Country Labor: a new direction?Excited by the Victorian Labor Party's victory in the state Benalla by-election in May, federal Labor leader Kim Beazley announced that the ALP would register the name "Country Labor" federally. Is
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Looking out: Unlawful searches "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by
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Bridge walk 'must be built upon' BY MARGARET ALLUM On May 28, a human sea of goodwill made its way across an Australian icon, the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The largest mobilised expression of solidarity with the Aboriginal people for
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Lesbians, conception and the law BY JO ELLIS The last decade has been characterised as the "lesbian baby boom". Famous lesbians Melissa Etheridge and her partner Julie Cypher have declined to give information about how their baby was
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Who's a naughty boy? I'm afraid Winston is in the bad books. Everyone's favourite dummy has been a very naughty boy. (Haven't we Winston?) He sure has. Winston has been so naughty that I've locked him in his case until he apologises. He can
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Networker: What's in a name? What's in a name? BY GREG HARRIS ASP is a term you hear around the information technology, or "IT", circuits these days. But what does it stand for? First, it stands for "application service provider". Think of the
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World Bank's pipeline to disasterHaving given up on getting the World Bank to comply with even its own environmental and social development policies, 200 non-government organisations from 55 countries have called for the
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SYDNEY — "The first Mardi Gras in 1978 was a political protest at which many came onto the streets to fight for queer rights, and experienced police brutality and vilification in the media simply for fighting for our right to
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I would like to take up some of the issues raised by Margaret Allum in her article "Biological parenthood" (GLW, May 17). I am extremely concerned by the argument that we ought to support all technological advances that
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Write on: Letters to the editor Interest rates Why have interest rates been going up? One argument is that as rates rise overseas Australia must follow suit to access an adequate supply of the world's savings. This is a bad argument. The
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It's time to be offensive COMMENT BY DALE T. MCKINLEY "If you're not angry, you're not paying attention" — anonymous It's disgustingly consistent. Open the newspaper, turn on the television or radio, access the internet and you are more than
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The final major hurdles to China's attempts to be fully reintegrated into the global capitalist trading system have been removed. In late May, the US House of Representatives granted China permanent "normal trade relations" status and a bilateral
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MELBOURNE — Addressing the 500 people present for the launch of his new book, Why Weren't We Told?, historian Henry Reynolds described the march for reconciliation across the Sydney Harbour Bridge as "thrilling" and as opening the
News
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Getting to the point "The young people who used to hang around now move off when police are around. One person was searched 38 times without finding a knife on him so it was getting to a point of harassment." — NSW Police commander Richard
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Brisbane Resistance Centre launchedBRISBANE — The room swayed to the melodies of the Cuban Revolution while celebrants feasted on Cuban food at the launch of the new Resistance Centre here on May 27. Forty people answered
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Police stop students entering campusWOLLONGONG — Fifteen police and security guards blocked 20 students' access to the opening of the University of Wollongong's new Shoalhaven campus on June 2. The students had been attempting
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PERTH — After nine days of continual protest against planned cuts to courses and staff numbers, students and staff ended their occupation of Murdoch University's Senate building on May 31. Occupiers condemned vice-chancellor
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FREMANTLE — A new shift roster, introduced on a trial basis for permanent waterside workers employed here by P&O Ports, has angered many in the container division. The workers have been suffering erosion of their working
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"The results in the Community and Public Sector Union national election show that a large number of members oppose the policies of the leadership and are willing to back a team of progressive activists", Jim McIlroy, Members
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Cuban women to tour Australia July 22-30 Berta Acosta Sequi and Nancy Iglesias from the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) will be visiting Australia on July 22-30. This is a special opportunity to share experiences and learn from revolutionary
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PERTH — Toxic waste has been dumped at the Kelvin Road dump site in Gosnells, in Perth's outer south-eastern suburbs, according to the Contaminated Sites Alliance. CSA spokesperson Lee Bell said dioxins, one of the most toxic
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Teach-in provides motives for September protestsMELBOURNE — The fact that the World Economic Forum was amongst the architects of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) provides reason enough to protest against it, 100 participants at a
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BY ALEX BAINBRIDGE & KAMALA EMANUEL HOBART — Tasmania's Labor premier Jim Bacon has rejected calls for state public servants to have access to three months' paid maternity leave. The calls came after state education minister Paula Wriedt's
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S11 Alliance forms in AdelaideADELAIDE — Activists here have formed an S11 Alliance to help organise protests against the World Economic Forum's Melbourne meeting in September. Activists from the Reclaim the Streets
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Tasmanians demand a GE-free zoneHOBART — Three hundred people at a meeting here on June 1 voted almost unanimously to demand that the state government make Tasmania a genetic engineering-free zone. Those present called on state
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Groups come together PERTH — Sixty representatives of 30 community action groups met here on May 27 to share ideas and experiences and explore ways of working together on environmental and other community issues. The meeting, initiated by Greens
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Anti-nuke cycle to raise awarenessDARWIN — The second "Cycle Against the Nuclear Cycle" left the Jabiluka uranium mine in Kakadu National Park on June 5 to ride the 6300 kilometres to Perth. The first cycle, from Melbourne,
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Police withdraw charge against Aboriginal academicPOLICE HAVE dropped charges against a prominent Aboriginal academic whom they strip-searched and jailed after she allegedly accused a police officer of "acting like the Ku Klux
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WA minister claims Aboriginal people safer in jailPERTH — The Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia has called for the immediate resignation of the state's Aboriginal affairs minister, Kim Hames, after he told a
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SYDNEY — On June 2, NSW teachers overwhelmingly endorsed an agreement on salaries and status recommended by the NSW Teachers Federation (NSWTF) executive, ending a long and bitter industrial dispute with the state Labor government
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BRISBANE — The Brisbane Feminist Collective held its first public meeting here on May 30, attended by 50 people. The topic of discussion was women and reproductive rights. The collective grew out of the International Women's
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PERTH — The local community in the Serpentine-Jarrahdale area 40 kilometres south of Perth has united to oppose planned sand mining in the area and to keep open a hostel for mentally ill men. Two hundred residents and their
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Following the huge Harbour Bridge march in Sydney on May 28 (see page 16-17), thousands more people have marched against government racism over the last week. From Lismore, Ema Corro reports that 1500 people crossed three bridges in a march on June
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Students to converge to save the environmentBRISBANE — Students, activists and environmentalists from around the continent will converge on Griffith University here on July 3 for Australia's largest student environment
Analysis
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Support the right to organise On May 29, the Federal Court fined two union officials $20,000 each for refusing to apologise to the court after being found guilty of contempt. The court had earlier found Dean Mighell and Craig Johnston, both
World
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FIJI: West threatens split The claim by the terrorists who have kidnapped Fiji's prime minister and government that their actions are supported by most "indigenous" Melanesian Fijians has been dealt blow by the announcement that Melanesian Fijians
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International news briefs Argentine unions protest IMF austerity More than 80,000 people marched through Buenos Aires on May 31 to protest against a government economic austerity plan. Argentina's trade unions have called a one-day national
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Voting ended on May 28 in Peru's presidential runoff following a week of confusion and protest during which the opposition candidate withdrew and called a boycott, and all the election monitoring groups refused to observe the vote. President Alberto
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"The Australian government should immediately impose the comprehensive sanctions on trade, shipping, travel, mail, banking and sporting links on Fiji called for by the Fiji Trades Union Congress. They should be maintained until the 1997 constitution
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The left-wing Lavalas Family (FL) dominated the long-delayed legislative and local elections held in Haiti on May 21. According to partial results so far announced, it won 14 of the 19 Senate seats up for election and made a strong showing in the
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SOUTH AFRICA: ANC blocks treatment for HIV patients EAST LONDON, Eastern Cape province — If anyone had any doubt that the era of settlerism and elitism was not over in South Africa, President Thabo Mbeki's antics around the issue of HIV/AIDS
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UNITED STATES: Elian's return home a step closer UNITED STATES: Elian's return home one step closer A ruling by a US appeals court on June 1 may mean that kidnapped six-year-old Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez, forced to remain in the Unites States, may
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Pacific Journalism Online shut-down SUVA — The Pacific Journalism Online web site at the University of the South Pacific (<http://www.usp.ac.fj/journ/>) has been closed by the USP administration. Vice-chancellor Esekia Solofa said the
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LAHORE, Pakistan — On May 26, Rawalpindi police arrested well-known railway worker leader and president of Labour Unity Rawalpindi, Bashir Botter. The police are searching for seven other railway workers, and for the Labour Party Pakistan's (LPP)
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BY JAMES VASSILOPOULOS & BILL MASON "What do we want? Democracy! When do we want it? Now!", chanted 250 Indian-Fijians and their supporters at a rally outside Parliament House in Canberra on May 31. The protest, organised by the Movement for
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Sri Lanka: Government crackdown meets opposition Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga's attempts to stifle public opposition to the war against the Tamils in the north and to social and economic policies in the south have met
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Led by metalworkers and nurses, more than 70,000 workers from more than 140 trade unions joined the first day of a general strike which swept South Korea on May 31, according to the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), which organised the
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ATLANTA — The trial of Immigration and Naturalization Service official Mariano Faget has been under way for more than a week in Miami, and everything that has come out in court confirms that the case is a politically motivated frame-up. Cuban-born
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Pinochet loses immunity In an extraordinary session of Chile's Court of Appeals on May 23, the court voted 13 to nine to strip former dictator General Augusto Pinochet of the immunity he enjoys as a senator. The ruling will allow Juan Guzman, the
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The following is abridged from an account of the situation in Mindanao distributed on May 29 by the Revolutionary Workers Party of the Philippines. The situation in Mindanao, and the Philippines as a whole, is becoming worse, politically and
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UNITED STATES: Training Indonesian terrorists in 'anti-terrorism' The following is a statement presented by United States journalist ALLAN NAIRN to the US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Human Rights on May 11. Mr Chairman and members of
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The killing by police of Masophe (Michael) Makhabane at the University of Durban-Westville (UDW) in Durban on May 14 has provoked outrage across South Africa. The killing has been condemned by student unions, trade unions and by the South African
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West Papua: Strong Support for independence A congress on May 29-June 4 in Jayapura city, West Papua, has called for steps to forge an independent West Papua. The Morning Star flag, banned symbol of West Papuan independence, was flying every
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Developments in International Socialists' debate list The last issue of Green Left Weekly reported on a factional debate within the International Socialist Tendency and the establishment of an email list to distribute information and discuss the
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UNITED STATES: Appeal from a militant unionist CALIFORNIA — John Reimann was a member of the Carpenters Union for almost 30 years. He has just been expelled for life from his union. Reimann served as recording secretary for Local 713 of his union
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Politicians and government officials point to the historic low unemployment in the African-American community as a sign of a strong economy and future where whites and blacks will finally have an opportunity for an equal share of the American dream.
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SIERRA LEONE: The bobby is back on the beat Behind its propaganda, British foreign policy is undergoing significant changes. The armed intervention in Sierra Leone is a case in point. It is the biggest of its kind since Margaret Thatcher's
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The overthrow of the Fiji Labour Party-led government "is not a struggle between indigenous Fijians and Indo-Fijians" BRIJ LAL, a professor of history at the Australian National University and a director of the ANU's Centre for the Contemporary
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Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe is not used to losing. The wily septuagenarian is using every trick in the book to make sure that the popular trade union-backed opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), does not win a majority at
Culture
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Tales of workplace violence A Kind of Violence - Australian workers and workplacesThe Vulgar Press, 1999 Review by Ben Courtice Yossi Berger has written a detailed account of health and safety conditions
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Internationalism in the new century Links number 15New Course Publications, May 2000127pp. $6.50The latest issue of Links, the "international journal of socialist renewal", features Marxism 2000, the second Asia Pacific Solidarity
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Motives! Chantes de Lutte (Songs of Struggle)TactikollectifLCR-TactikollectifAvailable from Resistance Bookshops (addresses page 2) Review by Stan Demidjuk Motives!, in French, means to be or become motivated and on this CD it means "Mobilise!".
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Mosh with a message Mark MarkHeiferAvailable from <http://surf.to/heifer>GlisterGlister4-track CDAvailable from <http://fly.to/glister> Review by Barry Healy Triple J listeners will be familiar with western Sydney mosh masters
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Waterfront conflict staged FrontA Melbourne Workers' Theatre productionWritten and directed by Peter HoughtonTheatre Works, Acland Street, St KildaJune 14 to July 1Tickets $20/$13Bookings (03) 9534 3388 By Anne O'Casey When writer/director Peter
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The wolf's teeth Unions in a Contrary World: the Future of the Australian Trade Union MovementBy David PeetzCambridge University Press, 1998243pp., $34.95 (pb) Review by Jonathan Singer Unions in a Contrary World is an academic yet readable book