Unions split from South Coast Labor Council
By Andrew Hall
WOLLONGONG — A number of trade unions that backed the defeated challenge to the leadership of the South Coast Labor Council (SCLC) have begun to disaffiliate in order to establish a new
Issue 361
News
By Bronwen Beechey
ADELAIDE — More than 2000 people opposed to the proposed Pelican Point power station rallied in Semaphore on May 9 at a protest organised by Community Action for Pelican Point (CAPP). CAPP has been picketing the power station
A budget for the 19th century
Some media commentators have dubbed the federal budget a "do-nothing" budget and claimed there are "no nasties" in it. On the contrary, this budget is another giant stride down the government's path of destroying the
By Melanie Sjoberg
ADELAIDE — Long-time union and environment activist Davey Thomason has suffered police harassment and may have been sacked from his position as an organiser with the SA branch of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy
Staff win at Victoria University
By Jeremy Smith
MELBOURNE — Management at the Victoria University of Technology have backed down in the face of a National Tertiary Education Industry Union (NTEU) campaign against censorship. On April 12, three
GST and the Democrats
"Mr Costello has my number", Democrat leader Senator Meg Lees declared after independent Senator Brian Harradine announced that he would vote against the government's goods and services tax.
Her words had a double meaning,
Correction
In the article "Pelican Point picket wins support" (GLW #359), Stuart Easom from Community Action for Pelican Point was quoted as saying, "While the police have been arresting ordinary citizens at the picket, the real criminals are
Jabiluka: the plot thickens
By Jim Green
Pressure from Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) has increased on the Mirrar traditional owners to concede on their opposition to Jabiluka uranium mine. The company has brought the construction of a
By Jonathan Singer
The federal government's budget has increased the push to impose compulsory work on the unemployed in return for dole payments. The government is to enforce "mutual obligation" — the obligation on the jobless to work for
By Bronwen Beechey
ADELAIDE — Public Transport Union (PTU) members held a five-hour stop-work meeting on May 11 to protest against the deterioration in wages and conditions which has resulted from privatisation of public transport.
Under SA
By Tom Flanagan
SYDNEY — The dust settled after the March 27 NSW state poll to reveal an upper house (Legislative Council) with 13 MPs on the cross benches. The Labor Party has 16 and the Coalition 13. Four parties are represented for the first
By Jim Green
The federal budget has angered environmentalists. Funding for environment programs and groups has been reduced, some funding has been tied to the sale of Telstra and funding for environment groups will be conditional on their
Lessons of the Longford gas explosion
By Vannessa Hearman
MELBOURNE — At the end of April, final submissions were presented to the royal commission into the gas explosion and fire at Esso's Longford facility in the Latrobe Valley. The Victorian
By Ana Kailis
PERTH — The WA Liberal government's decision to establish a non-union private port at Naval Base, south of Fremantle, has fuelled speculation that the unionised Fremantle port may be wound back. The private tender was issued to four
Marathon Foods dispute
By Sarah Lantz
MELBOURNE — A sign stating "Dim sims, spring rolls and rotten bosses" adorns the front of the Marathon Foods Company in Kensington where Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) members and supporters
Newcastle Trades Hall endorses Indonesia solidarity
NEWCASTLE — Newcastle Trades Hall endorsed the May 22 international day of solidarity with East Timor and Indonesia at its meeting on May 13. The meeting was addressed by Action in Solidarity
Solidarity with East Timorese and Indonesian people grows
Campaigning in solidarity with the East Timorese struggle for independence and the Indonesian people's struggle for democracy heated up around Australia last week, building up to the
Protesters blockade Timbarra road
TENTERFIELD — More than 100 protesters opposed to Ross Mining's Timbarra goldmine have set up three blockades on the access road between Tenterfield and the mine site.
The blockade is a combined effort by
By Bill Mason
BRISBANE — Two men who took part in the Patrick lockout dispute as Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) members last year, former Queensland branch organiser Bob Carnegie and union activist Mick Fulton, spoke to 30 people after a
Sacked TAFE teachers' case begins
By Jonathan Singer
MELBOURNE — On May 17 and June 1, the Equal Opportunity Tribunal will begin to hear Alison Thorne and Barbara Morgan's cases against their sacking by the Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE
World
By Norm Dixon
Nigeria's corrupt military and business elite has been busy safeguarding its future, even though it succeeded in placing its favoured candidate, former military dictator Olusegun Obasanjo, in the president's post at the February 27
By Eva Cheng
In the days following NATO's May 7 bombing of China's Belgrade embassy, Beijing mobilised hundreds of thousands of students in protests in nearly 20 Chinese cities. From May 12, the demonstrations started to subside, as the police
We all know about the escalating terror — and struggle — in East Timor. The movement for independence for East Timor has forced the Indonesian regime to allow the United Nations to hold a referendum in which the East Timorese can vote for
By Nurullah Ozbek
On May 31, the trial of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan will begin in Turkey. Ocalan faces the death penalty for "treason" — that is, for leading the Kurdish people's struggle for their national rights. The
Union leader arrested in Nigeria
In the early hours of April 25, Lagos National Union of Journalists leader Lanre Arogundade was taken from his house by plain-clothes police. He is being held at police headquarters in the Oyo state capital, Ibadan.
East Timor resistance stands firm
By Jon Land
Student and youth activists in East Timor have shown their determination by staging a series of spirited pro-independence rallies. Protest actions beginning on May 4 lasted five days, the largest
Who's who in the Indonesian elections
By Max Lane
The official campaign period for the June general elections in Indonesia begins on May 19. However, the struggle for the domination of the next parliament, the composition of the next government
ANC social policy follows World Bank advice
By Patrick Bond
JOHANNESBURG — Leaders of the African National Congress defend the South African government's lamentable economic record since 1994, which has included the loss of half a million
More than 100,000 Scots vote socialist
Across Scotland, more than 100,000 people voted for the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) and Arthur Scargill's Socialist Labour Party (SLP) in the party list vote, and a further 25,000 voted for expelled Labour
By Eva Cheng
In Japan's once-in-four-year local elections, which ended in late April, the Japan Communist Party (JCP) won 2412 seats, 278 more than in 1995, bringing its total seats in local governments (including those not up for election this
Scots punish Labour, vote left
By Alan McCombes
As the Holyrood [Scottish parliament] election results poured in on May 7, there were scenes of jubilation among New Labour's dwindling battalions of Scottish activists — an outpouring of relief
Culture
Amidst a raft of entertaining music documentaries, SBS is also screening as part of its "The Sixties" theme week (May 22-29) some political films that should be watched by every activist who either was too young to be there or was there but whose
Resistance!
A short time ago, the regime in Indonesia was one of the most stable in Asia. President Suharto had been in power for 32 years and was considered invincible. Political life was held in the iron grip of the military. Those who dissented were
By Maria Voukelatos
SYDNEY — On May 13, 30 people gathered to picket the Indonesian Trade and Promotion Centre here. This was one in a series of pickets organised by Resistance and Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET). The
Profile of a revolutionary
By Sam King in Indonesia
Name: Budiman SujatmikoBorn: 14 March 1970Residence: Cipinang prison, JakartaOccupation: revolutionary Budiman was a student in the economics faculty at the University of Gadjah Mada in
By Wendy Robertson
Students in Australia and overseas have declared May 22 an international day of solidarity with the struggles for independence in East Timor and genuine democracy in Indonesia. Rallies and demonstrations are planned in 11 cities
By Chris Latham
Since West Papua was transferred from Dutch to Indonesian control in 1963, the region has been subject to continuous human rights violations by the Indonesian regime and its armed forces. In 1969, the Indonesian regime organised a
Budget aims at education for profit
By Zanny Begg
The May 11 federal budget pushes forward the privatisation of secondary and tertiary education in Australia. Private schools will be handed an extra $561 million over the next four years, in
By Angela Luvera
WOLLONGONG — In a move that has angered local elders, students and many other people, the Wollongong University administration has axed the bachelor of health science in indigenous health course. The bachelor of health science in
In mid-April, Resistance activist SAM KING spoke in Indonesia to ALI MOLINA, an Acehnese student in the law faculty of Shatwa University and a member of Student Solidarity with the People, about the political situation in Aceh. Question: Tell us
By Wendy Robertson
Resistance has decided to organise, along with other feminist students, a range of workshops for this year's Network of Women Students of Australia conference (July 16-20 in Melbourne) covering issues which have not so far been
Students remembered
Thousands of students, including 3000 from Trisakti University, rallied on May 12 to remember the four student activists killed by Indonesian soldiers on May 12, 1998. The four were architecture student Elang Mulya