For a treaty between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people to work, "first of all, [white people] have got to recognise, at the very beginning of the treaty, that this land belonged to Aboriginal people, and they stole it",
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It would not hurt you to go see someone in prison ... doing so might put you in touch with your own humanity. Moments after hearing a local radio personality reveal unbridled contempt for prisoners, I wrote a letter, including the words
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On why so many people attempt to move to Australia: "For some it might be the excitement and challenge of testing their resourcefulness" — National Press Club speech, March 3, 1998. On torture: Ruddock rejected Amnesty International's demand that
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On January 15 the 24th session of the United Nations' Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women began the first of its twice-yearly sessions in UN headquarters in New York — for the next few weeks it will receive and consider
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Capital isn't the only thing globalising. The revolutionary left is also, on the basic premise that if capitalist ruling classes play off working people in one country against working people in another, then the solution is
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BY SUE BOLAND The rise of a new radical international movement against neo-liberal globalisation could lay the foundations for a major turn in the class struggle by tapping the pent-up dissent against the capitalists' attacks that
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MELBOURNE — Australian tennis ace Lleyton Hewitt has reportedly signed a five-year sponsorship deal with Nike valued at a cool $27 million. The contract reportedly also includes a bonus clause that could double the figure if
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The December 2000 National Union of Students (NUS) conference held at Ballarat endorsed a motion to support the upcoming May 1 blockades of stock exchanges being built by M1 alliances around the country. The conference also voted
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Actively Radical TV — Sydney community television's progressive current affairs producers tackle the hard issues from the activist's point of view. CTS Sydney (UHF 31), every Sunday, 9-11pm. Ph 9565 5522. Access News — Melbourne community TV,
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Write on: letters to the editor One elector, one vote The widespread resentment against the unfairness of Australia's electoral system, which almost guarantees the exclusion of small political parties and independents from state and
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Since the election of the federal Liberal-National Coalition government in 1996, very few unions have been prepared to adopt an attitude of struggle at all costs. Instead of employing tactics aimed at winning gains against the bosses
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It is getting harder and harder to organise international conferences of the left these days. Rich imperialist governments have taken to routinely denying visas to delegates from Third World countries, even when those delegates have
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"When I see Mr Ruddock talking on television about [refugees], he looks and sounds like somebody from One Nation" — David Oldfield, One Nation member of the New South Wales upper house. Prime Minister John Howard's December 19
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SYDNEY — Over the last few months a campaign has been waged by some members of Sydney's Refugee Action Collective to convert RAC into an exclusive, undemocratic, conservative organisation. This has included running a smear
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HOBART — Two bills, passed into law at the end of 2000, reveal just how thoroughly former militant unionist Premier Jim Bacon has been tamed by business. The workers' compensation act and the industrial relations act have both
News
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HOBART — Faced with a rising tide of public opposition to its latest woodchip mill and wood-fired power station proposal, Forestry Tasmania has decided on a complete change of tactics. Abandoning any pretence of warm and fuzzy
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PERTH — Supporters of refugee rights here have formed a new Refugee Rights Action Network to demand the immediate release from detention of all asylum seekers and a complete overhaul of Australia's border policy. The January 16
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ADELAIDE — The full bench of the South Australian Supreme Court has ruled against Michael Brander, head of the racist National Action organisation, in his defamation action against Messenger Newspapers. Brander claimed that he
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BRISBANE — Each week, US-backed counterrevolutionary groups broadcast 2800 hours of propaganda into Cuba, using a frequency that the country's government cannot block without also playing havoc with aircraft navigation controls,
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FREMANTLE — Western Australia's nurses made the condition of the state's health system a make-or-break election issue when on January 15 and 16 they struck, refusing to open beds unless staffing levels were increased. The
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Improving on perfection "I believe the system is as safe as it could possibly be, but that doesn't mean that we can't make it safer." — NSW transport minister Carl Scully on the state's public transport system. Executioner "I am mindful of
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PERTH — On December 12, the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union (LHMU), Australian Hotels Association (AHA), and the Chamber and Commerce Industry (CCI) finalised a deal to increase WA hospitality pay rates to the
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DARWIN — "We expect over 50% of the first elected parliament — definitely", Estanislau da Silva reassured trade unionists here on January 11, claiming that his party, Fretilin, is the only political group in East Timor with
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BRISBANE — The Queensland Labor government is in deep trouble after one of its leading lights, MP for Woodridge and former state secretary Mike Kaiser, quit the ALP and announced he would not stand in the upcoming state election.
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BY FRANCES SHEEHAN & SARAH CLEARY Taking up the theme "Women fighting for global justice", the International Women's Day 2001 collectives have been launched in Sydney and Hobart. The Sydney collective is organising a political action for Saturday
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Adelaide: Sat Feb 3, noon. Women's Studies Resource Centre, 64 Pennington Tce, city. Ph Rebecca 8231 6982. Brisbane: Mon Feb 5, 6.30pm. TLC Bldg, 16 Peel St, Sth Brisbane. All women welcome. Ph 3831 2644. Darwin: Mon Jan 29, Feb 12, 19, 26,
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Universities are lowering academic standards in order to pass a greater number of full fee-paying domestic and international students, the preliminary results of a new study of academic freedom has revealed. The soon to be released
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BRISBANE — Mineworkers, their union and townspeople have condemned a decision by BHP to close two underground mines at Blackwater, 200km west of Rockhampton, and the resulting loss of 200 jobs. The closure of the Laleham and Kenmare
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MELBOURNE — Yallourn Energy is attempting to use the Industrial Relations Commission to force the shedding of further jobs and conditions on the workers of the Latrobe Valley. On January 18, as the commission sat, a 400-strong
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MELBOURNE — Members of the National Union of Workers at the Qenos refinery in Altona have reached the 100th day of a management lockout. The workers are holding out against management's attempt to impose large reductions in an
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The federal government's program to outsource public sector information technology (IT) services to private industry has taken a big hit with the release of the Humphry Review on January 12. The review criticised the outsourcing
Analysis
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You would think that discussions in the Australian capitalist press about politics in the coming year would be exhibiting some excitement. After all, there is going to be a federal election and several state elections. Most bourgeois economists
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One hundred years ago the Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed, heralding in a supposedly new era of prosperity for the "lucky country" and its inhabitants. For Aborigines, however, 1901 marked year 113 of resistance to dispossession and racial oppression. One hundred years later, indigenous Australia continues this fight.
World
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In its first major electoral success, the Labour Party Pakistan has bagged 12 local council seats in the Sindhi town of Larkana, home town and power base of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. One party candidate also won in
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SYDNEY — One hundred and fifty people rallied outside the Australian Defence Force headquarters here on January 20 to support self-determination for the Indonesian province of Aceh. The action coincided with a self-determination
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On January 12, a delegation of 50 US activists and scientists, led by US former attorney general Ramsey Clark, boarded a flight to Bagdad. The plane also carried US$1.5 million worth of medical aid and school supplies. The
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EAST TIMOR: UN agency workers go on strikeDILI Workers at three World Food Program warehouses here took strike action on January 8 and then went to the headquarters of the WFP the next day when the agency took no
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Two shockwaves have hit the Central American country of El Salvador in the first weeks of January. One, a massive earthquake which measured 7.6 on the Richter scale, struck on January 13 and killed more than 600 people, devastating
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Speculation is increasing that, after the stalemate that occurred at the first round of talks in October, the federal government and representatives of the East Timorese are readying to compromise on the future of the Timor Gap Treaty
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PESHAWAR, Pakistan — I am buzzing through the streets in an auto rickshaw with a woman whose real name I do not know. She has no fixed address and cannot tell me where we are going. The woman accompanying me was a member of RAWA,
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Among the colourful revellers of Allenby street, in crowded restaurants of merry-making Tel Aviv nights, a vision came to me, a vision of an angel in battle-dress, chalking up on a wall three words: Mene, Tekel, ufarsin. My
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There has been a flurry of diplomatic activity designed to achieve an Israel-Palestinian treaty prior to US President Bill Clinton's January 20 departure from the White House. On January 3, the White House announced that
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PHNOM PENH — With 92 votes in favour and none opposing, the National Assembly on January 2 approved a bill to establish a special court to try former leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime, which was responsible for the deaths of up to
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This year, rushing to the head of the pack of irresponsible biotech companies was the French corporation Aventis, the maker of Cry9C corn, sold under the name StarLink. Earlier this year, StarLink corn —
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Depleted uranium (DU) is a by-product of uranium enrichment. Enriched uranium contains a greater percentage of the uranium-235 isotope than natural uranium, whereas the DU by-product contains less uranium-235 (and more uranium-238).
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DILI — Aurora Ximenes, the coordinator of the East Timor Women's Network, which comprises 15 grassroots organisations, is angry that women are being sidelined in the transition to independence. Listening to her story, it seems
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BERKELEY — California's experiment with deregulating electricity is on its last legs. "Deregulation is dead", declared Public Utilities Commissioner Carl Wood. And from the governor to the PUC to the legislature, almost everyone
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Bangladesh's 22.3 million landless farmers secured a major win on December 18 when the government agreed to an 11-point charter of demands which labourers' organisations have been fighting for since 1978. The agriculture ministry's
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In a dramatic political move, the ruling military government has allowed ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif to leave Pakistan for Saudi Arabia with 19 family members. Sharif had been sentenced to 21 years imprisonment for trying to
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NORTHERN IRELAND: South Armagh the militarised zoneHow many days of normality have you gained because the checkpoints on the border aren't there anymore, because honest people can go to a pub or a school or a
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SEOUL — Delegates attending the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions' 19th congress met at the Olympic Park wrestling stadium here on January 18 to elect a new leadership. While KCTU congresses meet each year, a new leadership is
Culture
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Voices of the ValleyVarious artists, produced by Geoff FrancisAvailable from Hobart Resistance Bookshop, the Wilderness Society Shop or order from <glazfolk@trump.net.au>. REVIEW BY ALEX BAINBRIDGE The Voices of the Valley CD —
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Rory McLeod is a one-man-band with soul, poetry and politics running through his veins. His eccentric melodies are infused with influences from English music halls, Spanish Flamenco and the blues, through to Celtic, eastern European and Calypso
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The Taj Mahal, that tomb of white marble,travels the world on lips of tourists,in books, film, on-line, sent postcards.No other human edifice so exquisitely lovelyfixed the image in all our headsexpressed the royal grief of one man.She died so young
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REVIEW BY PHIL SHANNON Bob Dylan Behind the Shades: The Biography — Take TwoBy Clinton HeylinViking, 2000780 pp, $50 (hb) In February 1991, as the US was bombarding Iraq in a frenzy of bloodletting, Bob Dylan received a Lifetime Achievement
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Renegades of funkRage Against the Machine have lobbed their last sonic Molotov cocktail at musical mediocrity and political injustice. Rage Against the Machine, by far the most politically radical rock band to achieve major