Residents oppose nuclear waste dump
By Tony Iltis
HOBART — Residents of the suburb of New Town have reacted angrily to a state government proposal to store a cubic metre of radioactive waste under St Johns Park, adjacent to a child-care
Issue 298
News
More Olympic site contamination
By Trish Corcoran
SYDNEY — The November 5 Sydney Morning Herald described another discovery of toxic waste at the Homebush Bay Olympics site, this time on the site of the former Lidcombe Hospital, which is
Perth to celebrate 300 issues of GLW
PERTH — Plans are under way to welcome the 300th issue of Green Left Weekly with an all day fiesta on November 29, including a banquet and live music. Mark Abberton, an organiser of the fiesta, said it
Death in custody in private prison
MELBOURNE — George Drinken, a 28-year-old remand prisoner, was found hanged in his cell at Port Philip Prison in the early evening of October 30. The Port Phillip Prison, a 600-cell maximum security and
By Tony Iltis
HOBART — On November 14, as tenders closed for the privatisation of the vehicular ferry that provides the only link between Bruny Island and mainland Tasmania, a strike and picket by ferry workers ended its seventh day. Nine
Feminists discuss how to fight back
By Zanny Begg
BRISBANE — Thirty women attended a meeting of the International Women's Day Collective on November 10 to hear several speakers and to formulate demands for the 1998 IWD rally. Shannon
By Lachlan Malloch
SYDNEY — Left-wing student activists narrowly lost the Macquarie University Students' Council (MUSC) elections held on October 27-29. Ten votes and one councillor were all that separated the left and right factions after
'Who wants to live near a nuclear dump?'
By Andy Gianniotis
SYDNEY — More than 150 people crammed into the Sutherland Shire council chambers on November 10 for a special meeting of the shire's environment and health committee. The meeting
CPSU members rally to defend conditions
By Paul Oboohov
CANBERRA — A majority of Community and Public Sector Union members in the ACT last week voted for lunchtime rallies on November 28 to oppose the Howard government's attacks on public
Dili massacre commemorated around Australia
The sixth anniversary of the Indonesian military's massacre of mourners at Dili's Santa Cruz cemetery on November 12, 1991, was commemorated in many parts of the country. From Brisbane, report Roberto
Protesters condemn Shell
During Sydney-wide protests against the Shell oil company on November 10, environmentalists in the Lane Cove River Valley joined Friends of the Earth to picket the Shell service station on Epping Road, in John Howard's
Protests against forest agreement
By Tony Iltis
HOBART — The signing of the Tasmanian Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) on November 8 provoked a week of angry protests by environmentalists. The RFA gives $70 million to the logging industry;
Women and Labour Conference
By Lisa Macdonald
Women from around Australia will gather at Deakin University in Geelong November 28-30 for the sixth national Women and Labour Conference. These conferences were an important part of the women's
Cancer inquiry presents findings
By Alex Bainbridge
NEWCASTLE — Fifty people attended a public meeting here on November 8 called to discuss cancer and industrial pollution. Findings were presented from the Workers' Inquiry into Wollongong
Politics the easiest way
Do you want to keep receiving Green Left Weekly for your alternative world view, but have no time to resubscribe?
Are you disturbed by the fact that you can't find your renewal slip even though one has been sent out
'Certainty' still there for the big landholders
By Chris Spindler
Confidence in the value and profitability of land clearly remains strong in the eyes of big property holders, despite claims from the National Farmers Federation and the
WA TLC attempts to close 'workers' embassy'
By Michael Bramwell and Mary Nielson
PERTH — November 5 was Guy Fawkes Day, named after the man who was executed in 1606 for attempting to detonate a bomb under the British parliament. A ball on
Campaign for the right to sell Green Left Weekly
By Keara Courtney
SYDNEY — After weeks of harassment of Green Left Weekly sellers by security guards in Town Hall tunnel, three sellers at the regular Friday Resistance stall at the corner
By Marina Carman
Recognising the unpopularity of further moves towards "user pays", the government has ruled out two major proposals contained in the discussion paper of the review of higher education being conducted by Roderick West. The paper
By Bronwen Beechey
MELBOURNE — Around 40,000 workers gathered on November 12 for the second Victorian Trades Hall Council-organised rally against the state government's proposed changes to the WorkCover scheme. The crowd marched to Parliament
Debate on post-Kernot politics
BRISBANE — Thirty people gathered at the Resistance Centre on October 29 to hear a discussion about how to build a progressive alternative to the two-party system in the wake of Cheryl Kernot's defection to the
By Nikki Ulasowski
CANBERRA — On November 14, 65 people attended a meeting to discuss native title organised by the YWCA. The meeting was addressed by Camilla Cowley and Sean Brennan. Cowley is a Queensland pastoralist who has a native title
By James Vassilopoulos
Twelve-hour shifts are increasingly being put into new enterprise agreements. Also increasingly common are cuts to penalty rates and the averaging of working hours over a month instead of a week. The five-day, 40-hour
World
Sri Lankan government sterilises Tamils
A program to systematically and radically reduce the Tamil population in Sri Lanka's plantation sector is secretly but effectively being carried out with state assistance and misdirected foreign aid. The
Crackdown in Nigeria
Nigerian security launched a campaign of intimidation and harassment to block protests marking the second anniversary of the execution of Ogoni leader Ken Saro-Wiwa. Troops were deployed throughout Saro-Wiwa's home region,
Ken Saro-Wiwa remembered
By Dr Willie Nwido
Two years ago, on November 10, we were treated to the terrifying shock of the judicial murder of our beloved leader and compatriot Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others. This murder prompted widespread
Widespread oppression of women workers in Indonesia
By Becky Ellis
The rapid development of export industries in Indonesia since the 1970s has significantly increased women's participation in the industrial work force. Indonesian women are
By Linda Kaucher
President Suharto is refusing to declare West Papua a disaster area despite calls from within his own government to do so. More than 400 people have died from the drought, mainly in the Jayawijaya highlands district, adjacent to
UN resolution backs end to US blockade of Cuba
By Deepa Fernandes
HAVANA — For the sixth time in six years, the United Nations General Assembly on November 5 overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling for the end to Washington's more than
ANC Youth League bids for private prisons
By Norm Dixon
The African National Congress Youth League has put a new spin on the slogan "From the politics of liberation to the politics of reconstruction". According to the November 8
On November 11, the International Action Centre called for demonstrations in San Francisco, New York and other cities should the Pentagon launch a military attack on Iraq. The IAC has just sent a delegation to Iraq, led by former Attorney General
By Adam Hanieh
RAMALLAH — In recent years, the Islamic movement in Palestine, represented by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, has become the most prominent target of the Israeli government and imperialist leaders worldwide. Responsibility for suicide
Eighty years later, Russians want socialism
By Renfrey Clarke
MOSCOW — Eighty years ago, on November 7, Petrograd workers and soldiers under the leadership of the Bolshevik Party swept into oblivion a government whose continued
By Renfrey Clarke
MOSCOW — Unpaid in many cases for months, large numbers of Russian workers are spoiling for a fight. After record-setting levels of labour struggles during the first half of 1997, there has been a renewed rise in the autumn.
By Jon Land
More than 1000 East Timorese students staged a peaceful demonstration in Dili on November 12 to commemorate the sixth anniversary of the Santa Cruz massacre. The protest was held at the University of East Timor, amidst a heavy
Palestinian hunger striker protests detention
By Adam Hanieh
RAMALLAH — Palestinian prisoner, Itaf Alayan, has entered the third week of a hunger strike in the Israeli prison, Neve Tirza. Her hunger strike entered a critical stage last
Culture
SYDNEY — The Wild Spaces Environmental Film Festival will be held in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains from November 25-29. Wild Spaces seeks to inform people on crucial environmental issues and offers a platform for discussion about issues that are
Pop fodder
Forest For the TreesCarl StephensonUniversal Music Review by James Smith
This 12-track album is produced, recorded, engineered, arranged and mixed by hip-hop guru Carl Stephenson. Stephenson's credentials are immaculate. One of
MimicDirected by Guillermo Del TorroREP Film DistributionNational release on November 27 Review by Jon Land
As summer creeps up on us, we venture to the beach and the "great outdoors" to worship the sun and grill bits of dead cow and onion on
The Mask of Motherhood: How Mothering Changes Everything and Why We Pretend it Doesn'tBy Susan MaushartRandom House345 pp., $17.95 Review by Pip Hinman
At last! A book on mothering which isn't a how-to, but a how-is. Susan Maushart's The Mask of
Social Security
I work the phones and everydayhear how the country is going to the dogs,but bastards like me wouldn't know about that,would I?"It's disgusting, it's a disgrace,I want action, I want the ministeronto my case.What do you people
By Tracy Sorensen
SYDNEY — How can a psychotic hit man redeem himself? Knocking off Pauline Hanson might be a good start. Lone Gunman Theory is a fast, reckless, feature-length no-budget video which follows the exploits of a lone nihilist with
Smooth melodies
And So It Goes ... CD by Steve TilstonDistributed by Flying Fish through Festival Review by Alex Bainbridge
Steve Tilston is a British folk singer who recently toured parts of Australia. His latest CD, And So It Goes ..., is
Construction in Progress comes to Melbourne
Melbourne will host Construction in Progress VI — The Bridge next March. The project, initiated by the International Artists' Museum, is an event of international significance in which some 90
ADELAIDE — CATHERINE CARTER, director of Theatre Praxis's latest production of British playwright Howard Brenton's Bloody Poetry, spoke to Green Left Weekly's NATALIE WOODLOCK about the play. "Bloody Poetry explores the lives and political ideas of
Men & sexual politics: Towards a profeminist practiceBy Bob PeaseDulwich Centre Publications, 1997. 178 pp., $32 Review by Barry Healy
I approached this book with a little trepidation. My fear was that it might be some sort of wanky, New Age
TranslationsBy Brian FrielNew Theatre, Sydney, until 20 December Review by Brendan Doyle
Set in 1833 in the Irish-speaking rural community of Baile Beag in County Donegal, this fine play tells the story of what happens when a foreign power (the
I Take Solace in History
I take solace in history.I could have been a galley salve,sold on the auction block,spiked by the Maidenhung, drawn and quartered,damned in the convict dock;gassed by Nazis, disembowelled by Huns,put to the stake by the
Editorial
Editorial: Back from the dead
Back from the dead
Rather like something unspeakable in a Hollywood horror movie, the goods and services tax has once again risen from the dead. Speaking on the Channel 9 Sunday program on November 9, Prime