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
Issue 408
News
BY DOUGLAS WALKER
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
BY MELANIE SJOBERG
"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
BY ANTHONY BENBOW
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
BY JOHN GAUCI
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
BY DAVE ANDREWS
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
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
Brisbane Resistance Centre launched
BY GRAHAM MATTHEWS
BRISBANE — 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
Police withdraw charge against Aboriginal academic
BY BILL MASON
POLICE 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
Police stop students entering campus
BY CHRIS LATHAM
WOLLONGONG — 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
S11 Alliance forms in Adelaide
BY STUART MUNCKTON
ADELAIDE — 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
BY JULIA HALDANE
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
Anti-nuke cycle to raise awareness
BY DAVE MURPHY
DARWIN — 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,
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
Tasmanians demand a GE-free zone
BY BEA BREAR
HOBART — 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
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
WA minister claims Aboriginal people safer in jail
BY ROBERTO JORQUERA
PERTH — 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
BY GRANT COLEMAN
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
Students to converge to save the environment
BY EWAN SAUNDERS
BRISBANE — Students, activists and environmentalists from around the continent will converge on Griffith University here on July 3 for Australia's largest student environment
Teach-in provides motives for September protests
BY JO BROWN
MELBOURNE — 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
World
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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)
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
"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
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Culture
Internationalism in the new century
Links number 15New Course Publications, May 2000127pp. $6.50 By Allen Myers
The latest issue of Links, the "international journal of socialist renewal", features Marxism 2000, the second Asia Pacific Solidarity
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
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!".
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
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
Tales of workplace violence
A Kind of Violence - Australian workers and workplaces
By Yossi Berger
The Vulgar Press, 1999
Review by Ben Courtice
Yossi Berger has written a detailed account of health and safety conditions
Editorial
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