Issue 399

News

Workers demand restoration of WorkCover By Chris Slee MELBOURNE — More than 4000 workers marched to the office of the Victorian Employers Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VECCI) on March 23 to demand improvements to WorkCover, Victoria's
Somali refugees to be deported By Sean Healy Three Somali asylum seekers announced on March 25 that they will ask the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs to deport them because they are so exhausted by the three years they have
Militant unions and the Labor government By Jorge Jorquera MELBOURNE — On March 22, Green Left Weekly's regular Politics in the Pub at Comrades Bar hosted a discussion on issues facing the union movement in Victoria. Speakers included Dave
By Sean Healy SYDNEY — Asylum seekers coming to Australia hoping for protection from persecution are suffering at the hands of "our national obsession with locking people up and our paranoia about Asia", human rights commissioner Chris Sidoti
By James Vassilopoulos CANBERRA — East Timor solidarity activist Gareth Smith faced charges of willful damage in the ACT Magistrate's Court on March 24. Last September, Smith painted "Shame Australia shame" on the front of Parliament House. If
Jack Davis, 1917-2000 By Maureen Sexton PERTH — Aboriginal activist, playwright, actor and poet Jack Davis died on March 17 after a long illness. He was 83 years old. Born in Perth in 1917, Jack spent his childhood in Yarloop about 140
Brisbane Resistance Centre relocates By Graham Matthews BRISBANE — After 13 years at 29 Terrace Street in New Farm the Brisbane Resistance Centre has relocated. Since an arson attack on the premises in August 1998, Resistance and the Democratic
By Nick Fredman LISMORE — Chanting "Stop these racist laws!", 200 people marched through the streets of Lismore on March 25. They had just heard speakers condemn the federal government's inaction on mandatory sentencing. The protesters were also
National Textiles workers paid After nearly nine weeks on the picket lines, 340 workers sacked from the National Textiles plant at Rutherford near Newcastle have been paid $11 million in wages, annual leave, pay in lieu and redundancy. Some workers
Police riot at Reclaim the Streets By Citizen P. SYDNEY — On March 18, 3000 people rallied here to protest against destructive corporate transport policies. Music came from solar-powered sound systems mounted in sculptures made from
By Sean Martin-Iverson PERTH — An announcement by the private, Catholic Notre Dame University that it intends to open a new medical school has been condemned by student activists and the WA branch of the National Union of Students. Notre Dame's
Students condemn education cuts By Catherine Smithand Arun Pradhan MELBOURNE — "Burn, Kemp, burn" was the chant taken up by hundreds of students outside Kay House at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) as a metre-wide effigy of
By Molly Wishart SYDNEY — About 700 hundred people attended a rally at Menai, near the Lucas Heights reactor plant in southern Sydney, on March 26. The main aim of the rally was to build support for the demand, initiated by the Sutherland Shire

World

Israeli soldiers maim Palestinian children By Alec Smart EAST JERUSALEM — On December 16, I sat in a Lebanese restaurant discussing the ins and outs of the forthcoming millennium celebrations with Ralph. Ralph works for the Temporary
Bougainville: doubts over autonomy, referendum agreement By Mark Abberton "The Bougainville Revolutionary Army's (BRA) patience is fast running out with the Papua New Guinea government's crippling indecisiveness and inability to understand a
By Norm Dixon Turkey's military dominated government is cynically exploiting the Kurdistan Workers' Party's (PKK) unilateral political concessions. Rather than respond with a relaxation of its hardline opposition to Kurdish political, language and
By Farooq Sulehria LAHORE — The Labour Party Pakistan (LPP) organised a demonstration outside the US consulate here on March 22 to protest against the visit to Pakistan of US President Bill Clinton. Three days earlier, Pakistan's military
DSP: stop the attacks and restore democracy! The following letter of protest was sent to the Pakistan's General Pervaiz Musharraf by the Democratic Socialist Party in Australia on March 25. We strongly protest the raids by Pakistani army and
By Stuart Ross Seven years ago, on a snowy Saturday in March, a record crowd braved the cold to watch Syracuse's 11th annual St Patrick's Day parade. More than 160,000 central New Yorkers enjoyed an afternoon full of bands, floats and — as they
US conference exposes Washington's 'war against the poor' By Bill Nevins EUGENE, Oregon USA — "People ask me what I'm reading these days. I'm reading history — about the Nazis, about slavery. That seems closest to what is happening to poor
By Eva Cheng Chen Shui-bian became Taiwan's second freely elected president on March 18. His victory has kick-started an unprecedented process that may force democratisation in Taiwan to be speeded and greatly increase popular pressure on Beijing
By Pip Hinman Indonesian House of Representatives speaker and Golkar faction leader Akbar Tandjung wants the Abdurrahman Wahid government to ratify the draconian security law which was pushed through a depleted parliament during the last hours of
US Senate votes to ease Cuba blockade On March 23, pressure from US farmers, agribusiness and politicians representing "farm states" convinced the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee to vote to allow greater sales of US food and medicine to Cuba,
Outrage at rail safety U-turn By Daphne Liddle Britain's deputy prime minister John Prescott is facing a public outcry after backing down on his pledge, made in the wake of the Paddington rail disaster, to remove the responsibility for rail

A few months ago I was simply a political analyst. However, since March, I have stepped back into a role I had almost forgotten — that of coordinator of an informal political movement, in this case to organise a boycott of the Russian presidential election.

Hands off Kirov trade unionists! By Steve Myers Russian labour activists Sergei Salnikov and Maksim Karpikov, leaders of the independent trade union Zaschita (Defence) in Kirov, have been arrested for distributing leaflets asking people not to
By Gilberto Firmat ATLANTA — As the United States' kidnapping of Elian Gonzalez enters its fifth month, US attorney-general Janet Reno continues to steer her department on a course that openly defies the January court ruling, which she endorsed,
Indonesia: has democracy been won? Comment by Max Lane Socialists and progressive people face an important challenge in the coming few years to match the "solidarity" the Australian ruling class is extending to the new government of Indonesia and
Labour Party Pakistan leaders hunted by police By Farooq Sulehria LAHORE — Police and soldiers raided the houses and offices of Labour Party Pakistan leaders on the night of March 22. The raids occurred just hours after an LPP-organised
By Allen Myers PHNOM PENH — Negotiations between the Cambodian government and United Nations representatives, spread over five days, on arrangements for a trial of former leaders of the murderous Khmer Rouge regime of 1975-79 ended without formal

Culture

E.H. Carr: the historian as partisan The vices of integrity: EH Carr 1892-1982By Jonathan HaslamVerso, 1999306pp., $75 (hb) Review by Phil Shannon There haven't been many historians who, having spent most of their career as Foreign Office
EE The History of Australian Feminism: Getting EqualBy Marilyn LakeAllen & Unwin$29.95 Review by Rachel Evans In her introduction, Marilyn Lake states that the aim of The History of Australian Feminism: Getting Equal is to correct common
Face to FaceBy David WilliamsonDarwin Theatre CompanyDarwin Entertainment Centre, March 22 to April 8 Review by Peter Johnston An angry young man, Glen (Tim Sinclair), with a troubled family background, assaults a co-worker and is sacked from the
Big business, GMOs and technology Review by Daniel Jardine Genetic Engineering, Food, and the Environment: a Brief GuideBy Luke AndersonScribe Publications, Melbourne 2000192 pp., $17.95 (pb) This book should be read by everyone who eats and

Editorial

Environmental criminals Yet another toxic spill by an Australian mining company in the Third World provides a compelling argument for tougher laws against polluters. It also exposes the futility of "industry self-regulation". On March 22, one

Resistance!

Students march to defend education Fifteen hundred students marched on March 22 in a national day of action called by the National Union of Students (NUS). The students called for an end to cuts in staff, a livable income for students, the
By Jo Brown "The Australian government betrayed the people of East Timor. It supported the invasion. It supported Suharto. It signed the Timor Gap oil treaty with Indonesia. It supported Indonesia remaining in charge of security before, during and
NOWSA 2000 From July 10-14, Flinders University in Adelaide will host the Network of Women Students Australia conference. NOWSA plays an important role in facilitating campaigns, providing a national forum for discussion, helping campus feminists