Alternative media setbacks
The publishers of Modern Times, which ceased publication last September, have written to subscribers confirming the demise of the magazine.
First published as Australian Society, the magazine had been in
Issue 89
News
Greens contest most marginal seat
SYDNEY — The Greens in Lowe announced last week that they will be standing a candidate in NSW's most marginal seat in the federal elections.
Bruce Threlfo, the Greens candidate in two previous
Green Party candidates Murray Matson (Kingsford Smith) and Mark Berriman (Sydney) sorted rubbish or "non-recovered material" at Eastgarden shopping centre on February 18 to call attention to the need for greater recycling. According to Matson, a
By Pip Hinman
MELBOURNE — About 350 people attended the Rainbow Alliance's election campaign launch here on February 17. Speakers included Rainbow candidates Nigel D'Souza, standing in Batman; Christine Craik, standing in Melbourne Ports;
NSW rejections rise
By Michael Tardif
SYDNEY — The number of rejected NSW applicants for tertiary education increased again in 1993. Those refused access this year numbered 45,000. This was an increase of 3000 on last year's figures.
No GST on Tomatoes! say Tasmanians
By Sean Pybus and Natasha Simons
HOBART — When Liberal leader John Hewson visited Salamanca Markets on Saturday, February 20, he didn't expect to be pelted with fruit and vegetables.
Hewson was
By Sean Malloy
"The Labor Party and the Liberals promote policies that are working against the interests of young people", says Zanny Begg, Democratic Socialist national spokesperson on youth affairs.
Begg is also a leading member of the
By Liam Mitchell
ADELAIDE — In a cynical election gimmick, the federal government has made the South Australian state Labor government an offer of financial assistance if the state government sells off part of the debt-ridden State Bank.
By Alex Cooper and Peter Boyle
MELBOURNE — Community action groups are trying to keep up the momentum of the campaign against the Kennett government through numerous demonstrations and protest meetings, but the government is beginning to
Left unions publish new paper
By Peter Boyle
MELBOURNE — A number of Victorian unions under left-wing leadership and some community groups have produced the first issue of a new monthly newspaper called FrontLine. Their aim is to "help
Woodchip protest at Bunbury
By Ingvar Anda
BUNBURY, W.A. — Thirty protesters were arrested at the Bunbury woodchip export facility here on Sunday, February 14. The arrests took place at the base of the massive pile of woodchips which
Democratic Socialist candidate in Sydney's west
SYDNEY — The Democratic Socialist Electoral League has announced that it is contesting the western suburbs electorate of Prospect. The Democratic Socialists will be fielding 36-year-old youth
Bill Hathaway
MELBOURNE — Prominent AIDS activist Bill Hathaway died on February 6, aged 27. He had been living with HIV since 1989.
Hathaway worked as HIV education officer with the Victorian AIDS Council and was an activist in
Liberals stall on brewery
PERTH — The new Liberal state government has already refused to act over the redevelopment of the old Swan Brewery site.
Aboriginal affairs minister Kevin Minson said last week that, while the Liberal Party was
By Maurice Sibelle
BRISBANE — Queensland voters in the federal election will have some 205 candidates in the lower house and 42 candidates in the upper house to choose from. There are 25 lower house seats and six senate positions to be
Brisbane mall protests continue
By Maurice Sibelle
BRISBANE — Brisbane City Council and police adopted a low-key approach at a rally in Brisbane's Queen St Mall on February 19. The rally was the third such action to protest against the
Socialist environment policy launched
By Bill Mason
BRISBANE — "For over 200 years, capitalism has inflicted serious damage on Australia's natural and fragile environment", Dr Coral Wynter told a meeting here on February 17, launching
Expelled ALP member to stand against Baldwin
SYDNEY — A former Labor Party member is the Democratic Socialist candidate in the inner city seat of Sydney, currently held by Peter Baldwin for the ALP. Margaret Gleeson, a community housing
World
By Irina Glushchenko
MOSCOW — Ask any Muscovite what there are most of in the city, and he or she will probably answer, "Commercial street kiosks". These are ugly structures, often with steel bars on the windows, which trade in a
International actions against Sarawak logging
Rainforest campaigner Bruno Manser will begin a fast in March in solidarity with the Penan people of Sarawak state in Malaysia. Manser and others in Switzerland and Austria plan the fast as part of
By Renfrey Clarke
MOSCOW — As set forward recently by labour minister Gennady Melikyan, the Russian government's "solution" to unemployment is a familiar line from the West — "Women back into the home!"
More than 70% of Russia's
By Steve Painter
New Zealand's Telecom Corporation, sold by the government to two United States companies in late 1990, has announced plans to cut its work force by 5200 over the next four years.
The cuts were announced as the company
By Chris Benner
A strike by Johannesburg taxi drivers, which crippled the city for three days in the second week of February, has been settled with an agreement of intent.
Signatories include the major taxi union, political parties,
'Mitterrand approved Greenpeace bombing'
It has been alleged that French President Francois Mitterrand approved the bombing of the environmental organisation Greenpeace's ship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbour in 1985.
Two French agents
By Moyiga Nduru
LONDON — During a short visit to her native Somalia recently, Rakiya Omaar was stunned to discover that she could not gain access to foreign relief offices. "It was a very painful experience", she recalled, "to see the
Death penalty in the Philippines
By Emlyn Jones
After six years of bitter debate and opposition, the death penalty has been reintroduced in the Philippines. The House of Representatives Committee on Justice, headed by Pablo Garcia,
By Max Lane
Long-simmering tensions between President Suharto and the Indonesian armed forces (ABRI) high command have been brought into the open.
On February 16, the military seemingly laid down the gauntlet to the president a
West backs down on deportations
By Sean Malloy
The United Nations, the European Community and the United States have tacitly supported Israel's deportation of Palestinians to Lebanon by accepting a "compromise" proposal to return 100 of
Child victims of Israeli terror
Twenty-five Palestinian children, between four and 16 years old, have been killed by the Israeli military since Yitzhak Rabin took office as prime minister, claims the Jerusalem Media and Communication Centre.
Culture
Work by lesbian artists
By Kath Tucker
SYDNEY — Among the multitude of offerings for this year's Mardi Gras festival — everything from the annual parade and party to a "shop till you drop" fundraiser and forums — the "inside out
Utungan Percussion
By Katrina Dean
They were clad in purple, baggy clothes and top hats with streamers, drums around their necks and shells around their ankles — full body groovin'! This is Utungan Percussion.
This Sydney-based
Beyond the white jumpsuit
Elvis Herselvis
Wheatsheaf Hotel, Hobart,February 10
Reviewed by Rose Matthews
Three years ago Leigh Crow impersonated Elvis, on a dare, at a gay and lesbian nightclub in San Francisco. Although Crow was at
Unforgiven
Written by David Webb Peoples
Directed by Clint Eastwood
With Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman and Richard Harris
Showing at Village, Greater Union and Hoyts Cinemas
Reviewed by Max Lane
Unforgiven is a very
Indonesian Politics Under Suharto: Order, Development and Pressure for Change
By Michael R.J. Vatikiotis
Routledge, 1993. 220pp. $39.95
Reviewed by Max Lane
This is the first book for many years aimed at the general public and
Bob-bob-bobbin' along
Bob Roberts (M)
Written and directed by Tim Robbins
Reviewed by Mario Giorgetti
Meeting halls across Pennsylvania ring to the cheering and the clapping and the stamping that characterises the hysteria of
By Norm Dixon
South African township jive — mbaqanga — has become popular throughout the world largely because of the phenomenal talents and energies of Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens and their often overlooked but equally
By Dave Riley
Cabaret in popular usage generally conjures up visions of strip joints, sleazy bars or nightclubs where the meagre stage fare hardly compensates for the high drink prices. To these images the film Cabaret added the grim aura of
Editorial
Accord Mark VII
In the seventh manifestation of the misnamed Prices and Incomes Accord between the federal Labor government and the ACTU, the peak union body has agreed to forgo national wage claims for three years, or even longer if high