Issue 220

News

By Marina Carman CANBERRA — Student Representative Council (SRC) members from a number of ACT high schools and colleges held a rally here on February 16 attended by more than 400 students. The main speakers, SRC students from Lake Tuggeranong
By Amy Phillips SYDNEY — Westpac workers staged stop-work meetings on February 15 in protest at the bank's refusal to meet the Finance Sector Union's wage claim of 12% over 18 months. These actions launched a national campaign of rolling stoppages.
By Vanessa Hearman MELBOURNE — Albert Langer, a political activist in Neither, a group campaigning for a mixed-member proportional (MMP) voting system, was sentenced to two and a half months' jail for contempt of court on February 14. He had placed
By Lynda Hansen BRISBANE — The Wilderness Society (TWS) hosted a group of Aboriginal elders from Cape York in West End on February 11. Sixty people were entertained by Mbakeh Darboe, a master drummer from Gambia, Nakamura Matsouri band, Chris
By Frank Gollan SYDNEY: Damned if you do and damned if you don't. That sums up the dilemma for Australian public service workers in the current federal elections. For the past 13 years, public servants have voted in their majority for Labor, fearful
Polls indicate that the Tasmanian election on February 24 is likely to result in a hung parliament, with the Tasmanian Greens holding the balance of power. Green Left Weekly's IGGY KIM spoke to member for Denison and Greens spokesperson PEG PUTT
By Bill Mason BRISBANE — The proposed sale of one-third of Telstra by the federal Coalition was the target of a large public meeting in the Town Hall here on February 13, with speakers from a variety of parties and community groups condemning the
By Pip Hinman SYDNEY — On February 13, Maurice Marsland was stabbed to death at Goulburn jail. This is the second stabbing death at Goulburn in three months. Ray Jackson, from the Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Watch Committee, said that Marsland,
By Nick Fredman SYDNEY — Up to 1000 people attended the No Aircraft Noise party (NAN) campaign launch at Marrickville Town Hall on February 14. Well-known figures and most of the NAN candidates addressed the enthusiastic meeting. MCs Roy Slaven and
By Tim Gooden CANBERRA — Buses, trucks, tractors and vans blockaded the ACT Legislative Assembly in a five-union protest on February 14. Up to 700 members of the Transport Workers Union (TWU) and other unions covering heavy vehicle drivers staged a
By Bill Mason BRISBANE — Queensland Premier Wayne Goss will resign on February 19, opening the way for a new ALP leader as the Labor government's six-year reign ends. A new Coalition government under National Party leader Rob Borbidge will take
By Kim Linden MELBOURNE — Professor Peter Singer, lead Senate candidate for the Greens in Victoria, has called on Democrats leader Cheryl Kernot to explain why she forced CEPU state secretary Len Cooper to withdraw Singer's invitation to speak at
By Tim E. Stewart DARWIN — Stepping up a six-month long dispute with the Australian Education Union, the NT government last week began a media campaign which included education minister Steve Hatton describing union representatives as "terrorists".

World

By Sean Healy The massive bomb blast in the East End of London on February 9, attributed to the Irish Republican Army (IRA), has cast doubt over the Northern Irish peace process and the 18-month-old cease-fire between the IRA, loyalist
By Boris Kagarlitsky MOSCOW — In the parliamentary elections in December, six months before the far more vital vote for the presidency, the authorities discovered to their alarm that they had almost no support among the population. As a matter of
By Jennifer Thompson Statements by leaders of the Islamist Refah (Welfare) Party since they won the greatest number of votes in Turkey's December 24 elections have considerably toned down their pre-election radicalism. Refah won 21.38% of the vote to
By Norm Dixon More than 100 Cuban doctors will arrive in South Africa before the end of February. The doctors will staff posts in rural areas where apartheid-educated medicos refuse to work. Dr Nkosazana Zuma, health minister in the ANC-led
By WALHI Indigenous communities in Central Kalimantan maintain an Australian-owned joint gold mining venture is polluting their rivers. PT Indo Muro Kencana (IMK) is a joint-venture mining company comprising Muro Offshore Pty Ltd (Ashton Mining,
SAN DIEGO — On February 17, the INFOMED Friendshipment Caravan, coordinated by IFCO (Interreligious Foundation of Community Organization) and Pastors for Peace, will again try to bring medical aid including computers into Mexico for their shipment
By Eva Cheng A coalition of non-governmental organisations has warned that the scarcity and insecurity of food production remain a grave problem in Asia despite rapid economic growth in recent years. It urged the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation
By Merima Trbojevich From the moment he departed, leaving everything he had, he's become just one more number on a long list of refugees. He's become a number which has neither colour nor aroma, goodness nor malice, fault nor virtue — a number
Three women disarmed an Indonesian-bound Hawk jet fighter at British Aerospace (BAe) Warton near Preston Lanes in Britain in the early hours of January 29. They have been arrested and charged with burglary and criminal damage estimated at $31
LONDON — Welcoming the decision to dismantle Shell's North Sea gas rig installation, the Brent Spar, on land, Greenpeace called on the British government to rule out dumping at sea for all oil installations and abandon the so-called "case by case"
By Slobodan Trbojevich As the Yankees come into Bosnia, nobody should be surprised that ordinary Bosnian people have expressed strong pessimism about a real, peaceful solution. They've looked for help for too long. The scepticism which is evident on

Culture

Environment, Development, Agriculture: Integrated policy through human ecologyBy Bernhard GlaeserUCL Press, 1995. $39.95Reviewed by Dot Tumney In his conclusion Bernhard Glaeser suggests: "If humankind wishes to achieve sustainable use of natural
By Roberto Jorquera Sierra Maestra, a nine-piece Latin dance orchestra, is again bringing the essence of Cuban dance music to Australia after its successful tour in 1995. Since its formation in 1978, Sierra Maestra has played throughout Europe,
Sonnet of Lion & Prey, Christians and Lions "incredible boldness" this lion who roars to be a lion this trope in the jungle what interests it? nothing that would hide itself but the representation of the wound the will to bleed *** At 4 o'clock the
This horse on its knees in the field Pretending to be a unicorn As horses play and imagine Another day A night Black trees ... The horse on its feet has grown a horn and saddle Imagines the voice Of a rider: Those far hills Are simply shadows Of
By Philippa Stanford ADELAIDE — The 1996 Fringe Festival opens on February 23. Launched with a street party and parade, the festival runs until March 17. This year the festival has grown significantly with around 4400 performers participating at
Big gaps in Gulf War documentary The Gulf War: a television historyABC TV, Wednesday February 14 and 21, 8.30pmReviewed by Jennifer Thompson It's only five years since the 1990-91 Gulf war and yet it's faded from many people's memories.
In the Fascist Bathroom: Writings on punk 1977-1992By Griel MarcusPenguin BooksReviewed by Liam Mitchell Very rarely do you read an analysis of music — any music — such as Griel Marcus' works, published in a variety of magazines and brought
Video Fool For LoveDirected by Robert GibsonProduced by George Miller and Doug MitchellOpens March 28 at the Chauvel Cinema, Paddington, Sydney with other states to followReviewed by Margaret Allan "I still don't know whether he is the bravest man I
Your Little SecretMelissa EtheridgeIsland through PolygramReviewed by Jen Power Your Little Secret is singer/songwriter Melissa Etheridge's fifth album. The music is straight forward rock and roll. Her fans expect Etheridge to provide her familiar
Give bread to the people I guess we can afford it. Well, we must admit we live in some sort of decent luxury. Of course, we deserve it, thanks to the superiority of our enterprising mind and our special standing in the order of things. But let our
Colonising the Seed: Genetic Engineering and Techno-Industrial AgricultureBy Gyorgy ScrinisPublished by Friends of the Earth, 199540pp., $5Reviewed by Michael McNamara This compact publication presents a persuasive synthesis of the arguments against

Editorial

The Liberal-National Coalition's plan to cut $6 billion over four years, mainly from welfare and public sector jobs, has been greeted with draculaesque howls for more blood from the capitalist press. The Australian Financial Review's February 16