By Lisa Renfrey
SYDNEY — What are the prospects for socialism today? Is Marxism still relevant — either in theory or as a guide to action for grassroots campaigners? How are movement activists around the world relating to and using socialist
Issue 181
News
By Natasha Simons
More than 15,000 students and academic staff across the country rallied, marched, struck and occupied against university fees on March 23. The demonstrations were part of a National Day of Action called by last December's No
Women's peace action set
By Les Hazell
Around 300 people are expected to attend the National Women's Peace Action and Festival at the Australian Defence Industries factory in the north-east Victorian town of Benalla April 14 to 16. The
Brisbane rally against woodchipping
By Nicole Kamp
BRISBANE — More than 400 people braved 30 degree temperatures on March 25 to rally in King George Square against woodchipping. The rally was organised by Resistance, HEMP, Brisbane
By Max Lane
Central Jakarta police on March 16 detained without warrant several journalists at a party celebrating the end of the Muslim fasting month. The party was hosted by AJI (Alliance of Independent Journalists), which was formed in the
By Pip Hinman
Conservationists have condemned the federal government for failing to come up with a concrete greenhouse gas reduction strategy before an international conference on climate change in Berlin beginning on March 27.
Recent
Kraft strike in fourth week
By Sue Bolton and Alana Kerr
MELBOURNE — Seventy-three members of the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) and the Automotive, Food, Metals and Engineering Union (AFMEU) have entered their fourth week of strike action
"Australia is becoming more and more a part of Jakarta's war effort in East Timor", Max Lane, national coordinator of Indonesia Solidarity Action, told Green Left Weekly at a demonstration protesting against Australian military ties with Indonesia in
World
By Sonny Melencio
Protests are escalating across the Philippines over the hanging of Flor Contemplacion, 42, overseas worker, in Singapore on March 17. The body of Contemplacion was flown to her home town, San Pablo City, where it lay in wake
In the German elections in October, the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) nearly doubled its vote and won 30 seats in the Bundestag (parliament). Earlier this year, Sarah Stephen and Chow Wei-Cheng spoke to Dr Sylvia-Yvonne Kaufmann, deputy
By Leonardo Coca Palacios
There is a popular Nicaraguan song which says, "Cocibolca and Xolotlan are our two silver legends", referring to Nicaragua's two great lakes. But now Xolotlan, as the indigenous people called Lake Managua, which has
By Kim Moody
If someone told you that the leaders of 125 nations had agreed to let 1000 or so transnational corporations take over the world and legitimise forced child labour, industrial home work, sweat shops and maybe even the "foreign
By Tim Dauth
JOHANNESBURG — South African prisoners, represented by the South African Prisoners for Human Rights (SAPOHR), will embark on a national strike on April 10 unless the government responds to calls for the establishment of an Amnesty
Story and photo by Sujatha Fernandes
DHAKA — In Bangladesh, the awareness about women's rights and the need to fight for them can be seen by the variety of the women's movement. On March 8, International Women's Day, and beforehand, a number
By Eva Cheng
China is plagued by high inflation, an overheated economy, growing budget deficits, a crippling debt service burden, a destabilised rural population and dwindling food production. The just-concluded National People's Congress (NPC)
Culture
By Lou Stanley
Space, the last frontier. Although we've moved beyond this well-known catch phrase, not much changes in the spirit of true trekking. Star Trek Generations has tried to meld the trekky cultures of the original Star Trek with Star
Picasso at the Lapin Agile
By Steve Martin
Directed by Neil Armfield
Return Season Director Andrew Tighe
Belvoir Street Theatre, Sydney
Reviewed by Allen Myers
Picasso at the Lapin Agile is set in a Paris cafe in 1904 — or possibly
Bhaji on the Beach
Written by Meera Syal
Directed by Gurinder Chada
Starring Kim Vithana, Lalita Ahmed, Zohra Segal
At Mandolin Cinema, Sydney
Reviewed by Pip Hinman and Peter Boyle
Bhaji on the Beach is Gurinder Chada's first film
A poem
em = By Sophie Villig
The sky used to be the limit
Now we've limited the sky
I don't know why
I don't know why
Reaching
but I can't find the sky
Heat is rising
and the sky is falling
I reach
losing
Childe and Australia: Archeology, Politics and Ideas
Edited by Peter Gathercole, T.H. Irving and Gregory Melleuish
University of Queensland Press, 1995. 245 pp., $16.95 (pb)
Reviewed by Phil Shannon
Vere Gordon Childe is renowned as the
By Rebecca Meckelburg
HOBART — The state attorney general, Ron Cornish, has banned 12 films that were due to be screened as part of Tasmania's inaugural Queer Film and Video Festival. The films have the go-ahead of the federal attorney general
The Cutting Edge: The Metals — Anatomy of a union
SBS, Tuesday, April 4, 8.30pm (8 Adelaide)
Reviewed by Jennifer Thompson
This documentary seems to represent largely the viewpoint of the AFMEU (Automotive, Food, Metal and Engineering
The Fifth Celebration of Irish Music
Sydney State Theatre, March 17
Reviewed by Gail Lord
Unable to buy a ticket for this years's Celebration of Irish Music concert, I was lucky enough to be given a ticket while selling Green Left Weekly at
Hazed
By Phil Monsour and Sue Ferres
Reviewed by Lynda Hansen
This tape is a refreshing collection of songs penned by Monsour, well known for his passionate political lyrics, accompanied by Sue Ferres on harmonies and violin. The tape