On March 20, the premiers walked out of their annual conference with the federal government after just 90 minutes in protest at the proposed new Medicare agreement. Howard offered an extra $3 billion over the five-year life
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The federal government has developed a plan to dump radioactive waste in the Billa Kalina region of South Australia. The 67,000 sq km area, in the mid-north of SA, includes the towns of Roxby Downs, Andamooka, and Woomera. The dump
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Feminist revisionism The anti-child-care propaganda emanating from politicians and "social commentators" ever since the Howard government launched its "back to the family" campaign in 1996 took a new twist a few weeks ago. Until now, most of
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Spiritualism I Charles Smith (GLW #308) criticises GLW for its dismissal of spiritualism and superstition. He argues that spiritualism has grown beyond organised religion, and through it "we could understand more about the energies of the Earth and
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With students around the country facing course closures and cut backs, extra fees and charges, and less support services, there is an urgent need for a campaign to end these particular attacks and reverse the
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Six Australian student movement leaders have united to condemn the latest Indonesian military and police violence against students in that country, and to initiate a campaign of solidarity by students and student organisations in
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More student demonstrations calling for the ousting of President Suharto occurred across Indonesia last week. Protest actions were held on university campuses in Jakarta and again on the University of Lampung and other smaller campuses
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Painful times By Brandon Astor Jones WITH 1 OF 4 AFRICAN-AMERICAN MALES IN PRISONWhen times are painful and surely at their worstMany sisters and brothers outside, from us, hide undergroundBehind fame especially when we most, for them,
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The blockade of the Jabiluka mine in Kakadu National Park in the NT, and the April 5 national day of action, demonstrate the widespread opposition to this new uranium mine. The campaign's success will depend very much on the commitment of the
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Actively Radical TV — Sydney community television's progressive current affairs producers tackle the hard issues from the activist's point of view. CTS Sydney (UHF 31), every Thursday, 10pm and Saturday, 7pm. Ph 9565 5522. Access News —
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The Wik bill: land rights for mining companiesSince November 19, the mining industry has been publicly campaigning for the Senate to pass the government's Wik bill. Minerals Council of Australia president, Nick Stump, told a
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The prospects for armed revolution have been declining for many decades due to advances in science and technology. Perhaps in the days of the bow and arrow or the rifle, it was possible for an armed population to defeat soldiers
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Opening the Jabiluka uranium mine is totally irrational. There is no safe way to mine uranium or to handle any aspect of the nuclear cycle. To claim that the jobs and energy we can get from uranium outweigh the dangers of radon
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Opposing fees means opposing HECSSeven years after its introduction, the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) seems almost a welcome relief in amongst postgraduate tuition fees, undergraduate fees, overseas fees,
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Men don't I can navigate through my week without giving abortion a moment's thought. I've never had one, you see. It's one of those categorical differences between women and men that to this day divide the sexes. Women
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Applauded and promoted by the establishment media as a new, refreshing and sophisticated re-examination of the issue of abortion, Leslie Cannold's book The Abortion Myth: feminism, morality and the hard choices women make is worth
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Correction In our March 25 edition, the article "WA parliament debates abortion laws" mistakenly reported that one amendment to the WA government's abortion bill required a woman to wait for a 30-day "cooling off" period after receiving permission
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Jabiluka forum at Tas Uni HOBART — In support of the national campaign to stop the Jabiluka uranium mine, the Resistance Club at the University of Tasmania held a forum on uranium mining on March 24. Hugh Lockwood spoke about the threats
News
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The blockade of the proposed Jabiluka uranium mine was officially launched on March 23. More than 50 blockaders now reside at the campsite adjacent to the Jabiluka lease area, with 200 expected by the end of the month.
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Danger of compromise in WA abortion fightPERTH — When WA parliament resumes on March 31 after a week's recess it will decide on the future of the state's restrictive abortion laws. During the recess, politicians discussed
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Sydney University Resistance club takes offSYDNEY — The Resistance Club at Sydney University has started the year with a bang with close to 100 people joining during orientation week. Since then, around 30 people have attended
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MELBOURNE — Students enrolled in the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology's Bachelor of Social Science (Psych-Environmental Assessment and Policy) (SEAP) are fighting to save their course from extinction, as university
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MELBOURNE — Support is broadening for a pro-choice demonstration on April 4. April has been nominated a "month of pro-choice action" by Melbourne's recently formed Pro Choice Coalition. Abortion providers, ethnic groups, health
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SYDNEY — People Against a Nuclear Reactor (PANR), the group opposing the federal government's plan to build another nuclear reactor in the southern Sydney suburb of Lucas Heights, will boycott the environmental impact assessment set
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ADELAIDE — The myth, peddled by the establishment press and politicians, that the public service is over regulated, an easy job for life and a haven for incompetent workers, is being pushed here in a new government report
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SYDNEY — TAFE teachers, students and support staff will join the national day of action for higher education on April 1. They will be protesting against federal and state funding cuts to TAFE. The TAFE Teachers Association,
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Port Botany picketers demand a fair goSYDNEY — Waterside workers at Patrick Stevedoring's Port Botany facility called a week-long strike from March 25. Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) members are staffing around-the-clock
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Green Left Weekly is very proud to be involved in the Asia Pacific Solidarity Conference to be held in Sydney on the Easter weekend, April 10-13. The conference will bring together 66 international guests from many parts of the world. From its
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Miners protest for paymentCANBERRA — Workers from Woodlawn Mine at Tarago, near Goulburn, rallied outside Parliament House on March 23 to demand federal government action to force the payment of $6 million in entitlements
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BRISBANE — Bus drivers employed by Brisbane City Council (BCC) walked out for 24 hours on March 26. A Public Transport Union statement released on March 25 noted: "[The strike] is in response to BCC's claims for an increase in
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SYDNEY — Recycling of waste by local NSW councils is in danger of collapse and many councils are threatening to stop collections within weeks, according to the Local Government Recycling Co-operative. The packaging industry has
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Tell us anotherie "The Federal Treasurer, Mr Costello, has warned businesses they will have to give up tax loopholes if they want taxation reform." — Sydney Morning Herald, March 23. Kill them, maybe "The objective of the [United Nations]
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Greens issue urgent Wik warningThe Greens began distributing a national information alert on March 25 warning that, despite widespread community opposition, the Senate is in danger of passing the Wik legislation. The next
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MELBOURNE — An estimated 3000 people rallied on March 21 at the GPO to oppose the Howard government's 10-point plan. The rally was organised to promote a statement endorsed by a coalition of groups calling for the abandonment of the
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SYDNEY — Adair "Bear" Durie, elected president of the Sydney University Students' Representative Council last year on the conservative Students First ticket, has been removed by an electoral appeal. Late last year, an appeal
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Thousands mobilise to defend sub-alpine wildernessKOOPAROONA NIARA, Tasmania — Driving to Kooparoona Niara through the spectacular sub-alpine landscape of the Great Western Tiers reinforces the realisation that making the
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CANBERRA — On March 26, 500 staff and students attended a rally at the Australian National University to protest against the continuing attacks on education. The rally marched to the ANU Chancellery where it was met by police.
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SYDNEY — A meeting of commonwealth and state housing ministers on March 27 failed to resolve the impasse over financing public housing beyond the current agreement, due to expire on June 30, 1999. Under the agreement the
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Hospitality workers will keep their penalty rates for after-hours, weekend and holiday work following a landmark decision by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission on March 27. The AIR dismissed an application by the
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Tax office seeks non-union agreementMELBOURNE — Australian Taxation Office managers are conducting a staff vote on a non-union certified agreement. The proposed agreement includes provisions that will make it easier to sack
Analysis
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Editorial: Transport madness Transport madness In Sydney last week, haze from bushfires hung over the city, mixing with "normal" pollutants to produce a pollution index reading more than double the "acceptable" limit. Coincidentally, the Sydney
World
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Fears are held for the physical safety for Andi Arief who was kidnapped at gunpoint from a house in Lampung, South Sumatra, at 10.30am on March 28. Arief is the chairperson of Students in Solidarity for Democracy in Indonesia and was
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Last October, the Far Eastern Economic Review warned, "The strong winds of market demand and the smouldering coals of collusion are likely to keep the fires [in Indonesia] raging for many dry seasons to come". Three months later,
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Despite sabotage from Washington, some 1500 people registered for a successful conference sponsored by the University of California at Berkeley on March 19-21. Cubans prominent in their fields were invited to participate in panels
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JAKARTA — From left to right: Jacob (Free West Papua movement, sentenced to 17 years jail); Wimandjaya (on trial for assisting in the publication of banned booklet); Nuku Suleiman (Pijar, sentenced to five years jail); Bungkus (Indonesian Communist
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TIJUANA — Garrett Brown calls the working conditions at the Han Young plant "a catastrophe waiting to happen". In his day job, Brown is a health and safety inspector for the California Occupational Health and Safety
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MOSCOW — On the morning of March 23, no-one in Moscow was expecting anything special to happen. But at 11 o'clock, radio and television reported that President Boris Yeltsin, after meeting with Prime Minister Victor
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TIJUANA, Baja California — Norberto Cordoba sacrificed his job, trying to end conditions in his factory so dangerous he was afraid someone would die. Cordoba was employed at the Han Young plant in Tijuana, making truck chassis and
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SAN FRANCISCO — Congressional outrage. Anger from human rights activists. Protests from democratic forces inside Indonesia. That has been the response to the revelation that the Pentagon continues to train Suharto's notorious army.
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Soon after US President Bill Clinton departed from the tiny Ugandan town of Mukono, a poor peasant named Paladi surveyed his shattered two-room house and his meagre possessions strewn about the chook yard. A huge wind caused by the US
Culture
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Have play/will travelThe New World Order Theatre is a new venture and, as it turns out, a rather unusual one. Instead of being tied to the normal paraphernalia and formality of main stage theatre, New World Order Theatre reckons it
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10-point planLittle Johnny is selling a 10-point planTo resolve the ownership of the landHe says it's fair to everyone,And its genius is great.But as you count from one to 10Then slowly back to one againAsk
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HOBART — A Bed Of Roses, a women's writing exhibition, to open shortly, has been the long-time dream of women's refuge workers, Anne and Lilly. They feel it is a way of "opening doors into women's lives". The exhibition comprises
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People Against Rio Tinto Zinc and Subsidiaries (PARTiZANS) publish a newsletter of the same name. The latest issue contains much useful information. PARTiZANS is the group which produced the book Plunder, detailing the
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Arriesgaré la Piel (I Will Risk My Skin)By Inti-IllimaniXenophile Records through Festival Review by Barry Healy If Augusto Pinochet is the great survivor of Chilean right-wing politics, then surely Inti-Illimani rank with the great
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Crow Fire MusicWaak Waak JungiLarrikin Music through Festival Review by Barry Healy This unpretentious recording of traditional and contemporary Aboriginal music gently pushes back the parameters of what is generally understood as "tradition". It
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City of Green — Green Ban Songs and BeyondCD by Denis Kevans and friendsSend $20 (plus $3 postage) to 63 Valley Rd, Wentworth Falls NSW 2782 Review by Alex Bainbridge City of Green is not the sort of album likely to have a place in the charts —
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Sri Lankan warmthHOBART — Ray Pereira's band Bongo Fury brought some Sri Lankan warmth to the crowd here on March 26. The song, "There are many people out there like you", made the point that people can draw inspiration from
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Counting for Nothing: What Men Value and What Women Are WorthBy Marilyn WaringWellington: Bridget Williams Books, 1997(Originally: Allen & Unwin NZ, 1988)$24.95 Review by Greg Ogle It is 10 years since Marilyn Waring published Counting for
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MELBOURNE— The 12th Melbourne International Comedy Festival, beginning April 1, features a mind-boggling array of events. From well-known international celebrities such as Julian Cleary and Sean Hughes, and popular Australian