In the movie of Margaret Atwood's novel The Handmaid's Tale, there is a "birthing party" in which wealthy women sip tea in casual elegance while a slave woman goes through labour, bearing a baby that is snatched from her before
-
-
What are the questions facings socialists as we mark another May Day — one less celebrated by masses of people than any for decades? JIM PERCY gives his view. Why is there a crisis of socialism? It's not because of the success of capitalism at
-
... and ain't i a woman?: The 'something' could be guilt ABC television's broadcast of There's Something About A Convent Girl documented what for many women is an experience which shapes their lives. At the very least, it leaves permanent memories
-
UN and Gulf War At a public meeting hosted by the United Nations Association of Australia and Greenhouse Action Australia, Dr Noel Brown, Regional Director, North America, United Nations Environment Programme, stated that the United Nations should
-
ROBIN OSBORNE reports from Lismore, in northern NSW, on the efforts to control a persistent import. The war room was at the NSW Department of Agriculture's North Coast headquarters at Wollongbar, near Lismore, and the briefing was conducted by
-
When the Hawke government announced in March that it was going to introduce legislation to guarantee access to native forests for wood processing projects (e.g. pulp mills) worth $100 million or more, the environmental movement reacted with anger.
-
I also think vigorous debate has a place in left politics, though I would hope it might take place without immediately reaching for extreme accusations, such as that of collusion with imperialist propaganda. I do not support
-
In his article "Kurds: 'Bush Responsible for Massacre'" (issue 8), Peter Boyle writes: "United States forces occupying southern Iraq ... did nothing to stop Saddam Hussein from brutally crushing the Kurdish revolt and an earlier
-
A lesson in US arrogance [The following is abridged from a Radio Havana broadcast marking the 30th anniversary of the defeat of the US invasion at the Bay of Pigs.] On an April day in 1961, five US merchant ships moved in along the southern
-
A worrying week for the economy, what with the mining industry distressed at attempts to delay mining at Kakadu. The opposition is all based on mythology — nothing to do with economics or balanced argument. Just these bloody
-
Brisbane action updatesWhile the war against Iraq is over, people in the Gulf Action Coalition see no reason to stop meeting. Activists feel that the US victory did little to solve the outstanding issues in the region,
-
In an important victory for the environmental and other progressive movements, BHP Petroleum announced late on April 26 that it has dropped its court action against Greenpeace. Had it gone ahead, the suit would have threatened many
News
-
Photo by David Brazil SYDNEY — "We cannot morally aspire to be a free people in our own land while oppressing others. The plight of the Palestinians evokes a disturbing echo", Marta Romer of Jewish Women in Support of an
-
By Adriaan Anarco-Troika DARWIN — The "razor gang" Estimates Review Committee, set up by the Country Liberal Party government late last year, will slash over $120 million from government spending over the next two years. It recommends the
-
MELBOURNE — State Liberal leader Alan Brown turned up for a day's work on April 23 only to find that his parliamentary colleagues had been conspiring to dump him. By 10.30 a.m. the game was up. Both Brown and his deputy,
-
SYDNEY — It was standing room only on April 10, at St Peters Town Hall in Sydney's inner west, as 250 local residents met to protest against "Mt Sydenham". On May 5 their rage will be maintained at a public demonstration called by
-
Wetland decision deferredGreater Taree City Council this week reserved a decision on a sand mining development application affecting one of the most sensitive wetlands on the NSW north coast. BHP-Utah wants to establish
-
Rallies back Kurds Brisbane By Bill Mason The plight of the Kurdish people in northern Iraq was the focus of a rally and march organised by the Kurdish Association of Queensland here on April 20. Some 100 people gathered in Roma Street Forum
-
"It is becoming clearer and clearer that the Chernobyl disaster was even more catastrophic than the antinuclear movement anticipated", said Friends of the Earth spokesperson John Hallam on the fifth anniversary of the disaster. On April 26, 1986,
-
SYDNEY — "I hope that if Tim is not released on this appeal, that you get up and get back at it again — and let them know that before the appeal", Paul Hill advised a large public meeting at Glebe Town Hall on April 23.
-
and Rjurik Davidson MELBOURNE — Students at Melbourne University will consider sacking student union president Andrew Landeryou and general secretary Keir Semmens at a general meeting on May 7. The meeting has been called on a
-
and David Mizon Waiting for a national wages campaign from the ACTU? Don't hold your breath; there is none coming. The electrical trades, metal and building unions are threatening to stop public transport and disrupt
-
Right behind you, mate "We're a pretty good combination and I believe Paul will be there with me." — Bob Hawke explaining that he intends to lead the Labor Party into the next elections. What are secretaries for? "I know that it is completely
-
Arthur Murray and Sonny Bates, convicted in the Brewarrina "riot" trial, will be sentenced in Bathurst on Friday, May 3. The NSW Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Watch Committee is organising a demonstration outside the Bathurst District Court at 10
-
Federal regulations giving legal recognition to homosexual relationships in immigration for the first time came into effect on April 15. Australia thus joins a handful of countries (New Zealand, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway) which acknowledge the
-
A large number of police have been brought into Wodonga to contain a militant picket line by 270 striking workers from Wodonga Meats. The strike, according to the Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union, was forced by the
-
Queensland bribe claims confirmedBRISBANE — Allegations that multimillionaire Sir Leslie Thiess bribed the Bjelke-Petersen government were substantially true, the jury has ruled in Australia's longest and most expensive
-
SUPPORT GREEN LEFT WEEKLY MARCH BEHIND THE GREEN LEFT BANNERS Adelaide: Saturday May 4, 11 a.m. Peace Park Brisbane: Monday, May 6, 10 a.m. TLC building, 16 Peel St, Sth Brisbane Melbourne: Sunday, May 5, 2 p.m. Trades Hall, Cnr Lygon St &
Analysis
-
Editorial: Money, power and the law A jury finds that Sir Leslie Thiess systematically bribed the Bjelke-Petersen government yet still awards him $55,000 damages against Channel 9, which exposed his crooked dealings; the federal government
World
-
Jean Eparo, a member of the PNG activist group Melanesian Solidarity (Melsol), on her way to attend the "Students, Science, Sustainability" conference at the Australian National University over the April 25-26 weekend, spoke to Green
-
Two Soviet rocket scientists have warned that the solid fuel rocket boosters used on the US space shuttle release 187 tons of ozone-destroying chlorine molecules into the atmosphere with every launch. Valery Burdakov, co-designer of the Russian
-
Three members of the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM — Gerakan Aceh Merdeka) have been indicted by the East Aceh District Court for alleged participation in armed struggle against the Indonesian military. They are accused of murdering members of
-
PRAGUE — The second all-Czechoslovak meeting of Left Grouping, an informal network of left and Communist Party groups and platforms, took place in the Slovak capital Bratislava on April 13. There was a striking contrast between
-
Indonesia's pro-democracy forces seem to be growing more confident as the 1992 elections near. The Suharto regime, with a discontented officer corps on one side and more confident grassroots protests on the other, is less able to
-
Four Catholics in northern Ireland were murdered by British loyalist death squads in the space of six days in late March. Three of the victims were from the Drumbeg estate at Lurgan/Craigavon in Northern Armagh. The three were
-
By Conn M. Hallinan While most of the US media were transfixed by the Gulf War, the Bush administration quietly carried out a violation of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. On January 28, the US fired from Kwajalein Atoll in the South Pacific
-
WASHINGTON — Greenpeace's campaign against waste exports has revealed that two more New Jersey companies have shipped highly toxic mercury wastes abroad, this time for burial in the rolling farmlands of Spain. From 1986 to 1987, Cosan Chemical
-
Seven hundred children died in a single measles outbreak in Nicaragua this year. The worst outbreak of this disease in years was primarily due to the fact that many children had not been vaccinated. The immunisation program had
-
PRAGUE — The far-right Republican Party held a 4000-strong march through Prague on Saturday, April 13, the culmination of a national week of action. Their supporters — skinheads, workers facing redundancy, political prisoners
-
BRATISLAVA — Romanian Securitate secret police are still active in his country, President Petre Roman admitted in Washington on April 16.The Securitate were the backbone of the former Ceausescu Communist Party regime. Released to
-
PRAGUE — The Socialist Party government of Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia bowed on April 17 to textile and metal workers' demands for wages they had not received for several months and a guaranteed minimum monthly wage of 3000
-
Reporting back on April 19 after a two-week visit to Kuwait, an Amnesty International fact-finding team said scores of people had been killed, hundreds arbitrarily arrested and many brutally tortured by Kuwaiti armed forces and
-
As the African National Congress' May 9 deadline for meaningful action by the government approaches, the negotiations process in South Africa is under greater strain than ever before. The deadline was contained in an open
Culture
-
Strange Neighbours — The Australia-Indonesia Relationship Edited by Desmond Ball and Helen Wilson Allen & Unwin, 268 pp. $24.95 Reviewed by Robin Osborne The most important difference between Australia and Indonesia — aside from the obvious
-
SYDNEY — Twelve years ago, the World Development Tea Co-operative imported just enough tea from Sri Lanka to fill someone's garage. Today, the non-profit organisation's Tradewinds teas can be found in Coles supermarkets
-
A Shadow Over East Timor A documentary by Mandy King and James Kesteven Produced by Shadow Films in association with SBS Television To be screened by SBS TV on Friday, May 3, 11.40 p.m. (11.10 p.m. in Adelaide) Reviewed by Norm Dixon Hidden
-
As new flavours go, the taste of the TV '90s is short courses in Australian comedy. Each skit and impersonation feeds an upwardly mobile giggle streak where each guffaw and chuckle rates with McNair Anderson. Undergraduate revue and
-
The Return of Scarcity: Strategies for an Economic Future By Dr H.C. Coombs University of Cambridge Press, 1990 Reviewed by Malcolm Abbot Collected in this book are nine essays written by "Nugget" Coombs since his retirement as governor of the
-
11 mad days in MayBRISBANE — This month the 1991 Biennial, the international art festival come to Brisbane. With it comes the initiative of a wide range of local Brisbane artists, poets and performers — the First Festival Fringe.
-
When things balance em = By Paul Buckberry The report on TV was heard while a lone vulture bore witness to death. He was pampered. He witnessed destruction, cities made of matchsticks: again he gorged. He witnessed green puss drain into the