Issue 204

News

By Lisa Macdonald Over the last two weeks, residents of Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Tasmania have been subjected to a new television and print media advertising campaign which promotes the continued woodchipping of Australia's native forests.
The Green Left Weekly $115,000 fund appeal has been given a boost by several fundraising dinners held in various cities. Particularly successful were the dinners in Melbourne (around $1300 raised), and in Sydney (attended by 265 people with $2000
By Tony Iltis CANBERRA — Proceedings at the ACT Legislative Assembly were disrupted on September 22 by public sector workers angry at the large job losses and cuts to community services in the first budget of Kate Carnell's minority Liberal
By Dave Mizon MELBOURNE — After almost ten weeks of strike action, Bass Strait offshore rig workers voted to return to work at a mass meeting held in Sale on September 20. The return to work was based upon a settlement document proposed by
By Melani Iona MELBOURNE — On May 18, a public meeting was held to protest against the possible closure of the Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital. At the meeting the Fairfield AIDS Action Coalition (FAACT) was formed, bringing together
By Anthony Benbow Three hundred meatworkers at the Harvey Abattoir, 100 kilometres south of Perth, have been on strike since September 19. Harvey Abattoir is owned by E.G. Green & Sons, one of WA's biggest meat processing and export companies.
By Dave Wright SYDNEY About 270 people attended the annual Green Left Weekly dinner on September 16. The theme for the night was Liberation, in particular focused on the Asia Pacific region. Speakers included Alico Santos, a Fretilin activist
By Jennifer Thompson The ACTU and federal government have announced that they will appeal against a non-union enterprise flexibility agreement between the Tweed Valley Fruit Processors and their approximately 45 employees. The federal Coalition
By Rob Heller MELBOURNE — A CES service was closed here last week in the midst of a national industrial dispute between Community and Public Sector Union members and the federal Department of Employment, Education and Training over staff cuts.
By Max Watts SYDNEY — Janet Sheila Wakefield, a communist, was born in Patras, Greece, in 1915 and died in Sydney on September 18. Her family moved to New Zealand in 1925. In 1936, Janet came to Australia. Ten years ago, when I first met
By Bill Mason MIM Holdings, Queensland's biggest company, was plunged into a new crisis on September 21 when more than 800 workers at Mt Isa went on strike in the ongoing dispute over union coverage at the company's giant mine there. The 24-hour
By Liz Rene NEWCASTLE The NSW local government elections on September 9 registered a change in voting patterns that elected Green councillors across the state. The most resounding success was in Newcastle, where Greens now hold a quarter of the
By Roslyn Moloney The World Rainforest Report has launched the "100 Club", a campaign to raise funds for the magazine, published quarterly since 1983. World Rainforest Report is the only magazine in the world focusing entirely on in-depth
By Melanie Sjoberg ADELAIDE — More than 1000 school service officers (SSOs), teachers, parents and supporters rallied at Parliament House steps on September 21 in an ongoing campaign to save 500 SSO positions destined to be cut in 1996.
By Anthony Benbow PERTH — More than 8000 teachers, many of them from country schools, attended a mass meeting at Perth Oval on September 21. The huge turnout gave a clear message to the State School Teachers Union leadership: continue the

World

By John Martinkus and Daniel Pedersen EAST TIMOR — When five shots penetrated the body of the commandant of subdistrict Vermasse as he was on his way to work on July 27, it triggered — by afternoon — a violent and repressive response from
BRIAN CAMPBELL, from the Irish weekly An Phoblacht/Republican News, recently visited Euskadi — the Basque Country — which straddles the border between Spain and France. The Basque people have been involved in a long struggle for
British Labour: what's new and what isn't TONY BENN has been one of the most important figures of progressive politics in postwar Britain. He became a member of parliament under the government of Clement Attlee, and is likely to remain one under Tony
By Jason Cornelius with Max Watts The report of another massacre of native Papuans near Hoea village in the Fak-Fak district of West Papua has again troubled Australian relations with Indonesia. Alleged human rights violations have, apparently,
By Eva Cheng Seven former sex slaves and other victims of Japanese atrocities in China were recounting their wartime plight to reporters during a press conference in Hepingli Hotel in Beijing on August 7 when the police broke in. The meeting was
By Norm Dixon Nurses from five major hospitals and 14 clinics in and around Johannesburg have agreed to suspend their militant strike action. Nurses at Soweto's Baragwanath Hospital — South Africa's largest — led a walkout on September 4
By Stephen Marks TACAMICHE — The soldiers at the checkpoints on the road into the village made it obvious that a military occupation was under way here, in the banana plantation heartlands of northern Honduras. Because of overproduction in the
SANDRA MARTIN, recently returned from a visit to England, gives her impressions of the post-Thatcher scene. The England I knew has all but gone. It is surrounded by the shadow of a motorway which cuts a scar through the once lovely green fields and
By Duncan Chappie Rather than stop valuable production, Britain's main state-owned nuclear power company risked a meltdown of a gas-cooled nuclear reactor for more than nine hours. Nuclear power is the next industry to be privatised by the
By Wayne Hall ATHENS — The Communist Party posters in the working-class neighbourhoods were unambiguous: "Not Wanted", they said. There were the familiar features of the great man, medals in the form of deutschmarks, dollars and pounds
By Renfrey Clarke MOSCOW — As campaigning for the December 17 parliamentary elections gains momentum, President Boris Yeltsin is preparing another assault on the federal legislature. Yeltsin has indicated that he plans to block the holding of

Culture

Women Out Loud: The Women's Cafe — A magazine program wrapping up the Beijing conference as well as other news and views. ABC Radio National, Saturday, September 30, 5.05pm (repeated Wednesday, October 4, 2.05pm). The Europeans — Maria
Brazil Carnival of the Oppressed: Lula and the Brazilian Workers' PartyBy Sue Branford and Bernardo KucinskiLatin American Bureau, 1995. 120 pp.Reviewed by Roberto Jorquera Since its formation in August 1980, the Brazilian Workers' Party (PT) has
CluelessParamount PicturesWritten and directed by Amy HeckerlingReviewed by Roslyn Moloney "Sex. Clothes. Popularity. Is there a problem here?" This is how 16-year-old Cher (Alicia Silverstone) confronts the world. But the question really at
The Cutting Edge: The RaidSBS TelevisionTuesday, October 3, 8.30pm (8 SA)Reviewed by Jenny Long The debate around flag burning, and the implicit questioning of the rights of East Timorese to demonstrate against the Indonesian occupation of their
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, and Saturday, 2.30am. Programs of interest on Sydney
Based on highly reliable international contacts, leaked documents and horoscopes from several TV magazines, Nostradamus' Media Watch presents a highly accurate forecast of political events across the globe. Helen Darville-Demidenko identity
ZeldaBy Zelda D'ApranoSpinifex, 1995. 408 pp.Reviewed by Trish Corcoran "Working-class women very rarely write books because of our inability to write at the level required by male established literary standards. Nor are many books written about the
From dream to reality that's the prison life You sleep and dream to awake and find reality inside a prison cell thinking why you're here you need not hide it's clear now it's Genocide fight the feelings
Political PrisonersiNsuRgeThrough Warners MusicReviewed by Jen Crothers Those who are at all interested in hardcore music will be interested in the latest offering from iNsuRge. Political Prisoners is a five-track EP with a radical message —
The Delinquents (1962) Forget the Kylie Minogue film version, this novel is a total charmer. Nowadays we are fed stories of young love filtered through melodrama produced with conveyor belt efficiency. It may be hot and steamy, but the way I remember

Editorial

September 16 was the first International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer, marking the anniversary of the signing in 1987 of the international Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. While the occasion was a PR