Between 1850 and 1914, the main infrastructure projects in Australia were state-owned and controlled. These included the railways and the water, electricity, telephone and sewerage systems. At federation, state governments owned
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Jobs and services go, private profit grows By Jonathan Singer Just where does the privatisation of public services get you? Some of the answer — cuts to jobs and services — has been splashed across the front pages of the
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Equal opportunity in cyberspace? In 1995, academic Dale Spender wrote a book called Nattering on the Net: Women, Power and Cyberspace. In it she urged women to join the cyberspace race and avoid being left behind in the multimedia
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MELBOURNE — On February 21, the longest running blockade of logging operations in East Gippsland was brutally attacked by 50 men wielding axes, sawn timber and iron bars. The camp at Goolengook was destroyed and 13
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With the release of unemployment figures late last year, John Howard remarked approvingly on an apparent fall in "second income earners" in the work force. There's obviously no doubt in the PM's mind that women should be safely at
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Victoria's Labor government, the unions and the leftMELBOURNE — In its first 100 days, the Victorian Labor government, led by Premier Steve Bracks, has established its priorities. Bracks has sought to secure business
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Federal ALP leader Kim Beazley and Labor's industrial relations spokesperson Arch Bevis have finally caught up with the common view that the Accord is dead ... or have they? In an interview with Workers Online (March 3),
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April Fools' Day Since the people seemed to grow cold in their devotion at this time, with human apathy greatly increasing, the venerable leader of the nation, being then in his post of pastoral care, desiring to root out the said
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Zero tolerance policing I have just read Norm Dixon's article "Killer cops go free" (GLW #396). I agree with Dixon that Zero Tolerance policing is a disaster, not just in New York also in Sydney. Its application to a small Arabic speaking community
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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 Sunday, 9-11pm. Ph 9565 5522. Access News — Melbourne
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The business of universitiesSince Labor education minister John Dawkins launched his infamous green paper on higher education in December 1987, public education has taken a battering from governments of both
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Past and present? By Brandon Astor Jones "Doctors [in America] ... are treating more and more patients for back problems related to carrying too much weight on their backs. Furthermore, the patients reporting pain are quite young. A study
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Help celebrate Green Left's 400th In two weeks, Green Left Weekly will produce its 400th issue. This is a special occasion for all those people in Australia and overseas who have, during the last nine years, contributed articles, photographs,
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This is the age of the internet. The daily papers carry technology supplements extolling the wonders that will soon descend. No reader can be left in any doubt: better and better technology is about to solve every human need. The future is
News
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BRISBANE — Two thousand manufacturing workers rallied in the city on March 15 — with the support of their bosses. The rally was organised to protest against the loss of manufacturing jobs from Queensland, and specifically the
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MELBOURNE — Three thousand construction workers marched through the streets of Melbourne on March 17 in support of their unions' claim for a shorter working week, confident that they are close to winning their demands for a
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Meeting condemns nuclear cycleMELBOURNE — The Australian nuclear industry's justifications for building a new nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights in suburban Sydney are untrue, a public meeting here on March 15 heard. Anti-nuclear
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Cuba film premiere NEWCASTLE — Two hundred people attended the premiere of a documentary about Cuban music, the Buena Vista Social Club, here on 17 March. The screening was sponsored by the Committee in Solidarity with Latin America and the
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Sex, drugs and our right to decide Marina Carman The $5 million National Alcohol Campaign has hit our TV screens. In the two advertisements, teenagers drinking alcohol end up either having unsafe sex or beating someone up. The campaign includes
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Education cuts hit AdelaideADELAIDE — A proposal to amalgamate the Elder Conservatorium of Music with the School of Music at Flinders University has sparked widespread anger. Two hundred students attended a
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GOLD COAST — Public access to popular Back Creek Gorge in the Gold Coast hinterland has been won back from the Australian army, which wanted the land to expand their Canungra Land Warfare Centre. What began as a protest by 200
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UTS unionists vote for industrial actionSYDNEY — Academics and general staff at the University of Technology, Sydney have voted to begin rolling strikes at the university to secure a new enterprise agreement. The unionists
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Workers' alternative needed, say socialist candidatesBRISBANE — "The Democratic Socialists support a city council which truly represents the working people of Brisbane", socialist candidates Graham Matthews and Coral Wynter
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Students oppose UWS mergerSYDNEY — Student activists from the University of Western Sydney (UWS) have united under the banner of "Westy Net" to organise against a major restructuring of the university that is likely to reduce
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Maggots unite! "It sounds terrible, but it is a fact that flies get into wounds on occasions." — Senator John Herron, representing the minister for aged care, excusing maggots infesting the wounds of patients at Perth's Kensington Park Nursing
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Protest against mandatory sentencing! MELBOURNE: "Oppose mandatory sentencing". Resistance forum. Guest speaker from Deaths in Custody Watch Committee. Thursday, March 23, 1pm. Union Laws, Melbourne University. SYDNEY: Protest against the visit
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If you came across the headline "Valley of death", what would you imagine? A massacre? A hideous natural or un-natural disaster? In fact, the February 22 Sydney Morning Herald editorial under this headline was about the Happy
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Olympics forcing Sydney rents upSYDNEY — Tenant rights advocates Rentwatchers have warned that rent levels in the Olympics corridor here are skyrocketing and the frequency of evictions from houses, flats and lodges in the city
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When the Coalition government announced that it was introducing the "Timor tax" in November, Green Left Weekly warned that it could be used as a precedent for introducing other "special purpose" levies. It was quite likely, we argued,
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Griffith students unite for better conditionsBRISBANE — An upgrade of computer facilities, tutorial sizes capped at 15, free child-care, better security on campus, abolition of library fines and an end to academic job losses
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Nestle targeted for GE foodSYDNEY — Protesters outside the offices of food giant Nestle have demanded that the company declare that its products sold in Australia have not been genetically engineered. The March 15 protest,
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Speaking tour will highlight need for solidarityDespite democratic changes in Indonesia and the end of the occupation of East Timor, "... there's still lots of reasons why solidarity from people in Australia is desperately
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Resistance pushes on MELBOURNE — Resistance members here spent their Labour Day holiday on March 30 at the Push On concert at Melbourne's Luna Park. Thousands of young people, mainly high school students, gathered to hear bands play. Resistance
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Three hundred students rallied at the Southern Cross University in Lismore on March 15 to protest against a $50 late enrolment fee which was levied on 1000 students. The university failed to give adequate notification that the due
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Grassroots action needed against mandatory sentencingBRISBANE — Two hundred people attending a meeting against mandatory sentencing at City Hall here on March 17 were told, "If we let politicians introduce these laws, the
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CLP by-election victory proves littleDARWIN — The Northern Territory's chief minister, Denis Burke, claims that the Country Liberal Party (CLP) victory in the March 11 Port Darwin by-election shows that Territorians approve of
Analysis
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Mandatory sentencing: it isn't over In spite of Senate and United Nations reports finding mandatory sentencing laws are in breach of international conventions, and in spite of the Senate's March 15 adoption of a private member's bill overturning
World
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Reject Wahid's austerity plan, says PRDSince his election five months ago, the new president of Indonesia, Abdurrahman Wahid, has managed to create the impression that his is a people-friendly government. But how true is this?
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Job seekers demonstrate in East TimorDILI — Frustration and discontent spilt over into another demonstration here on March 7 as 300 job seekers gathered outside the offices of the United Nations Transitional Administration in
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East Timorese under attackThe recent spate of pro-integration militia incursions along the western border of East Timor highlights the failure and unwillingness of the Indonesian government to disarm its militia gangs in West Timor.
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The left-wing FMLN (Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front) won a resounding victory in March 12 legislative and municipal elections in El Salvador. The win is the FMLN's most significant political gain since the signing of the
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Hindu fundamentalists knocked backThe February attempt by India's main Hindu fundamentalist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), to seize power through the back door in India's second largest state, Bihar, has failed miserably.
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Melting snow and torrential rains broke a dam at the Baia Borsa lead and zinc mine in Romania, 375 kilometres north-west of Bucharest, on March 10. More than 18,000 tonnes of sediment laden with lead, zinc, copper and a small
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SURABAYA — One thousand five hundred workers at PT Surabaya Meka Box in East Java, Indonesia, began a strike on February 21 to protest against the dismissal of three colleagues who were representing workers in negotiations for a new
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On March 16, the Paris Club of rich creditor countries announced a suspension of Mozambique's debt repayments until July, following the floods that devastated the country earlier this month. The Jubilee 2000 coalition, which campaigns for the
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Korean steelworkers press onAgainst great odds, almost 190 Sammi Specialty Steel workers in South Korea are continuing their long struggle for jobs and justice after 580 workers were dismissed by the Pohang Steel Company (Posco)
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March 16 marks the twelfth anniversary of the massacre of Kurdish people in Halabja, in north-east Iraq. Madhi Kalka, a Kurdish journalist now living in Perth, has written an account of the events and their aftermath.
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Indonesia plans to deport labour consultantRoger Smith, an Australian who works for the American Centre for International Labor Solidarity, which is funded by the US government and the AFL-CIO, has been threatened with deportation
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New party is 'a half-way house' Patrick Bond spoke with MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai in Johannesburg. Question: How can the MDC's industrial worker and urban community activists persuade the rural folk to abandon Mugabe's "nationalism". We're
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What happened to the Democratic Republic of East Timor? DILI — The small, unassuming office of the CPD-RDTL (Council in Defence of the Democratic Republic of East Timor) in Balide belies the debate that is brewing over the restoration of the
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Serious events are taking place in the areas of southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq) where the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), led by Jalal Talabani, is imposing its rule. The PUK has violated the political freedoms and human
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The following is abridged from a statement by MUHAMMAD NAZAR, chairperson of the presidium board of the Aceh Referendum Information Centre (SIRA), to Indonesia's President Abdurrahman Wahid, dated March 5. Violence and human rights violations by the
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Under the Communist Party's tight control, the annual session of China's parliament — the National People's Congress (NPC) — has traditionally been a staged event. It often is, however, a useful gauge of Beijing's prevailing
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New, draconian labour laws recently enacted by the Iranian regime will exempt small businesses from the Islamic Labour Law, affecting 2.8 million workers and resulting in 600,000 redundancies, according to a statement by the
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All eyes on Zimbabwe's new 'workers' party'JOHANNESBURG — The Shona-language slogan of the popular new political party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), has spread far and wide throughout the countryside: Chinja!
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Behind the Spanish left's worst electoral loss By G. Buster In the March 12 Spanish election, the left suffered the worst electoral defeat in its history. After four years of conservative and neo-liberal policies, the governing People's Party
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Turkish police attack neighbourhood Several thousand Turkish cops, including anti-riot police and special units with face masks and assault-style weapons, swept the predominantly leftist and Kurdish Gazi neighbourhood in Istanbul on March 12. Three
Culture
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CANBERRA — A new permanent exhibition has recently opened in Old Parliament House's Discover Gallery. The exhibition, Corridors of Power, looks at Australia's political and social history since federation in 1901. The exhibition
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Indonesian art and politicsFrom November 26 to January 29, the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art in Melbourne hosted an exhibition of Indonesian art called AWAS! — the Indonesian word for "beware". The exhibition will be in
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Exhibition extended in western Sydney The Living without Violence 2000 exhibition reviewed in the previous issue of Green Left Weekly has been extended due to popular demand. The exhibition, which provides art spaces and audiences for women artists
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Review by Sean Healy Stopping Traffik: the war against the war on drugsDirected by Jerry ThompsonSBS TVTuesday, April 4, 8.30pm. There's a point in this Canadian documentary when you realise the devastating effect of governments' relentless war
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Girt by seaA few weeks ago, I was reading some of Frederick Engels' correspondence and came across an interesting letter. Someone was compiling a book of labour movement songs and wrote to Engels asking his advice on songs to