By Catherine Brown PERTH — "Equity, Equality and Participation" was the theme of the inaugural Trades and Labor Council annual conference. Held days, February 15-16, the conference was a new and welcome concept for a union movement lacking any
Issue 3
News
Carpenters union leadership in doubt By Michael Bull MELBOURNE — The leadership of the Victorian branch of the Association of Carpenters and Joiners has been changed twice in the last few weeks following revelations that large sums of money have
By Janine Prince and Philippa Stanford BRISBANE — Women on campus here are fighting to maintain services and rights that are under attack. The women's rights area at the University of Queensland is threatened by a student executive that has
By Sally Low SYDNEY — From Friday July 12 to Sunday July 14 women from all round Australia will gather here to attend a National Lesbian Conference at the University of Technology. Clare Gallagher from the organising committee hopes that up to a
By Norm Dixon An Australian military official helped cover up the involvement of Australian-supplied Iroquois combat helicopters in the brutal execution of six Bougainvilleans by PNG troops in February last year, according to the second part of a
By Leon Harrison PERTH — The state government's plans for tourist development of Rottnest Island are meeting determined opposition from Aboriginal people are fighting to protect burial sites and to turn the old jail into a museum. From 1838
By David Mizon MELBOURNE — Conditions for workers at Shell's Geelong plant are to worsen seriously under proposals put forward late in February by the plant Award Restructuring Steering Committee. The steering committee was made up of
Protests slam Gulf 'allies' By Jim McIlroy BRISBANE — Popular opposition to the US-led war against Iraq was expressed in a rally and march here on Sunday, February 19, sponsored by the Gulf Action Coalition. Feature speaker at a rally in the
Illawarra Steelers and State Rugby League player Rod Wishart and women's surf champion Jenny Gill were among the 190 participants in the inaugural Swim for Guatemala in Wollongong on February 23. Jointly oragnised by the Committee in Solidarity with
Aborigines claim Cape York land By Philippa Stanford BRISBANE — A furore broke out in Queensland when it was discovered that Aborigines are seeking more than 60 million hectares of Cape York land (including the proposed Cape York space base site)
Peace Camp a 'unique experiment' By Jim McIlroy BRISBANE — The Gulf Peace Camp, which ended its stay 2 km from the Iraqi-Saudi Arabian border on January 28, was "an amazing and unique experiment in non-violent struggle", camp member Jerry Smith
Secondary students denounce US war By Wendy Robertson and Tony Iltis MELBOURNE — About 100 people attended a rally outside the GPO called by Secondary Students Against the Gulf War on Friday, March 1, to highlight that, for the people of the
By Anna McCormack BRISBANE — Fifteen months after the election of the first state Labor government in 33 years, women's abortion rights are still outlawed, termination of pregnancy being the only medical procedure controlled by the Criminal
By Peter Boyle The days are now shorter in Kuwait. Sometimes in early afternoon the sun is blocked out by clouds of black smoke from the hundreds of burning oil wells. Kuwaiti Oil officials estimate that it might take up to four years to put out
World
In Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary, women's role in society is undergoing a re-evaluation as profound as that which took place in the late 1940s and '50s, when women were brought en masse into the job of constructing socialism. TRACY SORENSEN
MATSUI YAYORI is a journalist and co-founder of the Asian Women's Association, which is conducting a program on Women and Development to raise the consciousness of people in Japan on the realities of women in other Asian countries. Matsui is the
By Renfrey Clarke MOSCOW — The first thing that struck Dr Yelena Shomina about Anzhero-Sudzhensk was that the snow was black. A geographer, she was in the Kuzbass region — Western Siberia's "Ruhr Valley" — early in December to attend a
In this second part of an interview with Steve Painter and Jim Percy, Soviet Socialist Party member Boris Kagarlitsky discusses the role of democratic issues and demands in Soviet politics today.
The following statement was released by the Sydney office of the African National Congress on February 24. Should South Africa be readmitted to the international sporting family? The ANC is of the opinion that sporting sanctions imposed against
By Helen Jarvis While the world's attention was focussed on the carnage in the Middle East, on February 23 the Thai government was overthrown by the country's military forces. Many outside Thailand reacted with something of a yawn, saying
By Pip Hinman Women's problems in Nicaragua stem largely from the country's poverty. Fifty years of military dictatorship ensured that the majority of women were excluded from all aspects of public life. While the Sandinista government encouraged
GREAT LAKES, USA — A fire/explosion at the Chemical Waste Management facility on Stony Island in the Calumet River, near Chicago, around 12:30 a.m. on February 13 broke the door seals on the kilns burning hazardous waste and released undisclosed
By Will Firth BERLIN — Nationalism has had a frightening upsurge in many European countries in the wake of the collapse of the Eastern bloc. Germany is no exception, and fear is widespread that not all of the "evil spirits" of 50 years ago have
By Pat Walsh The World Council of Churches wound up its mammoth seventh assembly in Canberra on February 20 without discussing or taking a position on East Timor. The WCC's silence on the issue, after its loud and commendable protests on the
By Guillermo Fernandez A humble 37-year-old former parish priest is Haiti's president. Survivor of five assassination attempts, repudiated by the Catholic church hierarchy, expelled from the Salesian order, Jean Bertrand Aristide amply defeated Marc
Culture
Leningrad Cowboys Go America Directed by Aki Kaurismaki Academy Twin, Sydney Reviewed by Kim Spurway This is a quirky, offbeat comedy that may not appeal to everyone. It is the story of the Leningrad Cowboys, a Finnish band trying to break into
By Angela Matheson SYDNEY — Jane Mitchell is an escapologist. She earns her living escaping from a laundry sack tied securely with 15 metres of rope by volunteers. "To be tied in a dirty smelly laundry sack is hell on earth", she said after
By Angela Matheson SYDNEY — A world first for women is taking place in an electric purple office in the inner city suburb of Glebe. The Women's Economic Think Tank, or WETTANK, has been set up by a group of women with expertise in economics to
Dances With Wolves Directed by Kevin Costner Staring Kevin Costner Reviewed by Jacqui Kavanagh Set in the 1860s, Dances With Wolves offers a refreshing alternative to the usual Hollywood stereotyping of indigenous Americans and glossing over of
By Gunhild Jonsson I had one too — an oral history of abortion in South Australia before 1970 by Barbara Baird is a study that grew out of the public debate about a private member's bill introduced (and narrowly defeated) in South Australia in
Editorial
One side effect of Australian involvement in the Gulf War hasbeen the vicious attacks on the independence of the ABC. ABC chairperson Bob Somervaille's February 27 announcement of plans for anexternal panel to review complaints against the national