Ferguson installed amid ALP factional deals
By Dave Mizon
MELBOURNE — The factional brawls over the ALP national executive's decision to install ACTU president Martin Ferguson in the federal seat of Batman have highlighted,
Issue 199
News
Loose cannons
Appropriate
"It's quite appropriate that we should be prosecuted. If these things occur, we should be prosecuted." — A spokesperson for Sydney Water, which accidentally poured more than 100,000 litres of undiluted
Soorley warns: ALP 'could implode'
By Bill Mason
BRISBANE — Brisbane Lord Mayor Jim Soorley has warned the Queensland ALP government it will not survive if the administration continues to exclude people from the
By Frank Gollan
SYDNEY — Plans by the Public Sector Union Group of the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) to restructure massively are floundering. The plans are designed to centralise financial and other controls of the group,
Residents protest against freeway
By Sue Bolton
MELBOURNE — About 70 people protested on August 12 against Premier Jeff Kennett's City Link mega-freeway project, which will link the eastern and the Tullamarine freeways. The
By Sean Healy
MELBOURNE — La Trobe University administration has backed down in a fight with the Students' Representative Council over the SRC's funding. After a student general meeting on August 15 of 300 students, the largest at La
Health workers endorse pay claim
By Kim Linden
MELBOURNE — Around 2000 members of the Health Services Union of Australia (HSUA) voted on August 17 to endorse an 8% pay claim which allows a possible further 3% to be claimed
By Eva Cheng
The Chinese government's latest nuclear test, on August 16, has triggered a wave of protests across the country. The latest test took place at Lop Nor in China's north west province of Xinjiang, the same site as the May 15
Victorian police shootings
By Sean Lennon
MELBOURNE — A coroner's inquest into the 1988 shooting of Graeme Jensen concluded on August 11 with the release of a report which found that the police operation was incompetently
By Dave Mizon and Sue Bolton
MELBOURNE — The strike by Bass Strait oil rig workers is entering its fourth week. The workers took action after Esso locked out workers coming on to the rigs on July 26 and stranded the rostered shift on the
Trammies strike over enterprise bargaining
By Tully Bates
MELBOURNE — More cuts are foreshadowed in the latest enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA) members of the tram division of the Public Transport Union are being asked to
Latin American celebration in Brisbane
By Bill Mason
BRISBANE — "Our victory was for everyone, not just for the El Salvadoran workers", Jorge Rodriguez, spokesperson for the Spanish-speaking workers at Steel-Line Doors, told
Analysis
Stop Chinese nuclear tests
The testing of a nuclear bomb by the Chinese government on August 17 is a stupid and reactionary step, one which is dangerous to the people of China and of the whole world.
While aggressive imperialist
World
Chemical weapons in Chechnya?
Reports on the Internet on August 9 said that UN-sponsored humanitarian aid workers have discovered evidence suggesting that chemical weapons, possibly chlorine gas, were used during the Chechen conflict.
By Eva Cheng
Unemployment in China has exploded in recent years, with 170 million people, or 28% of its work force, estimated to be out of jobs. Since the 1949 revolution, the government has accepted the responsibility to provide jobs and
Turkish left unites
By Jennifer Thompson
In the Turkish capital of Ankara on June 16, 1000 delegates gathered for the first congress of the Unified Socialist Party (BSP). The BSP unites more than 10 groups — the majority of
By Michael Garay
The "Soviet threat", which provided the US justification for the transformation of the Pacific into an "American Lake" has ended. The Pentagon, however, intends to remain.
"It is ironic that at the very zenith
By Dave Wright
While the movement against French nuclear testing in the Pacific continues to grow in Australia, the people of Tahiti, who are most directly affected, have staged large demonstrations opposing the resumption of testing at
By Renfrey Clarke
MOSCOW — In January, my friend Valya was sacked from her job. A former English teacher, energetic and self-assured, she had quit an office job with a Russian commercial firm in order to take up an offer of better-paid
By Jennifer Thompson
Thousands of Kurdish prisoners of war have been on a hunger strike in prisons across Turkey. Hundreds more Kurds are on hunger strikes in cities around the world to support the prisoners — members of the Kurdistan
BHP drafted law, PNG admits
By Norm Dixon
Australian multinational mining giant BHP — the "Big Australian"' — has been exposed as the "Big Fibber". Following a week of smart talking, equivocations, legal mumbo-jumbo and
Peasants massacred in Brazil
At least 32 people were killed in Brazil on August 9 when 200 heavily armed anti-riot troops of the militarised police violently evicted landless rural workers from farmland they were occupying in the state of
Indonesian protesters clash with military
By James Balowski
On August 14, a peaceful protest organised by a new coalition, GRAK, at the Solo National University (UNS) in Central Java, turned into a 10-minute battle with troops
Culture
The Life of Kenneth Tynan
By Kathleen Tynan
Phoenix, 1995. 467 pp., $24.95 (pb)
Reviewed by Phil Shannon
Some people know Kenneth Tynan (who died in 1979) as the best drama critic since George Bernard Shaw. Conservative
The Hand that Signed the Paper
By Helen Demidenko
Allen & Unwin: 1994. 157 pp., $13.95 (pb)
Reviewed by Vivienne Porzsolt
I am Jewish. My parents got out of Prague the day Hitler's troops marched in — March 15, 1939. Most
Cocktail and exhibition night
ADELAIDE — Resistance and the Democratic Socialist Party held a very successful cocktail and exhibition night on August 12 to raise funds for Green Left Weekly.
Featured were the work of Jim Cane,
The Blind Giant is Dancing
By Stephen Sewell
Directed by Neil Armfield
Company B
Belvoir Street Theatre, Sydney, until September 10
Reviewed by Allen Myers
When I first heard that Company B was reviving Stephen
By Philippa Stanford
The SA State Folk Festival is again being staged by the Folk Federation of SA, from September 29 to October 30 at Victor Harbour.The state's largest community arts festival has thrived in this location and has earned a
All Men Are Liars
Hoyts Cinemas
Reviewed by Kath Gelber and Lou Stanley
You can't help but wonder why the producers have put so much marketing money into such a mediocre film. The exit from the preview screening we attended was
Blokes
August 16-19, 22-26
One Plus One
August 31-September 2, 13-16
When I was A Girl I used to Scream and Shout
September 6-9, 19-23
Junction Theatre in conjunction with Ambush, Not So Straight Theatre and Living
Women and peace
For the Love of Peace: Women and Global Peace Building
By Kaye Murray
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom: 1995. 150 pp.
Reviewed by Connie Frazer.
For anyone curious about WILPF
The stuff that dreams are made of
Movie Dreams
By Rosie Scott
University of Queensland Press, 1995. 152pp
Reviewed by Alex Bainbridge
Movie Dreams is the story of Adan Loney, a young person who finds the world a
Desiderata Too
Don't go placidly amid the apathy and lethargy. Remember that your silence is consent and there can be no peace where there is injustice.
You can't please all the people all the time, so shout your truth from the