Friends of the Earth
I thank Jim Green for his article on Friends of the Earth (FoE). His analysis is reasonable of FoE Australia and FoE International, and I applaud him for touching on some of the problems with some (not by any means all) of the
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The evidence is mounting that university students are paying too much for higher education and the federal government spending too little, with a senior university administrator backing such claims by the union which
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How can women find happiness in marriage? According to "feminist" author Laura Doyle all we a wife needs do is "surrender" to her husband's every wish. In her book The surrendered wife: A practical guide to finding intimacy, passion and peace with
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When it happened to the Brazilian real or the Turkish lira or the Thai baht, they labeled it a "currency crisis" and called in the International Monetary Fund but, this being Australia, the dollar's downward plummet to below 48 US
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PERTH Ali Abu Al Chabab, a 22-year-old Palestinian refugee from Lebanon, will fly back to Beirut on April 4 after his three-year fight for refugee status in Australia was unsuccessful. Chabab's partner Ana Kailis will
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Don't be despondent about 'dependency' BY JOHN TOMLINSON Some people in Australia are concerned about the painful brain condition called dependency. However, the only people who contract this condition are those who believe that the
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Peter Costello's 1995 comment about a weak Australian dollar needs one small but important revision: devaluation impoverishes every working-class person in Australia. For owners of capital, especially those who own assets in foreign
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James Watson, co-discoverer of DNA, dumbfounded many at a guest lecture when he advanced his theory about a link between skin color and sex drive. Atlanta Journal-Constitution, November 25, 2000. My attention was caught recently by
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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. Widow of the Revolution: the Anna Larina
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The truth is out about just what the GST is doing to working families. Before the 1998 election, the government didn't just unleash a barrage of misleading, even lying, propaganda about the consumption tax, it also prevented the
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Many people said it at the time of the 1998 election, many more are now saying it but still the government, and even the official "opposition", still deny the truth: no amount of compensation or exemptions can ever make the goods and
News
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Sabotage of Fair Employment Bill MELBOURNE On March 20, 150 people protested against attempts by the Liberal and National parties to block the Fair Employment Bill from passing through the Victorian parliaments upper house. The
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As the national May 1 blockades of stock exchanges and other corporate targets approach, M1 activists have begun a big push to build the demonstrations. Since universities resumed this year, more than 1500 students have joined local
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PERTH — Organisers of the M1 blockade of the Australian Stock Exchange here have added an end-of-day march to state parliament house to their plans. The new Labor state government of Geoff Gallop will be sworn in on that day.
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SYDNEY — In case you missed it, March 21 was the United Nations' International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. To draw public attention to the day, Amnesty International organised a protest action outside the
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BRISBANE — Community and Public Sector Union members in Centrelink offices and call centres around the country met during the week of March 19-23 to vote on a resolution from their union to launch a "community based campaign" to
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BRISBANE — A meeting on March 19 to discuss decriminalisation of abortion in Queensland attracted interest from many quarters, including sections of the Labor Party. The abortion issue has come back onto the political agenda
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CANBERRA — Chanting "Lock up Ruddock, free the refugees!", 30 people protested outside the National Press Club while immigration minister Philip Ruddock addressed journalists on the government-designated "Harmony Day", March
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DARWIN — In the absence of a local stock exchange, the M1 Alliance here has decided to blockade the offices of the Northern Territory Chamber of Commerce and Industry, due to its anti-worker stance and its self-declared role as
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Crony capitalism, US-style "[T]he US air Force has devised an ambitious plan to help Boeing, the world's biggest commercial jet producer, sell a version of its latest jumbo military transport to private cargo companies... the C-17 Globemaster...
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MELBOURNE — After considerable debate, the Melbourne M1 Alliance resolved on March 20 to elect marshals from among its ranks to coordinate its planned May 1 blockade of the city's stock exchange. The marshals will be given an
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WOLLONGONG — Wollongong University Resistance Club injected radical politics into an otherwise inane annual general meeting of the students representative council on March 20. Instead of actively building the meeting, the SRC set
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At its largest and most productive meeting of the year, the University of Queensland's Students Campaigning Against Multinationals collective adopted a plan of action to build the M1 blockade of the Brisbane stock exchange on May 1.
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Rio Tinto chief executive Leigh Clifford said on March 22 that the company was unlikely to proceed with development of the Jabiluka uranium mine on ground excised from the Kakadu National Park without a significant shift in community
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MELBOURNE — In response to the call by the M1 Alliance for a strike and blockade of the Australian Stock Exchange on May 1, construction workers will walk off city building sites and march on stock market offices here before
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GEELONG — People in rural and regional Victoria, hit hard by policies such as privatisation and deregulation, will get a chance to show their anger at corporate globalisation, thanks to plans by local activists to organise a united
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ADELAIDE — A rally and march on March 17 attracted about 700 people supporting the call to ban genetically modified (GM) foods. After hearing speakers outside Parliament House, the protesters marched to the Central Market where they
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SYDNEY — The thirst for information, discussion and debate about issues facing the world's people and ecology in the era of neo-liberal globalisation was strongly evident at a "Fighting for the Future" conference held in Sydney
Analysis
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Rank and file soldiers of the Papua New Guinea Defence Force rebelled on March 23, giving PNG Prime Minister Sir Mekere Morauta until noon on March 26 to repudiate a cabinet decision to sack more than half of all PNGDF personnel. The soldiers also
World
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Starting March 27, a United States court in Washington, DC, will hear evidence that Indonesian General Johnny Lumintang is responsible for gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity committed in East Timor. The proceeding will
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South African President Thabo Mbeki on March 14 declined to declare South Africa's debilitating AIDS epidemic a national emergency. Such a declaration would have allowed Pretoria to immediately invoke World Trade Organisation
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President Fidel Castro on March 18 announced that Cuba has produced versions of anti-AIDS medicines patented by US drug corporations. He said Cuba was prepared to help South Africa, Brazil and other Third World countries to produce
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The military dictatorship of General Pervaiz Musharraf has launched a fierce crackdown against its opponents, arresting 20 leaders of political parties belonging to the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy, including the
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Chances are increasingly remote that the Indonesian legal system will bring to justice those responsible for war crimes and human rights abuses committed before, during and after East Timor's August 1999 referendum. Any trial that does
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SYDNEY — The large turnout of 230 people for a March 17 dinner and public meeting here on issue "Free Aceh, Referendum now!" is an indication of growing interest in the struggle in Aceh among the Australian public. The event was
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The Argentinian government of President Fernando de la Rua is in crisis and its economic plans are in tatters, after protesters took to the streets in anger at a new austerity package which included savage cuts in government
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Anti-globalisation protesters demonstrated in their thousands on March 17 in the southern Italian city of Naples against the Global Forum, a meeting of government officials and representatives of the largest information technology
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RIO BRAVO, TAMAULIPAS — Advocates of the North American Free Trade Agreement promised that free trade would bring a new era of respect for workers rights in all three countries — the United States, Canada and Mexico. Especially
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George W. Bush campaigned for president on two broad themes — as a "compassionate conservative" and against "big government" taking away the rights and money of the American people. Now that he's president, the record is already in on what those
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Though the stated objectives of Plan Colombia are to end the 30-plus-year-old civil war that has cost the lives of more than 35,000 Colombians and to end the production of cocaine and heroin, there may be a simpler reality: oil.
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The South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) has called for this year's world water day to be declared a day of mourning for the millions of people who are sick and dying as a result of not having access to water. The United Nations chose
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BY GREG HARRIS & MARGARET ALLUM With Westminster elections likely to be called for May 3, Tony Blair's British Labour Party appears to be reaching the limits of government by image management. Leaving aside questions of ministerial competence and
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The parties of the banned Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy are calling on supporters worldwide to write to Pakistani ruler Pervaiz Musharraf and to Pakistani embassies to demand the release of imprisoned political leaders. Musharraf's
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A former member of the Labour Party's national executive committee, Liz Davies, has announced her resignation from the Labour Party after two decades of membership, and declared her support for the Socialist Alliance and other left candidates in the
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The pro-business reality of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement hit home forcefully in August when the Mexican government was ordered by a NAFTA tribunal to pay nearly US$16.7 million to US waste disposal Metalclad
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LONDON — Royal Air Force pilots have protested for the first time about their role in the bombing of Iraq. Pilots patrolling the so-called no-fly zone in the north of the country have spoken angrily about how they have been ordered
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The Indonesian military is stepping up its war against the Acehnese people. Jakarta has declared a "limited military operation" to "rid" Aceh of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). The Indonesian government has branded GAM a "separatist"
Culture
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REVIEW BY MARK STOYICH Up For GrabsBy David WilliamsonSydney Theatre CompanyDrama Theatre, Sydney Opera HouseUntil April 21 Up For Grabs is ostensibly about the art market, but it is full of the usual gossip about the Sydney social types that
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The article on the Guerrilla Girls in the last issue of Green Left Weekly mistakenly stated that Guerrilla Girls' spokesperson "Frida Kahlo" had been interviewed while in Sydney. In fact, Kahlo was in New York. She spoke to Green Left Weekly's Zanny
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Invisible War: Depleted Uranium and the politics of radiationSBS, April 3, 8.30pm REVIEW BY JIM GREEN Invisible War, produced by the French company Canal Plus and released in February last year, investigates the use of depleted uranium (DU)
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The Laramie ProjectBy Moises KaufmanBelvoir Street Theatre, SydneyUntil April 15 REVIEW BY MARK STOYICH In 1998, near the town of Laramie in the US state of Wyoming, two young men tortured a young gay man, Matt Shepard, and left him for dead. The
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Official Secrets: What the Nazis Planned, What the British and Americans KnewBy Richard BreitmanPenguin, 2000325pp., $21 (pb) REVIEW BY PHIL SHANNON It was "the greatest and most horrible crime ever committed in the whole history of the world",