NEFA peace plan launchedSYDNEY — A proposal to resolve the decade-long forest dispute in north-east NSW was launched by the North East Forest Alliance on August 25. The proposal meets with the obligations of the
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This is the edited text of a speech given by PEGGY TROMPF to a meeting in Sydney on September 1 organised by the Rank and File Alliance. On Monday, I listened to the speeches of the president and secretary of the ACTU as they opened the
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The Keating government's draft legislation on land rights, released on September 2, quashes hopes that the government would strengthen the High Court's limited recognition of Aboriginal "native title". In fact, the effect will be
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[The author is secretary-treasurer of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers union in the US. This article is abridged from EcoSocialist Review, published in Chicago.] Our first concern is to protect the jobs, incomes and
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Where are the African-American families? Capital punishment is popular is America. It is clear that many Americans experience a demented kind of euphoric high when a prisoner has been put to death. Alas, the macabre hypocrisy of it all! We
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Australia's "quiet achiever", BHP, is a major shareholder and the manager of what is probably the dirtiest mine in the world: the Ok Tedi open cut copper mine of Papua New Guinea. The mine
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Zanny Begg All in the family Just before the federal budget, Channel 7's current affairs program, Real Life, featured a story on young people who leave home because of the attraction of welfare payments for the homeless. Young people who
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Secrecy surrounds the Australian government's plans to sell Australian uranium to Indonesia. But evidence gathered by Greenpeace exposes its eagerness to be a big player in Indonesia's decision to go nuclear over the next decade. PIP HINMAN reports
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The Yorta Yorta are the first Victorian Koori group to lodge a land rights claim following the 1992 Mabo decision. The claim is for areas of land along what is now the Victorian-NSW border which are part of their traditional
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Sheena Campbell Sinn Fein is the major socialist party in Ireland, established in 1905 with the aim of winning independence from Britain. In 1980 the women's department of Sinn Fein was formed out of a realisation that women needed an organised
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Vegetarianism Dave Riley's article "Does Meat Make the Meal?" (GL 11/8/93) skimps on the truth about vegetarianism. It isn't just getting the meal that's a political issue, it's what happens to the animals who get turned into the meat that
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BRISBANE — As part of its monthly program of alternative films, the Resistance Centre here featured a special night of local independent films on August 28. The films included When the Moon Falls, a surrealist allegory on the corruption of wealth
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PERTH — The case of Helen Carr, brought to public attention by Jim Scott, the Greens (WA) member for South Metropolitan, in the Legislative Council on August 18, seems to indicate that little protection exists for individuals
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Several thousand students around the country demonstrated on August 10 against the federal government's latest attacks on higher education. Smaller protests have since followed in a number of cities. But most of these protests
News
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According to an article in the September 2 Financial Review, many of the Keating government's budget back-downs were the result of pre-planned lobbying work by organisations such as the Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS).
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SYDNEY — The ACTU urgently needs to change direction, a September 1 public meeting was told. The meeting, called by the Rank and File Alliance and attended by about 80 people, coincided with the ACTU congress and was organised
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The wages debate at the ACTU Congress was the one where everyone was expecting "action". All the ingredients for a major clash seemed to be there: the Transport Workers Union had denounced the loss of wages under the Accord; the New South Wales Labor
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ADELAIDE — Patrick Dodson, chairperson of the Aboriginal Reconciliation Council, spoke to more than 200 students and staff at Flinders University on August 18 on the results of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in
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Tim Anderson speaks on Austudy arrests MELBOURNE — Tim Anderson is touring Melbourne campuses to talk about the justice system and the fight for our rights and liberties. Speaking at a socialist conference in Sydney in August, he repeated
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Last week's ACTU Congress, held at Sydney's Darling Harbour Convention Centre, was a peculiar affair. The delegates were angrier than they had been for years, but the votes still went the way of the ACTU leaders. Dick Nichols looks at two issues
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Coode Fire CommemoratedMELBOURNE — On August 21, local residents of Melbourne's inner west joined with environment activists to release balloons carrying tags for return to the Hazardous Materials Action Group at Coode
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PSA accepts enterprise bargaining dealADELAIDE — A mass meeting of the South Australian Public Service Association, held on August 26, voted to accept a package proposed by the state government. The package
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Makes sense "A new report finds that the Independent Commission Against Corruption may hamper state business opportunities by stifling the tendering process." — Bulletin, September 7. Better late than never? "What we are actually doing is
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EYA in Fringe FestivalMelbourne — As part of their People Against Pollution campaign, 20 EYA members participated in the opening of the Melbourne Fringe Festival street parade and party on
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"Mate, he's smiling." With these words, one cynical old union official described how he saw industrial relations minister Laurie Brereton's position after he had been jeered, catcalled and hissed by a hostile ACTU congress. Smiling? After such a
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Call to protect Jervis BaySYDNEY — A special peak councils meeting of Australia's major environmental organisations on August 25 called upon the federal and NSW governments to invoke the fullest degree of environmental
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Sixteen sacked over safety issueMELBOURNE — Sixteen steel fixers and carpenters have been sacked from a construction site at St Vincents Hospital for taking a stand over a safety issue. When a three-metre iron
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BRISBANE — Some 200 people rallied on September 4 outside Ascot station in the city's eastern suburbs to protest against the impending closure of passenger rail services between Eagle Junction and Pinkenba. The rally
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Rally calls for action on Brisbane RiverBRISBANE — Queensland Greens convener Drew Hutton and Australian Littoral Society executive officer Di Tarte expressed some optimism about the future of the Brisbane River, following
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SYDNEY — Indonesian and Australian activists and trade unionists failed in their efforts to put a resolution before the ACTU Congress stating support for the newly forming independent worker organisations in Indonesia and opposing
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600 jobs saved in SA?ADELAIDE — In the lead-up to the South Australian budget, Premier Lyn Arnold announced that previously projected cuts of 600 jobs in the public sector would not go ahead. The content of the budget,
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SYDNEY — Lion Nathan Corporation, owner of Toohey's Breweries, has been able to sack 192 workers and conduct a massive restructuring of its plant at Lidcombe following the collapse of strike action at the plant. The Liquor
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Attack on political bookshop SYDNEY — Swastikas and right-wing threats were spray painted across the front if the Pathfinder Bookshop in Surry Hills on the night of August 30. Supporters of the bookshop are calling on defenders of democratic
Analysis
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Middle East peace? The decision by the Israeli government to sign an agreement with the Palestine Liberation Organisation to allow the Palestinian Arab population in the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho limited
World
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US delegation to meet (almost) 'everyone' By Jana D.K. JAKARTA — The Indonesian armed forces (ABRI) have announced that a visiting delegation of 12 US congressional aides will be allowed to meet with East Timorese fighters during a
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MOSCOW — Russia's capital, it was reported recently, has now entered a select group of world centres. For anyone not content with a bread-and-potatoes standard of living, Moscow has become one of the
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Cover-up fear in Yanomami massacreThe world was horrified by the recent massacre of up to 100 Yanomami Indians by goldminers in the Amazon basin. It has been reported that the inhabitants of two villages were slaughtered and
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By Jana D.K. JAKARTA — On September 1, 6000 workers stopped work at the PT Khong Tai Indonesia Rebok shoe factory in East Bekasi, West Java, over wages and conditions. Strikers erected signs with slogans such as "Don't cut our wages", "Hi,
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"Before I came in to Thailand, I sat on the River Moi bank, on the borderline, very close to Thailand. In 1984, Burmese troops came and attacked Maesot ... I set out on foot looking for a safe place, and went
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Call to lift ban on Pramoedya's work According to an August 23 Jakarta Post report, 70 leading Indonesian authors and artists have asked the government to lift its ban on the publication of the works of Pramoedya Ananta Toer, whose novels have
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Attacking underdevelopment and pollution JULIA PERKINS and NICK FREDMAN recently returned from a visit to Cuba. Here they describe the island's attempts at economically sustainable development. "Ecojoven 93", the first youth environment
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Everyone seems to agree the Khmer Rouge are finished, or are they? It is well to recall that Cambodia is covered with graves of those who underestimated Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge (KR). Nonetheless, the majority view is
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HAVANA — If they had flown in on a magic carpet laden with gold and jewels, the 14 women and men who engaged in a 23-day hunger strike against the US blockade of Cuba and the dozens more who aided them could not have received a
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The Somali tragedy represents an extreme example of what is taking place in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa. The crisis is a result of the crippling combination of three decades of moisture deficit in the Sahel belt and failed
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FMLN activist assassinated On August 19, at 1:00 a.m., Oscar Grimaldi, a member of the FPL/FMLN, was assassinated in El Salvador. Grimaldi was having a drink in the Cafe Latino in Santa Tecla, La Libertad. Two armed men in civilian clothing
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Nicaraguan commandos make getawayMANAGUA — Hundreds of people waved clenched fists, arms and flags and shouted support as the Dignity and Sovereignty Commandos made their escape from the city. People lined the road while
Culture
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In the starsWhat's in the stars? Hydrogen, mostly. Helium too, especially in the older ones. Traces of heavier elements. Oh yes: heat, lots of it. So it's certainly not surprising that the stars can determine
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Inessa Armand: Revolutionary and feminist By R.C. Elwood Cambridge University Press, 1992. 304 pp. $99 hardback. Reviewed by Claudine Holt When Inessa Armand's name is mentioned, it is usually in connection with that of Vladimir Lenin —
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Rethinking Camelot: JFK, the Vietnam War, and US Political Culture By Noam Chomsky London: Verso, 1993. 172 pp., $27.95 (pb) Reviewed by Phil Shannon John F. Kennedy — "the only shining star that ever crossed the political sky" as the
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Become what you are The Juliana Hatfield Three Festival Records Reviewed by Karen Fredericks In "Feelin' Massachusetts", on Become what you are, Juliana Hatfield complains that her home town, Boston, bores her. Boring or not, the city is
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From the highland flings of Scotland to the dance of East Timor, from the strident sounds of protest folk to the harmonies of a cappella: they will all be there at the Newcastle and Hunter Valley Folk Festival to be held at
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The fire in Nina Simone Nina Simone, the Legend Masterpiece, SBS Television Monday, September 13, 8.30 p.m. (8.00 Adelaide) Reviewed by Ignatius Kim "I refuse to call it jazz even though the whole world calls it jazz. It was a term
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Brisbane's Green It UpBRISBANE — What do you get when you mix healthy politics, live music, poetry and Guinness? It's called Green It Up and it happens every Thursday Night at the Brisbane Celtic Club. Green It Up is
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KAKADU NATIONAL PARK — "It's a bloody rip-off! Where does the money go, to the bloody Abos I s'pose?!" This greeting is a common but by no means predominant sentiment. Thousands of visitors come to Kakadu each week at
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BRISBANE — "For hundreds of years the indigenous peoples or 'orang asli' in Sarawak have lived and depended on the rainforest for food, shelter, clothing, medicine and other necessities, living in complete harmony with nature.
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Cuts to ethnic broadcastingMELBOURNE — More than 400 people attended a public meeting on August 16 organised by radio stations 3ZZZ, 3CR and 3YYR. The meeting, at Trades Hall, was called to condemn a 25% cut in federal
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A Piebald Dog Running on the Edge of the Sea Directed by Karen Gevorkian From September 10 at Carlton Movie House, Melbourne Reviewed by Peter Boyle The "piebald dog running on the edge of the sea" is the Nyvkh name for a large rock off