Issue 82

News

By Peter Anderson SYDNEY — The CEFTAA magazine Framed has raised a number of very pertinent questions about the activities of the supposed "good cop", Inspector John William Burke, who has appeared before the ICAC inquiry into police
By Jo Brown MELBOURNE — Many of the schools being closed do not fit the guidelines of falling enrolments, and some number seem to have been targeted for their radical programs catering for disadvantaged students. Northland Secondary
By Norm Dixon The United Nations General Assembly delivered a sharp rebuff to Washington when it voted for a Cuban-sponsored resolution calling for the repeal of the Torricelli Bill. The bill, known as the Cuban Democracy Act, tightens further
By Michael Arnold FREMANTLE — 1600 people attended a public meeting at John Curtin High in Fremantle on Sunday November 22. The meeting had been organised by the family of Joe Dethridge, who had his jaw broken in custody in May. The
By Sean Malloy The Australian Council For Overseas Aid said that the United Nations should seek the immediate release into UN custody of East Timorese Fretilin leader Xanana Gusmao, who was imprisoned by Indonesian troops on November 20, and
By Herb Thompson Mr Peter Wade, NBH-Peko Managing Director, and chief negotiator for Australian Pulp and Paper Mills (APPM) Ltd. in Burnie, Tasmania, accepted a $95,000 pay rise in 1992 to take his annual pay to $585,000, a small pittance
By Sean Lennon MELBOURNE — A ministerial briefing document produced by the Public Transport Corporation (PTC) for Victorian transport minister Alan Brown has outlined drastic cuts. Under the plan, which the Liberals are quite likely to adopt,
Chilean activist urges renewed solidarity By Bill Mason BRISBANE — Liliana Castillo, president of the Relatives of Political Prisoners in Chile, hailed the Australian people as the "first to boycott the Pinochet regime" nearly 20 years ago,
By Peter Anderson SYDNEY — With the aid of detailed information from a couple of well-know Sydney "crims," the commission that brought about Nick Greiner's departure from state politics has turned its attention to corruption within the New
By Peter Boyle MELBOURNE — Independent Senator Janet Powell described the November 21-22 conference of the New Zealand Alliance, which she attended as an observer, as "really magnificent" and an inspiration for people active on the progressive
Rally for gay and lesbian rights By Tom Flanagan SYDNEY — Four thousand chanting, whistle-blowing lesbians and gay men attended an enthusiastic anti-discrimination rally at Sydney's Town Hall Square on November 28. The "All I Want For
By Michael O'Reilly MELBOURNE — When Victorian education minister Don Hayward, a former executive with General Motors, outlined his horrendous program of education cuts on November 20, the reaction from teachers, parents and students was one

World

Iraqi children pay for war CHICAGO — An estimated 46,900 Iraqi children under the age of five died in the eight months following the beginning of the Persian Gulf War from causes directly related to the war according to an article in the
By Harry Blutstein Paul Rose was bemused by my question as to whether making a bomb was difficult. As a member of the Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ) during 1969 and 1970 he would have addressed this task more than once as part of
By Frank Noakes LONDON — Shattered glass underfoot, the muffled explosion of another car igniting, the sound of running feet, the smashing of a Molotov cocktail; more fire; shouts and the smell of fear; the baton charge. Next night, the same.
New step toward criminalisation of abortion in Poland By Cyril Smuga On October 22, a special commission set up to study the proposed law on "the juridical protection of conceived children" voted 12-6 to recommend that the proposal be adopted
East Timor has been occupied by Indonesia for 17 years. On December 17 this year Portugal and Indonesia will be holding negotiations at UN headquarters in New York over East Timor. Gusmao, 46, a poet, journalist, and graduate of the Catholic
By Renfrey Clarke MOSCOW — "I'll buy your voucher for 1000 roubles! Phone now — the price will go down!" Some weeks ago that hand-written notice was pasted up outside the bread shop where my neighbours and I queue in the autumn frosts.
By Boris Kagarlitsky MOSCOW — "The Lithuanians have elected former communists!" The results of the October 24 elections in Lithuania still had not been finalised when this sensational news flashed across the pages of the newspapers. For the
By Slavko Mihaljcek After successfully resisting a five-month siege, the Bosnian town of Jajce fell to the Serbo-Yugoslav army on October 29, only after bombing from the air. Of course, Radio Belgrade has denied that the Serb air force took
Laotian independence leader dies By Stephen Robson Kaysone Phomvihane, the President of Laos and a prominent leader of the independence struggle in Laos died on November 21 at the age of 71. Kaysone participated in the student movement

Culture

Profits of War By Ari Ben-Menashe Allen & Unwin, 1992 pp 394 $24.95 Reviewed by Mark Delmege "In gratitude for the use of Australian soil for the transfer of arms to Iran, Richard Babayan, a contract operative of the CIA, received a check
The School for Wives By Jean-Baptiste Poquelin- Moliere Directed by Jean-Pierre Mignon At Melbourne's Gasworks Theatre $18/$13 concession Bookings 699 3253 Reviewed by Peter Boyle To find that a play with a "feminist" message written more
Slapstick in higher realms Death Becomes Her Directed by Robert Zemeckis Written by Martin Donovan & David Koepp Starring Goldie Hawn, Bruce Willis, Meryl Streep, Isabella Rossellini Reviewed by Ulrike Erhardt This is an outrageous black
Death in Dili By Andrew McMillan Hodder & Stoughton 235pp $14.95 Reviewed by Nick Everett Death in Dili is a remarkable account of 17 years of struggle by the East Timorese for national self-determination. It pieces together events from
Pamyat: Russia's Blackshirts The Cutting Edge SBS television Tuesday, December 8, 8.30pm Reviewed by Peter Anderson They wear black uniforms and are described as fascists and extremists. They are Russia's Blackshirts, members of an
Deadly Deceptions: General Electric, Nuclear Weapons and our Environment A half-hour video produced and directed by Debra Chasnoff Academy Award for the best short documentary in 1991 Reviewed by Garry Walters The Campaign for International

Editorial

Who else 'profits'? The first thing that needs to be said about the archaic High Court decision ruling the independent left MP for Wills, Phil Cleary, invalid for office is that it need not have been made. The court might instead have found in