Democratic Socialists launch NSW campaign
By Jonathan Singer
SYDNEY — The Democratic Socialists launched their election campaign for Sydney seats in the March 27 state election with two well-attended functions on February 26. At the Parramatta
Issue 351
News
Palm Sunday protests against Jabiluka
Rallies will be held in many centres on Palm Sunday, March 28, to protest against the Jabiluka uranium mine and other aspects of Australia's involvement in the nuclear fuel cycle.
In Melbourne, the rally is
By Graham Matthews and Paul Glenning
EMERALD — More than 1000 miners and their supporters marched through Emerald in central Queensland on February 27 chanting "What do we want — scabs out" and "Workers united will never be defeated" in
By Emma Webb
ADELAIDE — Six hundred people attended a rally and march against the Jabiluka uranium mine on February 21. The action coincided with the world music festival Womadelaide and was organised by the Jabiluka Action Group (JAG). The rally
By Alex Bainbridge
HOBART — The establishment media have kept quiet about the continuing health funding crisis in Tasmania after hints from the state government that it is aiming for a balanced budget in May. The funding crisis became headline
By Jennifer Long
SYDNEY — Thousands of women are expected at the International Women's Day march and rally here on March 6 to demand abortion rights, funding for women's services, free child-care and equal pay. "Everyone should turn up to the IWD
By Dave Riley
BRISBANE — According to Brisbane's Courier-Mail, when Gerry Adams entered the civic reception organised in his honour by Mayor Jim Soorley his "welcome was more befitting a rock star than a politician at City Hall, with the crowd
Timbarra: Stuttering frog joins the fight
By Olivier Maxted Important new witnesses have been called in the legal battle against the Timbarra gold mine in northern NSW. Stuttering frogs, palmer wallabies and glossy black cockatoos are the
By Chris Latham
SYDNEY — More than 500 people attended a lively protest against the abduction and imprisonment of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan on February 23. The protesters included Kurds from Iran, Syria, Turkey, Iraq
By Nick Everett and Mike Byrne
BRISBANE — An interview with jailed Indonesian trade unionist Dita Sari, filmed secretly at Jakarta's Tangerang women's prison in August, was shown here on February 20. A documentary, Bitter Paradise, by Canadian
Anti-racists protest tying up of migrants
By Peter Waits
YDNEY — On February 22, the Democratic Socialists and Resistance organised a demonstration to condemn the recent arrest and roping up of "illegal immigrants" in Victoria (see article page
By Bill Mason
BRISBANE — Two more One Nation state MPs are out of the party, bringing its number in the Queensland parliament down to five — compared to 11 after the June state election. Member for Maryborough John Kingston and member for
By Tyrion Perkins
SYDNEY — Staff at the University of Sydney held a strike on March 1, the first day of classes, over enterprise bargaining. Management has proposed a wage rise of just 1.75%, way below the inflation rate, and wants numerous
Activist groups square off in Queensland
By Andy Gianniotis
BRISBANE — The National Union of Students Queensland (NUSQ) education committee, at its first meeting last week, overturned decisions made by the Cross-campus Anti-VSU Collective
Truss picketed at Centrelink
By Bill Mason
BRISBANE — Around 20 members of the Community and Public Sector Union and their supporters picketed the Centrelink Brisbane Call Centre on February 23 to protest against the presence there of Warren
World
By Norm Dixon
Images of the cruel treatment of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan by the Turkish government — without a peep of protest from the self-proclaimed champions of freedom and human rights in Washington, Europe and
By Norm Dixon
The post-budget love-in between big business and the African National Congress government has become an annual ritual in the "new" South Africa. Capitalist spokespeople and their media boosters are falling over themselves to praise
Tools of oppression
By Rick Mercier
A recent wave of killings in East Timor, coinciding with a propaganda offensive proclaiming the imminence of civil war, indicates that the Indonesian military has discovered the usefulness of paramilitaries in
By James Balowski
On February 24, the Indonesian language news service SiaR reported that the government body (P-4 Depkeh) overseeing registrations for Indonesia's July 7 election has "postponed" accepting an application to register the People's
Indian authorities aid crackdown in Bhutan
Around 400 Bhutanese refugees were deported to Nepal by the Indian Central Reserve Police Force in January, according to the Students Union of Bhutan. These refugees were trying to participate in a
Italy's Communists move forward after split
By Eva Cheng
ROME — Last October, Italy's Rifondazione Comunista (Party of Communist Refoundation — PRC) brought down the government of Romano Prodi by using its balance of power to reject the
Lesbian and gay organising in Indonesia
By Orie Nalcagawa
SYDNEY — Indonesian society has become more accepting of homosexuality since the fall of former president Suharto, a leading Indonesian gay activist said on February 19. Speaking at the
By Adam Hanieh
RAMALLAH — If you believe the Arab media and the leaders of Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, the Israeli elections in early May are essentially a vote for or against peace. The internal Israeli debate, though, has been
WELLINGTON — The New Zealand government is proposing a law that would extend the powers of the Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) to break and enter into "any place" in New Zealand. The New Zealand Security Intelligence Service Bill 1998 is
Timorese students support referendum
On February 21 Green Left Weekly's SAM KING Spoke with MARCOS DA CRUZ, the chairperson of Renetil (National Resistance of East Timor Students) Yogyakarta. Question: There has been much pessimism in the
Culture
By Nick Gebhardt
SYDNEY — 2SER is relaunching itself as Sydney's underground music and talks station. After many months of discussions about the station's programming, we came up with the idea of uniting our music and talks programming under the
Las Perlas del Son thank activists
By Maureen Sexton
ADELAIDE — Around 300 people attended a reception for the all-woman Cuban band, Las Perlas del Son, at the Governor Hindmarsh Hotel on February 22. The reception was organised by the
Utterbox: speaking out against violence
By Angela Luvera
WOLLONGONG — One in four women in Australia is sexually assaulted by the time she turns 18. The most common site of violence against women is in their homes. This reality has prompted
The Sugar Factory
The Sugar Factory is the story of a psychologically troubled young man, Harris (Matt Day) who falls in love with an older woman, Helen (Rhondda Findleton) living alone with her two children. Tragedy strikes while he is
A rebel against the sexual double standard
Other Powers: The Age of Suffrage, Spiritualism, and the Scandalous Victoria WoodhullBy Barbara GoldsmithGranta, 1998 — 531 pp., $35.00 (pb) Review by Phil Shannon
Victoria Woodhull was the first woman
By Denis Olsen
BRISBANE — For many years, the local branches of the Democratic Socialists and Resistance have been involved in various forms of cultural dissent. At first, after opening the Resistance Centre at New Farm in 1986, these occasions
Rock dinosaurs roar
Live at Winterland '68Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding CompanyColumbia/LegacyDo What You LoveBig Brother and the Holding CompanyOrder both at <http://www.bbhc.com> Review by Barry Healy
When Janis Joplin
The Crisis of Global CapitalismBy George SorosLittle, Brown & Company, 1998245 pp., $39.95 (hb) Review by Allen Myers
George Soros, the billionaire hedge fund manager, is worried, even alarmed, at what he considers the dim prospects for
Adelaide's big laugh
By Bronwen Beechey
ADELAIDE — Music lovers here had their treat with Womadelaide; now it's the turn of comedy fans to indulge themselves. The Adelaide Festival Centre is presenting The Big Laugh — two weeks of comedy
A Place Called ChiapasSBS March 9, 11.30pm (11pm SA) Review by Sandra Wallace
On January 1, 1994, several thousand indigenous campesinos staged an uprising that gave them control of 25% of Chiapas, Mexico's southernmost and poorest state. The
Southern comfort
Lyrebird — Tales of HelpmannBy Tyler CoppinDirected by Adam CookAt the Playhouse, Sydney Opera HouseUntil March 19 Review by Mark Stoyich
The three greatest South Australians of my lifetime were Don Dunstan, now sadly mourned;
Editorial
The heroin problem, and the other one
In English writer Samuel Butler's 19th-century satirical novel Erewhon, the inhabitants of the mythical country attempt to breed a race of healthy and beautiful people by punishing sickness and infirmity as a
Resistance!
By Diana Haywood Rankine
ADELAIDE — Paralowie School's new principal, Greg Petherick, is determined to introduce school uniforms. At least two students (myself included) have refused to wear uniforms because it is conformist and of no benefit to
By Zanny Begg
The debate between anarchism and socialism is not one between "libertarian" and "authoritarian" models of change, as the anarchists claim. It is a debate about what strategy is needed to overturn the capitalist status quo. Consciously
The article "Socialism versus Anarchism" [Resistance, February 10] was so full of popular misconceptions and half truths, that we members of the group "Consciously Anarchists" felt it was imperative to submit a reply.
Even before beginning the
By Peter Johnston
DARWIN — Two Aboriginal women, Jacqui Katona and Christine Christopherson, began serving a 12-day jail sentence on February 26 for "trespassing" on traditional Aboriginal land during a protest at the Jabiluka uranium mine.
By Damien Bradley
HOBART — On the Parliament Lawns on February 20, Resistance organised a speak-out against the Jabiluka uranium mine. The speak-out was chaired by Edwina Foster; speakers included Huw Lockwood, Ema Corro and Alex Bainbridge, all
Do youth wages create jobs — or slaves?
By Mel Bull
Young workers in Australia are discriminated against; because of their age, they are paid less for work of equal value. Reith and Howard claim that this gets young people a foot in the door
After two months of shadow boxing, federal education minister David Kemp has come clean and presented a bill to gut student unions' political activities.
The bill legislates for "voluntary student unionism", prohibits the levying of any compulsory
Crew strikes against BHP cutback
By Jonathan Singer
SYDNEY — Maritime Union of Australia members aboard BHP's Iron Flinders struck on February 25 against the company's decision to withdraw its ships from the trans-Tasman route. The workers
By Zanny Begg
This is a vexed question in feminist circles, many asserting that feminist consciousness is intrinsically linked to female biology and that therefore only women can be feminists. But does biology really determine political ideas? Or