By Stephen Robson
"It's excellent. It's the best outcome in the face of the government's intransigence", Greens (WA) Senator Christabel Chamarette told Green Left Weekly following the decision on November 28 to establish a Senate select
Issue 170
News
Scientist 'alarmed' over Hinchinbrook go-ahead
By Bill Mason
BRISBANE — The use of a recent scientific report to overturn objections to developer Keith Williams' controversial Port Hinchinbrook project was an abuse, an environmental
Rally to defend community services
By Chris Spindler
ADELAIDE — Protests over cutbacks by the state Liberal government continue as the December 10 rally to "Defend Community Services" nears.
More than 100 parents and students
By Dick Nichols
SYDNEY — Sydney's Leichhardt Oval was the scene on Saturday, December 3, of one of the angriest protest rallies in the city in the last 20 years. As the 747s howled overhead, around 15,000 inner city residents gathered to
Smelter closure to cost 1000 jobs
By Liam Mitchell
WOLLONGONG — Southern Copper Ltd (SCL) has announced that it will cease operations at its Wollongong smelter in January, laying off 400 workers from its own work force and possibly
Socialists to stand in Wollongong
By Liam Mitchell
WOLLONGONG — The Democratic Socialists have announced that they will stand Chris Pickering as candidate for the seat of Wollongong in the upcoming state elections. Pickering, a
By Pip Hinman
SYDNEY — "Australians can be made to understand the problem with trading with Indonesia's genocidal generals", renowned author and film maker John Pilger told a 450-strong meeting here on December 2. "Trade is not the holy grail,
By Rebecca Collerson
SYDNEY — A new bill, and proposed changes to others, as part of the NSW Liberal government's law and order campaign have been diluted following pressure from the public. However, police powers regarding young people and
East Timor exhibition visits Ipswich
By Nick Everett
BRISBANE — Community Aid Abroad's "East Timor 1942-1992" photo exhibition opened in Ipswich on December 3. The exhibition, on the Queensland leg of its tour, contains more than 100
Shearers oppose union sell-out
By Dave Wright and Ray Fulcher
BALLARAT — The breakaway Shearers and Rural Workers Union (SRWU) is angry over the proposed award restructuring deal the right-wing AWU-FIME is set to conclude with the
DITA SARI, the general secretary of the Centre for Indonesian Working Class Struggle (PPBI), is completing a visit to Australia to attend the Indian Ocean Trade Union Conference in Perth and to address several public meetings, including the December
Tenants' funding withdrawn
By Alex Bainbridge
MELBOURNE — Thirty people gathered outside the office of the Victorian minister for housing, Rob Knowles, on November 30 to protest against the withdrawal of government funding of the Public
By Janet Parker
SYDNEY — The plague of aircraft noise generated by the opening of the third runway at Kingsford Smith airport is uniting affected communities in a powerful opposition — one that has NSW Labor politicians running for cover.
ADELAIDE — On November 26, 120 people attended a protest rally over the privatisation of Modbury Hospital. Speakers, led by local residents, called for an ongoing campaign to save the hospital, the most efficient in the state. Lea Stevens from the
The good, the bad and the gorgeous: Popular culture's romance with lesbianism
Edited by Diane Hamer and Belinda Budge
Harper Collins, 1994. 253 pp., $24.95 (pb)
Reviewed by Kath Gelber
With all the fuss about lesbians in popular culture
Sydney fumes exceed limit
SYDNEY — A study released by the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) has revealed that the amount of benzene (a carcinogen in petrol) over George Street in the central business district sometimes exceeds the
World
On tour in Sydney and speaking at the PNG Forest Benefit gig at the Harbourside Brasserie on Sunday, December 4, is Father Robert Lak, a prominent radio personality and founder of the development and political activist organisation Doa Foundation. He
By Pip Hinman
SYDNEY — For both Junilyn Pikacha, from the Solomon Islands Planned Parenthood Association, and Geraldine Maibani-Michie, from the Department of Community Medicine at the University of Papua New Guinea, women's rights are
By Robyn Marshall
BRISBANE — Cuban environmentalist Luis Sanchez told a meeting here on November 25 that the most pressing problem facing Cuba since the fall of the Eastern bloc was the production of food.
Sanchez is touring Australia as
HAVANA — The World Cuba Solidarity Meeting wound up on November 25, after five days of debates, speeches and the work of different commissions. The final declaration of this unprecedented event stated:
"... we 3072 participants representing
By Renfrey Clarke
MOSCOW — Even in a city which now has a reputation as one of the world's crime capitals, it can be easy at times to forget that crime exists. Newspapers might carry lists of the week's murder victims, but a reassuring piece
Rwanda inaugurated its new parliament during the last week of November. The parliament is a broad-based legislature similar to that outlined in the Arusha Peace Accord of 1993. The government is led by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) but includes
By Pip Hinman
KUALA LUMPUR — "In search of a just world order" was the title and theme of a three-day international conference held here from November 18. Sponsored by the non-government organisation the Jamahir Society for Culture and
Bougainville: cease-fire fails
By Frank Enright
The Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) has declared an end to the cease-fire between itself and the Papua New Guinea Defence Forces signed in September before the abortive peace talks held
By Frank Enright
The emperor has no clothes. The sham of the West's so-called peacekeeping operation in Bosnia has been finally stripped bare with the entry into the UN-designated "safe haven" of Bihac by Serb forces. Along the way, the Serbs
By Renfrey Clarke
MOSCOW — Amid bitter protests from miners, teachers and other sections of organised labour, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma has begun implementing a program of "reform" designed to wipe the last traces of socialism from the
Culture
Three Colours: Red
Directed by Krysztof Kieslowski
Starring Irene Jacob, Jean-Louis Trintignant
Reviewed by Vannessa Hearman and Karl Miller
The trilogy Blue, White and Red deals with the themes of liberty, equality and fraternity,
A Greek-Latin collaboration
By Vannessa Hearman
MELBOURNE — Following last year's success of the performance of Pablo Neruda's Canto General, this year Canto Coro will be accompanied by the Australian Greek Choir to present Axion Esti.
By Chris Martin
SYDNEY — "Yiribana", a word from the Eora language believed to translate as "this way", is the name of a new gallery of Aboriginal art which has opened at the Art Gallery of NSW.
Promotional material claims it to be the
Three Colours: Red
Directed by Krysztof Kieslowski
Starring Irene Jacob, Jean-Louis Trintignant
Reviewed by Vannessa Hearman and Karl Miller
The trilogy Blue, White and Red deals with the themes of liberty, equality and fraternity,
Representations of the Intellectual: The 1993 Reith Lectures
By Edward W. Said
Vintage, 1994. 90 pp., $12.95 (pb)
Styles of Radical Will
By Susan Sontag
Vintage, 1994. 274 pp., $12.95 (pb)
Revolutionaries: Contemporary Essays
By
By Ray Fulcher
MELBOURNE — A fortnight prior to the state government's "Arts 21" package being unveiled on November 23, the Melbourne Workers Theatre had its funding cut by $20,000.
Arts 21 is the Kennett government's policy supposedly
Pulp Fiction
Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino
Reviewed by Zanny Begg
Pulp Fiction is an amoral film. It's a film full of violence. A young black boy's head is blown off in the back of a car. A boxer kills his opponent in the ring.
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Nativity in Black: A tribute to Black Sabbath
Various artists
Columbia Records
Reviewed by Nick Fredman
Before Metallica, before Soundgarden, before Spinal Tap even, there was Black Sabbath. With the insipid and
Romeo of the Underworld
By Venero Armanno
Picador Australia, 1994
Reviewed by Kylie Hunt
There's something savage and real about Romeo of the Underworld. Venero Armanno makes you take it seriously from the first word — stronzo. Or to
Tumbling Dice
By Brian Toohey
Port Melbourne: William Heinemann Australia
1994. 348 pp. $24.95
Reviewed by Allen Myers
Brian Toohey is much better known as an investigator of Australia's intelligence services than as an economics writer,
A Critical View of Western Journalism and Scholarship on East Timor
By Geoffrey Gunn (with Jefferson Lee)
Journal of Contemporary Asia Publishers, 1994. 271 pp., $25 (pb)
Available by postal order from PO Box 703, Leichhardt 2040
Reviewed by
Didgeridoo Concerto
Didgeridoo Concerto
Ellipsis Arts
Reviewed by Francesca Davidson
Didgeridoo Concerto is an impressive 51 minutes of solo didgeridoo playing by musician Mark Atkins — reputedly Australia's leading Aboriginal
Editorial
Tax the rich
We've had the recession that we had to have and now, just when we thought it was safe to go out, Treasurer Willis, Prime Minister Keating and Reserve Bank governor Fraser are concurring with business economists on the tax increases