On November 9, supporters of a free East Timor will march in cities around Australia to commemorate the anniversary of the massacre by Indonesian troops of a peaceful demonstration in Dili, East Timor, on November 12, 1991.
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and ain't i a woman?: Kick-arse feminism? On October 23, 300 people attended a public meeting at Sydney's Paddington Town Hall which revealed the varied, and often confused, nature of current feminist thinking. The panel included four
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Here are some ideas, expressed by two different people, from two different hemispheres, 70 years apart. Pauline Hanson in her inaugural speech to parliament, September 10, 1996: "I am fed up to the back teeth, with inequalities that
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As a result of fundraising activities over the last few weeks, ASIET has been able to send a further $3000 to activists in Indonesia. This brings to over $5000 the amount sent so far. Thanks to everybody who has made donations or helped with
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The appalling alliance between the small business-minded Democrats and the free marketeer Liberals will bring significant changes to working conditions and ordinary people's ability to organise. The
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Wilson led the Indonesians and East Timorese who climbed the fence of the Dutch Embassy on December 7, 1995 to protest the 1975 invasion of East Timor and call on the Jakarta regime to withdraw all military and police forces. He is also a national
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Jenny Dodd 7/10/50 — 4/10/96 Jenny Dodd died at home on October 4 after a long fight with cancer. Jenny's life was devoted to working with and helping others. Within a week of escaping to a women's refuge out of a difficult marriage many
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On October 30, ASIET received the following message from members of the People's Democratic Party (PRD) in Indonesia: "Dita Indah Sari (president of the Indonesian Centre for Labour Struggles) was taken by BIA (military intelligence) from the
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Land rights Th Aboriginal Land Rights controversy could so easily be resolved, and in the process the word "Rent" could be used to replace words like "Tax" and "taxation" in some areas. Let us agree that land titles were not extinguished: that
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Man-made Creutzfeldt-Jakob and mad cow disease By Lynette J. Dumble Revelations in Britain have brought a new dimension to the incurable brain infections, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in
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In the second in a series of articles on future directions for the environment movement, FELICITY WADE takes up some of the issues being discussed in the Wilderness Society about the way forward for the conservation movement. The
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Looking out: Gushing with gratitude"Poetry is a way of taking life by the throat [in much the same way that friendship] ... is a hydrant in the yard and writing is a faucet upstairs in the house.
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In the first of a three part series on the student movement in Australia since the 1970s, AFRODITY GIANNAKIS asked VAL EDWARDS about the history of the Australian Union of Students. Edwards was 1977 president of Kelvin Grove CAE Student Union (now
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Money and FriendsBy David WilliamsonDirected by Sandra BatesEnsemble Theatre, SydneyReviewed by Brendan Doyle If you have the money ($35 for a regular ticket) and friends who are equally well-off, or are Ensemble subscribers, you can join the north
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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,
News
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WOLLONGONG — Students from Illawarra high schools walked out of class on October 25 to protest the government's cuts to education funding, Austudy, Abstudy and the dole. As students rallied in the Wollongong mall amphitheatre,
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Labor looks to moderniseMELBOURNE — Given the defeats suffered by Labor governments over the last 12 months, you would think a conference entitled Social Democracy: Future Directions would attempt to explain why Labor is on the
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Rallies, marches and other activities in the last week of October marked the annual Reclaim the Night events protesting violence against women. From Canberra, Katrina Dean reports that around 350 women and male supporters gathered in Civic on October
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Around the country, Community and Public Service Union members in Telstra are being asked to vote on a draft competency-based pay and training (CBP&T) agreement which unashamedly aims to deliver "commercial outcomes of improved
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ADELAIDE — The third round of enterprise bargaining has stalled after eight meetings at the Electricity Trust of South Australia (ETSA). On October 18, the unions' single bargaining unit, seeking a 15% wage rise over two
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BRISBANE — The Queensland Coalition government is lurching further into trouble following the resignation on October 29 of Kenneth Carruthers. Carruthers quit as chief of the Criminal Justice Commission probe into an alleged corrupt
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University administrations are already planning, and in some cases implementing, measures to make up funding that was cut in the federal budget. This coincides with a new round of enterprise bargaining being undertaken by the
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Emergency appeal for Cuba On October 17, Cuba was hit by the worst hurricane in 50 years. Hurricane Lilli ripped through the island destroying houses, crops, roads, schools, hospitals and electrical supplies. Many provinces are isolated and without
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BRISBANE — The Borbidge government risks a massive blow-out in compensation to Queensland Aborigines after its refusal to give six Palm Island elders $7000 each for under-payment for wages while employed by the state during the
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Another three Aboriginal people have died within three days in prisons set up on their land. One wonders if this counts as "un-Australian". On Wednesday, October 23, an Aboriginal woman died at the Townsville Women's Jail, aged 31.
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Don't get confused "In reality, many of the faces we see in the street are the millions of tourists, overseas students and temporary business entrants who inject billions of dollars into the Australian community." — Federal minister for
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Win at Student Assistance CentreSYDNEY — At a time when victories in the pubic service are few and far between, a group of workers at Blacktown Student Assistance Centre have had a win. Since the federal budget, and the loss of
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How important is an independent, progressive newspaper to you? For months now the establishment media has been giving Hanson and her fellow racists almost limitless coverage, reporting each bigoted statement with glee in the knowledge that stirring
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Interns in the Hunter Area Health Service struck on November 1, and other hospital medical staff around the country participated in symbolic actions to "mourn the death of medical care". The national day of action was called by
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HOBART — On October 22 at 5.40pm, four Aboriginal people were arrested in Franklin Square. The excessive violence used against two of those arrested was caught on home video. The footage was distributed to the
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SYDNEY — Aborigines fighting for the preservation of the historic "Day of Mourning" conference site are urging everyone concerned with justice for indigenous Australians to join their protest outside state parliament on November
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In response to Pauline Hanson's racist outbursts, and John Howard's tacit support for her views, anti-racism activists have started organising against racial harassment and funding cuts to the Aboriginal and
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Despite promises of no more cuts, the Victorian government has announced another round of attacks on state schools. This time, no dollar value has been attached to the cuts. One hundred and thirteen schools have been targeted for
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MELBOURNE — Students at Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE won a partial victory in their campaign to restore funding to their Student Union at an Institute Council meeting on October 28. The council, the governing body at
Analysis
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The Democrats' agreement to support the Howard government's anti-union Workplace Relations Bill (WRB) should be condemned, but the real betrayal was by the Labor Party and the ACTU. While Labor leader Kim Beazley postures about the ALP's "total
World
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Pickets, vigils, hunger strikes, press conferences, petitions and protest letters were organised around the world on October 28, the International Day of Protest for Human Rights and Democracy in Indonesia called by Action in Solidarity with
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Inside the Cerra Hueco penitentiary in Mexico, 47 prisoners are in the fifth week of a hunger strike to draw attention to their unjust imprisonment. The penitentiary is located in Chiapas, the state well-known as the source of the Zapatista movement
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AUCKLAND — Greenpeace has released photographs of sea dumping of waste from previous French military operations in French Polynesia, giving credence to reports that waste from France's "clean up" at the Moruroa test site will be dumped at sea. The
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MANAGUA — The validity of the Nicaraguan elections held on October 20 is in even more doubt. As a result of the recount process, seven parties — the Renovation Action Movement, Bread and Force, National Conservative Action,
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Canadian auto strike and occupation show the way The Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) forced General Motors to accept a favourable contract on October 22 after a three-week strike during which workers took over a plant in Oshawa, Ontario. "Like a
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An worldwide network is to be established for trade unions working in the giant minerals multinational RTZ-CRA. The network will be coordinated by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions
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The refugee crisis in eastern Zaire follows months of brutal oppression — largely unreported in the mainstream media — against the Banyarwanda and Banyamulenge ethnic groups by the Zaire dictatorship, in league with those
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GERMANY — On October 24, members of the German metalworkers' union (IG Metall) participated in the most spectacular nationwide mobilisations since June 15 when 350,000 people responded to a call by the trade-union federation DGB
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On September 15, 12,000 people took to the streets in Hong Kong to protest Tokyo's recent manoeuvres to renew claims over the Diaoyu islands (called Senkaku by Japan). Ownership of these islands, 200 km north-east of Taiwan, has been
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Do unto others as they do unto others. Especially when the first others are the US government. This is evidently the sound reasoning of two Canadian Liberal MPs, John Godfrey and Peter Milliken. Godfrey and Milliken, like a great
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Some 80 representatives from over 40 organisations from 20 countries met in the Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok over October 29-30 for the Alternative ASEAN Meeting on Burma. The meeting denounced both the persistent gross
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Workers oppose PNG Telikom deregulation The Papua New Guinea Communications Workers Union will take industrial action to protect PNG's telecommunications utility, Telikom. A bill to remove Telikom's monopoly of telecommunications services and
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Two days of action by labour unions and community activists, supported by hundreds of thousands of people, temporally re-took Toronto from the right-wing political forces that have controlled Ontario since the election of the Conservative government
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MOSCOW — Every year in Moscow, despite resistance from the authorities and condemnation from the official press, mass demonstrations take place on November 7. The anniversary of the October revolution
Culture
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DangerCompilationDeath Defying TheatreReviewed by James Vassilopoulos The danger project is a compilation of rap music by musicians and rappers from Sydney's western suburbs. It was developed after the Death Defying Theatre presented Hip Hopera 95.
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Life of Riley: The importance of being earnest The difference between the value created by a worker and the cost of maintaining him or her is not as constant as the business community would have us believe. Generally, wages must be driven down
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What Makes Women Sick: Gender and the Political Economy of HealthBy Lesley DoyalMacmillan Press, 1995. 280 pp., $34.95 (pb)Reviewed by Karl Miller Lesley Doyal and her partner Len Doyal have, separately and together, written several books critiquing
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Washington BabylonBy Alexander Cockburn and Ken SilversteinVerso, 1996. 316 pp, $24.95 (pb)Reviewed by Phil Shannon The US has the best politicians that money can buy. This is an old joke that never fades but, although certain Australian politicians
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SBS Cyberwatch — Throughout November, SBS will screen 10 programs — films and documentaries — relating to the world's advancing technological systems. Cyberwatch will delve into high-tech animation, factual geometry, biotechnology, the science
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Love from a short distanceVarious artistsShock RecordsReviewed by Nick Fredman The range of artists who contributed to this excellent compilation is an example of the growing support for the East Timorese people's struggle for self determination.
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Poem: Somewhere Somewhere Somewhere, a man woman or child carries a rifle bazooka mortar handgun machine gun gleaming rifle Insaned by death any death is a prize for death Living in fear fear travels in all directions No-one safe, for
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Dating the EnemyWritten and directed by Megan Simpson HubermanReviewed by Afrodity Giannakis Dating the Enemy is a gender-swap comedy in the tradition of many popular movies of the '80s. In this one, the change happens in two ways, with a woman and a
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By Brendan O'Reilly The Cup sucks. This year I just couldn't get happy about it, being the anniversary of someone's suicide. The most unread, underrated Frank Hardy novel has got to be The Four Legged Lottery. It dealt with what he called