Filipina union leader tours Brisbane
By Bill Mason
BRISBANE — Terasita Carpio, a leader of the Philippines trade union movement, addressed several meetings and met union members during her recent tour here.
Carpio presented a public
Issue 186
News
SYDNEY — Kingsford Smith Airport's international terminal was blockaded by some 500 protesters on Saturday, April 29. Organised by the Community Advisory Committee, the action was part of an ongoing campaign demanding an end to the noise and air
Solidarity night in Brisbane
By Nick Everett
BRISBANE — Sixty people attended an evening entitled "Solidarity with the fight for workers rights and justice and democracy: Indonesia and East Timor" at the Resistance Centre in New Farm on
World Environment Day 1995
By Emily Sunman
and Nick Soudakoff
SYDNEY — A World Environment Day march and rally, with the theme "livable cities, sustainable environment", is being organised for June 3. Plans are to march from Town Hall
By Natasha Simons
More than 6000 students across the country rallied, marched and occupied against university fees on May 3. The demonstrations were part of a second national day of action called by last December's No Fees Activists Conference.
4000 march for May Day in Brisbane
By Bill Mason
BRISBANE — Some four thousand unionists and members of political organisations marched here on May Day from the Trades and Labour Council to Albert Park in the annual Labour Day parade on
Police seize computer equipment
NEWCASTLE — Federal police agents have raided the operator of Megalink, a computer bulletin board system (BBS), and confiscated over $10,000 worth of equipment, according to a message posted on April 27 on a
Union leaders stall DSS campaign
By Peter Webster
SYDNEY — Despite the clear direction given to the NSW branch of the Community and Public Service Union (CPSU) by workplace delegates at the recent combined delegates conference (CDC), the
Virus in kangaroos
By Deirdre Graham
A virus which blinds kangaroos has been discovered in three states — NSW, Victoria and South Australia. Researchers in NSW say the disease has the potential to kill off 7% of NSW's western grey
ACTU opposes immigration increases
By Lisa Macdonald
In a submission to the federal government's annual review of immigration programs, the ACTU has called for a freeze of the immigration intake in the next financial year at its current
Mt Isa dispute nears flashpoint
By Bill Mason
BRISBANE — The long-running industrial confrontation between workers at the giant Mt Isa Mines lead, copper and zinc mine and the MIM company seems set to escalate further as workers
Police called in ALP preselection brawl
By Shane Bentley
NEWCASTLE — Police have been asked to investigate allegations of fraud after an ALP preselection battle for the federal seat of Newcastle. The sitting member, Allan Morris, called
HEMP week in Brisbane
By Brent Wish
BRISBANE — Last week at the University of Queensland HEMP (Help End Marijuana Prohibition) and the High Society organised events to highlight the many uses of hemp and its continuing prohibition in
By Pip Hinman
The right to demonstrate is under threat. May 12 is the deadline for submissions to a parliamentary committee investigating "the right to legitimately protest or demonstrate on National Land and in the Parliamentary Zone".
In
Health insurance bill draws criticism
By Jennifer Thompson
Federal health minister Carmen Lawrence's Health Legislation (Private Health Insurance Reform) Amendment Bill has drawn criticism from a wide range of doctors, specialists and
By Steve Rogers
CANBERRA — National officials in the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) are anxiously watching the outcome of by-elections taking place throughout May. In recent months, widespread criticism has emerged of the union's
World
Violence increases in Manila
By Sonny Melencio
MANILA — Election-connected violence continues to rise. As of April 27, 66 persons were reported killed in various parts of the country. This is seen as normal in a country noted for bloody
Between December 1994 and February 1995, a dozen members of the West Australian South Africa Solidarity (WASAS) group visited South Africa on a work and study brigade. The group ran workshops with grassroots organisations struggling to deal with
The Solomon Islands ambassador to the United Nations, REX HOROI, prior to the recent World Climate Conference in Berlin, led a delegation to six European countries to lobby for further commitments on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Scientists
Cuban representative in Ireland
Cuban government official Javier Dominguez Martines visited Ireland during Central America Week as a guest of the organisers, which included the Cuban Support Group, and met with a delegation from Sinn Fein.
By Wang Dan
On July 14, 1994, all the major newspapers in Beijing published the "Detailed Implementations Regulations for the State Security Law." This law had been passed by the 13th session of the Standing Committee of the Seventh National
By Chow Wei Cheng
Four years after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the economic crisis that followed in Cuba, the Cuban economy is starting to grow again. Cuba's real GDP grew 0.7% in 1994, marking what is believed to be the beginning of a
By Karen Farrell
News of Israel putting up its settlements for sale leaked into the occupied territories as settlement expansion continued at full force and a West Bank settler physically attacked a foreign delegation.
Al-Quds Arabic daily
Israel steps up land grab
By Jennifer Thompson
Israel's announcement of the confiscation of 53 hectares of Palestinian-owned land in East Jerusalem, to build a new Israeli settlement and a police headquarters, is the biggest single land
By Max Lane
On a historic occasion for the Indonesian labour movement, workers and students took to the streets to demonstrate on May Day for the first time since General Suharto seized power 30 years ago. The actions were initiated by the
By Fiona Katauskas
MANILA — On May 8, after months of often bizarre pageantry and promises, voters will elect officials for thousands of offices, from town councillors to provincial governors to senators and congresspeople.
Among the
BORIS KAGARLITSKY is a former deputy in the Moscow City Soviet, a leading member of Russian Party of Labour (PL) and the author of several books about socialism after the fall of the Stalinist regimes in eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. He writes
Following the resignation of all the bourgeois opposition parties from the national parliament of Bangladesh in 1994, the country has plunged into a constitutional crisis. As well, large general strikes have destabilised the economy. Green Left
By Renfrey Clarke
MOSCOW — First, in 1992, there was shock and disorientation as the beginning of "reform" threw at least a third of the Russian population into poverty. Then, in 1993 and 1994, even while output in the economy continued to
Culture
The New Victorians: A Young Woman's Challenge to the Old Feminist Order
By Rene Denfeld
Allen & Unwin, 1995. 339 pp., $19.95 (pb)
Reviewed by Carla Gorton
Critiquing "establishment" feminism has become the recipe for guaranteeing
Book documents abuses on Bougainville
By Roberto Jorquera
SYDNEY — Sixty-five Bougainville solidarity activists gathered at the state parliament theatrette on May 1 for the launch of Human Rights Abuses Against the People of Bougainville
Before Sunrise
Reviewed by Jane Schneider
Before Sunrise is at best a charming love story exploring the bittersweet character-forming aspects of fly by night affairs. A couple meet on a train and spend an evening in Vienna together. What
Robin Hood: A Complete Study of the English Outlaw
By Stephen Knight
Blackwell, 1994. 308 pp., $24.95 (pb)
Reviewed by Phil Shannon
The Robin Hood legend has been popular for around 600 years. Amongst the latest to revive the tradition, as
Orton on stage in Melbourne
The Ruffian on the Stair
By Joe Orton
Starring Dales Stevens, Alan King and Guy Phillips
The Stage, 231 Smith St, Fitzroy, until May 20
Reviewed by Kelly Jean
The subjects of Joe Orton's works were
Caribbean warmth in Birmingham
Jamaica by Night
Andy Hamilton
World Circuit through Larrikin Entertainment
Reviewed by Norm Dixon
Hailing from Port Maria, a little fishing village on Jamaica's north coast, and a resident of industrial
Lockerbie: The Maltese Double Cross
Produced and directed by Allan Francovich
The Cutting Edge, SBS TV, Tuesday, May 16, 8.30pm (8 in SA)
Previewed by Peter Boyle
On December 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 blew up over the village of
Big Noise — the Mambo Inn compilation
Various artists
Hannibal/Rykodisc through Festival
Reviewed by Norm Dixon
One of the refreshing aspects of the world music craze has been its growing popularity among the more aware and open-minded
Editorial
Peace in the Middle East — US style
The US administration's decision to cut off all US trade and investment with Iran is a continuation of its policy to suppress any country in the Middle East with the potential to challenge Western countries'