Issue 4

News

By Angela Matheson SYDNEY — Australia's first Aboriginal high school, Pemulwuy Koori College, was officially opened on February 27. The landmark occasion was celebrated by a crowd of over 500 people cheered and embraced as the Aboriginal flag

World

SAN FRANCISCO, February 13 — Residents of the small town of Kettleman City today brought a major civil rights suit over the siting of a toxic waste incinerator in their low-income, Latino community in Kings County. The suit marks the first time
A new international organisation was formed at a February meeting in the Netherlands of representatives of peoples and nations not represented at the United Nations because their countries are occupied, colonised or forcibly integrated in bigger
By Rob Miller If you believe the "mainstream" media, the Palestine Liberation Organisation has irretrievably blotted its copybook by supporting Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, while a peace-loving Israel exercised admirable restraint by not retaliating
By Renfrey Clarke MOSCOW — In a number of sessions since mid-November, the parliament of the Russian Republic has intensively debated the "land question". Citing constant shortages of most food, right-wing liberal deputies have been calling for
By Sally Low A large majority of voters in Estonia and Latvia cast ballots in favour of independence on March 3. Voter turnout was 82.8% in Estonia and 87.56% in Latvia. In both republics, over 64% voted yes to questions that, as in Lithuania on
Sixteen environmentalists from the island of Palawan in the Philippines have been arrested and charged with subversion. They are members of Haribon-Palawan, a well-known and respected organisation which is cosponsoring with Friends of the Earth an

By Peter Boyle In mid-February, while the oil war raged in the Middle East, the US government was blocking progress on an international treaty to address the urgent problem of global warming. After the oil war had come to a bloody end (of sorts),

By Norm Dixon and Tom Jordan Nine hundred mine workers at the Vatukoula gold mine on Fiji's west coast are on strike to gain recognition of their union from both the company and the government.

By Tracy Sorensen PRAGUE — The view over Prague formerly enjoyed by a gigantic statue of Stalin is justly famous — all Gothic church spires, patchwork roofs and stone bridges crisscrossing the Vltava River. Unfortunately, on most days it's

The balance of scientific opinion has swung unequivocally behind the view that industrial activities in the last century have been accelerating the greenhouse effect. What once was a radical theory — that a number of gases were

By Stephen Robson LONDON — More than 80 Iraqis are being held in prisons or army prisoner of war camps, without charges being laid, and facing possible deportation. Home secretary Kenneth Baker gave the orders to imprison and then deport 88

In this concluding part of their interview with Steve Painter and Jim Percy, Soviet Socialist Party members Boris Kagarlitsky, Alexander Popov and Vladimir Kondratov discuss Boris Yeltsin's challenge to Mikhail Gorbachev's leadership, and the increasing national unrest which is threatening the future of the USSR.

By Tracy Sorensen PRAGUE — Czechoslovakia's ruling Civic Forum formally split into two camps on February 24, ending a long period of wrangling between more free-market oriented forces and those advocating a measured, state-controlled transition

Culture

The Royal Commission into the Australian Economy By John Clarke and Ross Stevenson Director and Designer: Bruce Petty Belvoir Theatre, Sydney Reviewed by Angela Matheson The monster that is the economy looms above the royal commission as a
Alice Written and directed by Woody Allen Starring Mia Farrow Alice is a whimsical comic fantasy about a very rich New Yorker who finds her life and her relationships unfulfilling, her frustrations manifesting themselves in a back ache. The
Hamlet Directed by Franco Zeffirelli With Mel Gibson as Hamlet, Glenn Close as Gertrude Reviewed by Chris Canute As Shakespeare's longest and best known play, Hamlet is a daunting proposition for directors, actors and audience alike. Zeffirelli's
By Rod Webb When he was a boy, Amir Naderi was too chubby to be the exact model for Amiro, the hero of his film The Runner, but he has a great sense of poetic licence. "This is the cinema, and I can intervene in a lot ot things. Even a director
The Beauty Myth By Naomi Wolf Chatto and Windus (London). 1990. 276 pp. Hardback $29.95 Reviewed by Melanie Sjoberg "The qualities that a given period calls beautiful in women are merely symbols of the female behaviour that period considers
People Like Us One Extra Company Choreographer: Kai Tai Chan Director: Peter Kingston Musical Director: Mara Kiek Design: Tim Kobin Everest Theatre, Seymour Centre. March 4-16 Reviewed by Angela Matheson Kai Tai Chan understands the common
An Encounter With Fidel By Gianni Minà Ocean Press. 1991. $21.95. Reviewed by Alex Bainbridge In the last year, Cuba has received a lot of attention as popular revolutions swept through Eastern Europe. The media turned their eyes to Cuba