Issue 336

News

By Helen Basili The Queensland Supreme Court on September 28 rejected an appeal by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation to lift an injunction that prohibits the playing of a satirical song, "I'm a Back Door Man". On August 28, 1997, the
By Peter Robson BRISBANE — Speaking to a full lecture theatre at the University of Queensland, Amien Rais, chairperson of the Partai Amanat Nasional (National Mandate Party of Indonesia), declared himself a candidate for president in
By Francesca Davis On September 30, environment groups in Cologne and Bonn in Germany demonstrated in front of the Cologne Cathedral in protest against the Jabiluka mine. The activists likened the mining of Kakadu to mining under the Cologne
By Emma Murphy MELBOURNE — The National Union of Students' women's policy conference, "Fem X", was held at Melbourne University on September 26-27. About 100 women from around the country attended. The conference agenda was broad, including
Toxic dump close to defeat The long community campaign to stop the toxic waste dump at the abandoned Werribee quarry seems likely to succeed. A stand-off between CSR, the company that wants to establish the dump, and the local community has
Union rally condemns Coalition By Ben Courtice MELBOURNE — About 12,000 people rallied here on September 30 in protest against the federal Coalition government's industrial relations laws. The protest was called by the Victorian Trades Hall
Bosses' meeting picketed over injured workers By Chris Spindler MELBOURNE — The Metal Trades Industry Association meeting held here on September 30 was picketed by unionists from the metal division of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union
Left win at Griffith University By Adam Baker BRISBANE — The broad left ticket at Griffith University, LEFT, scored a sweeping victory at the recent student representative council elections. With much of the executive vote counted, LEFT has won
By Kim Bullimore CANBERRA — ACT Jabiluka Action Group and members of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy held a colourful and vocal picket outside the National Press Club luncheon on September 30. Kim Beazley was addressing the luncheon. About 20
By Sean Healy Students and young people "voted with their feet" against racism on September 30 in actions around the country. Organised by the socialist youth group Resistance, the protests were the latest in a series of demonstrations by young
By Saffron Howden JABIRU, NT — About 300 protesters congregated outside Energy Resources of Australia's (ERA) Jabiluka mineral lease site on September 29 to send a final pre-election message to voters that the proposed uranium mine should be
Correction In the last issue of GLW, a typing error in the article "14 reasons to vote against a GST" resulted in the sentence: "A GST would result in a massive transfer of wealth from the rich to the poor" instead of " ... from the poor to the
5000 rally against Jabiluka By Rjurik Davidson MELBOURNE — More than 5000 people rallied outside the State Library on the evening of October 2 to demand a halt to the Jabiluka uranium mine. The rally was planned to raise the profile of the
By Chris Spindler The Metal Trades Federation of Unions (MTFU) held mass meetings on September 30. The meetings voted to launch a wages and conditions campaign and endorse the make-up pay claim for injured workers. At an enterprise level, the
Sri Lankan minister rejects Tamil homeland By Nadeem Ansari CANBERRA — The Sri Lankan minister for housing and construction, Inika Gunawardena, told a Friends of Peace in Sri Lanka meeting here on September 29 that a united Sri Lanka was the
CPSU prepares for action in the ACT By Francis Geraldson CANBERRA — The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) has notified the Australian Industrial Relations Commission of its intention to bargain with the ACT government. This allows the

World

Serious public health and environmental problems related to pesticide use exist in both Nicaragua and Guatemala, according to a recent report from the Danish Agency for International Development (DANIDA). The report found that new estimates place the
By Eva Cheng "There is a credit crisis going on around the world, and it was brought home to us in spades by the bailout", Henry Cavanna, the head of JP Morgan Investment Management told Bloomberg news agency on September 25. Cavanna was commenting
The following is abridged from an analysis of the September 27 German federal election results written last week by Germany's Party of Democratic Socialism. After 16 years, the era of Chancellor Helmut Kohl has come to an end in Germany. The
By David Bacon IRVINE, California — At the end of August, the gate into the Friction auto brake plant in Irvine swung shut for the last time. Its 110 workers moved on. It's not unknown for factories in the United States to close as their
By Adam Hanieh RAMALLAH — On September 10, the Israeli government announced it had killed two Palestinians in a shoot-out near the West Bank town of Hebron. The next day it revealed that the two dead men were Adel and Imad Awadallah, two Hamas
International news briefs Metalworkers strike continues Members of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa employed in small workplaces associated with the motor industry are continuing their indefinite national strike that began on
Habitat conference in Cuba The Second Regional Parliamentarian Forum on Habitat took place in Havana September 17-19. More than 18 countries participated. Two of the main issues discussed were the sustainable development of human settlements and
By Malik Miah Throughout US history "race" has been a major factor in the country's politics. The English occupation and the westward drive by settlers to conquer and slaughter the native peoples was justified in the name of advancing
World economic crisis begins to hit US By Barry Sheppard The stock market was sent reeling by the news that Long Term Capital (LTC), a highly speculative investment firm, was bankrupt and had to be bailed out by a group of banks as a result
ASIET attends human rights meeting in Jakarta By Max Lane On September 28-30, human rights and solidarity groups from around Asia met in Jakarta to discuss coordinating campaigns in support of democratisation in Indonesia. Groups based in
By Norm Dixon As South Africans awoke on September 22 and tuned their radios to the morning news, they could be forgiven for thinking they had entered a time-warp. The acting president, they heard, had ordered a force of 600-800 South African
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — On September 23, Sri Lanka's ruling party asked parliament for 12.2 billion rupees (A$184 million) more than the 44 billion rupees ($665 million) which was budgeted for the military for 1998. Parliament is likely to approve the

Culture

Growth industry "Uranium is a growth industry",Says the Mining Maggot, always smilin' —You're sure to get a growth out of it, you idiot!Just look at the people from the Marshall Islands! Denis Kevans
By Anne O'Casey MELBOURNE — What is controversial, inspirational, irreverent and goes with your corn flakes? Radio Resistance — the latest addition to community radio 3CR's line-up. The half-hour, weekly show will debut on Friday, October 9
Walking with my SistersProduced and directed by Bronwyn KiddWednesday, October 14, 8pmSBS Review by Margaret Allum In April 1997, the native title deal between the NSW government and four sisters of the Arakwal people of Cape Byron was hailed as
How Green is My Planet?By Mark LynchOrin Books, Melbourne, 1998$14.95 (pb) How Green is My Planet? brings together Mark Lynch's best environmental cartoons. Comedian Spike Milligan provides the foreword and environmentalist David Suzuki writes the
Review by Sean Healy The Truman ShowDirected by Peter WeirWith Jim Carrey and Ed HarrisNow showing at cinemas everywhere This is one film where you have to try to forget who the star is, and what he represents in Hollywood-land — this is not a