By Dave Holmes
MELBOURNE — From the opening public meeting on Thursday evening, which was addressed by Russian socialist Boris Kagarlitsky, to the final Sunday afternoon plenary discussion on the vexed question of the Labor Party, the
Issue 184
News
By Jennifer Thompson
WA Greens senators Dee Margetts and Christabel Chamarette are opposing social spending cuts in the 1995 federal budget, arguing instead for an increase in corporate taxation and cuts to defence spending.
Speaking to
By Dave Wright
SYDNEY — The Marxist education conference, held at Glebe High School, attracted around 250 people from across NSW. The majority of participants were young activists from a variety of campaigns and movements in Sydney, Canberra,
By Lisa Macdonald
More than 700 people around the country turned out for the Marxist Educational Conferences, Campaigning for Democratic Socialism, held in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth over the Easter weekend.
Not since the early
Public meeting on jobs and the environment
By Angela Jordan
ADELAIDE - The Native Forest Alliance (NFA) organised a successful public meeting of 60 community activists on April 21 to discuss the campaign against the woodchipping of
By Lisa Macdonald
PERTH — About 120 people from a variety of progressive movements and organisations attended the conference here over the Easter weekend.
The agenda, which comprised more than 30 panel, feature and workshop sessions,
Correction
GLW #183 reported that the Commonwealth Electoral Amendment Bill (No. 2) 1994 had been passed by the Senate on March 30. In fact, debate on this bill and the amendments being proposed by the Greens (WA) was deferred until the Senate
By Maurice Sibelle
BRISBANE — Some 160 people gathered at Brisbane's Resistance Centre over the Easter weekend. The conference was the largest, most thought-provoking and inspiring gathering of socialists to be held here for many years.
By Emma Stallard
and Arun Pradhan
PERTH — Students on Curtin University were recently treated to two very different meetings on educational issues. The first, on April 12, was organised by the Curtin Guild and featured minister for finance
By Maureen Baker
PERTH — Up to 5000 people attended an anti-privatisation rally at lunchtime on April 12. The rally was initiated by the Trades and Labour Council in association with WA Council of Social Services (WACOSS) and the Evatt
Students to target the ALP on May 3
By Emma Webb
ADELAIDE - The South Australian Education Network, formed to organise South Australia's contribution to the No Fees for Degrees campaign, is planning a rally and march to target the ALP for
East Timorese refused asylum
By Jon Lamb
Up to 700 East Timorese who have applied for asylum in Australia face deportation because they entered Australia on tourist visas. Minister for immigration Senator Bolkus stated on April 17, during
By Kristian Whittaker
CANBERRA - On April 17, about 150 people gathered on the site of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy on the lawns of the Old Parliament House to mark the site's entry into the Register of the National Estate, Australia's official
World
By Renfrey Clarke
MOSCOW — At least half a million workers took to the streets of Russian cities on April 12, in some of the largest coordinated labour demonstrations in the country's history. Further millions took part in workplace protest
By Frank Eckardt
MOSTAR — The city is divided between East and West, Muslim and Croat. A charred boulevard of ruins slices it in two. Broad roads run parallel to the Neretva River, just a few dozen metres from the right bank. On the left bank
Study links home pesticides and cancer
A study recently published in the American Journal of Public Health has found elevated rates of cancer in children exposed to pesticides in their homes and gardens.
The study by researchers in North
By Toby Borgeest
JOHANNESBURG — The most serious source of tension in South Africa's national assembly is the Inkatha Freedom Party's (IFP) frequent threats to withdraw from parliamentary and constitution-drafting work — and the occasional
Massacre general heads Thai army
By Chris Beale
General Chainarong Noonpakdi has finally made it. Earlier this month, he was promoted to army chief of staff — the crucial post from which Thailand's 17 coups since 1932 have been launched.
A leaked internal World Bank memo charges that the great majority of India's dams are unsafe by present standards. Of 25 dams surveyed by an ongoing World Bank dam safety project, none had been designed to hold back the amount of water which, it is
By Tim Dauth and Robynne Murphy
JOHANNESBURG — The South African Communist Party's Ninth Congress, held here April 6-8, was the second since the unbanning of the SACP. Opened by Eastern Cape Premier Raymond Mhlaba, chairperson of the SACP,
By Eva Cheng
Increased repression of dissident and ethnic minority movements in China has failed to silence opposition voices. A section of the Xinjiang independence movement chose bombing to make its point, while protests rocked the city of
By Renfrey Clarke
MOSCOW — In Russia, April 1 — the "Day of Laughter" — often comes as a shock to people used to its tame counterpart in the English-speaking world. On this particular day, journalists are allowed to subvert their own
In brief
On April 26 the German Bundestag (parliament) is to debate two bills presented by the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) which commemorate the liberation of Germany from fascism and remember Jewish victims of the Nazi regime. The
Adams calls on 'marching feet and angry voices'
By Sean Magill
and Maureen Baker
As Irish Republicans around the world commemorated the Easter rising of 1916, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams sent a clear message to the British government.
Social impact of PNG logging
A less well-known impact of large scale logging in Papua New Guinea is the social impact. PETRONILA PAKE from the West New Britain Provincial Council of Women and PANGO, the Provincial Alliance of Non-Government
There is renewed focus on Cambodia as that country marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Khmer Rouge regime, which between 1975 and 1979 resulted in the deaths of 1-2 million of the country's 7-8 million people. Dr HELEN JARVIS is a
A study of US government testing records, Forbidden Fruit, has found that 66 different illegal pesticides were detected in 42 fruits and vegetables over a two-year period from 1992 to 1993. Issued in February, the report, an audit of 15,000 test
By Eva Cheng
The Chinese government has ordered a crackdown on "chaos" in rural areas, where shrinking income, high inflation, food shortages, back-breaking taxes and rampant corruption have set public resentment bubbling.
Emergency
Culture
When Morning Breaks
By Cassandra Fazio
They say the currents are not safe
I long to swing from tree to tree
And still my line is answered with a cold, electrical machine
I dreamt my forest sisters came to take me back
We danced in
Something missing
Global Village
Judy Small
Larrikin Entertainment
Reviewed by Lisa Macdonald
This latest album from Judy Small is disappointing.
A collection of 12 songs, most written by Small with music by Small in
Fallen from Grace
By Keith Vagg
Today I saw a lyrebird,
Magnificent, supreme.
I listened to its music
Like a sweet, fulfilling dream.
As it played in filtered sunlight
On a mossy forest bed
With a fine array of feathers
Proudly
Nomad
Nomad (Adam Plack) with Robert Mirabal and Mor Thiam
Australian Music International
Reviewed by Norm Dixon
The term "world music" came into being in 1987, when a number of small labels specialising in African, Latin American and
The Butterfly CD
Produced and distributed by Stand Against Sexual Assault (SASA), Perth
Featuring 12 contributing bands
Reviewed by Kath Gelber
This compilation has been put together by a group of young people in Perth who are campaigning
E.P. THOMPSON: Objections And Oppositions
By Bryan D. Palmer
Verso, 1994. 201 pp., $34.95 (pb)
Reviewed by Phil Shannon
Edward Thompson has inspired many on the left with his spicy brand of Marxist history and socialist agitation. Bryan
US speakers for Nimbin hemp fest
A Californian author and campaigner for the legalisation of hemp, Jack Herer, will be the special guest of the 1995 Mardi Grass Fiesta del Locoweed being held in Nimbin, on the NSW north coast, over the April
Bomber Grounded, Runway Closed
By Ciaron O'Reilly
Rose Hill Books, $18
Reviewed by Lynda Hansen
On January 1, 1991, Moana Cole, Susan Frankel, Ciaron O'Reilly and William M. Streit took hammers and disarmed a B-52 bomber and temporarily
Green It Up features Pinkenba case
By Bill Mason
BRISBANE — Green It Up, a weekly musical night at the Shamrock Hotel, Fortitude Valley, featured the Pinkenba case on Thursday April 6. Sponsored by Resistance, Green It Up is a regular
Editorial
Editorial: Vietnam's victory
April 30 is the 20th anniversary of the liberation of Saigon, the end of the Vietnam War. Twenty years ago this week, the socialist fortnightly Direct Action declared, "Saigon liberated! A victory for all humanity."