News

By Lisa Macdonald The 75th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of Australia in October will be marked by a range of events being organised by socialists around the country. One of the features of these commemoration activities

@FM18 WIDE = Adelaide women's services threatened By Melanie Sjoberg ADELAIDE Another women's service in South Australia is coming under threat. A recently released review of the Women's Information Switchboard (WIS) recommends a complete

By Dave Mizon The dispute between Esso and striking Bass Strait rig workers widened last week, with picket lines being set up at Esso's Long Island point refinery, halting the shipment of LPG fuel by road and sea from that location, and at the

Luz Mendez, a leader of the coalition of guerilla organisations, the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG), will visit Australia on a speaking tour from September 17 to 27. The organisations forming the URNG have fought the Guatemalan

By Tim Gooden and James Vassilopoulos Canberra — The ACT budget, due on September 19, promises public sector cuts, corporatisation, job losses and privatisation. Immediately after the minority Liberal government was sworn in, two senior

@FM18 WIDE = Surprise result in Victorian ETU By Dave Mizon Last week's election for the Victorian branch of the Electrical Trades Union, which replaced state secretary Gary Main and assistant secretary Dick Gray by the leaders of the

By Bill Mason BRISBANE — Some 130 people crowded into the Resistance Centre here on September 2 to celebrate the 200th issue of Green Left Weekly with a lively dinner-cabaret. The theme of the night was a South Pacific feast, to mark the

By Kerry Vernon Brisbane— The Queensland Labor government is considering restricting access by workers to common law claims for negligence against employers. In a letter to unions, minister for employment and training Wendy Edmond outlined the

@FM24 WIDE = Row divides Queensland ALP Socialist Left By Bill Mason BRISBANE Four federal Labor MPs who are members of the Socialist Left faction in Queensland have publicly dissociated themselves from the SL's newspaper Keep Left, as the

By Brian Jones SYDNEY — The Leichhardt and Marrickville Councils elections on September 9 offer some interesting insights into the politics of the inner west and reveal some of the problems the ALP is facing at the local level. The area

By Jennifer Thompson The federal government on August 31 announced a two-month "cooling off" period before the sale of the publicly owned Australian National Line (ANL) to British-based multinational P&O. This is to allow P&O to reach agreement

There's always the dole "They wouldn't be working with me if they weren't happy." — Horse trainer Gai Waterhouse, replying to claims by the Australian Workers Union that her strappers and stable hands are paid below award