Knowing what's good for us
In late July, Australian columnist Judith Sloan — the employing class's Trojan horse amongst women — launched a spirited defence of the clauses in Peter Reith's industrial relations bill that deregulate part-time and
News
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Sydney on August 4, around 60,000 people poured into the Domain to protest against government cuts of $65 million to the ABC. Sarah Harris reports that staff, performers and supporters addressed and entertained the five-hour rally, including the
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In moving to slash Australia's$1.5 billion foreign aid budget, foreign minister Alexander Downer made his first target the Development Import Finance Facility (DIFF), with its funding of $124 million. Strong complaints from
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Abolition 2000 PERTH — A new campaign, Abolition 2000, was launched on August 6 by WA Greens Senator Dee Margetts and People for Nuclear Disarmament campaigner Jo Vallentine. Speakers included Bill Ethel from the CFMEU, Peter Holland and Fiona
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As part of the campaign against cuts to education funding by the Howard government, Resistance at Wollongong University initiated a meeting of all left activists interested in running in the SRC elections. The
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Youth forum CANBERRA — Thirty people attended a youth forum organised by Resistance and the Young Christian Workers on August 8 to highlight the impact of the Howard government's policies on young people. Speakers from the CFMEU, CPSU, Youth
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National day of action on education spite grey skies and sporadic downpours, 4000 protested in Adelaide on August 7. Sidney Bay reports that buses arrived from suburban campuses and the Adelaide University contingent came into Victoria Square with
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Hunted activists need support Activists of the PRD are being hunted down, but the dictatorship's forces have not yet been able to capture any leaders. The only PRD leaders in jail at the moment are those arrested on July 8 at a 20,000-strong
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Opportunity "A great opportunity to get everyone to buy the same thing twice." — The head of a graphic design consultancy on why the logo for the Sydney 2000 Olympics is being redesigned. Radical idea "The whole idea that public education
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If you are one of the new readers who picked up this newspaper at the August 19 day of action against the Coalition government's attacks on our rights and living standards, then welcome to Green Left Weekly. This is a special anti-budget issue of
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18 = Critical stage in ACI disputeMELBOURNE — A lot has occurred at the BTR/ACI Spotswood picket line, where 137 maintenance workers are fighting 59 forced redundancies. The dispute is now at a critical stage, with the company
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14 = Queensland school cleaners slam privatisation planBRISBANE — The Borbidge state government was facing the biggest industrial campaign since the SEQEB dispute of 1985 over its move to privatise school cleaning and cut 6500
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Oh where, oh where has Labor's heartland gone?SYDNEY — One hundred people gathered at the Balmain Leagues Club on August 3 to consider the question: Has Labor lost its heartland forever? The meeting was organised by the Balmain
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Massive cuts and outsourcing planned for CESCANBERRA — Massive cuts to the CES are planned by the government, according to the July 24 Canberra Times and Financial Review. They quoted an interdepartmental committee report and a
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Some 250 people attended a Who Cares About Child-care? rally in Newcastle on August 4 organised by Central Coast-Hunter Regional Family Day Care (FDC) to protest against the federal government's proposed
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uth = By Marina Cameron In an apparent bid to allow some venting of public anger before budget night, the federal government released details of planned cuts to the higher education sector on August 9. More than 30,000 had rallied on August 7 in a
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MANAGUA — More than 50,000 people overflowed the Plaza of the Revolution here on July 19. By bicycle, on foot, in buses and trucks, people streamed into the plaza from all directions to mark the 17th anniversary of the Sandinista
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100,000 cases of tuberculosis in Brazil In the 1980s, registered cases of tuberculosis were declining 4% per year in Brazil. Between 1990 and 1993 the registered decrease came to a standstill and since 1993 numbers have again begun to increase.
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SA public servants take to the streetsADELAIDE — Public Service Association (PSA) members across the state held a two-hour stoppage on August 5 in protest at the state government's inaction over their 15% pay claim and to
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HOBART — In the face of a continuing decline in profits, bosses in Tasmania have sounded a strong warning to the state government. An end of June survey of employers by the Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (TCCI) and the
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On August 6, Tasmania's Liberal premier, Tony Rundle, warned that the August 15 state budget is not negotiable. Any attempts to change it, he said, would result in a new election. The next day, the Tasmanian Greens
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14 = Resistance Centre celebrates 10th birthdayBRISBANE — The Brisbane Resistance Centre celebrated its 10th anniversary with a lively night on August 10. Some 100 people packed in to hear Ant McKenna, Isis, and Chris Anderson
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Hiroshima Day marked Around 300 people attended the Sydney Hiroshima Day march on August 4, demanding that a treaty be signed by the year 2000 to begin the process of eliminating nuclear weapons. Speakers called on the Australian government to
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Faced with implementing cuts of around one in three Telstra jobs, managers have begun implementing an assessment test allowing them to target individuals for redundancy. The quaintly named "resource rebalancing" process is based on
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CANBERRA — A rally on August 8 outside the Burmese embassy commemorated the eighth anniversary of the popular democratic uprising in which thousands were killed by the Burmese military. Three hundred
Protest commemorates 8-8-88
Analysis
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The following is the abridged text of a speech by high school student and Resistance member Hamish Quinn to Sydney's Hiroshima Day rally on August 4. High school students are concerned deeply about the world we will inherit from a generation unable
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According to DAVE HOLMES, Melbourne secretary of the Democratic Socialist Party (DSP), Victorian ALP leader John Brumby's bid to be that state's Tony Blair represents no big shift in political perspective. In assessing what all this means, we should
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Victorian Labor Party leader John Brumby has touched off a minor controversy and media comment with his recent proposals to shift the party even further to the right — to the "middle ground". Green Left Weekly's KIM LINDEN spoke to DAVID SPRATT, a
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[Paul Howes is a year 10 student at Blaxland High in Sydney's west and a member of the socialist youth organisation, Resistance. The following speech was given to the 10,000-strong rally against education cuts in Sydney on August 7.]
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Women workers under fireThe federal sex discrimination commissioner, Sue Walpole, last month announced new "codes of practice" for employers on sex bias in the workplace. Walpole will carry out nationwide, random audits of
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It's over and done with There's been a change, hasn't there? With the election of the Howard government, the country's political climate has shifted. Would you agree, Mr. Riley? — Oh, yes, definitely. I believe I'm right in saying that you
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Revelations that Labor former prime ministers Gough Whitlam and Bob Hawke are on the payroll of billionaire businessman Richard Pratt should come as no surprise. After all, the former Labor government prided itself on its close relationship with the
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While China has said it will undertake a nuclear testing moratorium from July 30, nuclear disarmament campaigners in Australia warned that the July 29 nuclear test at Lop Nor may not be China's last and called on all nuclear weapons
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Challenging the Liberal agendaPERTH — The Perth and Fremantle branches of the Democratic Socialist Party and Resistance are organising a Fight Back Conference for September 14-15 for all those who believe the time has come to
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Whether buying or renting, the cost of housing eats up a considerable percentage of one's earnings. Housing costs have a vital effect on people's standard of living and yet receive remarkably little attention from politicians. While
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ARIA (the Australian Record Industry Association) has recently brought in new guidelines which restrict the sale of many CDs and completely ban others. The guidelines are a harsher version of the system of
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Civil liberties What do gun control and Russell Cooper's proposal for "Youth Curfews" have in common? Gross violations of Civil Liberties. Add to this gross interference with the right to Trial by Jury and the Freedom of Information Act; Gareth
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Veteran political activist and environmentalist Marion Studdert died on July 29, following a 13-month battle with complications after an operation for cancer. Marion's political involvement began in 1941 when, aged 18, she joined the Communist Party
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On July 18, at the Manufacturing Workers Union national delegates' conference, ACTU secretary Bill Kelty raised an old labour movement standard — a shorter working week to share work around. Australian workers haven't heard
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"Sometimes irony can be so socially constructive, as well as instructive, that it rises above even the highest court in the land." — Irving Elmer Bell For the sake of irony here, try to imagine a Ku Klux Klansman who takes great pleasure in
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A-Z of chemicals in the homeCompiled by the Total Environment CentreChoice Books, 1996. 168pp., $15Reviewed by Dot Tumney This book aims to address the wider understanding of toxicity as a concept and to discuss the characteristics of materials in
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The Sydney Morning Herald calls it the "return of the rally", the wave of anti-Howard actions that have convulsed politics over the last three months. But while the Herald writers look for clever explanations for this "sea-change in
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As consumers, we implicitly trust food manufacturers and government to maintain appropriate safeguards to prevent food contamination. Australian health officials recently ordered an investigation of locally manufactured baby
World
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PNG forests face renewed assaultForeign timber companies have refused to pay a PNG government-mandated increase in timber royalties to land-holders. Currently, land-holders receive approximately 4-5 kina [A$4-5]
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EDINBURGH — Coalition-building on the left has been sporadic at best and rarely successful or enduring. But in Scotland, a fresh and exciting attempt to build left unity has emerged, which has the potential to reshape Scottish
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France blocks ban on toxic waste export On July 28, Greenpeace announced that France is blocking a regional agreement that would ban the export of toxic and nuclear waste from OECD states in the Mediterranean to non-European Union countries of the
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Test ban delegates blockaded GENEVA — On August 6, the 51st anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, about 100 Greenpeace protesters from Italy, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands and Germany blocked the exits of the United Nations
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'Reforming' children into hungerBy stating his willingness to sign the welfare "reform" bill passed with support from both Democrats and Republicans, President Clinton stepped into the vanguard of world leaders spearheading
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Last month two prominent members of the FSLN toured Australia. Alejandro Bendaña and Zoilamerica Ortega, representing the Centre for International Studies, spoke at meetings organised by CISLAC (Committees in Solidarity with
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MEXICO CITY — From July 27 to August 3, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) hosted the first Intercontinental Meeting for Humanity and Against Neo-liberalism in the jungles of Chiapas in southern
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MOSCOW — Coal miners are pressing ahead in a battle to force the government and coal companies to hand over wages that have gone unpaid from as far back as February. During the first week of August, more than 50,000 workers in
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MANILA — "Philippine Labor Secretary Leonardo Quisumbing wants his term to be remembered as one that fostered industrial peace ... [but] the changing balance of power among trade unions and federations is giving him another
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US government agencies and research groups conducted experiments with high dosages of the Edmonston-Zagreb (EZ) measles vaccine from 1987 to 1991 on thousands of babies in Haiti, Mexico, Senegal, Guinea Bissau and African-American and Latino
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For the second year in a row, the Zimbabwe government has attempted to ban the participation of a gay and lesbian group in the annual Zimbabwe International Book Fair in Harare. Despite winning a High Court order against the ban, the
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Fearful Suharto lashes out"At the present time, I think there's a strong interest in seeing an orderly transition of power there [Indonesia] that will recognise the pluralism that should exist in a country of that magnitude and
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MANAGUA — Support for FSLN presidential candidate Daniel Ortega has climbed 10 points to 30%, according to a poll released on July 30. The main right-wing candidate, Arnoldo Alemán of the Liberal Alliance, remains steady
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MANILA — "Free Dita Sari", "Suharto, Hitler, dictator, killer — out" were painted on banners and caps as around 100 workers from the socialist workers centre Filipino Workers Solidarity (BMP) picketed the Indonesian embassy here on August 9. This
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South African clothing and textile workers have won a 9% pay increase after an eight-day national strike. The workers, members of the 83,000-strong SA Clothing and Textile Workers Union, returned to work on August 5. They had been
Culture
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How Many People Can the Earth Support?By Joel E. CohenNorton532 pp, $30Reviewed by Chase Madar In 1798, a dour young cleric named Thomas Robert Malthus invented overpopulation. The growing numbers of poor, he wrote in Essay on the Principle of
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Car Maintenance, Explosives and LoveWritten and performed by Donna JacksonDirected by Andrea LemonLonsdale Street Power Station, MelbourneTues-Sat 7pm, Sun 5 pm, until August 25Reviewed by Bronwen Beechey The connection between the different
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RL's DreamBy Walter MosleySerpent's Tail, London, 1995266pp., $19.95Reviewed by Norm Dixon RL's Dream reminded me of the first James Baldwin novel I ever read, Another Country. Certainly Mosley, best known for his terrific noir novels set in black LA
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The CrossBy Mandy SayerAngus and Robertson Pyable, 1995296 pp., $14.95 (pb)Reviewed by Tony Smith Don't be deterred by cover notes which hail a "thriller, love story, tale of the city". The Cross is none of these. Rather than hybridise banal
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Hotel Suharto Who put the durian in the air conditioning system? What is that fetid odour in Hotel Suharto? Are you sure it's a durian? It smells like decomposing flesh. Could it be the stench of death? What does it represent? The
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Actively Radical TV — Sydney community television's progressive current affairs producers tackle the hard issues from the activist's point of view. CTS Sydney (UHF 31), every Thursday, 7pm. Access News — Melbourne community TV, Channel 31,
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uth = By Marina Cameron People who see Sweet Honey in the Rock live dont forget the experience. The mixture of voices and mastery of musical styles, the strength and passion of the performance are spine tingling. Each Sweet Honey performance is
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Einstein: A LifeBy Denis BrianWiley, 1996. 509 pp., $49.95 (hb)Reviewed by Phil Shannon Albert Einstein is the name most associated with science, at its intellectual best (probing the deepest mysteries of the cosmic and subatomic worlds) and its
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The Port Chicago 50: An Oral History — On July 17, 1944, two merchant marine ships in Port Chicago Munitions Base near San Francisco exploded, killing 320 people. The majority of the casualties were African-Americans who loaded ammunition onto
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The Social Worker Years ago in Glasgow callow youth from troubled folk and folks in trouble I made my crust. As Canutian agent I turned no tides but sometimes struck a chord. I recall a twelve year young car rustler, an