By Lisa Macdonald
As the French government prepared to resume nuclear testing at Moruroa atoll, on September 1 and 2 another round of anti-nuclear protest actions involved thousands of people in Australia, Tahiti and France. In France, a message
Issue 201
News
@FM18 WIDE = Adelaide women's services threatened
By Melanie Sjoberg
ADELAIDE Another women's service in South Australia is coming under threat. A recently released review of the Women's Information Switchboard (WIS) recommends a complete
By Kerry Vernon
Brisbane— The Queensland Labor government is considering restricting access by workers to common law claims for negligence against employers. In a letter to unions, minister for employment and training Wendy Edmond outlined the
Luz Mendez, a leader of the coalition of guerilla organisations, the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG), will visit Australia on a speaking tour from September 17 to 27. The organisations forming the URNG have fought the Guatemalan
By Jennifer Thompson
The federal government on August 31 announced a two-month "cooling off" period before the sale of the publicly owned Australian National Line (ANL) to British-based multinational P&O. This is to allow P&O to reach agreement
By Brian Jones
SYDNEY — The Leichhardt and Marrickville Councils elections on September 9 offer some interesting insights into the politics of the inner west and reveal some of the problems the ALP is facing at the local level. The area
By Bill Mason
BRISBANE — Some 130 people crowded into the Resistance Centre here on September 2 to celebrate the 200th issue of Green Left Weekly with a lively dinner-cabaret. The theme of the night was a South Pacific feast, to mark the
By Centre for Philippine Concerns Australia
MELBOURNE — Filipina-Australians in black clothes and skeletal masks, representing Filipinas killed overseas, condemned Philippines President Ramos in a rally at Melbourne University on August 21.
@FM18 WIDE = Surprise result in Victorian ETU
By Dave Mizon
Last week's election for the Victorian branch of the Electrical Trades Union, which replaced state secretary Gary Main and assistant secretary Dick Gray by the leaders of the
@FM24 WIDE = Row divides Queensland ALP Socialist Left
By Bill Mason
BRISBANE Four federal Labor MPs who are members of the Socialist Left faction in Queensland have publicly dissociated themselves from the SL's newspaper Keep Left, as the
By Tim Gooden and James Vassilopoulos
Canberra — The ACT budget, due on September 19, promises public sector cuts, corporatisation, job losses and privatisation. Immediately after the minority Liberal government was sworn in, two senior
By Dave Mizon
The dispute between Esso and striking Bass Strait rig workers widened last week, with picket lines being set up at Esso's Long Island point refinery, halting the shipment of LPG fuel by road and sea from that location, and at the
World
By Renfrey Clarke
MOSCOW — Angry miners inflicted a notable defeat on the Russian government in mid-August. A mass hunger strike in the coalfields of southern Russia, accompanied by large-scale picketing, forced the Moscow authorities to make
By Renfrey Clarke
MOSCOW — The administration of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has used heavy-handed repression to crush a strike by public transport workers in the country's two largest cities. Union leaders, strike activists and a
A 150-strong delegation of students, farmers and workers visited the Indonesian national parliament on August 23 as part of launching a campaign for the repeal of five repressive political laws. The 1985 laws restrict political parties to the
A recent study based on an independent analysis of US baby food products found 16 different pesticides in eight major baby foods. Researchers with the Environmental Working Group (EWG) commissioned a food industry lab to analyse eight foods which
Call for economic boycott of Burmese junta
Call for economic boycott of Burmese junta On September 18, Burmese democracy activists around the world will observe the seventh anniversary of "8888", a student-led nationwide uprising in 1988 that
By Eva Cheng
In February, the US abandoned a 1992 plan to reduce its troops in east Asia, affirming it will maintain 100,000 military personnel in the region for the next 10 years. Of these, 37,000 will be based in South Korea, up from a 1992
FSLN prepares for Nicaraguan elections
FSLN prepares for Nicaraguan elections By Tyrion Perkins
[From June 28 to July 21, 13 people from Australia visited Nicaragua on a work-study brigade, meeting community movement and
By Jennifer Thompson
The PLO executive council met in Tunis from August 14-16 to discuss the partial redeployment document agreed at Taba by PLO Chairman Yassar Arafat and Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres on August 11. Attended by ten of
By Norm Dixon
South Africa's warm ties with Cuba are coming under increasing pressure from Washington as Pretoria makes preparations to open an embassy in Havana. Senior members of the US Congress have issued warnings to South Africa that close
Following recent reports of human rights abuses at the Indonesian Freeport copper mine, West Papuan traditional landowner John Ondawame on September 1 called on Prime Minister Paul Keating to withdraw commercial privileges from the US-owned mining
The Mexican government announced on August 14 that the country's gross domestic product fell by 10.5% in the second quarter of the year in comparison to the same period in 1994. This was about double the 5-6% contraction economists had predicted.
By Robyn Marshall
Miriam Ortega, a long-time activist in Chilean left politics, arrived in Australia at the end of July on a one-month speaking tour. Miriam spent 11 years in Pinochet's prisons, where she was tortured continuously for 20 days in
By Norm Dixon
Zimbabwe Prime Minister Robert Mugabe has outraged supporters of human rights and gay and lesbian organisations with his refusal to allow a gay and lesbian group to participate in a book fair in Harare. More than 1000 demonstrators
Culture
Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of LoveBy Brad FraserNew Theatre, King Street, Newtown (Sydney)Reviewed by Peter Boyle Brad Fraser is reputedly Canada's hottest gay playwright. His plays have become famous for their in-your-face sex
The Big Picture: Populate or PerishABC TV, Wednesday, September 13, 9.30pm (9 Adelaide)Previewed by Lisa Macdonald Since the time of Malthus in the late 1700s, the issue of population growth and its impacts on the economic, environmental and social
WaterworldStarring Kevin Costner, Dennis Hopper, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Tina Majorino and Michael JetnerDirected by Kevin ReynoldsReviewed by Barry Healy By now everybody knows the publicity albatross Waterworld carries around its neck: that it's the
Good Times, Hard Times: The Past and the Future in ElizabethBy Mark PeelMelbourne University Press, 1995, 301 pp., $24.95 (pb)Reviewed by Phil Shannon Elizabeth — built in the 1950s on the northern outskirts of Adelaide as the "City of Tomorrow"
Nine MonthsDirected by Chris ColumbusReviewed by Sujatha Fernandes As all the promotional hype promises, Nine Months is a movie about "the family". The starring couple, Samuel (Hugh Grant) and Rebecca (Julianne Moore), have a perfect relationship
CTV Perth needs you!
By Paul Davis
Community television is for the people and by the people. It is a powerful tool in the development of a politically aware society. Public access community television is due to begin broadcasting
Beyond RangoonNational cinema release September 14Reviewed by Richard Horsey Director John Boorman's latest film, Beyond Rangoon, is a powerful drama set in Burma during the 1988 uprising.
A young US doctor, Laura Bowman (played by Patricia
The discreet charm of bosses How can I put this without giving offence? There are some in our society who live off the labour of others. Don't get me wrong. Most of us get along without recourse to such means, but there are an
You put me in a straitjacket
saying I was waving my arms around too much.
You closed in tighter
saying I was breathing too loudly.
Now I'm not moving — and I'm not breathing.
But I can see you all the more clearly.
And
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.
From Spirit to Spirit — Tells the story
SYDNEY — Death Defying Theatre is celebrating its move into a new home at the Casula Powerhouse with Hip Hopera — 12 weeks of workshops and rehearsals for young people in western Sydney. The program, beginning September 4, is free and open to
The Listening Room: Pacific Moments — By Gary Bryson and Donna McLachlan. The eyes of the world are turned to the tiny island of Moruroa. The Pacific Ocean is whirling with currents of dissent. Sound pictures of Pacific culture in
Editorial
Ban landmines now
Ban landmines now Every 15 minutes someone is killed or maimed by a landmine. Almost all of those affected are civilians, and many of them are children. For every survivor, two die. The majority of survivors