Murdoch University staff strike back
BY JULIA PERKINS
PERTH — Academics and general staff at Murdoch University here passed a motion of no confidence in the university's vice-chancellor, Steven Schwartz, at a March 24 meeting attended by more
Issue 400
News
ACI gets injunction
MELBOURNE — Manufacturing company ACI has obtained a court injunction to prevent locked-out workers from its Box Hill plant from picketing its customers. The workers had picketed Carlton and United Breweries and Kraft Foods,
BY ERICA HAINES
ADELAIDE — TransAdelaide rail maintenance workers are the latest casualties of the South Australian Liberal government's privatisation steam train. As the April 23 deadline for the privatisation of TransAdelaide's bus services
Catholic teachers march on church and state
BY JOHN GAUCI
SYDNEY — Three thousand primary and secondary school teachers at NSW Catholic schools struck for 24 hours and rallied here on March 29 against Catholic employment authorities' failure to
BY JORGE JORQUERA
MELBOURNE — The Construction, Forestry, Mining, Energy Union (CFMEU) appears close to a 36-hour week agreement with construction corporation Multiplex in Victoria. The union put bans on Multiplex on March 30 after the company
Solidarity with Cuba planned
BY LARA PULLIN
ALBURY — Supporters of Cuba were asked to concentrate their energies on political solidarity with the socialist Caribbean nation at a national conference here on March 24-26. Eva Seoane, the
Seattle should happen here
SYDNEY — The large protests against the World Trade Organisation in Seattle in December can and should be replicated in this country, more than 100 people at a Politics in the Pub forum on March 31 were told.
A
Darwin's raging success
BY ROBERT MILNE
DARWIN — Around 350 people "raged against racism" here on March 25, and raised $1880 for Green Left Weekly in the process. The event was the fifth Rage against Racism in Darwin and the largest so far. The
Newcastle students to strike
BY ERIN KILLION
NEWCASTLE — Resistance members at high schools and the university here plan to walk out of class on Friday, April 14 to protest against mandatory sentencing. An overwhelming response from their
BY TIM GOODEN
GEELONG — Five hundred members of the Communication, Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU) marched into the Melbourne headquarters of Telstra on March 30 and occupied its ground floor to protest against the company's job-shedding
Southern Cross uni staff to take action
BY NICK FREDMAN
LISMORE — Southern Cross University (SCU) members of the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) and National Tertiary Education Industry Union (NTEU) voted unanimously at a combined mass
Rally demands debt be dropped
BY NICK EVERETT
SYDNEY — Four hundred people rallied in Hyde Park on April 1 to demand the cancellation of all debts held by the world's poorest nations. The rally was part of an international day of protest called
BY BRONWEN BEECHEY
ADELAIDE — Arabunna elder and anti-uranium activist Kevin Buzzacott pleaded guilty to a charge of "failing to cease to loiter" arising from a December protest, in the Magistrate's Court here on March 29. Buzzacott was arrested
Anti-racist initiatives launched
BY RANI SINGH
MELBOURNE — Anti-racist activists here hope to build on an AC Nielson March 28 poll which indicated that Victorians are more likely to disagree with mandatory sentencing and reject One Nation than
BY JOHN GAUCI
SYDNEY — Despite constant denials by the NSW Labor government, the Olympic Games are having a serious impact on housing in Sydney, an information kit launched on March 29 by the tenancy advocates Rentwatchers says. Sixty people
Protests against forest agreements
Environmentalists staged protests across the country on March 31 against the failure of regional forest agreements (RFAs) to protect old-growth forests from logging. In Melbourne, conservationists condemned Steve
'Not old and not sick'
BY ALEX BAINBRIDGE
HOBART — "I want to choose the people I live with" was one of the more popular placards at an April 1 rally here demanding housing rights for people with brain injuries and other neurological
Liberals wiped in Brisbane election
BY JIM MCILROY
BRISBANE — The Labor administration of mayor Jim Soorley swept to victory in the Brisbane City Council election held on March 25. Soorley gained 56% of the primary vote; Liberal candidate Gail
BY CHRIS SPINDLER
MELBOURNE — The militant Workers First team's election campaign in the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union for the positions of national and state secretaries and for one metal division organiser in Victoria is under way. The
World
Cuban President Fidel Castro has unveiled an audacious but very constructive proposal to break the logjam preventing the reunification of Elian Gonzalez with his father. On March 29, Castro announced that Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, was
MARTIGUES, France — Delegates to the 30th national conference of the French Communist Party (PCF) meeting in this southern French industrial city, in late March, voted for significant changes to the structure and direction of the party. Party
By Iggy Kim
LISBON, Portugal — On March 22, a number of Europe's radical left parties met here in the shadows of the European Union Summit. Hosted by Portugal's Left Bloc, the conference aimed to exchange ideas regarding continent-wide
By Francois Vercammen*
LISBON — A crowd of nearly 1000 gathered in the main amphitheatre of the University of Lisbon on January 29-30 to "listen, discuss, converge" and set up a new political formation — the Bloco de Esquerda, or Left Bloc. The
Colombia: US poised to boost intervention
The United States House of Representatives passed a bill on March 30 which approves US$1.7 billion in military aid to Colombia. The package, which includes the setting up of two new Colombian military
East Timor: Jobless confronted by anti-riot troops
By Vanja Tanaja
DILI — United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (NTAET) security forces threatened to use anti-riot gear against 800 job seekers seeking information on their job
Britain: British Nuclear Fools Ltd
The future of the Sellafield plant, operated by British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL) in northern England, is in jeopardy following safety lapses, cover-ups, an act of sabotage by a BNFL employee, economic
By Cat Lazaroff WASHINGTON, DC, February 11 — Ten African-American children are visiting Washington, D.C. this week, but they did not come to see the usual tourist attractions. They are here to illustrate the dangerous legacy of hazardous wastes,
EAST TIMOR: Long queues for medical facilities
DILI — To come face to face with public health services in East Timor is a daunting thing. For expatriate workers, there is access to foreigner clinics and always the possibility of being evacuated
Monsanto, Fox TV and censorship
Two US former investigative journalists toured Australia in March to raise awareness of a lawsuit they have filed against Rupert Murdoch's Fox television network. Jane Akre and Steve Wilson allege they were unfairly
South Asia: Anti-Clinton protests suppressed
US President Bill Clinton's late March visit to India, Pakistan and Bangladesh was met with a barrage of protests from left and democratic forces resisting Washington's increased efforts to plunder the
INDONESIA: Thousands demonstrate against subsidy cuts
By James Balowski
Thousands of students, civil servants and other workers protested in Indonesia on April 1 against cuts to subsides on fuel, public transport and electricity. The
On March 20, the following letter was sent by the leaderships of the WORKER COMMUNIST PARTY OF IRAQ (WCPI) and WORKER COMMUNIST PARTY OF IRAN to Antonio Guteres, president, and Luis Ayala, secretary-general of the Socialist International. The letter
WESTERN SAHARA: The East Timor of north Africa
Western Sahara: The East Timor of north Africa
Western Sahara is on north-west Africa's Atlantic coast, bordered by Morocco in the north, Algeria in the north-east and Mauritania in the south and
Ireland: New evidence suggests Bloody Sunday deliberate
By Alec Smart
LONDON — The recent release of a secret 1972 memorandum, recommending the shooting of ringleaders to deter insurrection in Derry, Northern Ireland, suggests that the British
IRELAND: Strike-hit firms say send in army
Employers in Ireland have called for the army to be brought in to run the public transport system hit by a wave of bus and rail strikes. A spokesperson for the Irish employers' federation said the republic
Culture
Ten easy steps to be an anticommunist
By Phil Shannon
The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, RepressionBy Stephane Courteis, et alHarvard University Press, 1999858pp, US$37.50 The openings for career anticommunists may have dried up a
The man they couldn't tame
The HurricaneStarring Denzel Washington and Vicellous Reon ShannonDirected by Norman JewisonWritten by Armyan Bernstein and Dan GordonUniversal Pictures Review by Arun Pradhan
"My real problems began when the Saturday
A deep look at shallow news
The Shallow EndWritten by Doug LucieNew Theatre, SydneyShowings until April 29MCA Ticketing 9873 3575 BY WENDY VARNEY
Capitalism's new levels of aggression and ruthlessness are nowhere more evident than in the media,
Exhibition examines East Timor
After Dili ActionBy Tom NicholsonWest Space Gallery, 15-19 Anthony St, MelbourneApril 5 to 15 In August, Melbourne-based artist Tom Nicholson travelled to East Timor to work with East Timorese campaigning for
Editorial
From social security to social control
Over the next few weeks and months you will hear a lot about the interim
report of the government's committee on welfare reform, Participation
Support for a More Equitable Society, issued on
General
The Central Leadership Committee of the People's Democratic
Party (PRD) of Indonesia and the branches of PRD receive Green Left
Weekly every week. Many PRD leaders have read GLW
since early of 1990s.
GLW is very important for us because it
Resistance!
By Aaron Benedek
SYDNEY — Three hundred students rallied at the University of Sydney on March 30, one week after students occupied the Student Centre on a March 22 national day of action against the privatisation of education. The rally is part
Destruction
Over the past 100 years the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (caused by land-clearing and industrial emissions) has increased by 25%.
Between 1950 and 1997 the global average sea surface temperature rose from 18.86oC to
Indonesian students demand: No cuts to education subsidies!
By Chris Latham
On April 1, Indonesian students involved in the National Student League for Democracy (LMND) participated in a national mobilisation in Jakarta demanding that the
By Viv Miley
Cyanide spills by Australian-owned overseas goldmining operations in January and March are further evidence of the fact that Australian companies are systematically abusing the environments of poorer countries, which are forced to