Save Tasmania's forests!
HUON VALLEY — About 250 people on November 29 attended a forest picnic in the Tahune Reserve, in Tasmania's south-western forest, organised by the Wilderness Society as part of the campaign to stop logging in old-growth
Issue 344
News
Feminist to contest Wollongong seat
WOLLONGONG — Angela Luvera will be standing in Wollongong for the Democratic Socialists in the March 27 state election. Luvera, a student member of Resistance, helped organise the high school walkouts against
Ramos Horta: 'A common struggle'
By Liam Mitchell
SYDNEY — The links between the struggle for freedom in East Timor and democracy in Indonesia were the focus of public meetings in Sydney and Melbourne on November 28 and December 3. Both
NTEU wins increase in permanent employment
By Tyrion Perkins
SYDNEY — Hundreds of fixed-term contracts are to be converted to permanent following an agreement the National Tertiary Education Industry Union has negotiated with the University of
Centrelink workers to continue strikes
By Melanie Sjoberg
On December 3, Community and Public Sector Union members employed at Centrelink endorsed state-by-state rolling half-day stoppages from December 8 to 17. This is the next step in the CPSU
ACT government workers to strike
CANBERRA — ACT government workers will strike for 24 hours on December 17 if the ACT Liberal government fails to retract the threat of forced redundancies.
Meanwhile, workers in the ACT Chief Minister's
Defamation ruling against Green Left article
By Dot Tumney
A ruling on November 26 by the District Court of South Australia awarded damages of $100,000 and costs of $11,000 to the former developers of the Kumarangk (Hindmarsh Island) bridge,
World
Indonesia: 'The struggle must be completed'
[The following is from a talk presented by a People's Democratic Party (PRD) leader and recently released political prisoner, WILSON BIN NURTIAS, at the public meeting "East Timor, Indonesia: the future",
Hong Kong democracy activists charged
By Eva Cheng
Four activists who led a demonstration in Hong Kong on July 1 in pressing for democratic reforms were served subpoenas on November 19 for a trial on December 21 on the charge of "breach of the
By Rafael Duffleaux
France's two major far-left parties, Workers Struggle (LO) and the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR), will probably present joint candidates in the next European elections. LO spokeswoman Arlette Laguiller attracted 5.3% of
Philippine socialists unite in new party
By Reihana Mohideen
MANILA — November 30, the birth date of Andres Bonifacio, a left-wing leader of the 1898 Philippine revolution against Spanish colonial domination, is marked as National Heroes Day by
South Korean church ejects workers
A contribution of the Catholic Church to South Korea's democracy struggle came to an abrupt end on November 27, when trade unionists hunted by the Kim Dae-jung regime — some since May — were kicked out of
By Renfrey Clarke
MOSCOW — On November 27, a Supreme Court judge here refused to order the release pending trial of Grigory Pasko, a Vladivostok naval journalist charged with treason after reporting on the dumping of nuclear waste by the Russian
A crucial time for East Timor
By Jon Land
Since the fall of the Suharto regime in May, a new phase of the independence struggle has developed within East Timor. Not since the invasion in 1975 have so many large pro-independence demonstrations,
Culture
Who wants to live in South Park?
By Alison Dellit
South Park, originally commissioned as a video Christmas greeting, now boasts the most viewers of any cartoon in Australia, and is the highest rating program on SBS. More than a million people
Sport, race and colonialism
Review by Phil Shannon
The CallBy Martin FlanaganAllen & Unwin, 1998181 pp., $16.95 (pb) Tom Wills is regarded as "the father of Australian football". Modern Australian Rules owes a lot to this Victorian sporting
Review by Brian Reeves
Jesus the Man (Doubleday, 1992, 624 pp., $15.95)Jesus of the Apocalypse: The Life of Jesus After the Crucifixion (Doubleday, 1995, 462 pp., $15.95)The Book That Jesus Wrote (Doubleday, 1998, 362 pp., $29.95)By Barbara
Review by Bernie Wunsch
Throwim Way Leg: An AdventureBy Tim FlanneryText Publishing, 1998 — 320 pp., $24.95 Review By Bernie Wunsch
"In New Guinea Pidgin, 'throwim way leg' means to go on a journey — to thrust out your leg for the first step
No cobwebs on this radical
Something Borrowed, Something NewCountry Joe McDonaldBig BeatTo order, visit <http://www.countryjoe.com>. Review by Barry Healy
"Country Joe! Where's he been all these years?", older Green Left readers may
Solidarity from the other side of the world
By Lynda Hansen
BRISBANE — A mammoth music fest to raise funds for victims of hurricane Mitch in Central America is being organised by Radio 4ZZZ, IWW and the Paddington Workers Club. Funds raised
Editorial
No reconciliation with racism!
After massively cutting the budget of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, extinguishing native title in all but name and giving the go-ahead to the destruction of Aboriginal women's sacred sites on
General
Who owns Australia?
By Norm Dixon
The Salvation Army expects to help a record 100,000 families cope during the Christmas period. Other charities are gearing up to help similar numbers. The 1.7 million Australians who survive below the poverty
Where does the money come from?
By Allen Myers
When we consider the huge wealth of people like Kerry Packer or Westfield tsar Frank Lowy or corporations like BHP, the question naturally arises: where and how did they get all this money? The
Billions for BHP
BHP's 1998 report to shareholders says that in the year to May 31, the company had operating revenue of $22.479 billion, against raw material and other external costs of $11.864 billion.
The $10.615 billion difference or value
See you next year
This is last issue of Green Left Weekly for this year. We will be back after a break, with the first issue for 1999 to be published on January 20. Don't miss it!
Resistance!
'A life of idleness' on work for the dole
By Tim Grey-Smith
The Coalition government's work for the dole scheme forces young people who have been unemployed for more than six months to do manual labour in order to receive their pittance of a dole
Howard attempts to entrench youth wages
By Ruth Ratcliffe
The Howard government has proposed legislation which would entrench junior wages and extend them to the 200,000 workers under 21 who currently receive adult wages. The vast majority of
By Hali Minkayilar and Jo Ellis
ADELAIDE — On November 28, the Adelaide Advertiser printed an article about youth vandalism in Port Augusta. It was accompanied by a silhouetted picture of four teenage boys, looking dark and sinister. The article
PERTH — The Curtin University Academic Board has voted 26 to nine in favour of introducing full up-front fee-paying places in speech and hearing, occupational therapy and physiotherapy courses. If the University Council passes the proposal at its
Choose to fight back
A life which means something
By Sean Healy
If these were the extent of our choices — life on the dole, exploitation in the work force or an expensive (non)-education at a university — then life wouldn't look great.
By Zanny Begg
From December 7 to 11, delegates to the national conference of the National Union of Students will be gathering in Ballarat. It's a pivotal conference, one which finds Labor stronger and the left weaker than in many years. The time
By Marie Oldman and Boadie Walters
In late October, we came across an intimidating sight: a three-storey-high Santa Claus bearing down on the mall from the adjacent department store. Looking somewhat like a giant human Coke can, he brings a message
By Jacquie Moon
Many people were disgusted by last month's brutal murder of Matthew Shepherd, a young, gay US student. But there's also the story of Melbourne high school student James Anderson, who committed suicide after suffering continual
What are they going to do with your life?
It's the end of the year, a time when many of us are considering our "life options" — what the hell we're going to do next year. Despite all the hot air about Australia being "free" and everything being
The graduate factory (pay at the door)
By Sean Healy
University was supposed to be a sanctuary of ideas and debate, a "community of scholars" adding to the pool of society's knowledge and enlightenment. But today's universities are factories,
By Stephanie Roper
SYDNEY — The NSW Labor government recently proposed amendments to legislation to require the mandatory reporting of consensual sex between young people under the legal age of consent. The change is part of the proposed Children