Issue 196

News

Health workers take action for wage rises, jobs By Kim Linden MELBOURNE — The Health Services Union of Australia (HSUA) imposed work bans on July 27 at several hospitals in Victoria for a 14% wage claim, job security and an
By Jennifer Thompson SYDNEY — Reports in the July 29-30 Australian, which indicate that the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) has admitted that it had more than one spy in Ananda Marga at the time of the February 1978
Toxic tour highlights radioactive danger By Shane McArthur ADELAIDE — On July 23, more than 50 people joined a "toxic tour", organised by the environmental group Praxis, to highlight the dangers of long-term radioactive
Sex work decriminalisation defeated By Penny Saunders ADELAIDE — The Brindal bills to decriminalise prostitution were defeated in the SA parliament on July 27, by a vote of 16-28. Sex workers will continue their
By Philippa Smith SYDNEY — The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras (SGLMG) is coming under fire for a controversial proposal to restrict its membership to gays and lesbians prepared to be "outed" or named publicly. SGLMG is the
By Bill Mason BRISBANE — Factional warfare has begun inside the Queensland Labor Party following the final declaration of the state election, which the ALP won by a bare one seat. In a bitter row over cabinet selection, the
Third accident at BHP steelworks By Margaret Allan NEWCASTLE — The third serious accident in four months occurred at the BHP steelworks on July 24. Unlike the earlier accidents, no-one was killed, although three men were
WA teachers step up campaign PERTH — At a mass meeting on July 27, teachers voted to extend their campaign for better education with a series of rolling strikes. Teachers will stop work for two hours each Thursday, beginning with the
Much to discuss at women's conference By Carla Gorton ADELAIDE — "Creating Space for Change" was the theme of a women's conference on July 21-22 at Adelaide High School. The conference was attended by almost 200 women and
By Deb Sorensen DARWIN — Over the four days of the Indonesia and Regional Conflict Resolution Conference held here from July 25, participants from the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and the United States discussed how to better establish
DSS bans over system failure By Jim McIlroy BRISBANE — Union members at Department of Social Security offices and teleservice centres around the country have launched a campaign of bans and reduced public contact hours over
Melbourne council workers protest By Kim Linden MELBOURNE — Workers at Moreland Council, which covers the northern inner suburbs, have slapped bans on collecting rubbish and are refusing to collect some parking fines in their
By Alice Davis ADELAIDE — The royal commission into the Hindmarsh Island bridge fiasco was jolted on July 27 by the one of the key governmental witnesses' withdrawal of his statements. Doug Milera's earlier claims that Aboriginal women's
@caps = SYDNEY — On July 29, 30 people from Resistance, the Democratic Socialist Party, Aksi, Australia East Timor Association and Anti-Bases Campaign held a protest against the Kangaroo '95 military exercises due to begin this week. The activists
Anger at ship scuttling By Ben Courtice HOBART — The wreck of the BHP ship Iron Baron on July 10, and the resultant slick of 300 tonnes of fuel oil off the north coast of Tasmania, is one the state's worst environmental
ACT students against nuclear tests and Francophobia By Tony Iltis CANBERRA — On July 19, 100 students marched from Parliament House to the French embassy, chanting "Non aux essais! Oui   la paix!" (No to testing! Yes to
Police condemned in deaths, bashings SYDNEY — The Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Watch Committee condemned the police on July 28 after two 18-year-old Aboriginal men were killed in a high speed car chase and another ended up in hospital.

World

European MPs' protest against Chirac By Frances Kelly LONDON — When French President Jacques Chirac spoke in the European parliament on July 11, he was shouted down by MPs in protest at France's resumption of nuclear tests in
By Michael Garay President Fidel Ramos opened the 10th Congress on July 24 with the executive's traditional "state of the nation address" in a joint session of the Senate and the House of Representatives. At the same time, 80,000 people
East Timorese youths arrested and tortured By James Balowski On July 24, activists from the newly formed organisation Indonesian Pro-democracy Movement and Maubere People's Independence (SPRIM) informed Green Left Weekly that
By Eva Cheng The drastically changed balance of forces and increasing contradictions between US and Japanese capitalism have cast a serious doubt on the future of the US-Japan Security Treaty. This pact has played a central part in the
By James Balowski For almost a week, thousands of workers from a garment factory, PT Great River Industries (GRI), in Bogor, West Java, have organised a wave of strikes and rallies in pursuit of better wages and conditions. The
Japanese government punished for air pollution By Eva Cheng In a landmark court ruling on July 5, the Japanese government and its Hanshin Expressway Public Corporation were ordered to pay 65 million yen to 18 victims — some of
By Norm Dixon Spanish Socialist Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez knew of the activities of state-sponsored death squads which murdered dozens of Basque refugees in the 1980s, according to a senior politician who oversaw the death squads'
Democratic Socialists: End the arms embargo! By Peter Boyle The United Nations should lift the arms embargo on Bosnia, turn over the weapons of the UN "peacekeepers" to the government of Bosnia and get out of the country,
Dissident author receives literary award Pramoedya Ananta Toer, one of Indonesia's foremost authors, was chosen on July 19 to receive this year's Ramon Magsaysay Award for his work in journalism, literature and creative communications, and
By Jennifer Thompson "End the arms embargo" was the main demand of a demonstration of 6000 Bosnians and their supporters in Melbourne on July 23 to protest against the war in Bosnia. Speakers included representatives from the Labor and
By Jennifer Thompson The latest deadline for Palestinian elections and Israeli redeployment from occupied Palestinian territories, July 25, has passed without any agreement between the Israeli government and the Palestinian National
By Renfrey Clarke MOSCOW — On June 29, a flash flood overwhelmed a large sewage treatment plant near Kharkov, Ukraine's second-largest city. Sewage backed up, choking equipment and putting the plant out of action. Raw waste began pouring

Culture

Miranda By Stephen Sewell East Coast Theatre Company Directed by Joseph Uchitel With Peter Phelps, Dee Smart and Julian Leather Wharf Theatre, Sydney, until August 19 Reviewed by Allen Myers For my money,
In Darkest Hollywood: Cinema and Apartheid ABC TV, Monday, August 7, 11pm Previewed by Norm Dixon "Just to sit in this dark place and see magic take place on the wall. For a moment we forgot there was apartheid. We forgot there
By Lewina Jackson and Miguel Troncoso SYDNEY — Committees in Solidarity with Latin America and the Caribbean (CISLAC) traditionally holds an event at this time of the year to celebrate the Nicaraguan Revolution and the attack on the
Trading Hazards: the export of toxic waste to the Third World By Karen Medica Research and Policy Unit, World Vision Australia, 1995 Reviewed by Lisa Macdonald Trading Hazards is the second monograph in an "Issues in Global
The truth about the bomb Summer of the bomb SBS, Sunday, August 6, 8.30pm (8 South Australia) Previewed by Jennifer Thompson This documentary will be aired on the 50th anniversary of the US Air Force dropping the
Reflection By Shane Riley @poetry = One dream @poetry = of freedom returned @poetry = The way of our people @poetry = our religion, our culture @poetry = The land we roamed @poetry = for over 40,000
Les Parents Terribles By Jean Cocteau Sydney Theatre Company Drama Theatre, Opera House until September 2 Reviewed by Helen Jarvis It is a strange coincidence that at the very time that the perfidy of the French

Editorial

Nuclear disarmament: why isn't it happening? @edit = France's decision to resume nuclear tests in the Pacific has galvanised world opinion against the irrationality of nuclear weapons. Since the end of the Cold War, the vanishing of the