Issue 358

News

By Vannessa Hearman MELBOURNE — From April 24 the Mirimbiak Nations Aboriginal Corporation, Coast Action and the Surfrider Foundation will hold indigenous coastal workshops along Victoria's coastline. The one-day workshops are designed to bring
Residents say no to loss of parkland By Vannessa Hearman MELBOURNE — Residents in the Parkville and Carlton areas have united to protect permanently reserved parkland at Royal Park near the Royal Melbourne Zoo which is being threatened by the
By Jim Green Western Australian energy minister Colin Barnett told the WA parliament on April 20 that there may be as many as 11 uranium mines in the state within five years. Barnett also raised the possibility that WA could become a site for
By Jim McIlroy BRISBANE — A number of Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) delegates and section councillors around the country have launched a campaign to reject the proposed 1999-2002 Centrelink agency agreement 1999-2002, which is being
'Fact and fantasy' at Lucas Heights reactor By Jim Green SYDNEY — The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), which operates the nuclear reactor in southern Sydney, is distributing a document called "Lucas Heights —
Cops bust picket line By John Nebauer ADELAIDE — Six people were arrested on April 22 after police broke a picket line at the site of the proposed Pelican Point power station. Members of Community Action for Pelican Point (CAPP) began the
Child-care centres close in Victoria Victorian Trades Hall Council and trade unions have launched a campaign to halt more closures of child-care centres, after a union study found 57 centres, most of them non-profit centres, have closed since
By Jeremy Smith MELBOURNE — Deakin University and Coles New World announced a new private vocational and higher education institution on April 14. Although details of the new "Coles Institute" are sketchy, the announcement signals a new stage in
Explosion during Maralinga 'clean-up' By Jim Green The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency has revealed that an explosion took place during the clean-up of the Maralinga nuclear bomb site in western South Australia on March
Passing of an Aboriginal rights activist By Margaret Allum Don McLeod has died in Perth, aged 91. Although non-Aboriginal, McLeod was a dedicated fighter for Aboriginal rights long before reconciliation became the word of the moment, espoused
By Robyn Marshall Antibiotics transformed human health beyond recognition after World War II. No longer were children and adults dying of common bacterial diseases dreaded by our grandmothers — pneumonia, tuberculosis, polio, scarlet fever,

World

By Renfrey Clarke MOSCOW — When police in the city of Krasnodar in southern Russia searched a rucksack belonging to 19-year-old Gennady Nepshikuyev last November, they found a bomb. It was not a particularly sophisticated bomb, just a container
By Norm Dixon The results of Turkey's April 18 national, provincial and local elections signal increased repression against the country's Kurdish minority and greater austerity for the working class. However, the strong vote in the south-east of
By Barry Sheppard For two weeks in the wake of the police's February 4 shooting of Ahmed Diallo, an unarmed African immigrant in New York, daily protests kept the spotlight on police terror against blacks and Hispanics. A mass civil disobedience
South Korean prosecutors are trying to arrest at least 20 leaders of the Seoul subway workers' union, including its president Seok Chi-soon, as part of an attempt by the South Korean government and big business to stop a Korean Confederation of Trade
Organising Jakarta's factory workers JAKARTA — Earlier this month, Green Left Weekly's SAM KING spoke to AGUS from the radical Jakarta factory workers' organisation Komite Buruh untuk Aksi Reformasi (Kobar — Workers' Committee for Reform
By Patrick Bond JOHANNESBURG — South Africa's June 2 national and provincial elections will be won by the African National Congress (ANC) government with two-thirds (or possibly more) of the vote. Nelson Mandela will hand the presidency
Mexican resistance strengthening By Phil Hearse MEXICO CITY — A demonstration against electricity privatisation and student fees by up to 250,000 workers, students and masked Zapatistas on March 18 was the high point of a week of struggle which
Global demo for cancelling Third World debt By Eva Cheng BRUSSELS — An international demonstration planned for June 19 to press for the cancellation of all Third World debt was endorsed at a conference organised by the Committee for the
Burmese leader was no socialist By Myint Zan In an article titled "The Last Fifty Years of Burmese Law: E Maung and Maung" (Law Asia, 1997), Andrew Huxley from London's School of African and Oriental Studies claims that the former president of

Culture

By James Vassilopoulos David Beniuk will perform songs from his latest CD, UnAustralian Folk Songs, at the Canberra Green Left Weekly May Day dinner on May 1 at the Pensioners Club in Acton. Beniuk describes his music as "dysfunctional/
Brisbane CISLAC's 20th anniversary By Lynda Hansen. BRISBANE — Fifty supporters of the Committee in Solidarity with Latin America and the Caribbean attended its Latin American dance party at the Resistance Centre on April 17. The event was the
The life and times of Pancho VillaBy Friedrich KatzStanford University Press, 1998 985 pp., $53.95 (pb) Review by Phil Shannon "From my earliest days, I saw that millions had to suffer for the few who became rich and lived luxuriously. I solemnly
Good morning Vietnam! Good morning, Vietnam! And it's a lovely day here in beautiful downtown Pristina. Wakey wakey, hands off snakey. It's time to rise and shine! Up and at them! It's yours truly on the dial way until 10 this AM today. Yessiree,
The Aboriginal Tent Embassy The Senator says it looks ramshackle.Well Senator, it is a tentIt's asking white Australiato pay the bloody rent. They told the bully boys in blueto pull it down in '72.But Aboriginal activistsjust resurrected it

Editorial

The GST: just reject it! The Senate inquiry into the federal government's proposed goods and services tax (GST) has unearthed plenty of evidence to prove that it is fundamentally unfair and inequitable. However, during the course of the inquiry,

General

By Allen Myers A month after the beginning of the US/NATO air war against Serbia, political and military preparations are clearly under way for a possible land war. A report by Martin Walker in the British Guardian on April 22 stated bluntly that
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By Michael Karadjis One view expressed about the war in the Balkans is that NATO is attacking Serbia because the Milosevic regime somehow stems the advance of Western economic penetration of the region, or, in more extreme versions, that it is
By Jim Green and Lisa Macdonald The national council of the Australian Greens adopted a resolution on the Balkans conflict at its meeting on April 10 and 11. The resolution begins: "The Australian Greens condemn the Serbian leadership in Kosova for
By Jim Green The German Greens, junior partners in the coalition government led by the Social Democratic Party (SPD), are divided over German involvement in NATO air strikes on Serbia and Kosova. The Greens' policy of calling for the dissolution of

Resistance!

US: it's money, not morals By Zanny Begg With grave insincerity, US President Bill Clinton informed the world on March 25 that NATO had a "moral imperative" to intervene in Serbia to "defuse a powder keg at the heart of Europe". Clinton assured
Reason #179 to be a socialist Each weekday morning, several million people around Australia make their way, like zombies, to work. And like zombies, we return home at the end of the day. Some struggle in traffic, others cram into buses or trains.
By Peter Robson BRISBANE — The University of Queensland Student Representative Council has passed a motion condemning the existence of the Cross-Campus Anti-VSU Collective (CCAVSUC), the organising committee for the campaign against voluntary
Youth wages By Nicole Berrell As we approach another May Day, young workers in this country face a huge attack on their rights. The Liberal Party's proposed Youth Wages Bill legislates permanently lower wages for young people. The ALP has
By Nikki Ulasowski and Rohan Pearce HOBART — At its meeting on April 20, the Tasmania University Union Students Representative Council condemned NATO's bombing of Serbia and the Australian government's support for the war. The SRC also condemned
World thug: an A-Z of US aggression By Zanny Begg Angola — 1975: civil war breaks out after Portugal is forced to withdraw. The US backs the right-wing Union for the Total Liberation of Angola in its counter-revolutionary war against the