QLD Police assault concert
BRISBANE — On October 19, police brutally cleared the crowd from a 4ZZZ fundraising concert in Musgrave Park. "The police, some on horseback and others equipped with riot gear and batons and shields, began picking off
Issue 251
News
The tour of Peoples Democratic Party (PRD) representative, Nico Warouw, has contributed significantly to public awareness of the campaigns for democracy in Indonesia and to free jailed political activists, say tour organisers. Susan Price reports
By Bill Mason
BRISBANE — The Queensland Coalition government has launched an attack on the state's anti-corruption watchdog, the Criminal Justice Commission, in a bid to return to the "good old days" when former premier Joh Bjelke Petersen and a
By Barry Healy
SYDNEY — In a major victory for local residents Waterloo incinerator will close on November 23. The announcement brings to a close 31 years of controversy about the plant. Waverley and Woollahra councils, the incinerators owners,
By Janet Parker
SYDNEY — On October 14, CNRM Special Representative and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jose Ramos Horta issued a call on behalf of the united East Timorese resistance, including FRETILIN and UDT, for the broadest support for marches
By Emily McCosker and Marina Cameron
Law students at Sydney, NSW and Melbourne universities, and the University of Technology, Sydney, have condemned the federal government's proposals to introduce differential HECS and lower the repayment
By Pat Brewer
CANBERRA — At a stop-work meeting on October 16, National Tertiary Education and Industry Union and Community and Public Sector Union members unanimously agreed to drop industrial bans as a sign of good faith in stalled enterprise
By Virginia Brown
PERTH — The International Women's Day collective and West Australian-South African Solidarity have joined forces to tour Jabulile Matilda Ndlovu, a South African women's activist, trade unionist and writer. Meetings will be held
By Rob Heller
MELBOURNE — To mark UN World Food Day on October 16 a roving demonstration was held in the central business district here targeting McDonald's outlets. Around 60 activists handed out hundreds of leaflets and chanted slogans like,
By Jennifer Thompson
SYDNEY — Prisoners' and civil rights group Justice Action has condemned NSW MP Andrew Tink's new bill, introduced in parliament last week, which would give NSW police the power to detain and interrogate suspects for up to 12
By Douglas Kelly
CANBERRA — Early in 1994, opponents in the ANU Staff Association of the National Tertiary Education and Industry Union "National Framework Agreement" predicted the following consequences of enterprise bargaining (EB):
By Chris Martin
On October 9, the Dunghutti people of northern NSW became the first Aboriginal nation to win land under native title legislation on mainland Australia. The announcement came just one day after the federal government declared its
By Dave Wright
PENRITH — Around 30 people rallied at Penrith Plaza in Sydney's west to protest the recent spate of racist attacks against migrants and Aboriginal people, particularly from Pauline Hanson and Graeme Campbell. The rally, organised
By Maurice Sibelle
MELBOURNE — The Student Representative Council (SRC) at Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE (NMIT) Student Union launched a concerted effort to regain funding at its October 10 council meeting. The NMIT Student Union is
By Roberto Jorquera
BRISBANE — Forty-five anti-racist activists met at the Metro Arts centre here on October 14. Meeting participants included Aboriginal pastor Reg Yates, representatives from the Chinese Forum, the Murri community, the
By Marina Cameron
Against a background of rising unemployment rates, the Howard government announced a new $5.9 million labour market program for young people on October 7. The Jobs Pathway Program will begin in 1997, with public and private
Picket against Telstra sell-off
BRISBANE — Members of the Community and Public Sector Union gathered in the mall on October 16 to protest the Howard government's plans to privatise Telstra and slash 23,000 jobs. The unionists picketed a Telstra
World
By Michael Karadjis
While the victory of the "new image" PASOK (Panhellenic Socialist Movement) of Costas Simitis in the September 22 elections confirmed and deepened Greeces capitalist integration into Europe and the Maastricht Treaty, the
Latino march demands rights and justice
Tens of thousands of Latinos marched through the streets of Washington, D.C. and rallied near the White House on October 12 to press their demands on Congress and the President. This was the first
By Norm Dixon
Papua New Guinea's leading radical group, Melanesian Solidarity (Melsol), is under increasing pressure from its supporters to form a party committed to the country's poor, the group's national general secretary, Peti Lafanama, told
By Stephen Marks
MANAGUA — On October 16, the right-wing Liberal Alliance (AL) closed its Nicaraguan election campaign with a rally of 30,000 to 120,000 people (estimates varied). Later that day, the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN)
On September 30, the Sydney Morning Herald published an op-ed commentary on the Bougainville crisis by James Griffin, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of PNG. Griffin wrote that, "Nothing can now be achieved without action against the
By Renfrey Clarke
MOSCOW — For months, political crisis has gripped Belarus, the former Soviet republic of 10 million people on Russia's western border. President Alyaksandr Lukashenko, like Russia's Boris Yeltsin in the early autumn of 1993, is
By David Robie
Tongan pro-democracy MP and publisher 'Akilisi Pohiva and two newspaper editors walked free after the supreme court on October 14 ruled that they had been detained illegally. The three had served three weeks of a 30-day sentence.
By Stephen Marks
Elections in Ecuador in May confirmed the rapid rise of the recently formed Pachakátic Plurinational Unity Movement-New Country Movement (MUPP-NP). The front was an initiative of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities
By Eva Cheng
Tension on the Korean peninsula is on the rise following alleged North Korean spying activities in South Korea. Seoul on September 19 presented a small North Korean submarine, apparently abandoned after running aground, and 18 bodies
By Norm Dixon
The pro-independence Bougainville Interim Government has denied involvement in the murder of the Port Moresby-appointed premier of Bougainville, Theodore Miriung. BIG spokespeople believe that, in the light of tensions between Miriung
International news briefs
Worldwide attacks on unionists rise
Hundreds of trade union members were murdered and thousands of others injured or arrested across the world in 1995 according to a report released by the International Confederation of
Amnesty calls for release of Vanunu
Amnesty International has called for the immediate release of Mordechai Vanunu on the 10th anniversary of his arrest and solitary confinement. "Mordechai Vanunu has been held alone in a cell for 10 years, which
Culture
Gay love, homophobia and class
Beautiful ThingWritten by Jonathon HarveyDirected byHettie McDonaldReviewed by Kath Gelber I felt compelled to write more about the film Beautiful Thing after reading Castellani's review (GLW #250), not because the
CycloDirected by Tran Anh HungNow screening in Sydney and Melbourne, other capitals to followReviewed by Brendan Doyle Winner of Best Film at the Venice Film Festival last year, this young Vietnamese director's latest film about a pedi-cab driver is
Adela Pankhurst: The Wayward Suffragette 1885-1961By Verna ColemanMelbourne University Press, 1996. 198 pp., $19.95 (pb)Reviewed by Phil Shannon For a case study of political decay, few can match Adela Pankhurst. From militant suffragist in England
Towards a Sustainable Economy: The need for fundamental changeBy Ted TrainerEnvironbook, 1996. 182 pp., $24.95 (pb)Reviewed by Pip Hinman "Our most worrying global problems are directly due to an economy driven by market forces, the freedom of
Dreamer
Dream big.
If you don't have dreams
you have nothing.
Nothing at all.
So dream on.
And when you dream
— dream big.
Dream of a better world ...
Of a world without hunger,
of a world at peace.
Dream of freedom, justice
Generation fBy Virginia TrioliMinerva, 1996Reviewed by Jo Brown The inspiration for Generation f was the 1995 book The First Stone written by Helen Garner. Garner attacked two women at Ormond College in Melbourne who took the college master to court
Where political meets personal
The Hope of the WorldBy Errol O'NeillDirected by Aane NeemeQueensland Theatre CompanyCremorne Theatre, QueenslandPerforming Arts Complex until November 3Reviewed by Dave Riley The one frustrating element of this
Power and Politics: Reflections on Human Nature and the Social OrderBy Noam ChomskyAllen & Unwin, 1996. 244 pp., $35R>Reviewed by Alex Bainbridge Avid followers of Chomsky's work and newcomers alike will not be disappointed with Power and Politics.
By Natasha Sinnet
Since it emerged in the 1970s, heavy metal music has been blamed for everything from inciting riots to murder. Earlier this year, the media blamed Australian teenage band Silverchair for allegedly instigating a triple murder in
Editorial
On October 16, the Democrats took a step closer to fulfilling Cheryl Kernot's prediction of a few days' before — that the Coalition's industrial relations law would be in force by the end of the year — by voting for the bill to move to the