Issue 35

News

By Bernie Brian WOLLONGONG — In a major victory for South Coast unionists, BHP has backed down on its plans to sack 1100 striking steelworkers and agreed to resume negotiations regarding use of contractors at its Port Kembla sheet and coil
Mt Isa miners walk out Miners at MIM's Mount Isa operations struck on November 6 in protest at traditional union work being performed by non-union members under a company restructuring process. The 2400 Australian Workers Union members walked out
By Bill Mason BRISBANE — The last tree was felled on Fraser Island after more than a century of logging which had threatened to decimate the unique sand island's rainforest cover. After the government acted on Fitzgerald inquiry recommendations
Funding needed in brewery dispute By Leon Harrison PERTH — Robert Bropho, Aboriginal activist and leader of the Swan Valley Fringedwellers, has asked the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission to fund an appeal to the High Court
The fight to save Springbrook By Peter Farrell Springbrook, population about 600, altitude 950 metres, rainfall three metres per year, bordering NSW, is a 45-minute, 40 km drive from the heart of the Gold Coast, up a winding, steep and narrow
Unemployed squat in Health Department house By Steve Hall CANBERRA — The Unemployed Workers Union squatted in a house belonging to the ACT Department of Health after discovering that the property, usually reserved for its secretary, had been
The depression we didn't need sinks deeper Comment by Alan Parker Keating, Kerin, Hewson, Howard and the econocrats in the Treasury and the Industry Commission got it wrong. The so-called "healthy dose" of shallow recession they said we had to have
By Pip Hinman MELBOURNE — One hundred and seventeen people took part in a day-long discussion on political and material solidarity with the Cuban people sponsored by the Australia Cuba Friendship Society on November 2. Trade union, Latin American
By Peter Boyle On October 30, the federal Industrial Relations Commission approved the enterprise bargaining system it rejected last April. The decision, which approves a cut-down Accord Mark VI as a covert Accord VII, was welcomed by the ACTU, the

World

By Norm Dixon South African industry ground to a halt during a general strike on November 4-5, called to protest against the introduction of a new indirect tax that will hit the poor hardest. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is
By Russell Anderson From 3000 to 5000 East Timorese accompanied the coffin of Sebastian Gomez through the streets of Dili chanting independent slogans. Gomez was shot by Indonesian soldiers early in the morning of October 28 outside Montael
BOGDAN BOGDANOVIC is Yugoslavia's best known contemporary architect. A Serb born in Belgrade in 1922, he fought with the partisans during World War II. A former professor of architecture at the University of Belgrade, he was also the mayor of
More Turkish raids on Kurds By Steve Painter According to the London-based Kurdistan Information Centre, about 40 Turkish bombers attacked Kurdish villages in northern Iraq towards the end of October with weapons including napalm, phosphorous bombs
By Poul Funder Larsen MOSCOW — While the first autumn snow fell lightly, at least 10,000 people, and up to 50,000 according to some media, assembled on October 23 in the Manezh square in central Moscow. This was the first demonstration in which
The African National Congress, the Pan Africanist Congress and 92 other anti-apartheid organisations have agreed to form a Patriotic Front. This will strengthen the anti-apartheid movement, allowing it to enter constitutional negotiations with a

A failure to resolve, or even to seriously address, underlying factors in Poland's political, social and economic crisis was the foremost outcome of the country's "first free elections" since World War II. The fragility of the new parliament — which may be unable to create a government — advances the long-term slide towards a non-parliamentary authoritarian regime headed by President Lech Walesa or some other candidate.

By Irina Glushchenko MOSCOW — A significant breach has been opened in the liberal-bureaucratic monopoly of the Russian press. While the main daily newspapers still trumpet the virtues of the "free market" with a brazenness that would make Rupert
US bombs targeted at Korea By Tracy Sorensen SYDNEY — 1>North Korean Workers' Party representative Kim Yong Sun, visiting Australia at the invitation of the Socialist Party of Australia, told a meeting on November 7 that the Australian
Malaysian-Korean logging threat to Guyana The Guyanese government has just leased more than 1.65 million hectares of forest to a foreign consortium. The logging operation seriously threatens the livelihoods of local communities and the ecology of
By Michael Tardif Political opposition in Indonesia today is largely led by university students. In contrast with the 1970s generation, student activists today have a strong orientation of solidarity with other sectors of society, primarily peasants
By Ken Davis 1500 people, women and men, black and white, marched through Johannesburg's inner-city districts of Braamfontein and Hillbrow on October 12 in South Africa's second annual gay and lesbian pride week. According to Simon Nkoli, MC of the
Farmers protest in Prague By Peter Annear PRAGUE — In the first big display of social resistance to the harsh effects of the government's economic reform program, about 25,000 Czech farmers demonstrated in Wenceslas Square in the heart of Prague

Culture

By Nigel D'Souza Melanie Sjoberg's review of Jungle Fever in Green Left Issue No. 32 has missed the point. It was limited by a narrow, anti-sexist perspective and consequently could not have picked up the rich messages about racism, sexism and
La Stazione Directed by Sergio Rubini With Sergio Rubini, Ennio Fantastichini and Margherita Buy Reviewed by Kim Spurway This is yet another tale of the princess and the pauper, and of two men fighting for one woman Domenico (Sergio Rubini) is
Mysteries from the Cold War Open Verdict: An Account of 25 Mysterious Deaths in the Defence Industry By Tony Collins Sphere Books, $12.99 (pb) Reviewed by Mark Delmege Remember a few years ago the mystery deaths of the British Marconi
forever young em = By Phil McManus each day we move toward our death, each night the darkness closes in, we grow a little older and death's domain is extended. death cannot touch the staff at McDonald's. they age like clothing models in
A Man with Connections By Alexander Gelman Thalia Theatre Company at the Lookout Theatre Club, Sydney Tues-Sun Reviewed by Philip Bilton-Smith A Man with Connections was written by Alexander Gelman, a personal friend of Mikhail Gorbachev, in
ices of Dissent By Andrea Sharam The market commodifies not only art but also artists. However, there are times of greater or lesser tension between the artist and the process of cooption. During the 1960s and 1970s forms such as performance
Songs of the Blue Mountains Denis Kevans went to the Blue Mountains to live in 1983. He started walking through the valleys and tracks of the Wentworth Falls areas. "I saw a vein of orange ironstone in a slab of weathered sandstone, and I thought
Mango Groove Playing at the Palace, Melbourne, on November 13, ANU Bar, Canberra, on November 14 and at the Enmore Theatre, Sydney, on November 16 Reviewed by Norm Dixon Mango Groove, one of South Africa's premier pop groups, has been described
Judith Lucy in Melbourne Supporting Julian Clary (a gay comedian known as "Britain's Second Favourite Queen") on a recent tour was a particularly pleasurable experience for feminist comedian Judith Lucy. In a scene still dominated by humour of the
Prospero's Books Written and directed by Peter Greenaway Adapted from Shakespeare's The Tempest Starring Sir John Gielgud, Isabelle Pasco, Michael Clarke To be shown at Melbourne's Kino and cinemas in other cities around Christmas Reviewed by

Editorial

Bombs away Having been forced to abandon its Crow Valley bombing range in the Philippines, the United States is now considering Australia or Thailand as likely sites for a new range. Crow Valley was attached to Clark air base, extensively damaged