By Lachlan Malloch
SYDNEY — Staff employed at Technical and Further Education (TAFE) institutes across NSW are desperately trying to fend off severe funding cuts and job losses. As part of the state Labor government's June budget, $35 million is
Issue 372
News
Pangea campaign begins
By Grant Coleman
PERTH — The relocation soon of the head office of Pangea Resources, the company that has proposed the construction of an international high-level nuclear waste dump in Australia, indicates its interest in
By Robyn Marshall and Stella Riethmuller
BRISBANE — About 300 women attended a rally in King George Square to celebrate National Abortion Rights Day, Sunday August 8. Abortion remains in the criminal code in every state in Australia, yet at least
Opposition grows to M5 'death stack'
By Jonathan Singer
SYDNEY — About 100 people packed the Ferncourt primary school hall in Marrickville on August 11 to begin organising against the construction of the unfiltered exhaust stack for the M5
Aborigines call for preamble to include their sovereignty
Aborigines call for preamble to include sovereignty
By James Vassilopoulos
CANBERRA — The Aboriginal Tent Embassy on August 10 demanded that any preamble to the constitution recognise
By Jacqueline Clay
ADELAIDE — Last week, nurses refused to close down beds in ward 6B at Flinders Medical Centre. Sixteen beds were to be closed on August 9, and management is talking about closing 30 to 60 beds to cover a $5 million budget
10 reasons to stop Badgerys Creek airport
1. Environmental pollution: the Badgerys Creek flight paths would traverse Warragamba Dam, which supplies most of Sydney's water. Dumped fuel, leaks or a plane crash could contaminate the dam. Vast numbers
Coalminers strike for workers' entitlements
By Jonathan Singer
Coalminers across Australia struck on August 13. The miners, all members of the mining division of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, were protesting government
ACT forced to negotiate with bursars
By Sue Bull
CANBERRA — School bursars, locked out of schools three weeks ago for banning extra duties, have forced the ACT government to agree to upgrade their wage classification. The breakthrough in the
Big rallies against Badgerys Creek airport
By Paul Benedek
SYDNEY — With the federal Coalition government's decision due soon on whether the 24-hour airport at Badgerys Creek should proceed, around 1000 residents of Sydney's western suburbs
Indonesian unionists' tour off to good start
Indonesian union leader Dita Sari's Australian tour began when she arrived in Perth to an emotional welcome on August 8, reports Roberto Jorquera. The recently released political prisoner was met by
Firefighters suspend action
By Frances Sheehan
SYDNEY — On August 13, a mass meeting of Fire Brigade Employees Union (FBEU) members voted to end two weeks of industrial action after winning a commitment from the state Labor government to
Fight back discussed
SYDNEY — Around 100 people attended a forum titled "Defend our services, defend our unions" at the Transport Workers Club on August 10. The forum was organised by the Community Action Group.
Speakers included John Sutton,
CPSU tax section council debates 'second wave'
By Ben Courtice
MELBOURNE — The tax section council of the Community and Public Sector Union met from August 6 to 9. The main discussion was the campaign for a new enterprise agreement. The council
By Lara Pullin
CANBERRA — A national speaking tour of anti-abortion campaigner Dr Joel Brind is to take place August 20-30. Sponsored by the far-right Catholic group Human Life International and the Endeavour Foundation, Brind is being promoted
Workers rally against Reith's 'second wave'
By Robert Hodder
MELBOURNE — More than 100,000 workers rallied and marched here on August 12 to fight industrial relations minister Peter Reith's "second wave" of anti-union laws. The proposed laws
ACT teachers mobilise
By Leigh Hughes
CANBERRA — On August 11, more than 2000 teachers stopped work to discuss a new enterprise bargaining agreement. At the half-day meeting, attended by 85% of ACT teachers, the Australian Education Union
Record fine not enough
BRISBANE — The Industrial Magistrate's Court here has imposed a $40,000 fine on a Bulimba boat-building company over the 1998 death of an apprentice, who was electrocuted at work.
Queensland Council of Unions secretary
Dorf and Beauty Ware picketers defiant
By Chris Spindler
MELBOURNE — Australian Manufacturing Workers Union members at the Beauty Ware and Dorf factories in Melbourne's south-east are maintaining picket lines in their battle to save their jobs.
By Nick Fredman
LISMORE — Friends of East Timor (FET) groups and supporters of Green Left Weekly in northern NSW have organised successful events in solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor. In Byron Bay on July 4, 120 people attended a screening
World
Indonesian activist undaunted by attack
JAKARTA — DHYTA CATURANI, an activist in Indonesia's People's Democratic Party (PRD), was shot and severely beaten in a police and military attack on the party's July 1 rally outside the electoral
JAKARTA — Shalar Kosi is the secretary general of the Socialist Party of Timor (PST). In an interview with Green Left Weekly, he stressed that the crucial question for socialists in East Timor is building bases among the people.
By Sean Healy
Scores of Indian villagers are threatening to drown themselves in the rising waters of the remote Narmada River in protest against the construction of the Sardar Sarovar Dam. The villagers, organised in the Narmada Bachao Andolan
Socialists in Prague have appealed for international solidarity against political violence directed against them by several anarchist groups. An appeal issued by the League for a Revolutionary Communist International (LRCI) has called for the recent
Megawati, Habibie and political alternatives
By Max Lane
JAKARTA — On July 29, Megawati Sukarnoputri addressed a select group of supporters at the national office of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P). The speech was to lay
By Doris
On the third attempt we made it — a meeting with some of the women guerrilla fighters in East Timor. These women are part of Falintil, the resistance army that has been fighting for freedom in Timor Loro Sae (East Timor) since the
Indonesian oil workers win strike
The International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) reports that 8000 Indonesian oil rig workers ended a six-week strike on August 7, after winning many of their demands. The
Y2K nuclear warning
By Jim Green
On August 6, Hiroshima Day, a letter signed by more than 260 environmental, peace, trade union and church groups was sent to US President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin demanding that they
By Siddartha
DELHI — "The Kargil war [in Kashmir between India and Pakistan] was forced on India. It had no other choice." This was the Indian establishment's consensus on the Kargil crisis. But let us stretch this argument a few steps further.
Climate change impacts on Arctic
A three-week Greenpeace expedition to the retreating Arctic ice pack, completed on July 31, has uncovered new evidence that climate change is impacting on the wildlife and ecology of the region. The Greenpeace
By Michael Karadjis
The Trepca zinc, lead, cadmium, gold and silver mining and metallurgy complex in the north of Kosova has been described as the "most valuable piece of real estate in the Balkans" by Chris Hedges, the Balkan writer for the New
Indonesian army stokes violence in Aceh
By James Balowski
On August 4, a two-day general strike in Indonesia's northernmost province of Aceh left most cities and towns deserted, public transport paralysed and business brought to a standstill.
By Farooq Sulehria
LAHORE — Since Pakistan and India have gone nuclear, August 6 — Hiroshima Day — has become an important day for peace activists. In both India and Pakistan, socialists are in the forefront of the peace movement. Hiroshima
By Becky Ellis
QUÉBEC — Over the past six months, nurses throughout Canada have been at the forefront of labour struggle as they protest against being overworked and underpaid, and against governments' austerity drives in health care
Culture
In the three decades that film director Ken Loach has steadfastly championed the British working class, his work has lost none of its sting.
The Left in History: Revolution and Reform in Twentieth Century PoliticsBy Willie ThompsonPluto Press, 1997, 263 pp., $44.95. Review by Jonathan Singer
What are the political lessons from the left's history in the 20th century? Willie Thompson
Actively Radical TV — Sydney community television's progressive current affairs producers tackle the hard issues from the activist's point of view. CTS Sydney (UHF 31), every Thursday, 10pm and Saturday, 10.30pm. Ph 9565 5522.
Access News —
Garvaghy: A Community Under SiegeBy the Garvaghy Road ResidentsBeyond the Pale PublicationsBelfast, 120pp.Send £8.99 to 5-7 Conway St, Belfast, BT13 2DEE-mail <info@btpale.ie> for postage rates Review by Stuart Ross
On July 4, the
Skin-deep beauty
The Beauty Queen of LeenaneBy Martin McDonaghSydney Theatre CompanyThe Wharf, SydneyUntil September 4 Review by Brendan Doyle
On Broadway it was the season's most acclaimed new play, where it won four Tony awards and several
The pain of crossed paths
Haunted by the PastBy Dr Ruby Langford-GinibiAllen & Unwin, 1999$17.95 (pb) Reviewed by Ray Jackson
On July 5, I had the great honour to launch Dr Ruby Langford-Ginibi's new book, her fourth, Haunted by the Past. I
Resistance!
By Kerryn Williams
Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET) clubs are being established on universities across the country. Several clubs have already been launched, and more will form in the coming weeks. The Sydney University
Brisbane Resistance was appalled at the attempt by Griffith University administration to ban the women's edition of the campus newspaper Gravity for featuring a picture of women's genitals with a poem which read "this is my cunt, it is beautiful like
DILI — On August 5, Green Left Weekly's Sam King spoke to MARIANO SABINO LOPEZ, chairperson of the central leadership council of the East Timorese Student Union (IMPETTU) and vice-president of East Timorese National Student Resistance (Renetil), an
By Jacquie Moon
On July 21, 1968, the Sydney Sunday Telegraph reported that "a well-organised youth movement is recruiting school children in NSW with slogans like 'Support the NLF'. The organisation, Resistance, openly supports the opposing forces
By Rohan Pearce
HOBART — Discussions between Resistance and Keep Left (a student electoral grouping made up of members from the Non-Aligned Left (NAL) and Tasmania University Greens), about forming a united left ticket to intervene in the
By Tristan Miller
ADELAIDE — On August 4, the Resistance club at Brighton High School held a lunchtime screening of David Bradbury's film Jabiluka. The screening was highly successful, with more than 20 people attending. This included three
By Zanny Begg
You could keep your eyes shut during Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut and not miss much. The meandering three-hour-long film is boring. So mild and boring it is hard to image how it earned its R rating. True, Tom Cruise and Nicole
By Chris Latham
Voter registration for the August 30 ballot on autonomy or independence for East Timor finished on August 6. Around 427,000 people registered. The large number of registrations is significant, reflecting the refusal of the East