The Howard government's attack on the MUA threatens trade union and democratic rights. A petition, launched by Green Left Weekly and the Democratic Socialist Party, calling on the ACTU to initiate a national day of action in support of the union has
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Telstra privatisation: a giant give-awayThe Howard government's plan to privatise the publicly owned two-thirds of Telstra was presented by the prime minister as intended to make Australia "the greatest share-owning democracy in
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LONDON — On the day that I am writing, this I attempted to give evidence as to the value of someone's life. A defence attorney flew in to the UK to obtain testimony that might mitigate his punishment. My words were controlled and
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SYDNEY — Five hundred people packed the Harold Park Hotel in Glebe to hear Labor leader Kim Beazley on March 13. Beazley acknowledged that Politics in the Pub was a "radical" forum and an "important sounding board". He urged
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SYDNEY — The Daily Telegraph runs headlines about "Sydney's streets of fear", with half-page photos of 25 cm knives; Today Tonight runs a two-part "exposé" on a western suburbs youth "gang"; the police union clamours for the
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Howard's plan to trash environmental lawsThe federal Coalition government is proposing to "simplify" environment laws. The plan signals the biggest winding back of environment legislation since the commonwealth first passed
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Revenge on a coconut By Brandon Astor Jones "I have had a 'call' to literature, of a low order — i.e. humorous. It is nothing to be proud of, but it is my strongest suit ... seriously scribbling to excite the laughter of God's creatures."
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The political isolation of the military regime of President Suharto increases apace. Over the last 10 days, thousands of students have demonstrated on major university campuses in Surabaya, Solo, Bandung and Jakarta in Java; in Padang
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Adelaide women debate way forwardADELAIDE — On International Women's Day, more than 800 women vibrantly demanded native title and justice. The platform of the rally included a range of women speaking on the way forward
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Labor's newest starADELAIDE — "Come and hear Labor's newest star" said the posters to advertise Cheryl Kernot's March 10 visit to Flinders University, and come they did — around 500 people turned out to hear what Kernot had to
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Solidarity with arrested activistsOn the night of March 13, Suharto's military agents captured three People's Democratic Party (PRD) leaders in a raid on a tenement flat in Jakarta. They were Mugianto, from the PRD's International
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Life of Riley: St Patrick and the shamrock Would that be St Patrick? 'Tis. The patron saint of dear old Ireland. 'Tis indeed. What manner of reason brings you to these antipodean shores? The Irish. Ah, yes — the Irish. And I was
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As Energy Resources Australia (ERA) prepares to mine uranium at Jabiluka in the World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park, violating Aboriginal land rights, producing waste that remains radioactive for 250,000 years and fuelling
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We seem to be approaching that time in politics when any and every fantasy, half-truth and "core promise" will be peddled by politicians in order to win our support at the polls. Labor and Liberal will use every trick they know to try to prove how
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Feminist forum attracts large turnoutIs TV series star Zena a model for liberation? How can women change society? Who should take financial responsibility for raising children? These were some of the questions raised at a forum
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"Native title is going to be Australia's single defining issue", Aboriginal writer, activist and film-maker SAM WATSON told a February 7 Brisbane meeting. "It will be the crucible in which this nation is forged, or the holocaust in which Australia
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Kindly accept my congratulations on such an excellent and long awaited source of true Labor information. I was surprised to note that the copy of Green Left Weekly which I purchased as I entered the public protest against the Multilateral Agreement
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Another death in Port Phillip prison MELBOURNE — A 34-year-old man was found dead, hanging in a cell at the Port Phillip private prison on March 19. This is the sixth death at the prison since it began operating six months ago. This death
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... and ain't i a woman?: Cover-up The huge headlines, reams of articles and hours of TV commentary devoted to the accumulating accusations of sexual harassment against US President Bill Clinton are becoming boring. This is unfortunate
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Howard unveils 'zero tolerance' drug strategyJohn Howard has unveiled his latest "anti-drug" strategy, which includes a new funding package of $102 million and a hand-picked Australian National Council on Drugs. The extra funding
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WA Parliament debates abortion lawsThe public galleries of both houses of the WA parliament were packed during the opening of debate on abortion law reform on March 18. Pro-choice advocate Hazel Hawke and Right
News
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MELBOURNE — In a move designed to provoke industrial action, management at Monash University cancelled all negotiations over enterprise bargaining at the end of February. National Tertiary, Education and Industry Union (NTEU)
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Abortion campaigning in HobartHOBART — The prosecution of WA doctors for performing an abortion has once again brought into public view the anti-abortion laws across Australia. Hobart pro-choice activists are organising two
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Tasmania's minority Liberal government is continuing to receive stunning blows as a result of its attempt to "reform" local government in Tasmania. In a series of Australian Electoral Commission-run polls organised by seven
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Support for Jabiluka action widens By Wendy Robertsonand Kirstie Brien SYDNEY — The Jabiluka Action Group here has continued to grow and win support for its campaign. The April 5 national day of action has attracted an impressive range of
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MELBOURNE — Fifty people attended a "Feminism and Socialism" seminar at the Resistance Centre on March 14. Organised by Resistance and the Democratic Socialist Party (DSP), the seminar included feature talks, workshops and campaign
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Loose cannons And private hands "Monopolies are acceptable if they are in the public interest." — Suharto crony "Bob" Hasan, head of the plywood cartel. Chile's Howard "Chile's General Augusto Pinochet ... kicked off the first mass
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BRISBANE — Power workers at Queensland's four major electricity stations have threatened to sue Liberal deputy premier Joan Sheldon over remarks she made blaming possible union "sabotage" for the power breakdowns which caused
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The real unemployment rate in Australia is probably more than double the official rate of 8.1%, according to figures from an Australian Bureau of Statistics study announced on March 9. The survey "Persons Not in the Labour Force",
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Sea of Hands A Sea of Hands, organised by Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation, was held at Sydney's Bondi Beach on March 20-21 before moving on to Wollongong. Photo by Carla Gorton.
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SYDNEY — An estimated 8-10,000 people braved inclement weather to attend a rally against the proposed second Sydney airport at Badgerys Creek on March 15. An alliance of western Sydney local councils organised the rally at
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SYDNEY — The National Aboriginal History and Heritage Council (NAHHC) has taken the next step in its campaign to establish an Aboriginal history and cultural museum on the Elizabeth Street site of the Australian Hall. The
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MELBOURNE — Attempts by the right-dominated leadership of the Victorian ALP resulted in to foist a "star" candidate — former ABC broadcaster Mary Delahunty — onto the suburban state seat of Northcote has produced objections from
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SYDNEY — The crippling role of the federal Workplace Relations Act has again been underlined after industrial relations minister Peter Reith admitted he advised Patrick boss Chris Corrigan not to pay Port Botany wharfies because
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CANBERRA — Few here were surprised to see Liberal leader Kate Carnell re-elected as chief minister in the ACT. Her massive personal vote, the ALP's abysmal performance and "independent" Michael Moore's obsequious devotion assured her
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Criminal justice activists conferenceThe 2nd annual conference of community justice activists — Law and Order: Whose agenda is it anyway? — will be held in Brisbane, March 26-28. The conference will bring together activists
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CANBERRA— Following the charging of two Perth doctors and calls by feminists for the repeal of all abortion laws, ACT Pro-Choice has been formed in Canberra. The group hopes to build on the work of former
Analysis
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Editorial: What conflict of interest? What conflict of interest? Rejecting Labor claims that his minister for resources and energy, Senator Warwick Parer's, ownership of $2 million worth of shares in a coal mine amounts to a conflict of interest,
World
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South Africa's finance minister, Trevor Manuel, on March 11 delivered the African National Congress government's fifth budget. The speech was met with applause from big business and raspberries from the trade union movement. With the
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At Chinese Communist Party congress in September — the first formal occasion since Deng Xiaoping's death on which China's state, military and CP chief Jiang Zemin could show the world that he was really in charge — Jiang announced
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Dock workers under attackThe Liverpool dockers' heroic 28-month struggle in England was especially noteworthy for the international solidarity campaign that resulted in actions and work stoppages by fellow dockers in more
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The following is a detailed account of the actions on March 19 and 20 in Lampung, South Sumatra, given to Green Left Weekly by some of the activists involved. One hundred and twenty students were injured, eight with broken bones; 121 were arrested;
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United States journalist and East Timor solidarity activist Allan Nairn was deported from Jakarta on March 18. Indonesian authorities threatened Nairn that if he entered Indonesia again he would be jailed for up to six years. Police
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The slaughter unleashed by Slobodan Milosevic's Serbian regime in the occupied region of Kosovo, killing 80 innocent villagers in the region of Drenica, has provoked western condemnation. However, this has little to do with
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IWD in GuatemalaGUATEMALA CITY — On March 8, a lively gathering of some 3000 women and men marched through the streets of Guatemala City to celebrate International Women's Day. People from the indigenous Mayan community,
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The collapse of Stalinism in the late 1980s and early '90s has resulted in a widespread rethinking of the notion of revolutionary politics and in particular the concept of state power. This discussion has resulted in numerous
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By Siddartha NEW DELHI — The threat of communalism looms large over India as the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance is set to form the central government. After two weeks of post-poll machinations, the BJP has managed to gather just enough
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Indonesia solidarity dinnerBRISBANE — The local branch of Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET) heard an update on the situation for pro-democracy activists in Indonesia from ASIET national coordinator
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SYDNEY — More than 50 people gathered to hear Patricia Pego Guerra, a visiting representative of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples and the Union of Young Communists, speak about life in Cuba after 40 years of
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Adam Hanieh RAMALLAH — Tension in the West Bank has increased dramatically in the last two weeks following the shooting of three Palestinian workers at a roadblock into the West Bank on March 10. As Palestinians working in Israel were returning
Culture
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Ska: the pulse that doesn't die Foundation SkaThe SkatalitesHeartbeat/Rounder through Festival Review by Norm Dixon Viewers of late night music television will have noticed a revival of the unmistakable "ba-ba-ba" ska pulse in some of the clips
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BRISBANE — On March 7, Veronica Brady, the controversial nun from Western Australia, launched her biography of poet Judith Wright, titled South of My Days. The launch, attended by more than 300 women, was held at Loreto College
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The Brunswick Music Festival has done it again, this time with a fantastic night of women's music featuring Faith Petric, an 82-year-old folk singer from the US, and the recently formed Three Sheilas, composed of Judy Small,
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Giving slime the soft sell Primary ColorsDirected by Mike NicholsWith Adrian Lester, John Travolta, Emma Thompson, Kathy Bates and Billy Bob ThorntonIf you can manage it, avoid seeing Wag the Dog until you've seen Primary Colors.
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Hidden in the wind"There's history remaining in the grass, or hidden in the wind, or tossing behind the waves" — from Eyewitness: Protest Stories from Indonesia by Seno Gumira Ajidarma. In March 1995, I returned to
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Wag The DogStarring Robert De Niro, Dustin HoffmanDirected by Barry Levinson Review by Dave Riley If you believe that allegations of sexual misconduct by a US president is a reasonable excuse for war on Iraq to distract people from the scandal,
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Just six companies (Sony, EMI, BMG, Time-Warner, Universal and Polygram) control over 90% of the world's commercial music business. But this figure, based on sales volume or dollar turnover, does not reflect an increasing swell of
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Cuba, culture and compassion iew from a Wooden ChairJumping FencesThrough Grevillea Records Review by Lynda Hansen After meeting with local Latin American musicians in 1979, Sue Monk and Lauchlin Hurse from the duo Jumping Fences developed a keen
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Queer Film and Video Festival MELBOURNE — The Queer Film and Video Festival runs until Saturday, March 29, at the State Film Centre, East Melbourne. More than 40 films will be screened, including Frisk, a story of sex, sadism and serial killing
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Documents for peace Visions and Actions for PeaceProceedings of the 1997 conference of the IPPNW and MAPW 303 pp. $15 (plus $6 postage and handling)Write to MAPW, 3 Katz Place, Spence ACT 2615. Review by Craig Cormick Both the International
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Green thumbs up Low-Waste Gardens leaflet seriesFriends of the Earth (Sydney) Review by Jon Land Gardening has become a more popular pastime in recent years, as evidenced the popularity of radio and TV shows such as Burke's Backyard. The
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ROSEBERY, Tasmania — The second annual Rosebery Miners, Axemen, Bush and Blarney Festival was held here over the long weekend February 27-March 1. It attracted hundreds of people — from Rosebery and other towns on Tasmania's