Issue 331

News

By Zanny Begg BRISBANE — At around midnight on August 24, residents of a house on the premises of the Resistance Centre were woken by the sound of a heavy object landing on the roof, followed by several small explosions. Rushing outside, they
By Chris Latham PERTH — The Western Australian government is to consider placing children in foster care if senior family members are involved in criminal activity. This would increase the power of the state beyond its current ability to remove
ACT government workers rally By Tim Gooden CANBERRA — On August 26, 200 Community and Public Sector Union members held a lunchtime rally outside the ACT Legislative Assembly to present a petition to ALP MLA Wayne Berry. The petition calls on
Workers rally against social security changes By Chris Spindler MELBOURNE — More than 400 construction workers rallied outside South Melbourne Centrelink office on August 27 to protest against the federal Coalition's plans to classify
By James Vassilopoulos SYDNEY — In a legal victory for the National Union of Workers (NUW), the Federal Court on August 27 ruled that Davids, the wholesale grocer, must reinstate 52 workers sacked from its Silverwater and Blacktown warehouses.
Gordonstone miners win jobs back By Bill Mason BRISBANE — Giant coalmining multinational ARCO has suffered a setback following an Australian Industrial Relations Commission order on August 26 that it reinstate sacked miners at the Gordonstone
By Lara Pull in CANBERRA — In a surprise attack on women's health and right to control their reproduction, the ACT Legislative Assembly could outlaw most abortions in the ACT within two weeks following the August 26 introduction of legislation by
By Bill Mason BRISBANE — Veteran state Labor MP Jim Fouras has warned the ALP it will deprive Aboriginal people of a "fundamental right to land" if it proceeds with its native title legislation, now before state parliament. Fouras quoted legal
By Jim Green The federal environment minister, Senator Robert Hill, has rejected a public environment report into the milling of uranium ore from the Jabiluka mine in the Northern Territory. The proposal from Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) was
Chinese Australians condemn racial violence in Indonesia Chinese Australians condemn racial violence in Indonesia By Vannessa Hearman MELBOURNE — More than 25 Chinese organisations in Victoria joined a 600-strong rally outside the Indonesian
By Sarah Peart On August 21, Energy Resources of Australia's chief executive, Philip Shirvington, announced plans to finalise, before the federal election, contracts for selling uranium mined at Jabiluka in Kakadu National Park. The Jabiluka mine,
By Lisa Macdonald When federal parliament resumes, the Australian Greens plan to introduce a private member's bill to over-ride section 78 of the Northern Territory's Sentencing Act — the mandatory sentencing legislation. This follows the
More attacks on free speech By Melanie Sjoberg ADELAIDE — New by-laws passed by Adelaide City Council are about to be enforced following a three-month "familiarisation" period. The by-laws were approved by state parliament in May. People
By Natalie Stevens SYDNEY — It has become a familiar sight in Sydney: a koala-suited environmentalist on street corners, entertaining and informing the public about the Wilderness Society's campaigns while asking for donations. These fundraisers
By Leo Wellin Telstra's announcement of a $3 billion profit in the last financial year helped galvanise staff support for a strike on August 28. The strike was called by the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) and the Communications,
By Ray Fulcher MELBOURNE — More than 1000 university and TAFE students rallied at the State Library on August 26 to demand that the federal government restore funding to education. The rally was part of a National Union of Students' national day

World

By Norm Dixon As US President Bill Clinton's justifications for the unprovoked cruise missile attack on the Al-Shifa medicine factory in Sudan on August 20 unravel, the attack is being exposed for what it was: a blatant act of state terrorism. At
By Barry Sheppard The "special period" that opened in 1989 as the Soviet bloc collapsed has been a major challenge to the Cuban Revolution. Before the 1959 overthrow of the Batista dictatorship, the United States was Cuba's main trading partner.
By Max Lane and Pramono (in Jakarta) The frequency of protest actions in Indonesia has increased markedly over the last week. Worsening economic conditions, general anger over the lack of any real changes under the Habibie regime and students'
By Renfrey Clarke MOSCOW — President Boris Yeltsin on August 23 sacked Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko and the entire government in the midst of a shattering financial crisis. From the second week of August, the country's newly restored
By Allen Myers Since elections to Cambodia's National Assembly were held on July 26, leaders of the two losing opposition parties — Funcinpec and the Sam Rainsy Party — have campaigned against the result, charging that the government used
200,000 rally in Yogyakarta By Max Lane On August 26, 200,000 people rallied in Yogyakarta to protest against the refusal of the Indonesian government to ratify Sultan Hamengku Buwono X as governor of Yogyakarta. The rally adopted a manifesto

The

By John Pilger It doesn't matter whether or not President Clinton fired his missiles in order to distract attention from his troubles with Monica Lewinsky. He would have done it, anyway. We have been through this many times before, with the lies
By Aziz Choudry POHNPEI, Micronesia — Following in the footsteps of the missionaries before them, the cheerleaders for the free market have flocked to the Pacific. Like their predecessors, they claim that they alone have the truth, the light and
An 11-day national strike for shorter hours, from April 27 to May 7, was the first industrial action of this kind in Denmark since 1986. Green Left Weekly's MARGARET ALLAN spoke to JÜRGEN ARBO about the aftermath of the strike. Arbo is a
By Eva Cheng Top South Korean car manufacturer Hyundai Motors' August 24 deal to reduce scheduled job cuts from 1538 to 277 has ended a 35-day occupation of its Ulsan main plant by several thousand workers. However, it provoked widespread
Solidarity We protest against the continued imprisonment of People's Democratic Party (PRD) prisoners in Indonesia. They are not released because the government feels the real threat from these brave comrades in chains. This exposes the hypocrisy
By Michelle Sforza In January 1997, the US-based waste disposal company Metalclad Corporation filed a complaint with the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes alleging that the Mexican state of San Luis Potosí
By Monica Somocurcio On August 11, the United Nations' Decolonisation Committee voted in support of a resolution affirming the right of the Puerto Rican people to self-determination and independence. It was the 17th UN resolution supporting

Culture

Shooting FishDirected by Stefan SchwartzDistributed by GlobeNow screening in major cinemas Review by Conrad Barnett The Hollywood chase-and-misadventure film gets a '90s makeover, an English accent and a Brit pop soundtrack in the new film Shooting
Chasing the DragonBy Nick EnrightWharf Theatre, SydneyNavigatingBy Katherine ThomsonOpera House Playhouse Reviewed by Mark Stoyich David Williamson and Nick Enright are Australia's most successful and prolific playwrights, and represent the
Not an advertisement Fair go! All right, maybe some of you will be a little worse off with a GST. So what? Stop being so selfish; lie back and think of Australia. A GST will be good for the country. You can take our word for that, because we own
The Scourging of Iraq: Sanctions, Law and Natural JusticeBy Geoff SimonsMacmillan Press, 1998363 pp., $47.95 (pb) Review by Phil Shannon When asked in 1996 whether the death of a million children in Iraq as a result of six years of US-imposed
By Martin Iltis ADELAIDE — Diane Bell's book, Ngarrindjeri Wurruwarrin: a world that is, was, and will be, was launched here on August 26. More than 300 people crammed Way Hall for the launch of the most thorough and accessible anthropological
By Mary Merkenich MELBOURNE — On August 8, as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival, a panel debated the High Court's May ruling to allow New Zealand television programs to be included in the Australian content standard. The panel

Editorial

Running out of room There are at least two important messages to be drawn from the sharp decline in the Australian dollar, which last week fell to its lowest level ever against the US dollar. One is that the Howard government has been lying