Persuasion"Letters have always been serious business ... they can bring a smile, they can bring a tear ... they can do much. Letters are an act of faith." — Robert Epstein.
I was pleasantly surprised a while
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Nostradamus' Media WatchBased on highly reliably international contacts, leaked documents and horoscopes from several TV magazines, Nostradamus' Media Watch presents a highly accurate forecast of political events across
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On the box Actively Radical TV — Community television's progressive current affairs program tackles the hard issues from the activist's point of view. CTS Sydney (UHF 31), every Friday, 10.30pm. In a Time of Violence — The second part
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Uranium: leave it in the ground!The Australian government's gentle protests over French nuclear testing plans cannot conceal Australia's role in creating and maintaining the nuclear danger. Australian diplomats were
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French students reject nuclear tests We, student representatives in our countries, want to express our deep concerns about the French decision to renew nuclear testing in the Pacific. This testing is ecologically hazardous. Regardless of
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This week Green Left Weekly received a postcard from a subscriber. The card expressed the subscriber's concern that she hadn't received a copy of the paper for some time. The reason? She has moved to Japan, and wanted to know if we could send her
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PERTH — Non-Aboriginal Western Australians commemorated the founding of the Swan River Colony on June 5. They have learned the story of the "settlement" of their state, of Perth in particular, as one in which Aboriginal
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World Federation of Democratic Youth The defiant declaration of the French government, headed by Jacques Chirac, to renew underground nuclear tests in the Moruroa Atoll is an open challenge to peace and public opinion for nuclear disarmament.
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Message to Vietnam forum A Democratic Socialist Party forum in Sydney on June 6 celebrated the anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War and discussed the lessons of the struggle against it. The following greetings to the forum were presented by
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News briefs Record profit for BHP NEWCASTLE — Mining and steel production giant BHP is set to reach record profits again this year, announced within days of the confirmation that more jobs are to be slashed in the Hunter area Rod and Bar
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PERTH — A one-day "nuclear showdown" conference, focusing on anti-nuclear campaigning, was organised here on May 27 by People for Nuclear Disarmament (PND), the Medical Association for Prevention of War (MAPW) and Critical
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ADELAIDE — The state Liberal government handed down its second budget on June 1. The reaction from trade unions and some community groups to massive public sector funding cuts, slashing of staff and outsourcing has been
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The Cuban Revolution's next generation Between May 23 and June 2, 27-year-old ALEJANDRO HERRERA AGETE visited Sydney as part of a speaking tour. Agete, formerly a computer engineer and currently a full-time member of the Havana City Province
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Radio highlights A Swag of Yarns — A special program to mark National Aboriginal and Islander Day of Celebration. Some of Australia's leading storytellers, songwriters, actors and performers present the stories, yarns, legends and myths of the
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[A panel on the issue of women, race and class was held at the Marxist Educational Conference in Sydney over Easter. KAMALA EMANUEL, an activist in the Newcastle Decriminalise Abortion Campaign and a Democratic Socialist Party member, spoke on the
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Action updates AGL strike NEWCASTLE — Employees of the AGL natural gas company in the Hunter region struck from June 22 to 26 in response to company plans to shed 53 of its work force of 163 by June 30. A redundancy plan offered by
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Nowadays, when people borrow one of my PA systems for yet another demonstration, I sometimes point out that some of its component bits first saw service in the second Moratorium. I was neither an organiser nor yet one of the
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Too radical for the court On June 13 the United States Supreme Court reached landmark decisions which weaken affirmative action programs. The Reagan and Bush appointee-dominated court sided with a white contractor who claimed he had been a
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A prisoner's view As a prisoner in the planned to be closed Pentridge Prison in Melbourne, I found Catherine Gow's article "Prisons for Profit" (GLW, May 17) to be refreshingly honest and open as opposed to the uninformative white-washes with
News
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Uranium sales condemnedPERTH — At a media conference on June 21, the Greens (WA), the Medical Association for the Prevention of War, People for Nuclear Disarmament and Christian Centre for Social Action condemned the
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No More Hiroshimas Coalition formedMELBOURNE — The French Consulate was the scene of a lively 800-strong protest on June 24. The rally, called by the newly formed No More Hiroshimas Coalition, demanded an end to French
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The debate about whether a bridge to Hindmarsh Island should be built has focused on the spiritual beliefs of Aboriginal women in relation to the site. Green Left Weekly spoke to Katrina Power, chairperson of Tandanya
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CANBERRA — Classes at Telopea Park High were disrupted for three days last week as students organised and joined in protests sparked by France's decision to resume nuclear testing. The controversy began on June 16, when
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Newcastle University staff maintain bansNEWCASTLE — A National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) meeting on June 20 supported continuing work bans imposed at Newcastle University since May 29 and decided in favour of
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Protest at award to AlatasThe Australian-East Timor Association has written to recipients of the Order of Australia, urging them to take a stand against the award having been presented to Ali Alatas, Indonesia's foreign
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BRISBANE — Queensland is the most poverty-stricken state in Australia, according to a Queensland Council of Social Services (QCOSS) report released earlier this month. Drawing the Line on Poverty shows one in four children
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ADELAIDE — The 25-year ban on the building of a controversial bridge to Hindmarsh Island, south of Adelaide, continues to generate debate. South Australian Liberal Premier Dean Brown announced a royal commission into
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ADELAIDE — The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) Building Division and the Conservation Council formally established the Coalition of Unions and Environment Groups (CUE) on June 5, World Environment Day.
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Loose cannons The marketplace "We have a government which is fumbling and lurching its way through the corridors of business. It does not know how the marketplace works." — NSW Liberal leader Peter Collins, on the state Labor government's
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"It's looking good", Natasha Simons, Resistance national coordinator, told Green Left Weekly about the 24th Resistance conference, being held July 7-10 in Melbourne. "We are expecting a very enthusiastic crowd. And things will start with a big event,
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Socialists run in BrisbaneBRISBANE — The Democratic Socialist campaign confirmed on June 22 it would run 22-year-old environmental and social justice activist Zanny Begg for the seat of Brisbane Central in the July 15
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BRISBANE — Queensland Labor Premier Wayne Goss is running scared in the state election announced for July 15. He said in launching the poll on June 20, with a minimum 26-day campaign period, that "people are going around and
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Canberra refuses visas to Bougainville reps Representatives from the Bougainville Interim Government (BIG) and the Bougainville Revolutionary Army have been refused visas to enter Australia to attend a conference at the Australian National
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By Chow Wei-Cheng In preparation for the federal elections, the ALP and ACTU have unveiled another Accord agreement. It promises a low inflation target (2-3% per year) in return for "safety net" pay increases totalling up to $50 per week by the
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CANBERRA — The French government's decision to resume nuclear testing in Moruroa Atoll has met an angry response here. A rally on June 18 at the French Embassy attracted 1000 people. The crowd marched
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Anti-nuclear campaign broadensSYDNEY — As the federal Labor government begins to feel the mass opposition to its weak opposition to the Chirac government's decision to resume nuclear testing, anti-nuclear campaigners
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SYDNEY — Chanting "end nuclear testing, ban all nuclear weapons" at least 300 protesters took the anti-nuclear campaign to the French consulate on June 23. The picket brought together groups including the Anti-Bases Campaign, Pax Christi,
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Brisbane rally against testingBRISBANE — More than 500 angry people rallied outside the French Consulate on June 23 to protest against the decision by French President Jacques Chirac to resume nuclear
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Consulate fire links rejectedPERTH — The French Consulate was destroyed by a fire bomb attack on June 17. This story has made headlines around the world, and here some of the establishment media, including ABC Radio, have
Analysis
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The nuclear threat The latest move, led by the French government, to consolidate and strengthen the world's nuclear weapons capability makes a mockery of the so-called New World Order. If this is indeed an era of diplomacy and negotiated peace,
World
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A new report from Amnesty International, titled Persistent Human Rights Violations in Tibet, indicates that repression of dissent there has increased. Hundreds of Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns, some of them child novices, are
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Earlier this year, JOHN HALLAM was involved with Polski Klub Ecologiczny (the largest environmental organisation in Poland, and a member group of Friends of the Earth International) in a campaign to stop the European Bank for Reconstruction and
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HAVANA – "The epidemic of the century", as the HIV virus has sometimes been referred to, continues to spread like wildfire throughout the world without anyone being able to state with certainty how it can be controlled.
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DUBLIN — Bernie Farrell is a spokesperson for Saoirse, a support group fighting for the release of Republican political prisoners. "I am the mother of a political prisoner in Portlaoise jail", she explained, "which, I
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MOSCOW — The parallels with Russia in 1993 were uncanny. As the economy crashed, the president demanded a speeding-up of free-market reforms as the only solution. And if these reforms were to be implemented, an essential
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MOSCOW — The rumour that Marxism is dead is highly exaggerated. Interest in Marxism, in fact, is getting keener all the time, as a succession of recent international conferences and seminars has shown. In September 1994
Culture
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Workers: An archaeology of the industrial age An exhibition of photographs by Sebastiao Salgado The Art Gallery of NSW until July 23 Reviewed by Lisa Macdonald This powerful exhibition of 250 black and white photographs by Latin American
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The Slouch of VietnamWhy should I wear the new slouch hat, the slouch of Vietnam, Why should I share the napalm-guilt of blundering Uncle Sam, Why should I hunt down peasant kids, who fight for rights and rice, Why
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Holding barbarism at bay MGM Sarajevo Sarajevo Group of Authors (SaGA) Sydney Film Festival Reviewed by Jennifer Thompson MGM Sarajevo, made in that city during the war and ongoing siege, shows in stark reality one of the bleakest
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Tank Girl A Rachel Talalay film Reviewed by Jen Crothers In the future of Tank Girl, the world is struck by a comet, turning the whole planet into a desert. It hasn't rained in 11 years, and water is power. The Water and Power Company just
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The Color of Fear A film by Lee Mun Wah Reviewed by Chris McLean Arthur Tunstall's anti-Aboriginal jokes, National Action's anti-Asian campaigns and the widespread verbal abuse of Aboriginal footballers have been loudly condemned in the
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Bloodlines Michael Hill's Blues Mob Alligator Records through Festival Reviewed by Jenny Long For any person doubting the relevance of blues today and for the future, Michael Hill's Blues Mob will make you think again. Combining a varied
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No Cure For Cancer By Denis Leary Picador. 133 pp., $12.95. Reviewed by Dave Riley My sister runs her household like an amusement parlour. When you visit, you have to speak over the television, which stays on, and she doesn't care who you
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James Baldwin: A Biography By David Leeming Henry Holt & Co, 1995. 442 pp., $26.95 (pb) Reviewed by Phil Shannon Australian censors, in their own perverse way, have guided many Australians to good, challenging writers. James Baldwin,
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A great voice and a way with words Returning on Foot Girl Zone Records 1995 Reviewed by Anthea Holt Penelope Swales has a great voice and a way with words. In her latest CD, this singer-songwriter takes the listener on a guided tour of
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Karma Zoo Karma Zoo Through Disculture Reviewed by Norm Dixon When the six major multinational record companies which dominate the Australian recording industry were under pressure to justify the high prices consumers are forced to pay for
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Moving the Mountain Directed by Michael Apted Sydney Film Festival Reviewed by Eva Cheng The pro-democracy student protests in China in 1989 are the best-documented people's movement, audio-visually, in Chinese history. This rich