HOBART — The University of Tasmania is currently plastered with posters of candidates for the Student Representative Council elections. Faced with a range of election tickets appealing for votes with slogans such as "make a
-
-
'Violence was directed by police'WOLLONGONG — Since the rally in Canberra on August 19, there have been many accusations about who caused the violence outside Parliament House. Paul Matters, secretary of the South Coast
-
Tough luck for most women On August 27, the NSW Young Labor state conference elected its first all-female leadership. The next day the Sydney Morning Herald ran a story on Liz McNamara and Joanna Woods, the new president and secretary respectively.
-
IWD planned ADELAIDE — A meeting here on August 3 began planning the 1997 International Women's Day (IWD) march, which will mark 25 years since the first women's liberation march in Adelaide. Initial ideas for the day include a concert and a
-
Defence fund There has been an excellent initial response to the appeal for funds to support the hunted PRD activists and the defence campaign for arrested PRD and other political prisoners. Almost $1500 has been donated, including several hundred
-
Changes to health care in the recent budget include the usual attacks on the sick and weak — more pressure on bulk billing, prescription costs to go up for all and attacks on dental care for health care card holders. Coalition health
-
DR DAVID LEGGE is a lecturer in public health at La Trobe University. JENNIFER THOMPSON, interviewing him on the effects of cuts to the health budget, began by asking about the $314 million cut to state hospital grants over the next four years,
-
PERTH — Many students at Curtin University aren't aware that at many other universities student guilds and student representative councils play a part in building rallies against the Liberals' attacks on education as well as
-
The role of the establishment press in reporting the August 19 rally in Canberra was a gross display of sensationalism. Not happy to leave it at the level of distorting the news, the Sydney Morning Herald has turned its hand to doing the police's
-
Green Left Weekly asked the Democrats, the Greens and the Democratic Socialist Party for their views on the threat to the public health system. The three questions asked were: The government has tried to sell its changes to the health budget as
-
Indonesia: the land of a million political prisonersPolitical trials have become regular events in Indonesia. Thousands of the regime's opponents — communists, radical nationalists, students, Muslims and labour activists
-
PROFESSOR IAN WEBSTER is the director of the Drug and Alcohol Unit at Liverpool Hospital in the heart of Sydney's west, and president of the Drug and Alcohol Council of Australia. He told Green Left Weekly's JENNIFER THOMPSON that budget cuts
-
Healing the scars "If you don't have friends of another race, at least choose professionals of differing races." — Lynn Smith (Atlanta Journal and Constitution, August 16). I recently read Lynn Smith's review of 40 Ways to Raise a Nonracist
-
Democracy activists defy Suharto Budiman Sujatmiko, president of the People's Democratic Party (PRD) and 13 other PRD prisoners held in Jakarta have refused to sign the reports on their interrogation. This is the first time political
-
Internationalism Recent events in Indonesia cannot be separated from the international struggle for democracy in general and the international working class movement in particular. The arrest of many pro-democracy activists following the July 27
-
Not content with having financially kneecapped the ABC, the Howard government now seems hell-bent on reducing the public broadcaster's role to a shadow of its former self as the controversial Mansfield inquiry begins in earnest
-
SARAH LANTZ is the National Union of Students national womens officer. This is an abridged version of a talk she presented to the 1996 Network of Women Students Australia Conference in Perth. Originally, I was asked to discuss the draconian attacks
-
"Government schools will lose a potential $323.6 million over four years as a result of an accounting trick employed by the Howard government in order to disguise a broken promise", said Sharan Burrow, president of the Australian
-
Indonesian struggle for democracy — The Suharto regime has launched a major crackdown against the democracy movement in Indonesia. Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET) has launched an emergency campaign to win the release of
-
Gun control is typically presented as a measure to reduce the dangers of murder, suicide and accident. But it can also be interpreted as "disarming the people". After all, "gun control" takes weapons out of the hands of ordinary
-
Waiting for Lefty Here we are together again. It's been a week since we last met. So how's it been? You may be a regular, then again you may not. At least you have the paper within your grasp — now turning the pages to see what catches your
-
HOBART — The Labor Party responded to the state budget with opportunist posturing. On August 19, its MPs puffed out their chests, stated they would vote against the budget and proposed extending the state debt by $120 million in order
-
Canberra, August 19: how the tap came off in their handsThe August 19 rallies called by the ACTU were meant to be a controlled demonstration of union and community support for the ALP's plan to amend the Howard government's
-
The Howard government's budget has set Australia on the road towards a "two-tier" health system: one tier for the wealthy, and another for the rest. In the United States, where such a system is in place, the human cost is appalling. A recent
-
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,
News
-
Thousands of university and high school students took to the streets on August 29 as part of a national day of action called by the National Union of Students. The large turnout of high school students at only two weeks' notice added a new dimension
-
Over the weekend of August 23-25, protests were held calling for an end to Australia's de jure recognition of the Indonesian annexation of East Timor. Actions in Darwin, Newcastle and Hamilton were reported in the last issue of Green Left Weekly. In
-
ALP stands by HECSBRISBANE — The ALP is up to its old tricks trying to con students that the introduction of HECS in 1987 did not disadvantage students. Sheriff Deen, the presidential candidate on the Labor Club's YOU — Your
-
Irish Nationalists address meeting by phoneBRISBANE — A meeting of about 100 people here on August 24 spoke directly to Irish activists in Ireland and the US. Australian Aid for Ireland organised an amplified telephone, and
-
Heat on APEC energy ministersSYDNEY — In an international appeal signed by 64 community groups from around Australia and the Asia-Pacific region, Climate Action Network Australia (CANA) urged an Asia Pacific Economic
-
PERTH — The leadership of the WA branch of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union is facing a challenge in the union's September elections. Since May Day, the opposition ticket has run a dirty campaign against the
-
Getting ahead "If you are soft and nice, you don't get anywhere in the ALP." — Liz McNamara, the new president of NSW Young Labor. Very high hopes "He [Aussie Vaughan, former Queensland secretary of the AMWU] hoped that when George [Campbell,
Analysis
-
Cuts of $314 million to public hospitals and $2.6 billion to Medicare over the next four years ensure that the public health system will be a lot sicker as a result of the August 20 budget. Combined with the Coalition's subsidies to the private
World
-
East Timor pledge in NZ The Auckland East Timor Independence Committee has asked candidates in the October parliamentary elections to sign a pledge binding them to support a change in NZ's policy on East Timor so that Wellington recognises the East
-
Widespread deforestation in Amazon region Approximately 14,000 square kilometres were deforested per year in the Amazonian region of Brazil between 1992 and 1994, according to a report in the Folha de Sao Paulo on August 23. These figures are from
-
The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit will be held in the Philippines in November, at Subic Bay, once an infamous US military base and symbol of US domination of the country. Since the push
-
Approximately 20,000 tonnes of obsolete pesticides are stored in Africa, often in containers that leak toxic waste into the environment, according to a recent UN Food and Agriculture Organisation report. FAO calls on agrochemical companies to share
-
Russian defeat brings hope for peace in ChechnyaMOSCOW — August 1996 seems destined to be remembered as the point when Russians came to accept that their armed forces had lost the war in Chechnya, and when the regime of
-
On August 19, it was disclosed that the New Zealand National Party government was planning to proceed with the privatisation of the Forestry Corporation, despite the fact that the government could well be turned out in national elections on October
-
From July 27 to August 3, the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) hosted one of the most unusual international conferences ever. The EZLN, in spite of not being able to operate freely and legally, invited people from around
-
Liberals and the DemocratsThe "liberals" had their day at the Democratic Party convention — they were allowed to speak in respectful disagreement with President Bill Clinton, while using their influence to exhort those
Culture
-
FlirtDirected by Hal HartleyStars Martin Donovan, Bill SageDendy FilmsOpens nationally September 12Reviewed by Margaret Allan It is unusual for the characters in a film to start discussing amongst themselves whether or not the film maker has
-
The AlchemistBy Ben JonsonDirected by Neil ArmfieldBelvoir Theatre until September 29Reviewed by Jonathan Strauss Why should an end-of-the-20th-century audience greet with guffaws and hearty applause a 385-year-old black comedy, focused on our
-
DARWIN — Only two days after the announced budget funding cuts to ATSIC, an indigenous cultural symposium was held at the Northern Territory University to discuss the immediate and long-term position of the Aboriginal and
-
By "Michael", "Jonathon" and "Rupert" CANBERRA — The Indonesian ambassador's August 19 reception (commemorating the proclamation of the Republic of Indonesia) was shaping up to be just one more ho-hum event on the diplomatic cocktail circuit —
-
Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical RomanceBy Irvine WelshRandom House, 1996. 276 pp., $20 (pb)Reviewed by Nick Fredman Irvine Welsh is the young Scottish writer who shot to fame in 1993 when his first novel, Trainspotting, a gritty tale of 1980s
-
SYDNEY — As was his way, George Bernard Shaw provided The Misalliance with a preface as long as the play itself, in which he systematically set out his views on the defects of the English family and English education. The preface,
-
Michael Lapsley, Priest and Partisan: A South African journeyBy Michael WorsnipOcean Press, 1996. 167 pp., $19.95Reviewed by Marina Cameron This book, about the life of prominent ANC activist and Anglican priest Michael Lapsley, provides some
-
Violence Everywhere In the fury of the storm when the wind turns gale, in the struggle between predator and prey, violence strikes. Violence breaks the will, enforcing difference. It looks to ends: disregarding means It has become a feature
-
The State in Question: Transformations of the Australian StateEdited by Paul JamesAllen and Unwin, 1996, $24.95Reviewed by James Goodman The Howard government has just announced a profound withdrawal of the state from Australian society. Federal
-
When times are bad, it's no time for big risks. Movie producers are not going to sink money into untested "potentially" groundbreaking innovations. They go for the guaranteed money — the sequels — or they resurrect past
-
The Silicon TongueBy Beryl FletcherSpinifex Press, 1996$16.95Reviewed by Patricia Brien New Zealand author Beryl Fletcher's The Silicon Tongue is the story of four generations of women separated by circumstance and united by technology. It starts in