East Timor solidarity
ADELAIDE — Artist Robyn Francis spoke with much feeling about the plight of East Timor under Indonesian occupation to 70 people at public meeting on March 29, organised by the Campaign for an Independent East Timor.
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As international pressure mounts against the Suharto regime, spurred on by the growing protest movement inside Indonesia, the Australian Coalition government and Labor opposition have gone in to bat for Indonesia's corrupt ruling
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JABILUKA, NT — The campaign against Energy Resources Australia's proposed uranium mine at Jabiluka in the Northern Territory is attracting international support. Faxes and letters have been received from around the world, and the blockade has been
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One of the central tenets of the Communist Manifesto states: "Of all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class". This fundamental proposition of Marx and
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Imperialism and choice Last month, United States House of Representatives speaker and arch-Republican Newt Gingrich announced he would block all US foreign funding unless it was tied to a prohibition on US-funded international family planning
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Governments have been talking about reduced car use and better public transport for years. The NSW government is now working on its 13th transport plan for Sydney — none of which have been implemented. Meanwhile, construction
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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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On April 1, more than 20,000 students and staff took part in protests against the Howard government's education cutbacks and the privatisation of tertiary and technical education. The large turnout, and the militancy of the
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During April and May, Green Left Weekly's Moscow correspondent, Renfrey Clarke, will be conducting a speaking tour of Australia. Since the first issue of the paper, Renfrey has provided a unique view of the tumultuous political and social changes
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We're taking a break Green Left Weekly is taking a break from publication next week so that the activists involved in the paper's production and distribution can attend the Asia Pacific Solidarity Conference in Sydney over the Easter weekend
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Good intentions By Brandon Astor Jones "While the [Pardons and Parole] Board cited discrepancies in sentencing of co-defendants in three ... cases ... prisoners Ivon Stanley, Roosevelt Green and Van [Roosevelt] Solomon, were denied clemency
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Newcastle Resistance Centre to move NEWCASTLE — The Resistance Centre in Newcastle will relocate following a successful fundraising campaign. The new centre, located in unit 19 of the same arcade as at present, will open on April 16. A launch on
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You can take comfort in my presence GOOD NEWS! This column will soon be entering its fifth year. The smiling dial that marks it has not changed one smidgin in all that time. I'm ageless, that's what I am. I'm still the same bloke I was way back
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MELBOURNE — Around 5000 students and staff took to the streets here on April 1. It was the largest student mobilisation in Melbourne for some time and shows the potential for organised opposition to the
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Protests greet Argentinean presidentSYDNEY — On March 30, six days after the 22nd anniversary of the 1976 military coup in Argentina, members and supporters of the Australian support groups for Argentina's Mothers of Plaza de
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By Pauline O'Brian On February 26, the Howard government announced the replacement of the Commonwealth Employment Service (CES) with a system of private job-market brokerage firms, the "Job Network", to commence on May 1. The new system relies on
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Arief Budiman and the IMF On March 28, Arief Budiman, an Indonesian activist and currently a professor at Melbourne Uni, was interviewed on SBS's Dateline program. Before the economic crisis in Indonesia, Arief Budiman said he was against the IMF
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Telstra privatisation worries the bush — and it shouldPrime Minister John Howard's decision to make the privatisation of the remaining two-thirds of Telstra an issue in the next federal election is clearly worrying Coalition,
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There is a trend within the student press of more blatantly sexist articles and reporting. Last year the University of Canberra's student newspaper, Curio, published an article titled "Chicks you wanna punch in the face". It listed
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Asia Pacific Solidarity Conference — a timely initiativeThe Asia Pacific Solidarity Conference taking place in Sydney, April 9-13, will bring together nearly 70 international speakers and participants from parties and movements
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JAKARTA — Activists and observers here speculate that the country — reeling from hunger and mass lay-offs promoted by the IMF — is moving toward social upheaval and perhaps a change of regime. At the dumps in Bantar Gebang, the
News
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CANBERRA — On April 3, representatives from ACT universities and the National Tertiary Education and Industry Union joined Sutarji, a student leader from Indonesia recently arrived in Australia, to condemn the arrest and disappearance
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LAUNCESTON — Seven hundred protestors braved the rain on March 28 to demonstrate their opposition to logging of old growth forest in Kooparoona Niara/Great Western Tiers. The rally followed a picnic of 1000 people at the
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The speech and hearing faculty at Curtin University has approached the vice-chancellor for permission to charge up-front fees for domestic undergraduate students. The threat of up-front fees is not new at Curtin. In 1997, the
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PERTH — Private schools in WA have been playing an active role in spreading the message of the anti-abortion lobby. Students at Perth's largest — mostly Catholic — private schools were urged by their principals to attend a
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Student organisations and activist groups in Australia have responded to the recent crackdown on student activists in Indonesia by calling a national day of protest on April 24. The feature of the protests will be a national
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Bradbury promotes alternative mediaNEWCASTLE — More than 100 people turned out to celebrate alternative media and hear David Bradbury speak about his films Jabiluka and Loggerheads on March 29. The event was organised by
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Opposition to Kumarangk bridge strong despite rulingADELAIDE — On April 2, the day after the High Court decision which effectively allows construction of the Kumarangk (Hindmarsh Island) bridge, 50 Ngarrindjeri women and their
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PERTH — Deceptive media reports following last week's debate in WA parliament left many people convinced that women should be celebrating the repeal of laws restricting abortion in WA. The West Australian proclaimed "Abortion on
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Wik and the politics of compromiseSecretive negotiations between the Coalition government, Labor opposition and independent Senator Brian Harradine have been taking place over the passage of the government's Wik bill.
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PERTH — Registered nurses in WA's public hospitals have taken further industrial action in their fight for a 15% pay increase. Nurses have received few pay increases over the last decade, yet their workload has increased
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Patrick 'to sack all maritime workers'There is growing evidence that Patrick Stevedores, the company on the offensive against the Maritime Union of Australia, plans to sack its entire work force in Brisbane, Sydney and
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Picket calls for Burma boycottSYDNEY — A picket by 20 Burmese activists and their supporters on March 25 asked Australians not to travel to Burma to protest the Burmese junta's poor human rights record. The picket, called by
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Anti-choice antics backfirePERTH — The tactics of the anti-choice movement, led by the religious right, have backfired. On March 30, when state parliament resumed, an anti-choice rally was held outside Parliament House. A
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London protest for Aboriginal rights LONDON — In a March 26 "Sorry Book" protest outside the Australian High Commission, a group of Australians, including celebrities Mark Little, Kathy Lette, Jonathon Coleman and Peter Tatchell, and British
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In a cynical attempt to woo the migrant vote, Labor leader Kim Beazley told the Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils of Australia annual conference in Sydney on March 28 that the ALP unequivocally supported multiculturalism
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Shrewd pragmatists "This would have to be the greatest own goal in the history of the NSW right." — ALP assistant secretary Damien O'Connor on the NSW electoral distribution, carefully engineered by the ALP head office to give Labor an advantage;
Analysis
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Editorial: Racism and the Hindmarsh decision In its decision in the Kumarangk (Hindmarsh Island) case, announced on April 1, the High Court found a way to evade the central issue. This was the government's claim that it has power, under the
World
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Fears for captured Timorese fighterAmnesty International has called for urgent international action pressing the Indonesian government to confirm the whereabouts of East Timorese freedom fighter Jose Antonio Belo, who it
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PNG moves to prop up timber industry rejected Greenpeace has accused the Papua New Guinea Forest Authority and the World Bank of short-sighted and naive policies to prop up PNG's export log industry. Greenpeace said on March 17 it had obtained a
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US "peacekeepers" in Somalia in 1993 massacred more than 1000 people, including civilians and children, in a single afternoon. While western media reports focused on the deaths of 18 US soldiers, broadcasting shocking pictures of a
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Fiji ANZ workers fight for jobsWorkers in Fiji employed by Australian banking giant ANZ have gone on strike to protect their jobs. More than 80% of the bank's 700 staff, members of the Fiji Bank Employees Union, have walked out.
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On March 28, Andi Arief, the chairperson of Student Solidarity for Indonesian Democracy (SMID), was abducted at gunpoint from his brother's home in Lampung, South Sumatra. He has not been seen or heard from since. Arief was taken
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In the midst of mass arrests, and the disappearance and killing of scores of pro-democracy activists in Indonesia, anti-Suharto demonstrations continue to escalate. Ignoring threats by the military — who have also pleaded for
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The Bougainville Freedom Movement is concerned at the New Zealand government's announced intention to scale back its role in the truce monitoring group (TMG) on Bougainville, and offer Australia leadership of the force. Under the
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Under orders from the International Monetary Fund, the Chuan Leekpai government is busy preparing the sale of some of Thailand's most important public assets: Thai Airways International, the Electricity Generating Authority of
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The people of East Timor and supporters of its struggle for freedom have been saddened by the tragic news of the death of Nino Konis Santana. Resistance sources announced on March 30 that Santana, commander of Falintil (the armed wing
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Kim Dae-jung's selective amnestyRather than heralding progressive reform, President Kim Dae-jung's "amnesty" last month for more than 5.5 million people reveals continuing repression in South Korea. Many political prisoners jailed
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MOSCOW — In February the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF) celebrated its fifth anniversary. In their commentaries on this event, Moscow's right-wing newspapers showed a striking unanimity: all were full of
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Skate puts Bougainville peace at riskPapua New Guinea Prime Minister Bill Skate, speaking on Australian television on March 31, has placed the Bougainville peace process at risk. Skate told the SBS Dateline program that
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"In our experience, the newspaper is an instrument ... [which] serves as a mechanism to unite the people and to become a spark for collective action ... Progresibo is an attempt to open a forum for discussion of progressive
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Hong Kong protest against unemployment HONG KONG — Hong Kong Voice of Democracy has reported that about 15 activists staged a courageous protest in mid-March against Beijing's arrest of Chinese workers who were organising against unemployment and
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Unemployment has tripled, wages are increasingly not paid and workers are facing new attacks on their rights in South Korea since the International Monetary Fund's austerity program was forced on the country in December. From 556,000
Culture
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Jack London: A LifeBy Alex KershawHarperCollins, 1997. 335 pp., $45 (hb) Review by Phil Shannon Leon Trotsky praised him as a revolutionary artist. Lenin was moved by his stories. Could this be the same author who wrote popular novels about the
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Here's to culture, not money Amy's viewBy David HareOpera House Drama TheatreUntil April 18 Review by Mark Stoyich What a joy to see a conventionally structured, naturalistic drama in a traditional theatre after sitting through a week of
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Review by Al McCall Kings in Grass Castles has been and gone from our TV screens without so much as a hoot or bother. Neither promoted vigorously by Channel 7 nor noted by industry or government as worthy of much to-do, the four-hour miniseries
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Left on-line Free Speech TV: Shell on Earth — This episode of the British activist series Undercurrents documents the collaboration of Shell Petroleum with the dictatorship of Nigeria in oppressing — and slaughtering — the Ogoni people. Visit
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Abortion rallies Public actions were held around the country on April 3 and 4 to demand the repeal of all abortion laws. The actions were in solidarity with the pro-choice movement in WA, where parliament is debating legislation to change the legal
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Dita Sari Truly free theserighteous captives.Pathfinders of freedom,peaceful warriors,held hostageby a tyrant State. Democracy of thedungeonSocialism of thecells. Friends of libertyfighting onbehind the wire,the bars, the chains.Leading
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Poem: The ten point scam
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Mutual obligation Fees for beds in nursing homes,Schemes for working for the dole,Price hikes for child-care services and universities ... Cuts to hospitals and schools,Are really good for one and all,Once you understand our government's
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100 years of Bertolt BrechtBERLIN — Germany is going through a Bertolt Brecht "epidemic". Old Brecht would have laughed his guts out if he had seen all the activities sweeping throughout this country to mark his 100th birthday on