Health workers' dispute in negotiation
By Gabrielle Wheeler
MELBOURNE — The dispute between health workers in Victoria's public hospitals, and their employers and the Victorian government, has entered a 14-day "cooling-off" period, following a
Issue 296
News
Victorian teachers to stop work
By Mary Merkenich
MELBOURNE — Victorian state school teachers will stop work on November 12 as part of a campaign for a certified agreement with the government. The Australian Education Union (AEU) is seeking
Rio Tinto provokes another strike
By Stephen O'Brien
NEWCASTLE — It was only a matter of time before Rio Tinto extended its offensive against Hunter Valley coalminers. The company has now provoked a strike by its 400 workers at the Mount
This and next weekend, thousands of people in Australia will show their solidarity with the people of East Timor by marching to commemorate the anniversary of the Dili massacre.
The events of November 12, 1991 were far from the only atrocities
By Kerryn Williams
CANBERRA — Students were able to defeat a motion by a failed candidate to overturn the results of the recent elections to the University of Canberra students' association. The university annual general meeting, held on October
By Sue Bolton
MELBOURNE — On October 24, 12 Tamil asylum-seekers at the Maribyrnong Detention Centre ended a hunger strike which was an attempt to force the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Phillip Ruddock, to look into their
Picket supports Brandon Astor Jones
SYDNEY — "Justice for Brandon Astor Jones" was the demand of an October 30 picket outside the US consulate in Martin Place. Jones is a prisoner on death row in Georgia and a regular Green Left Weekly columnist.
HIV/AIDS access and equity report
SYDNEY â On October 31, NSW community services minister Ron Dyer was condemned for failing to show up at the launch of a report into access to the government's Home And Community Care services for people living
By Sarah Peart
In response to the decision of the Howard government to reject binding targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the socialist youth organisation Resistance has launched a petition which condemns the government's approach and
Women reclaim the night
On October 30 and 31, thousands of women and male supporters marched in the annual Reclaim the Night events Australia-wide to protest violence against women. WA Greens Senator Dee Margetts submitted a Senate motion
Building maintenance work completed
After many weeks of painting and repair work, the maintenance work on the home of Green Left Weekly has finally been completed. The brickwork and mortar have been repaired, sealed and painted. This, along with
Freedom Rage for Indonesian political prisoners
By Arun Pradhan
PERTH — A benefit gig on November 7 will launch a range of activities here in support of democracy in Indonesia and independence for East Timor. The Freedom Rage, to be held at the
The death of a 19-year-old Aboriginal man on October 27 at Cessnock while on home detention brings the number of deaths in custody in NSW this year to eight. Daniel Crossley died when he hung himself. A death in home detention falls well within the
Workers Health Centre celebrates
SYDNEY — More than 200 people celebrated 21 years of activism at the Workers Health Centre's Birthday Dinner Dance on October 24. The centre was founded in 1976 by a group of doctors and left-wing trade unionists
By Bronwen Beechey and Ben Courtice
MELBOURNE — The campaign against the Victorian government's amendments to the WorkCover scheme has moved into higher gear following a stop-work and rally of 60,000 people on October 29 and a 24-hour stoppage by
Resistance holds Rage Against Racism
By Wendy Robertson and Cassandra Pomroy
SYDNEY — Around 500 young people from across Sydney attended the Resistance "Rage Against Racism" held in Parramatta Park on October 25. Resistance organised the event
By James Vassilopoulos
"The Hunter Valley miners are fighting for secure, permanent jobs, for the maintenance of long service leave and recreation leave — the same conditions that many working people are fighting for. They deserve our full
By James Vassilopoulos
According to Mick Kelly, vice-president of the northern districts of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, there was a "very strong likelihood" that the Australian Industrial Relations Commission would
By Tim Gooden
The National Executive of the Community and Public Sector Union met over two days last week, in the midst of the Howard government offensive against the Australian Public Service. The attacks range from attempts to deunionise
Democratic Socialists launch ACT election campaign
By Paul Oboohov
CANBERRA — The Democratic Socialist campaign for the ACT elections in February was launched on October 24. The audience of 40 also celebrated the official registration of the
World
East Timorese youth face death penalty
By Jon Land
Indonesian authorities have announced that they will charge two East Timorese youths with subversion. Police arrested Constancio Costa dos Santos and Paulo Jorge Pereira in a ferry on Dili
By Lisa Macdonald
In response to US State Department criticism of his visit to Libya on October 23, South African President Nelson Mandela has accused the US administration of racism and condemned its "arrogance to dictate" where South African
US to step up Colombia intervention
On October 20, some 100 rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) ambushed a group of high-ranking anti-drug police. The attack took place just a day before anti-narcotics police commander
By Sue Bull
New Zealand health authorities have neatly turned the euthanasia debate on its head in a particularly brutal and racist case of health system rationing. They have been prepared to impose what the government's deputy leader, Tau Henare,
By Boris Kagarlitsky
On the topic of the Russian Revolution, it might appear that everything worth saying has already been said. Throughout the Soviet decades, leftists repeatedly cited Trotsky and his biographer Isaac Deutscher on the bureaucratic
By Norm Dixon
Peter Mokaba — a former president of the African National Congress Youth League, a member of the ANC national executive and presently deputy tourism minister in the South African government — has issued a thinly veiled call for
By Max Lane
Manoeuvres by different sections of the ruling class and the legal opposition parties have begun in preparation for the March session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR). The MPR will elect the president and vice-president and
By Norm Dixon
Zimbabwe's impoverished farm workers have won a hefty wage increase as a result of their first organised national strike against the country's 4000 wealthy, predominantly white, commercial farmers. Farm workers, who walked out at the
Culture
Heaven's BurningDirected by Craig LahiffScreenplay by Louis NowraREP Film Distributors Opens nationally November 6
Review by Marina Carman
Humour, excitement, romance and violence — all the essential elements are there in this action-packed
ARCO
[This poem was written by one of the sacked miners from the Gordonstone coal mine in Queensland. It was read to an October 17 rally of miners and their families in Emerald.]
So you're sacking all the workers, that's such a bitter pill.You're
University life in the '90s
UniA four-part documentary by Simon TargetFirst episode screens on The Big Picture, ABC, November 6 Review by Marina Carman
In this new documentary about student life in the 1990s, Simon Target and crew follow three
A short story by Craig Cormick
Oh shit! It can't be. Robert-Bloody-Menzies! He looks just like Robert-Bloody-Menzies. Right down to the eyebrows and turned up collar. I stare real hard, but try not to look like I'm staring. You know what it's like
Huge cutbacks in funding for documentaries under the Howard government have left the independent film industry on its knees, according to film maker David Bradbury. Bradbury claims that last year's federal government budget cuts, which he described
Burke's BackyardChannel 9Fridays, 7.30pm Reviewed by Al McCall
Since Australia missed out on feudalism, any new chum arriving in the antipodes was surely keen on a piece of land to call their own. Aside from the fact that the previous owners
Pretty Village Pretty FlameDirected by Srdjan DragojevicSharmill FilmsOpening at Dendy Theatres in November Review by Jon Land
This is a gripping film which highlights the senselessness of war. While it does not seek to explain the politics of the
'Marcos is gay'
Some time ago, in an attempt to discredit one of the Zapatista leaders in southern Mexico, Sub-comandante Marcos, government officials there tried to put forth the idea that Marcos was gay. In a region where machismo still runs