World

  • Machinists win 99-day strike

    Machinists win 99-day strike A bitter 99-day strike against McDonnell Douglas Aerospace Corporation in the US ended in victory on September 11 when members of Machinist Union District 837 voted to accept a five-year contract. The main issue was

  • Indonesian prisoners refuse to cooperate with authorities

    People's Democratic Party (PRD) prisoners in Jakarta are refusing to answer any questions from the attorney-general's interrogators. In a letter smuggled out from the attorney general's detention centre, PRD chair Budiman Sujatmiko, PRD leaders

  • British trade unions in solidarity

    British trade unions in solidarity As the campaign in solidarity with the Indonesian democracy movement prepares for the October 28 international day of protest for human rights in Indonesia, British trade unions have decided to organise a protest

  • Protests mount over jailing of Tongan journalists

    International media organisations and Pacific islands groups have joined in a chorus of protest at the jailing on September 20 of two Tongan journalists and pro-democracy campaigner and MP 'Akilisi Pohiva. The jailings are the latest

  • Death warrant for Nigerian lowland rainforests

    The international Rainforest Action Network has issued an action alert concerning rainforests in Nigeria's Cross River State, home to an astounding variety of animals, including one third of Africa's primates and more than 1000 species of

  • Letter from the US: A battle to save the redwoods

    On Sunday, September 15, the largest protest action in recent years in defence of the environment in the US took place in the remote northern California town of Carlotta. Organized by Earth First!, the action mobilised some

  • Suharto's rise: Communist plot or military coup?

    Suharto's rise: Communist plot or military coup?People watching Indonesian television on the night of September 30 didn't need a guide to know what was on. With the Suharto regime desperate to resurrect the "latent threat of

  • New Zealand's politics of hate and fear

    AUCKLAND — It's a beautiful sunny day, the first day it hasn't rained in months. Winston Peters, the leader of the New Zealand First Party, has gambled on an open air campaign launch for the October 12 election and has won. God

  • Widespread air transport of plutonium planned

    The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last week approved new regulations allowing widespread air transport of plutonium and other nuclear materials. The decision massively increases the possibility of extensive nuclear

  • Nikitin case shows sad state of Russian rights

    MOSCOW — "Russia's Federal Security Service [FSB] said yesterday that it had observed all relevant legal norms in its arrest and detainment of Alexander Nikitin", an Itar-Tass report on September 11 stated blandly. The security

  • Brazil's foreign debt up

    Brazil's foreign debt up According to a report in the Folha de Sao Paulo, Brazil paid US$49.53 billion in interest alone to its foreign private and government creditors between 1990 and July 1996. Despite this, the total amount of the foreign debt

  • Study finds environment hazards are related

    Peter Montague Researchers studying clear lakes in Canada have found that climate warming, acid rain and increased ultraviolet sunlight (from depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer) all interact to allow more ultraviolet light to penetrate