Issue 274

News

Traditional owners oppose new uranium mine By Tyrion Perkins SYDNEY — Jacqui Katona, executive officer of the Gundjhemi Aboriginal Corporation, addressed a meeting of about 200 people in Glebe on April 29 about opposition by Mirrar
'Draw the line! Stop the Cuts!' By Graham Matthews BRISBANE — "What we're hoping out of the rally against the budget on May 13 is that it will be a start" of a fight back, Claire Moore, Queensland state secretary of the Community and
By Joe Casella SYDNEY — The national secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union, Wendy Caird, accompanied by the president of the ACTU, Jennie George, met Department of Defence delegates on May 6 at the Defence Plaza here. Union
Governments plan to victimise teachers By Sean Healy Under the guise of offering teachers and schools greater "freedom" and raising the status of teachers, the federal government has launched a campaign to push teachers onto
Queensland teachers to begin rolling strikes By Bill Mason BRISBANE — Queensland teachers are set to begin a major campaign of rolling 24-hour strikes from May 14 to May 22, to press home their demand for an increased pay offer and to
On the May 8 national day of action against education cuts and undergraduate fees staff and students staged large demonstrations across the country. Around Australia, demonstrators heard speakers from the National Union of Students (NUS), the
East Timorese writer visits Sydney By Janet Parker SYDNEY — Visiting East Timor activist and writer Naldo Rai and Sister Kath O'Connor from Christians in Solidarity with East Timor addressed a meeting of Action in Solidarity with
On May 9, more than 3000 anti-racist protesters prevented Pauline Hanson from launching her One Nation party in Hobart. In contrast to the large crowd of protesters, the launch attracted just over 300 supporters. Tony Iltis reports that more than
BRISBANE — Despite heavy rain, 3500 unionists turned out for the annual Labour Day march from the Trades Hall to Albert Park on May 5. Members of a wide variety of unions marched behind their union banners, with floats, placards and flags in
Anti-gay tirade in Queensland By Bill Mason BRISBANE — The mayor of outer suburban Pine Rivers shire, Yvonne Chapman, has given local residents permission for bigotry and hatred against homosexuals, according to Gay and Lesbian Welfare
Save our services! By Jeremy Smith BALLARAT— One hundred and fifty people braved the worst of Ballarat's weather to attend a public meeting on May 6. The meeting was organised by the Save Our Services committee to initiate a campaign to
By Alex Bainbridge and Jane Beckmann NEWCASTLE — Newcastle City Council and the steelworks unions organised a public meeting of 150 people in the Town Hall on May 8 to build community support for the campaign to save the BHP steelworks. Geoff
Curragh miners strike By Bill Mason BRISBANE — Production at Blackwater's Curragh coal mine in central Queensland stopped on May 9 when 300 workers voted unanimously to strike for two weeks. Workers at the Arco-owned operation set up
NSW budget hides private profit push By Jonathan Strauss SYDNEY — "Every inch a Labor budget", NSW treasurer Michael Egan declared on May 7, when he delivered the state government's budget in parliament. Egan was trying to imply that this
Conflict over Iron Gates development By Brett Jones The Iron Gates housing development, under construction near Evans Head, in northern NSW, is a cause of conflict between developer Iron Gates Pty Ltd and the local Bundjalung people. The

World

By Asger Strodl Unocal, a US oil company, in partnership with Delta Oil of Saudi Arabia, has signed a contract with the Taliban rulers of most of Afghanistan to construct a gas and oil pipeline. It will go from Turkmenistan, through western
By Peter Gellert MEXICO CITY — Mexican workers marked May Day with huge demonstrations in the country's capital. Workers have plenty to demonstrate about. At least 70 % of the population lives in poverty, the price of the basic foods and
Detroit labour march setDetroit labour march set By Barry Sheppard Newspaper workers now in the 22nd month of a strike have won important support in a call by top American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations
By Norm Dixon With the rebels of the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Zaire-Congo (ADFL) just a few days' march from the capital, Kinshasa, dictator Mobutu Sese Seko suddenly left Zaire on May 7 to attend a meeting of
By Norm Dixon Members of South African Municipal Workers' Union (SAMWU) on May 1 launched a nine-day nationwide campaign of protests against the privatisation of municipal services. The campaign includes daily demonstrations outside town halls
Global decline of mammals By Roar Bjonnes Siberian and Bengal tigers, and nearly one-fourth of the rest of the world's mammal species, are threatened with extinction. A recent study of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) suggests that
Women fight for a future By James Vassilopoulos @box text intro = LIVERPOOL — When dock workers on the east coast of the United States boycotted ships from Liverpool, Women of the Waterfront (WoW) went to the house of the director of the
By Boris Kagarlitsky and Renfrey Clarke MOSCOW — In formal terms, the Fourth Congress of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF), held here on April 19 and 20, was a triumph for party leader Gennady Zyuganov. The KPRF chief
In his state of the republic address last year, French President Jacques Chirac said: "The dissolution of the National Assembly is a constitutional weapon which the president cannot deploy for reasons of personal convenience". But On April 21, Chirac
By Peter Gellert MEXICO CITY — US President Bill Clinton's May 5-6 visit here was designed to improve much deteriorated bilateral relations. In the past year, Mexican outrage over the Helms-Burton law, US congressional certification of the
Turkish troops chase Kurdish rebels Turkish newspapers reported on May 1 that as many as 40,000 Turkish troops crossed 10 kilometres into northern Iraq in an effort to attack guerillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party. Turkey regularly stages
By Eva Cheng An estimated 50,000 to 100,000 angry protesters took to the streets in Taipei on May 4 calling on Prime Minister Lien Chan to resign and President Lee Teng-hui to apologise for the failure to check an increase of violent crime.
By James Vassilopoulos LIVERPOOL — The Liverpool dockers, in the 20th month of their dispute with the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company (MDHC), are determined to fight on. Despite the obstacles and hardships — 90 dockers have had their houses
Stolen timber recovered Timber stolen from the Nuxalk nation (an indigenous people from the north-west coast of Canada) was recovered from a UK timber yard on April 9. The timber has been handed to police, who have been asked to prosecute the
Taliban's rule @box text intro = A woman has been stoned to death by a Taliban court, after being found guilty of being outside in the company of a man who was not her husband or a relative. The man she was with was shot dead when he tried to
By Peter Montague The corporate decision in 1923 to add toxic lead to gasoline changed the chemistry of Earth, particularly the northern hemisphere. According to the US National Research Council (NRC), in 1983 industrial emissions of lead into
Overseas Chinese 'defend' islands By Eva Cheng A handful of right-wingers led by Japanese legislator Shingo Nishimura made a provocative landing on May 6 on an islet of Diaoyu Islands (or what the Japanese called Senkaku Islands), the
By Norm Dixon Police on May 5 and 6 raided the offices and homes of activists and organisations involved in the Port Moresby demonstrations in March against the Chan government's deployment of mercenaries on Bougainville. Three leading activists

Culture

Slovo: The Unfinished AutobiographyBy Joe Slovo. Foreword by Nelson MandelaMelbourne: Ocean Press, 1997. 296 pp., $29.95 Review by Norm Dixon The subtitle of this book is an understatement. As autobiography, it is little more than a collection
Ludic Feminism and After: Postmodernism, Desire, and Labor in Late CapitalismBy Teresa EbertUniversity of Michigan Press, 1996. 338 pp., $25.95 Review by Greg Ogle For those, like me, who had to consult a dictionary to find out what ludic means,
Get Up, Stand Up: A History of ReggaeSBSMonday, May 19, 8.30pm (8pm in SA) Review by Norm Dixon Reggae is the world's favourite Caribbean music. It is Jamaica's most famous export. Between 1970 and the early 1980s, it ranked as one of the
Death of a SalesmanBy Arthur MillerDirected by Sandra BatesEnsemble TheatrePlayhouse, Sydney Opera House Review by Brendan Doyle First staged in 1949 but still powerfully relevant, Miller's best-known play Death of a Salesman is as searing and
The CastleCity and suburban cinemas Review by Brendan Doyle A bloke's home is his castle, right? Wrong. That's the big illusion of tow truck driver Darryl Kerrigan, who built his own emoh ruo next to the airport because land was cheap. When

Editorial

Editorial: A racist attack on native title A racist attack on native title In his much-featured and analysed criticism of the blatantly racist lies being spread by Pauline Hanson on May 8, PM John Howard said that Hanson was "wrong" to