron of the Arawa General Hospital in Bougainville, addressed a lively meeting here on October 12. Her visit was designed to raise
Bigots invited into Tasmanian high schools
By Katrina Dean
HOBART — Tas-Alert, an anti-gay group campaigning against gay law reform in this state, has been allowed space to display its message on secondary school
By Melanie Sjoberg
ADELAIDE — A discordant note struck the much publicised Women, Power and Politics Conference here on October 9 when more than 100 women protested at its elitism and the exorbitant registration costs. The conference,
Aborigines occupy Qld national park
By Bill Mason
BRISBANE — More than 30 Aborigines are occupying the Lawn Hill National Park, about 240 km north-west of Mount Isa, in support of their demand for involvement in the management
By Zanny Begg
Minister for immigration Nick Bolkus is considering legislation that would legalise the illegal detention of asylum seekers between 1989 and 1992. The bill would retrospectively deny compensation to around 350 potential
By Wendy Robertson
Hundreds of people rallied in capital cities on October 14-15 to protest against Australian government and business complicity in the 19-year Indonesian occupation of East Timor.
Activists highlighted the fact
PSU Challenge in SA
The position of assistant branch secretary of the Public Sector Union in South Australia is being contested by the PSU Challenge, the first time this position has been contested for some time.
Barry Cockram,
Residents rally to save fig trees
By Susan Price
BRISBANE ... One hundred residents and supporters tied yellow ribbons around two historic Moreton Bay fig trees in a protest called by the Herston, Kelvin Grove Residents Group
Colin O'Brien
Colin O'Brien died in early September. Colin had been an apprentice chef and a member of Resistance and the Socialist Workers Party in Sydney in the early 1980s.
He worked in Europe for a number of years before
By Jen Crothers
Theatre performances in Canberra and Hobart are well worth seeing if you get the chance.
In Canberra, at the National Festival of Australian Theatre, October 18-22, the Burnie, Tasmania, youth theatre group Rip
By Richard Startari
Indonesia's government has killed, tortured and jailed its opponents at will for almost three decades, under the guise of fighting communism and instability. Amnesty International has launched a worldwide campaign which
Circus protest
By Stephen Bull
ADELAIDE — About 100 animal rights supporters braved the rain and wind at Bonython Park on October 1 to protest against the use of animals in circuses. Animal Liberation used the occasion of the
Chipping away the forest's future
By Zanny Begg
Timber giant Boral's export woodchipping licence was renewed on October 11. The licence allows Boral to export a further 500,000 tonnes of woodchips from native forests in NSW.
Miners threaten strike over Moura claims
By Bill Mason
BRISBANE — The United Mine Workers Union has warned of a possible statewide strike because de facto spouses of coal miners killed in the Moura underground mine disaster
World
'It's time for a new, democratic, inclusive, equal and united Ireland,' campaigners say in new video
The new #UnitedIreland campaign has released the video below, narrated by actor Irish actor John Connors. The video says it is time to build a new, democratic, inclusive and United Ireland.
By Norm Dixon
MADRID â "50 años bastan! FMI-BM asasinos!" (50 years is enough! IMF-WB are assassins!) was the chant that resounded through the streets of the Spanish capital on October 2 as an estimated 20,000 demonstrators marched to
TIM MARSHALL is a university student in San Francisco and a member of the US socialist organisation Solidarity. In Sydney in July to attend the Resistance conference, he was interviewed for Green Left Weekly by REIHANA MOHIDEEN.
What is it
The theme of the recent Chris Hani memorial tour of three leading South African labour leaders was "Labour and Women in the New South Africa". Charles Nqakula, general secretary of the South African Communist Party and ANC national executive
By Liang Guosheng
In his excellent summary article, "Chinese workers challenge 'market Stalinism'" (GLW, August 10) Phil Clarke writes that the "general economic model promoted by Deng Xiaoping's regime is 'market Stalinism' — market
Kamalayan, a newly formed student organisation in the National Capital Region (Metro Manila area), held its 1st congress September 9-11. CARLA GORTON from Green Left Weekly spoke to JUDY ANN CHAN, newly elected secretary general of Kamalayan, about
By Jennifer Thompson
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein appears to have lost a desperate gamble. Despite the sickening hypocrisy which portrays Iraqi troops in Iraq as a "threat" and US troops half way around the world as "peacekeepers", the
Mission for Batwa Pygmies in Rwanda
An Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation fact-finding mission arrived in Kigali, Rwanda, on October 3 to begin a three-month investigation into the situation of the Batwa (Twa). The mission is
Loyalist cease-fire
Six and a half weeks after the Irish Republican Army laid down its arms and declared a cease-fire the Unionists of Northern Ireland have followed suit.
On October 13, the Combined Loyalist Military Command,
By Max Lane
Already last month in Jakarta, the Suharto dictatorship had increased surveillance and repression in the lead-up to the coming Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) heads of state meeting. When visiting human rights,
Campaign against sanctions
An International Appeal to End Sanctions against the Iraqi People is being coordinated by former US attorney general Ramsey Clarke and others in the International Action Centre in New York.
The
Culture
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
Starring Terence Stamp, Hugh Weaving and Guy Pearce
Reviewed by Kath Gelber
I'm not surprised this movie got a standing ovation at the sought-after midnight screening at Cannes.
Kicking the habit
Allen Carr's easy way to stop smoking
Penguin Books
Reviewed by Eric Earley
For the 71 years of my life I have been an active and passive drug addict, an indoctrinated, brainwashed and willing
How Are We To Live?
By Peter Singer
Text Publishing. $24.95
Reviewed by Dave Riley
It's been one helluva century! No sooner are we free of the placenta than we are sentenced to our role in history. But what does it all
The Blue Kite
Directed by Tian Zhuangzhuang
Starring Lu Liping, Zhang Wenyao, Chen Xiaoman
Mandarin with English subtitles
In Sydney at Academy Twin and Walker Cinemas from October 13, followed by interstate screenings
Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover
By Anthony Summers
Corgi Paperbacks. 621 pp. $16.95
Reviewed by Sean Lennon
J. Edgar Hoover ran the FBI from 1924 until his death in 1972. Publicly, he was feted
British director KEN LOACH has established himself as the leading socialist film maker working in the English language. Since 1991 he has twice won major prizes at the Cannes film festival, for Hidden Agenda, about Ireland, and Raining Stones, about
The Exposurist
By P.P. Craney
Junction Theatre, cnr George St & South Rds, Thebarton
Until November 5
$15/$10, group bookings available. Phone (08) 43 6200.
Reviewed by Chris Spindler
Set in the Philippines, The
Precepts for Political Activity
By Ho Chi Minh
Consider before you speak
Be decisive when you act
Be careful when you write
Be calm and cautious in critical hours
Hold back when you are excited
Forget
Poem: Fist
By Connie Frazer
Because Grandma
grew old twiddling
thumbs, hands clasped, eight
fingers locked together neat
as a carpentry join;
thumbs barrelling round
and round, over and
over
Requited cartoons
Unrequited Love: an exhibition of original cartoons
By Judy Horacek
Reviewed by Natasha Izatt
Everyone has experienced unrequited love. Sitting by the telephone waiting for a call. Then, when reality
Editorial
The drought and the market
From November 1, the drought which has been crippling much of rural Australia will come to the city. The NSW minister for planning has announced mild water restrictions for all households in Sydney.