Their sex is irrelevantTheir sex is irrelevant
The recent appointment of Madeleine Albright as the new US secretary of state was greeted with great fanfare by the establishment media the world over. And it's no wonder.
Albright's record while
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LISMORE — Student activists here kicked off the year with a lively protest on February 18 against tighter restrictions to Austudy eligibility and other attacks on education. A lunchtime speak-out was organised by the Student
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On the box 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, 10pm, and Saturday, 7pm. 9point = Access News
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The future of solidarityThe future of solidarity By Peter Boyle Federal and state governments are doing their best to abolish solidarity. It's against their law for workers for one capitalist to show their solidarity with workers of other
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High school students' magazine launchedWOLLONGONG — On February 12, high school student members of Resistance launched Revolt — Student Underground. Revolt will be produced twice every term. It aims to inform high school
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Racism is often presented as a deep-seated and "ancient" suspicion and hostility between people of different races — a "natural" if mistaken prejudice that is hard to eradicate but will eventually be banished through
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Reith's 'compete-or-perish' plan for the public serviceIn November, industrial relations minister Peter Reith issued his paper "Towards a Best Practice Australian Public Service". It sounds like a discussion document, but don't
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DARWIN — An Aboriginal protest camp on vacant Crown land in the northern suburbs has ended tragically after the sudden death of one of the protesters. Bob Bunduwabi died on January 22 after two months of defying repeated attempts by the NT
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The leadership of the Community and Public Sector Union and its new section council covering the Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs (DEETYA) have abandoned any pretence of a campaign to
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The Liberal federal government has launched a vicious attack on public education, building on the groundwork laid by previous state and federal Labor governments. The government plans to accelerate the privatisation of higher
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BRISBANE — Orientation week was held at the University of Queensland from February 16 to 19. During that week, Resistance held vibrant stalls that attracted hundreds of people interested in socialist politics. More than 150
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Life of Riley: Stiff bickies The Arnott's extortion attempt has hit the innocent hardest: the company, its employees and shareholders. The day the story broke, Arnott's shares fell 25 cents; after only three days 300 casual employees were stood
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Reversing capitalism As much as I applaud Alex Bainbridge's sentiment that "all that is needed is for humanity as a whole, rather than the wealthy profiteers, to control production", I am anxious to know how he intends to wrest that control? While
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ABC managing director Brian Johns has put himself in deep trouble with the Howard government by agreeing to the telecast of Gough Whitlam's inaugural "Whitlam Lecture" to the Trade Union Education Foundation on February 9 —
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Rock Against Racism BRISBANE — An impressive line-up of Brisbane bands swung their support behind a benefit to raise funds for the Anti-Racism Campaign on February 15. Around 300 people attended, with 100 more having to be turned away for lack of
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Every day we are bombarded with news of the "free" market achievements of the newly industrialised countries (NICs) — the "miracle" economies of South-East Asia. In the less industrialised countries, politicians who kowtow to the dictates of the
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Looking out: Lessons learnedI know a wonderful woman whose words of wisdom I want to share with you. Her name is Barbara Chapman-Woods. I regret that this column lacks space to present a greater number of her thoughts. My
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Human immune systems are fascinating. Large chunks of medical research are targeting non-reaction, over-reaction and inappropriate reaction. All this is also making clearer the hows and whys of vaccination procedures. At all
News
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MELBOURNE — JASON TORRANCE is a British anti-roads campaigner who now lives in Australia. Torrance will be speaking here on March 6 at "Global Insights", an evening of environmental news clips gathered from alternative media around the world, at
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Campaign to save the Block heats upSYDNEY — The campaign to save Redfern's Aboriginal community has heated up amidst repeated denials by the Aboriginal Housing Company of plans to redevelop Eveleigh
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ACF slams Borbidge over HinchinbrookBRISBANE — The Australian Conservation Foundation has slammed Premier Rob Borbidge over a letter he sent to federal Environment Minister Senator Robert Hill demanding an end to World Heritage
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Arnott's workers the 'innocent victims'Contrary to last week's claim by Arnott's Biscuits' managing director Chris Roberts that the company is the "innocent victim" in the current extortion attempt, the real innocent
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James Vassilopoulos "What you've got on the waterfront are people who are earning $100,000 a year ... it's a bit like the reverse Robin Hood, the rich stealing from the poor and keeping it for themselves", John Sharp, minister of transport, said on
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Student delegation returns from East TimorMELBOURNE On February 20, a delegation of six students from the University of Melbourne returned from a 10-day trip to build links between students in Australia and East Timor. Alex
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@columhead = Very clean "It is a very clean deal. There is no payment, no nothing." — Businessman and Suharto crony Mohamad Hasan, confirming that the Indonesian government has given him, free, an additional $1 billion share in the Busang gold
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MELBOURNE — At a mass meeting held at Williamstown Hall on February 14, more than 400 workers, members of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, the Electrical Trades Union and the Australian Manufacturing Workers
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'University of the year' to strikeSYDNEY — National Tertiary Education and Industry Union members at the University of NSW on February 19 voted not to begin teaching at the start of the 1997 academic year, but instead to strike
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Social Security penalises strikersOne of the federal government's budget changes restricts access to income support payments for people unemployed as a result of participation in industrial action. This provision, which came
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Protests against nuclear waste shipmentThe WA Greens have issued a protest against the secrecy and misinformation surrounding a highly dangerous shipment of nuclear waste travelling from France to Japan. "Any mishap would require
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20 years' jail for possession of a leafletBRISBANE — The Help End Marijuana Prohibition (HEMP) candidate in the Mundingburra by-election, Billy Tate, was charged on February 20 with possession of drug law reform literature.
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Socialists reject work for dole for Brisbane City Council Socialists reject work for dole for Brisbane City Council By Bill Mason BRISBANE — "We are standing against the two major parties on a platform of People Before Profits", Coral Wynter
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The axe falls on legal aidMELBOURNE — The Federation of Community Legal Centres (Victoria) on February 18 announced the release of a report titled "Justice for all", resulting from a survey conducted in November and December.
Analysis
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A question of priorities In New Zealand last week for talks on trade and "defence" links, PM John Howard took on the job of trying to persuade New Zealanders that it really is in their interests to spend millions more dollars on defence — and in
World
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Madrid arrests Basque leadersThe Spanish government has begun arresting leaders of the Basque Country's militant, legal nationalist party, Herri Batasuna. Six members of the organisation's executive were detained on February 18,
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The anti-Mobutu rebellion in eastern Zaire has spread south into the strategic Shaba province — source of much of Zaire's copper, cobalt, diamond and gold wealth — and west towards the central African country's third largest city,
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The February 12 defection to South Korea of Hwang Jang-yop, a member of the central committee of the ruling North Korean Workers' Party, is being treated by the western media as evidence that the regime in Pyongyang is near collapse.
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Deng Xiaoping has been acclaimed by politicians, business figures and other "respectable" commentators around the world as the "architect" of China's "modernisation" following the announcement of his death on February 20. They hailed
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Last year Scottish Militant Labour combined with other forces on the left to create a new, broader vehicle for socialism in Scotland — the Scottish Socialist Alliance. National secretary of the alliance ALLAN GREEN explains why socialists in
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Hackers modify Indonesian government home page On February 10, and again on February 15, a group of Portuguese hackers (Portuguese Hackers Against Indonesia) modified the home page of the Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry. The altered home page
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Iranian oil workers arrested On February 16, hundreds of oil workers and their elected representatives from petroleum refineries in Shiraz, Isfahan, Tabriz and Tehran, together with workers of the oil pipelines and the national gas company, were
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A number of major oil projects in the Timor Sea have recently been approved by the Howard government. On February 14, BHP Petroleum and partners (Petroz, Santos and Inpex Sahul Ltd.) received permission to develop the Elang-Kakatua oil
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5000 at risk from AIDS in PNG AIDS may kill more than 5000 people in Papua New Guinea by the year 2000, according to a report released in Port Moresby on February 14. The report, by the United Nations Fund for Children and the PNG government,
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Swaziland democracy strikers hold firmMass meetings of striking Swaziland workers in the vital sugar and forestry industries voted on February 16 to continue a general strike into its third week. The strikers, organised by the
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MOSCOW — During 1996, Russia's Ministry of Defence Industry reported in January, output in the country's defence factories fell by a further 27.1% to a mere 12.8% of its 1991 level. That's not so bad, you might say — every
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As the ADFL sweeps through eastern Zaire, opposition to Mobutu and the war, and sympathy for rebel leader Laurent Kabila, are being openly expressed on the streets of the capital, Kinshasa. A general strike on February 10, called by
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Amnesty International issued an urgent action demand last week on the case of Irish prisoner Roisin McAliskey. McAliskey, seven months pregnant and in bad health, is being held in a British prison awaiting extradition proceedings by
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In February 1994, Green Left Weekly's Johannesburg-based correspondent, Norm Dixon, attended a meeting to launch a branch of South Africa's fledging Environmental Justice Networking Forum (EJNF). The meeting was held at Vista University in Soweto
Culture
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Satire, to be worthy of its name, generalises, exaggerates and distorts. Because it relies on its immediate impact and addresses topical vices and abuses, satire can rely on persistence in its struggle against hypocrisy, pretence and
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Lenin and the Revolutionary PartyBy Paul Le BlancWith an introduction by Ernest MandelHumanities Press, 1990, 1993. 417 pp. $40 (pb) Review by Karl Miller This book is an excellent, detailed study of the Bolshevik party. Le Blanc examines the
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Review by Ben Courtice More than 20 films and shorts were screened during the four sessions of the Wild Spaces Film Festival in Hobart on February 15 and 16. The films varied in theme and style, covering environmental issues from Canada to Nigeria
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The WestAn eight-part documentarySBS TV, Sundays 7.30pm (7 in SA) beginning March 2. Review by Allen Myers If you watch the first episode of The West, I strongly recommend turning off the sound for the first 10 minutes. That way you can enjoy some
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details = The Captive Republic: A history of republicanism in Australia 1788-1996By Mark McKennaCambridge University Press, 1996334 pp., $29.95(pb), $90.00(hb) Review by Alex Bainbridge For many people, the republic debate is simply a bore — a
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Brunswick Music FestivalMELBOURNE — The eighth Brunswick Music Festival kicks off on February 28 with Festivals Australia Indigenous Sounds, a weekend dedicated to the indigenous music and culture of Australia. The event
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The People vs Larry FlyntDirected by Milos FormanScreenplay by Scott Alexander and Larry KaraszewskiNational release from February 20 Review by Jonathon Strauss A movie of a man crucified, figuratively, in the US, or an excuse for an orgy of soft
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Me Generation and the death of a nation There was a time when most knew want and therefore understood, That in this land across the sea, there was a chance for good. Knowing adversity, they saw their fellows in that light And so against
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Poem: Gold card people Gold card people Gold card people just live to buy Plastic people tag along for the ride Only real people earn free flybuys But working people just sweat and cry they serve the tables they pour the wine