Issue 190

News

Victorian health workers strike By Kim Linden MELBOURNE — Two thousand members and supporters of the Health Services Union of Australia (HSUA) walked off the job on June 1 to attend a lively stop-work meeting and rally in the city centre.
Women teachers' union conference By Julia Perkins PERTH — Approximately 65 women — teachers, unionists, parents and interested individuals — attended the State School Teachers Union (SSTU) women's conference on May 27 to discuss
Across the country, Resistance activists are preparing to attend its 24th national conference. The conference is being held in Melbourne from July 8-10 and is the largest socialist youth gathering held annually in Australia. It is a focus for
Forum discusses future of Cambodia By Bill Mason BRISBANE — Aid to Cambodia and solidarity with its people are now crucial if the brutal Khmer Rouge forces are to be defeated, Dr Helen Jarvis told a public forum at the Resistance Centre
By Liam Mitchell WOLLONGONG — Two of the Illawarra's most polluting industries, BHP and the Corrimal Coke Works, are either evading repercussions or receiving official sanction for their output into the atmosphere. The Environment
Princes Park — Optus versus residents By Jeremy Smith MELBOURNE — Princes Park, home to Carlton Football Club and a major park for local residents, has become a battleground between corporate supporters and community opponents of
SA teachers protest budget cuts By Adam Hanieh ADELAIDE — Seven thousand teachers and supporters rallied on May 30 to protest against expected cuts to the state education budget. The half-day stoppage, organised by the South Australian
Green Left Weekly soccer championship By Jorge Jorquera PERTH — May 28 was the inauguration of the Green Left Weekly Soccer Championship at Perth College oval. It proved a successful fundraising event for GLW, and provided exercise and
Campaign to stop the Scarborough tunnel By Sarah Harris WOLLONGONG — Fifty people at a meeting called by the Wombara Preservation Group (WPG) in Scarborough on May 28 decided to continue the struggle to stop the NSW State Rail Authority
By Lisa Macdonald The arrival of 18 East Timorese boat people in Darwin on May 30 has created a major headache for the ALP federal government. Several thousand East Timorese have fled to Australia by various means since the brutal invasion
Goss condemned on jailing move By Bill Mason BRISBANE — "The Goss Labor government wants to throw more young people behind bars as a short cut to electoral victory in the coming state election", Zanny Begg, Democratic Socialist candidate
Win for Maritime Union By Jane Kelly FREMANTLE — The Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) won a victory on June 2 against the Western Australian government and anti-union contractor Len Buckeridge, with the Stateships vessel, the Sina, was
By Pip Hinman SYDNEY — The silence on the forest accord — the centrepiece of the NSW Labor Party's election strategy — is deafening. In over two months, hardly a word has been said, and no action taken, on the uneasy compromise, stitched
Unionists, environmentalists form coalition By Lisa Macdonald On June 5, World Environment Day, the Building Division of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) and the Conservation Council of SA (CCSA) formalised links
Unions rethink ANL privatisation By Jennifer Thompson The Maritime Union's (MUA) favoured bidder for the publicly owned shipping company, the Australian National Line (ANL), withdrew its bid on May 22, sparking a rethink on union agreement
Drought aid misses target By Chris Spindler Last week the federal government announced an extra $40.3 million in drought aid to some areas that did not receive recent rainfalls. But the package has only confused farmers, as its arbitrary
Greens attack inaction on West Papua killings WA Greens Senator Dee Margetts has criticised the federal government's lack of response to the alleged killings of 37 villagers by Indonesian troops at the Freeport Mine in West Papua. "The
By Francesca Davidson On June 3, around 1500 people across Australia marked World Environment Day by taking to the streets demanding an end to environmental destruction. From Sydney, Sandra Wallace reports that 300 people joined a march
Cuban speaks on life under the US blockade By Jim McIlroy BRISBANE — Basilio Gutierrez, head of the Oceania and Asia section of ICAP (the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples), told a public meeting at the Trades and Labor

World

By Mustafa Barghuthi Nobody today questions the absolute need for a peaceful settlement of the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis. There is, however, a growing awareness that the current peace process fails to meet the needs of the
By Eva Cheng During May, the Chinese government threw at least 24 dissidents into jail and detained another 41 in a wave of arrests that followed three petitions by activists and leading intellectuals. The petitions called for the release of
Bikini people reject N-waste plans On May 16 the Bikini people of the Marshall Islands rejected a proposal to store nuclear waste on one of their islands contaminated by US nuclear testing in the 1950s. After two days of intense discussion
By Kim Linden MELBOURNE — Simon de Faux, a Victorian nurse sent to East Timor as a volunteer for the Catholic Church, was warned by the Australian government not to go public with his first-hand experiences of human rights abuses in East
By Max Lane Prasetyadi Pancaputra, 25, a student from the University of Airlangga in Surabaya, went on a hunger strike in Jakarta, inside the foyer of the national parliament, between May 18 and June 2. He was demanding that the government
By Sonja de Vries HAVANA, May Day — Drag queens danced at the head of the crowd filing past the podium where Raul Castro and other members of the Cuban government and trade unions stood. The crowd cheered; the Coro Gigante de la
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge has signed a death warrant for Mumia Abu-Jamal and set August 17 at 10pm for the execution of this former Black Panther Party spokesperson and award-winning journalist. Human rights groups, labour unions, and
For the first time in Israeli history, the Arab parties in the Israeli Knesset have taken an independent initiative which forced (or allowed) the Rabin government to back down on immediate plans to confiscate 53 hectares of Arab land in East
By Renfrey Clarke MOSCOW — Alexander Lukashenko was elected president of Belarus — a republic of 10 million people on Russia's western border — by a big majority last July. He ran as an independent waging a classic "anti-politician"
Threat to Indonesian dissident in Australia By Max Lane On June 1 police in central Java issued the third summons for Indonesian dissident academic Dr George Aditjondro. Police authorities also stated that efforts would be made to extradite

Culture

Walking free By Shane Riley Sentenced to jail my freedom lost just another thing taken from the Koori generation They don't care or understand all i want is our land Long bay jail on my tribal ground i walk on her everyday
By Bronwen Beechey The 44th Melbourne International Film Festival begins on June 8, screening more than 200 films from 28 countries. The centenary of cinema will be a theme of the festival, which will begin with a restored print and newly
The Brisbane Home Front, 1939-1945 Exhibition, Brisbane City Hall Seven days per week until August 20 Reviewed by Dave Riley After a life in the shadow of my parents' memories of "the War" (as though there have been no others since), the
The Tempest By William Shakespeare Directed by Neil Armfield Belvoir Street Theatre, Sydney, until July 2 Reviewed by Helen Jarvis Neil Armfield's production of The Tempest launches the new Company B series at Belvoir Street, part of its
The Cutting Edge: Hostage of Time SBS, Tuesday, June 20, 8.30pm (8 Adelaide) Reviewed by Jennifer Thompson This documentary, made in Lebanon in 1994, traces the experience of a young doctor, Leila, who returns with her eight-month-old son to
Anzac Day By Karl-Erik Paasonen I've seen the diggers marching under flapping flags Flanked by police on repression-trained nags And when I think of what it means my jaw just sags And I want to march on Anzac Day Cos I've done
Ecological thoughts at bedtime The Story of Rosy Dock By Jeannie Baker A Mark Macleod Book, Random House. $19.95 Reviewed by Dave Riley Reading rewards us all. And reading to others — especially if they're little — cuts both ways.
Critical Realism: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Roy Bhaskar By Andrew Collier Verso, 1994 Plato Etc: The Problems of Philosophy and their Resolution By Roy Bhaskar Verso, 1994 Reviewed by Neville Spencer The philosophical
Nice effort, but why? People: Hard Hitting Women SBS TV Friday, June 9, 8.30pm (8 Adelaide) "People enjoy seeing the excitement of a fight" in any sport, claim the organisers of the first women's British boxing championships. Those who
Latcho Drom (Safe Journey) Directed by Tony Gatlif With Rom musicians of India, Egypt, Turkey, Romania, Hungary, France and Spain Lumiere Cinema, Melbourne Reviewed by Bronwen Beechey About 1000 years ago a Sanskrit-speaking tribe, for
Book cover - The Emperor Wears No Clothes, Jack Herer

HEMP (Help End Marijuana Prohibition) has reprinted the classic The Emperor Wears No Clothes and has added an Australian supplement, Hemp and the Marijuana Conspiracy in Australia.

Editorial

Bosnia: the West has dirty hands Western media outrage over hostage-taking of UN "peacekeeping" forces in Bosnia and Hercegovina by Radovan Karadzic's Bosnian Serb army is appallingly selective. The Bosnian Serb army has maintained whole cities