By Alison Delit
NEWCASTLE — Workers at Rio Tinto's Mt Thorley mine went on strike on January 21 in response to a proposed new enterprise bargaining agreement which breaks award conditions. The main change in the proposed agreement is a move from
Issue 303
News
By Rebecca Meckleberg
A judgment handed down by the full bench of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) on December 23 strips conditions from the hospitality industry award. The decision cuts a swathe through the hospitality award.
By Alex Bainbridge and Jon Lamb
HOBART — Demonstrators demanding "No Uranium mining" greeted delegates attending the ALP national conference here on January 20. The action was called when activists learned the ALP was to debate a policy calling
By Mark Cronin
BRISBANE — A trial date of May 12 has been set by the Brisbane Magistrates Court for 17 activists arrested at Canungra Land Warfare Centre on December 7, the 22nd anniversary of the invasion of East Timor by Indonesia. All 17
NTEU members save unionist's job
By Tim Gooden
CANBERRA — The president of the Australian National University branch of the National Tertiary Education and Industry Union, Dr Doug Kelly, has had his forced redundancy withdrawn after NTEU
Commission fails to protect tuna
By Lisa Macdonald
The future of the critically endangered southern bluefin tuna is now even bleaker after the international body charged with its protection failed yet again to take action to save it. The
By Bill Mason
BRISBANE — The Queensland branch of the Transport Workers Union is challenging a court threat to two union delegates who have been charged under the federal Workplace Relations Act of alleged breaches of "freedom of association".
By Rupen Savoulian
SYDNEY — The Labor Party's national conference in Hobart has approved plans to build an airport at Badgerys Creek in Sydney's western suburbs. No debate or discussion on the proposed airport preceded the conference decision.
By Russell Pickering
CANBERRA — As the February 21 ACT election approaches, there is a real possibility that another minority government will be elected. A recent independent poll has found that minor parties and independents will do well, and
WOLLONGONG — As a result of a three-year campaign by Warrawong residents, the NSW state government has made funds available to reopen the Warrawong Community Centre (WCC) and employ full-time staff. The centre will celebrate its reopening by
World
By Reihana Mohideen
MANILA — Around 300 delegates representing some 10,900 members launched Akbayan (Citizen's Action Party) on January 17. The Philippines left is gearing up for national elections in May. Well-known Filipino Marxist academic and
Paramilitarism and popular resistance in Colombia
By Peter Sullivan
On November 21, a paramilitary group assassinated 15 campesinos in the municipality of Viota in the province of Cundinamarca in Colombia. The people of Viota were considered
By Bill Mason
BRISBANE — At its 5th national convention in San Salvador last December, El Salvador's revolutionary opposition party, the FMLN, launched a "political offensive to win the hearts and minds of the people". According to Ricardo
Reign of terror in Ogoniland
By Norm Dixon
The Nigerian military dictatorship has dramatically escalated its brutality in Ogoniland in the west African country's Niger River delta. The region remains under military occupation. The crackdown
Stakes high in Mexico City
By Peter Gellert
MEXICO CITY — The stakes and expectations are high for the Mexico City administration of mayor Cuauhtemoc Cardenas and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), which was elected on July 6 and
By Norm Dixon
Zimbabwe's government has been painted into a corner by the growing dissatisfaction of the country's urban poor and the working class on the one hand, and the demands of big business and western financial institutions on the other.
By Wendy Patterson
Chiapas once again burst on to the front pages of the world's newspapers with news of a massacre in the small town of Acteal on December 22. Local members of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) gunned down 45
Labor succumbs to mining industry pressure
By Sam Wainwright
BRISBANE — Reporting on the ALP national conference held in Hobart last week, the January 22 Courier-Mail noted that Labor had "signalled it was ready to soften part of its
By Feizal Samath
KANDY, Sri Lanka — Devi and Ramani left their one- roomed homes in the tea estates at a very young age to work as maids in Colombo. They returned in coffins. They worked for many years with two families. Both were routinely
By James Balowski
On January 18, a bomb exploded in an apartment in the central Jakarta slum district of Tanah Tinggi. Indonesian police say they found documents belonging to the banned People's Democratic Party (PRD), and a top military official
By Dave Riley
With six Catholics shot dead after six weeks of a loyalist killing spree, the prospects for a peace settlement in Northern Ireland seem bleaker now than at any time since the current talks began in October. The latest victims were
Culture
Stoking the Flame
The Light on the Hillmay flicker and dim,at times — the bad times,it may fail to illuminatethe road ahead.
It is then that we mustcup our hands around it,protect and nurture it,feed its sacred flame,revive its scarlet heart.
details = Prison Songs Volume 2: Don'tcha Hear Poor Mother Calling?Various artistsRounder Records (through Festival)
Review by James Smith
John Lomax and his son Alan might best be remembered for travelling across America and discovering Huddie
Transcending barriers
The Joy of Being Alive (Live)By Trude AspelingJOBAOrder from PO Box 568, Leichhardt NSW 2040 Review by John Gauci
Trude Aspeling was the first Australian vocalist to perform at London's premier Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club,
Byron: The Flawed AngelBy Phyllis GrosskurthSceptre, 1997510 pp., $19.95 (pb) Review by Phil Shannon
Lord Byron provoked strong passions. Attacked in his day by Tory journals as the "poet of seduction, adultery and incest: the contemner of
details = SleepFive Stories HighBackspace Theatre (as part of Hobart Fringe Festival) — January 29-30, $10/8 concession
Review by Jane Marni
Hobart's women's circus, Five Stories High, presents feminist performance art. It is based on a
Pacific UnionBy Alex BuzoDirected by Aarne NeemeNew Theatre, Newtown, SydneyUntil 7 February Review by Brendan Doyle
Pacific Union tells part of the story of Australia's involvement in the first conference of the United Nations, held in San
Porsche belt humour
SeinfeldChannel 107pm week nights Review by Al McCall
After stitching up a deal for another season the cast of Seinfeld must have been pretty peeved when Jerry pulled the rug from under them. As one of the cast may have
THROUGH AND THROUGH
THROUGH AND THROUGHa Christian?No, but I know many very wella Muslim?No, but with them too I dwella Buddhist?No, but their truths live and tella Jew?No, but into them as well I meldFOR ALL OF THOSEyou see, are integral parts of
Making humble work come to life
Humble Work and Mad Wanderings: Street Life in the Machine AgeBy Ken AppolloNevada City, California: Carl Mautz Publishing, 1997. 108 pp, 61 duotone images$34.95 plus $3.50 shipping from 228 Commercial Street,
Editorial
Editorial: New bottles, old poison
New bottles, old poison
NSW ALP "left" Anthony Albanese had predicted "intense debate and a few old-style Labor stoushes" at the 41st ALP national conference in Hobart. Nothing could be further from the truth.