Not Monty Python, unfortunately
If you thought the days of beauty contests were over, think again. On Saturday, May 21, 77 contestants in the 1994 Miss Universe Pageant lined up in Manila in what women's rights activist Nelia Sancho calls a
News
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MELBOURNE — At least 10,000 people rallied on May 15 in opposition to the holding of the 1996 Australian Formula One Grand Prix in inner-suburban Albert Park. Premier Jeff Kennett also turned up, but didn't stay long.
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By Tim E. Stewart DARWIN — The campaign to have military air exercises removed from the city has scored its first victory. With Territory elections set for June 4, the Singaporean Air Force was temporarily moved to Amberley air base
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Members of the Sydney Peace Squadron and other solidarity groups held a vigil of support on May 20 for Robert Samsa, on trial for a protest action he was involved with on October 24 against visiting Indonesian warships.
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News briefs BRISBANE — A peanut farmer has been accused of destroying the home of the sacred Rainbow Serpent at historic Ban Ban Springs near Gayndah, central Queensland. Local Aboriginal tribes say a farmer, who sank a bore near the now
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Water supply workers strikeADELAIDE — A mass meeting of more than 700 Engineering and Water Supply (E&WS) workers on May 20 voted to strike from Friday May 20 to Monday against the government's audit commission report,
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Tasmanian gay rights activists are stepping up their campaign for the repeal of the state's archaic anti-gay laws. Despite the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) finding that Tasmania's laws are in breach of the
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Go-ahead for Kuranda SkyrailFederal minister for the environment John Faulkner on May 13 announced government approval for the 7.5km cableway, the Kuranda Skyrail, near Cairns. It was also announced that there will be
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International Abortion Rights Day CANBERRA — A public meeting on May 18 was outraged to learn that the ACT still has references to abortion in the Crimes Act 1900 and that a woman could be liable to prosecution and up to 10 years' jail if she
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Prefer 1880s "He [John Howard] may pick up some extra numbers, but the bulk of the party room is just not interested in revisiting the 1980s." A Liberal MP on Howard's leadership chances, quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald, May 20. Not all
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The Australian Council for Lesbian and Gay Rights (ACLGR) needs urgent help to bring equal family leave for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenderists before the federal Industrial Relations Commission. On July 18 the ACTU is bringing a case
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MELBOURNE — More than 5000 angry and vocal students and student union employees from tertiary campuses across Victoria marched from Melbourne University to Parliament House on May 19 in response to
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Due to popular demand, the special South Africa celebration subscription offer to 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ has been extended by two weeks. For a further two weeks, you can subscribe to 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly for six months (22 issues) for only $20, one-third less than
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Killers in blueVictoria has been the scene of an alarming wave of homicides. Two shootings in the past week bring to 24 the number of people shot dead by Victorian police since 1988. In episodes the police persist
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Young people speak out against budgetBRISBANE — Seventy young people picketed on May 16 outside the Greek Club, where Prime Minister Keating was addressing a meeting. The picket was against the 1994 federal budget's
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The April 18 NSW Supreme Court ruling by Justice Newman that abortion is illegal in that state has caused a furore in the ACT mainly because it is unclear how the ACT will be affected. In the first instance, it is seen as a
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The National Pay Equity Coalition held a seminar on May 7 in Sydney on the impact of enterprise bargaining on the pay and working conditions of women workers.
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Big Green vote in CoburgMELBOURNE — Labor candidate Carlo Carli won the May 14 by-election for the state parliamentary seat of Coburg with 53% of the vote, up 3% from 1992, but the vote was not impressive in a working-class
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Homeless Murris bused out of CairnsBRISBANE — On Monday, May 16, a group of 24 homeless Murris was stranded on the Wenlock River in the Cape York district after being forced to leave Cairns. Brendon Baker, managing
Analysis
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Labour Movement Incorporated Bored with the nine to five? Tired of the office or the factory floor? Want more money? Are you looking for an exciting career in business or the media? If you can answer yes to these questions, then we have the
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Australia's youth were lied to this year. They were told in classroom after classroom that Australia wants them to become outstanding doctors, lawyers, nurses, scientists and academics.
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A sample of on-line UN information: unic.news: Daily highlights and profiles of United Nations activities. Also includes special press releases and announcements of activities and press conferences at the United Nations Information Centre in
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I first heard the late John Smith speak when he addressed the British Labour Party's conference in the windswept seaside town of Blackpool in September 1992. It was his first address to conference as leader, and much was expected by the uninitiated.
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This is an abridged version of a talk presented at the International 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Conference in April by CARL BLOICE, a National Executive member of the Committees of Correspondence (USA). It was one of three talks on a panel presentation on the topic
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SAM WATSON of the Aboriginal Legal Service in Brisbane was interviewed for 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly by John Nebauer on May 20. Can you outline what happened on the night in question? On Tuesday, May 10, between 3 and 4am, three Aboriginal
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Privatised information I now realise why the Brown government has been denigrating public servants at every opportunity since the election. It was so that the rest of the state's working people would more readily accept the impending savage cuts
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Rupert Murdoch's News Limited (more accurately Limited News) is one of the biggest media empires the world has known. Its Australian chief executive, Ken Cowley, told the parliamentary inquiry into the print media: "We take the
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CANBERRA — As Public Sector Union members across Australia start voting in national elections, incumbent officials are out in force. But only some are doing so under the election banner. Most are out campaigning for the
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These interviews were conducted by SUJATHA FERNANDES, a member of Resistance and the Network of Women Students Australia. NOWSA is having its annual conference at Macquarie University from July 11 to 15. KIMBERLY O'SULLIVAN is the co-editor of Wicked
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VIVIENNE PORZSOLT of 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly spoke with CAROLINE ALCORSO of the Association of Non English Speaking Background Women of Australia. Alcorso is one of the authors of a study, Bargained Away: Enterprise Bargaining and Non English-speaking
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PERTH — Since its election in February 1993, and more particularly since the Glendalough by-election in March 1994, the Richard Court Liberal state government has heavily pushed the law and order issue. In the by-election,
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Lisa Macdonald's polemic characterisation of postmodernism as another form of bourgeois individualism (GLW #139) fails to recognise the polymorphous nature of postmodernism and the potential it offers for radical politics.
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How much is that justice in the window?"I can't say I approve it, but I got all the parties together and they worked out whatever settlement they wanted on the case." — District Attorney Tom Charron, Cobb County
World
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Carlos Forte, secretary of the Manila Rizal branch of the underground Communist Party of the Philippines, released a statement on May 9 "fully supporting the call of comrades and concerned progressive sectors for a peaceful
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Indonesia 'willing to talk' to East TimoreseA new development in diplomacy concerning East Timor took place at the fourth round of UN-sponsored negotiations between the foreign ministers of Indonesia and Portugal on May 6 in
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MOSCOW — Imagine that in your country, every sixth vote supposedly cast in recent national elections was shown to have been fraudulent. Imagine, further, that the same expert study showed the constitution to have been
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While the Greek government insists that there are no (Slav) Macedonians in Greece and therefore they cannot be oppressed, when actual people put holes in this convenient theory by claiming to exist, the government's response is
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The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) is a growing international partnership of networks providing low-cost public access computer communications services to individuals and organisations working for peace, human
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Burma — Democracy DeniedBurma — Democracy Denied is a striking collection of photographs and text. The people of Burma today suffer under an iron-fisted military dictatorship; there are extensive human rights violations;
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ERIC EARLEY spent three weeks working in the community of Loma Chata in the foothills of the Guazapa mountains, 60 kilometres from San Salvador. He writes here of the people's attempt to rebuild their community and their lives after the signing of
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90,000 starve in Bougainville camps Papua New Guinea's National newspaper reported on May 10 that more than 90,000 people in 35 "care centres" on Bougainville are at risk of starvation after food ran out on the weekend of May 6-7. These PNG
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Conservationists around the world are expecting a landmark victory this week as the 46th annual International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting convenes in Mexico from May 23 to decide on a proposed Antarctic whale sanctuary.
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Since an Argentinean company established the first Antarctic whaling station at Grytuken on South Georgia in 1904, more than 1.5 million whales have been slaughtered in the Southern Ocean alone. Eight out of 10 species are now
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"Gusmao's bullets are always his thoughts." — Agio Pereira, East Timor Relief Association One year ago, on May 21, the East Timorese resistance leader, Xanana Gusmao, was found guilty of plotting against the Indonesian
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The Philippines government is under pressure from Indonesia to prevent the first Asia Pacific Conference on East Timor (APCET) from taking place in Manila. The conference, scheduled at the University of the Philippines May 31-June 3
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PHNOM PENH — This year's dry-season offensive has ended disastrously for the government. Aiming to take key Khmer Rouge positions in the far north and west, the four month campaign by the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces has ended
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Ok Tedi: PNG and BHP run scaredThe Papua New Guinea government will attempt to legislate retrospectively to protect itself and the Australian mining company BHP from a $4 million environmental lawsuit being brought by
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A constitutional crisis has been precipitated in Croatia by the growth of organised opposition to the regime of Franjo Tudjman and the desertion of parliamentary members of the ruling Croatia Democratic Forum (HDZ) to form a
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The United Nations Security Council, at US direction, has announced an economic embargo of Haiti. President Bill Clinton has hinted broadly at military invasion if the embargo is not sufficient to force withdrawal of the military rulers who overthrew
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WELLINGTON — The question whether the New Zealand Greens should go it alone or remain within the five-party Alliance was the key focus of debate at the Greens' annual conference, held here on the weekend of May 14-15. After
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"Today is a historical day in Palestine", Radwan Abu Ayyash, chair of the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation, told 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly on May 19 as the last Israeli troops withdrew from Gaza and Jericho. Under the Oslo
Culture
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Buzzcocks doing their thing, again Trade Test Transmitions The Buzzcocks Reviewed by Neville Spencer The Buzzcocks, one of the first punk bands, started playing as a group of teenagers in 1976. In 1976, the music industry had largely
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The Cutting Edge: Deadly Hurt — This documentary by Australian film maker Don Parham looks at domestic violence. Although it focuses on one case, that of an Italian family living in Victoria, the program takes up the broader issues with a large
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Ay‚ By Angelique Kidjo Distributed by Mango Records Reviewed by Pip Hinman It's not surprising that the unfolding of these historic times in South Africa should be reflected in African music. Angelique Kidjo's new album Ay‚ or Life's
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New Music Australia — With John Crawford. David Chesworth is a composer gaining in popularity, especially since his piece Recital has been performed the world over. The ABC commissioned a new piece from Chesworth called Exotica, and this program
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Hostage SBS Television Friday, June 3 Reviewed by Barry Healy This is a strangely uncompelling documentary about a fascinating subject — the thoughts and feelings of Terry Waite, the personal representative of the archbishop of
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Women, the State & Revolution: Soviet Family Policy & Social Life, 1917-1936 By Wendy Z. Goldman Cambridge University Press, 1993. 351 pp., $39.95 (hb) Reviewed by Phil Shannon The official organisers of the International Year of the
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By Anne O'Callaghan Says Bernice Johnson Reagon, founding member of Sweet Honey in the Rock, "The only moment you know you have is the one you occupy. That's the moment you should express yourself." Expressing themselves sums up what these five
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No‰l Joan Baez Vanguard Hits/Greatest & Others Joan Baez Vanguard Reviewed by Allen Myers I am told that someone recollects, they think, that Joan Baez has become quite a political conservative — even supporting Reagan in the '80s,
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Doing the block Written by John Romeril Music by Irene Vela Directed by David Carlin Thursday to Saturday until May 28 George Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre, Melbourne Reviewed by Sofi Chapman The "block" in question is a Melbourne