By Sue Bolton and Sandra Wallace
The All Burma Students' Democratic Organisation (Australia) organised protests in several Australian cities on May 27. The actions marked the anniversary of the 1990 general election in Burma which was won by the
Issue 234
News
By Carla Gorton
ADELAIDE — The state Liberal government handed down its third budget last week amid speculation that the government is poised to overcome its longstanding deficit. Working people here have been bludgeoned with the State Bank debt
By Chris Spindler
On May 29, up to 4000 building workers rallied in Sydney against the loss of their travel allowance, which is currently tax exempt. The federal government wants to abolish this exemption retrospectively. Union action had prevented
As CPSU leaders retreat, public servants demand action
By Greg Adamson
CANBERRA —Anger is rising among Australian Public Service workers at the feeble and disorganised response of the Community and Public Sector Union to the Howard government's
By Tom Wilson
SYDNEY — The gay community here is closing ranks to defend itself against a McCarthy-style witch-hunt by a royal commission which is supposed to be investigating police corruption. Former Sydney Lesbian and Gay Mardi Gras president
By Lisa Macdonald
If more proof was needed of the falsity of the federal Coalition's claim that its proposal to privatise Telstra is motivated by a concern for the environment, its move to allow an expansion of woodchip exports provides it. The
By Jamie Parkerand Maung Maung Than
Big companies such as CRA and BHP come to mind as examples of multinational destruction and exploitation. Yet in Burma, smaller companies are playing a significant part in legitimising and resourcing the
By Tony Green
MELBOURNE — Two thousand union delegates attended a Victorian Trades Hall Council/ACTU rally against the proposed federal industrial relations legislation on May 28. The meeting was addressed by Tim Pallas of the ACTU, who explained
By Lisa Macdonald
The government's leader in the Senate and minister for the environment, Robert Hill, announced on May 26 that the government is receiving legal advice from the Attorney General's Department about how it can bypass the Senate to
By Tim E. Stewart
DARWIN — The NT government has stepped up its campaign against educators covered by the Australian Education Union (NT) by threatening indefinite lockouts, sending an open letter to individual households in the Darwin area and
By Sarah Harris
SYDNEY — Eighty people gathered to express their solidarity with the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) against attacks by the Coalition government at a May 30 meeting at the Teachers Federation. The speakers were Warren Smith,
A representative of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) and the All India Students Association will attend the Resistance national conference, to be held in Melbourne July 5-7. The AISA is a mass organisation with hundreds of thousands of
The May 30 national strike called by the National Tertiary Education and Industry Union (NTEU) and supported by the National Union of Students and other student and community groups sent a very clear message to the Coalition government: increase
World
By Maria Sari
NEW YORK â Marching over four kilometres through downtown Washington in sweltering 38° heat around 200 activists rounded out the six-month "Million Letters for Mumia" campaign by handing over piles of letters from all over the
By Boris Kagarlitsky
MOSCOW — Voters in Russia who doubted the integrity of President Boris Yeltsin can rest easy. The country's ruler has kept his word. On May 27 a cease-fire agreement with Chechen insurgents was signed in the Kremlin, and the
By Norm Dixon
The representation of Tahiti's leading independence party, Tavini Huiraatira (Polynesian Liberation Front), was significantly boosted following recent elections for the Territorial Assembly. While the pro-French forces led by Gaston
By Eva Cheng
Are the people of Taiwan entitled to determine their own political future, particularly whether or not to reintegrate with China? This question was sharply posed by Beijing's intimidating military measures last year and its
A breach in the blockade
A partial victory in the fight to end Washington's immoral blockade against Cuba was won on May 26, when the US Treasury Department released more than 300 computers it had seized to prevent them from going to health
By Eva Cheng
Chinese women in the key industrial city of Wuhan, Hubei province, are forced to pay heavy fines and write "self-criticism" if found to have lost their virginity before marriage, according to a China News Digest dispatch on May 15. A
By Najib Farraj
The Alternative Information Centre has recently published the first comprehensive study on Palestinian refugees, written by three Palestinian scholars, Bilal Shakhsheer, Waheed Qirsh and Nayef Jredat. The authors claim that the
By Jaraa Aba Sabaa
The Oromo people are the single largest indigenous ethnic group of Africa. They live in east Africa in several countries, but mostly in Oromia, now included in Ethiopia. The Oromo people are crying out for their freedom but the
Russian elections: Yeltsin running scared
By Renfrey Clarke
MOSCOW — Is President Boris Yeltsin about to romp home an easy winner in the Russian presidential elections, pulling in the support of previously uncommitted voters and overwhelming
Culture
By Margarita Windisch
June 3 marks the 33rd anniversary of Nazim Hikmet's death. Hikmet is one of the most famous and celebrated modern turkish poets, recognised worldwide for his international and humanitarian views which transcended barriers of
By Nazim Hikmet
Translated by Tandy Baybars
You waste the attention of your eyes,
the glittering labour of your hands,
and knead the dough enough for dozens of loaves
of which you'll taste not a morsel;
you are free to slave for others
The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and PracticeBy Christopher HitchensVerso, 1995. 98pp., $22.95Reviewed by Norm Taylor Christopher Hitchens has provided many fascinating revelations about the world of Albanian nun Agnes Bojaxhiu,
The Ultimate Irish Folk CollectionDouble CD distributed through RTEReviewed by Ian Jamieson For those who enjoy Irish ballads at sessions in pubs, amongst Irish nationalist gatherings or just simply for the great Irish tradition of song, this double
Raymond WilliamsBy Fred InglisRoutledge, 1995. 333 pp., $44.95 (hb)Reviewed by Phil Shannon As Cambridge professor of drama as well as political activist, Raymond Williams, who died in 1988, truly earned the respect that most of the left have for
Fire MusicArchie SheppImpulse through GRP/MCATauhidPharoah SandersImpulse through GRP/MCAKarmaImpulse through GRP/MCAReviewed by Norm Dixon John Coltrane's music evolved as black America moved from the optimism sparked by the gains of the mass civil
Global IssuesBy John SeitzBlackwell Publishers, 1995. 257 pp., $39.95Reviewed by Lisa Macdonald On first glance, this book looks like an interesting and environmentally conscious study of the major social and ecological issues confronting the world
An Phoblacht/Republican News (http://www.serve.com/rm/aprn/current/news/index.html) — An Phoblacht is the weekly newspaper of Sinn Féin, and its website is one of the most interesting. AP/RN is essential reading to keep in touch with
We went to the vegetarian picnic
and we had a lovely time.
I stood on a slug
which I thought was a bug
cause I needed that particular rhyme.
We ate the mayonnaise
and had tomato sauce.
I had a muffin
did a lot of huffing
and had the
Editorial
June 5 is World Environment Day. Over the last decade, consciousness about the need to protect the environment has grown to the extent that, these days, youth in particular are clear that humankind can either have an adverse or a benign impact on the