International Playhouse — Fun Balloons — Tom's washing machine needs to be repaired but nobody comes to service it, so he goes to the local showroom to complain. There he meets the manager, his secretary and the area supervisor who give him
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For 23 years former Black Panther Party leader and Vietnam veteran Geronimo ji Jaga (Pratt) has been locked up for a crime he did not commit. Eleven times he has been denied parole because he refuses to renounce his commitment to black liberation or
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Mounting pressure has prompted the South African defence ministry to move quickly in addressing a small rural community's grievances concerning land which had been so badly polluted by military activities development plans
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Selling out It beats me when I receive a leaflet requesting support for a public rally against selling off public assets and sponsored by the people listed. It is hypocritical. I was reading about Tolpuddle when I was just eight years of
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JOHANNESBURG — South Africa's organised working class expects the new government to be thoroughly accountable to its supporters and will resort to mass action if workers' interests are betrayed. These are some of the findings of
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ADELAIDE — Help End Marijuana Prohibition (HEMP) will hold a rally on August 8 at 1pm on the steps of Parliament House at which it will hand over a submission to the state government calling for a reform of SA's marijuana laws. The rally marked the
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JOHANNESBURG, July 28 — Barely has a day passed in the last week that the songs and the sound of dancing feet of striking workers has not resounded through the streets of the PWV capital and other major centres. Researchers say
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For years anti-choice terrorists in the United States have attacked abortion clinics with the government openly aiding their campaigns against women's right to choose. However, in the last few months, some Supreme Court decisions and national
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Shock Corridor "Justice ... is so subtle a thing that to interpret it one has only need of a heart." — Jose Garcia Oliver Back in the 60s, during the struggle for civil rights, I, like many other African-Americans, took to the streets of
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About Us: Secrets of the Moche — Archaeologists uncover proof of the existence of a fabled lost civilisation that pre-dated the Incas. For seven centuries the Moche empire existed between the Andes and the Pacific, producing feats of art and
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Feminism gone too far? An interesting debate has emerged about girls' educational programs sparked, however, by an investigation into the situation for boys in schools. A recent study suggested that girls are outperforming boys by the time
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Iain Aitken (GLW #150) accuses Lisa Macdonald of dogmatism for arguing that in seeking to understand and combat capitalist domination socialists should rely exclusively on the scientific approach of Marxism. While
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BRISBANE — With stronger winter sunshine, warmer temperatures and more "calm" days, Brisbane has a greater smog potential year round than centres such as Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Newcastle. The capacity of the airshed over
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JOHANNESBURG — Hundreds of rural labour tenants — impoverished communities who exchange labour on white-owned farms in return for the use of land — have begun a campaign of strikes and marches in the Piet Retief region of the
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JOHANNESBURG, July 24 — The militant strike by shop workers employed by South Africa's largest supermarket chain, Pick 'n Pay, continues. While there has been a noticeable reduction in the violent attacks by police that marred
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Workers throughout South Africa have embarked on, or are threatening to take, industrial action. COSATU says the current wave of workers' struggles results from several factors including: three years of no real wages increases for
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The ongoing process of rewriting the history of Australia's labour movement pervades David McKnight's book Australian Spies and Their Secrets, reviewed by 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly some weeks ago. The book is based
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Rodney Croome, of the Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group, was in New York in late June to speak at the rally to mark the 25th anniversary of Stonewall. During his stay he participated in several meetings and had discussions with a range of gay
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Based on highly reliable international contacts, leaked documents and horoscopes from several TV magazines, Nostradamus' Media Watch presents a highly accurate forecast of political events across the globe. Rwandan refugee
News
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Macedonians march against discriminationMELBOURNE — Forty thousand Macedonians and supporters marched on Parliament House on July 30, demanding that the federal Labor and state Liberal governments end their discrimination
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Electrical workers fight for jobsADELAIDE — One thousand Electrical Trades Union members are taking industrial action over the proposed introduction of contract labour by the Electricity Trust Supply A. An 80-member
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WA forest blockade debatedPERTH — Western Australian Conservation Council president Beth Schultz has accused the department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM) of running a disinformation campaign on
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SYDNEY — A $50-per-head lunch attracting 430 guests was held on July 29 to mark the achievements of ten years of the federal Sex Discrimination Act. Pioneers and beneficiaries of the legislation were presented with awards by ALP
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Ambulance drivers win fight over emergenciesSYDNEY — Last week New South Wales ambulance officers were in dispute over the failure of hospitals in Sydney's West to take emergency patients. Drivers here had have been moving from
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Campaign opposes privatisationBRISBANE — Ian McLean, state secretary of the Communications Workers Union, and a former long-serving president of the state Labor Party, is prepared to fight the party's moves towards
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Nurses seek wage justice On July 29 the Australian Nurses Federation (ANF) announced that it will pursue wage increases for 90,000 nurses covered by federal awards across Australia. The claim in the ACT, Northern Territory private sector, South
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Melbourne's public transport 'at the crossroads'MELBOURNE — Two hundred people packed the Assembly Hall on July 28 to hear Mike Colle from the Toronto Transit Commission urge people to defend Melbourne's public transport
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Hiroshima — Never Again! August 6 marks the 49th anniversary of the atomic bomb dropped by the United States on the Japanese people in Hiroshima. Since then the development of atomic weapons has continued at an alarming rate. Further, since
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BRISBANE — The oil company, Petroz N.L. in conjunction with BHP Petroleum, are about to start drilling for oil in the Timor Gap. While Petroz, which is based here, is not new to exploration in the Timor Sea, this latest venture
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Strike over redundancy packagesADELAIDE — Workers in the Engineering & Water Supply department have struck over the state government's refusal to extend conditions provided to other government workers in separation
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MELBOURNE — A 1000-strong, spirited demonstration was held here on the July 28 by students outraged at the prospect of losing their student unions. This rally was part of an ongoing campaign for the repeal of Victorian
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BRISBANE — August 8 is a national day of action on abortion rights. Speakouts on campus, as well as a 4.30pm speakout in the Queen Street mall have been organised by the University of Queensland's recently formed Pro-choice Club together with
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CAIRNS — The federal minister for environment, John Faulkner has announced he will visit the construction site of the $30 million tourist Skyrail in early August to make a first-hand assessment. Conservation group and
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SYDNEY — On July 13 CityRail cleaning staff at Sydney Terminal and several other depots were called together an hour before "knockoff" to hear management's announcement that their jobs had been privately contracted. Many stood
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High Court to consider Timor Gap TreatyDARWIN — According to Darwin-based Queens Counsel, Alastair Wyvill, the High Court is taking the upcoming hearings on the Timor Gap Treaty very seriously. Speaking at a public
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Student environment conferenceSYDNEY — More than 350 students and environmentalists from around Australia attended the fourth annual Students, Science and Sustainability Conference, held at Macquarie University from July
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WOLLONGONG — In recent weeks, the media has devoted a fair amount of time to "multiple recruitment" or stacking in Labour Party branches, particularly in the Illawarra. The sudden growth of membership
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Student council sacks staffMELBOURNE — Action taken by the student union executive council at the Victorian University of Technology to force staff redundancies may be a sign of what is in store for student unions under
Analysis
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Rwanda: how Canberra can really help Canberra's belated decision to spend $10 million for aid to Rwanda, although welcome, is a pittance compared to the amount rich Australia could and should contribute. Putting the figure in proportion, $10
World
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Despite heavy rains around 40,000 people protested in Manila against the Filipino version of a consumption tax, the Value Added Tax (VAT), which the Ramos government is threatening to introduce during the next session of
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LONDON — Britain is experiencing the world's worst ever asthma epidemic as high summer temperatures smother big cities in petrochemical smog and ozone. The epidemic began after violent thunderstorms on June 24; at its height,
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MOSCOW — Whoever was destined to head the polls in the second round of the Ukrainian presidential elections on July 10, the real winner was never in doubt. That was to be the "party of power" — the layer of high-placed
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[This is the edited transcript of a talk given by Left Business Observer editor Doug Henwood at a panel sponsored by Monthly Review during the Socialist Scholars Conference in New York City in April.] Four years ago, I sat on one of these panels
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In writing this article, I have elected to say relatively little about the matters that have received the greatest press attention, namely the threat of war, sanctions, the sanity and personal habits of North Korean leaders and
Culture
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Soldier E SAS: Sniper Fire in Belfast By Shaun Clarke Cox and Wyman 283 pp., $12.95 Reviewed by Catherine Brown The publisher's notes for potential reviewers, with its bland reference to the "secretive and controversial" history of the
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Retro pop out of controlThe Gilberts, a five-piece Brisbane pop band, have just released their first CD, Life Is Just This Very Big Thing And It's All Getting Out Of Control. They started out at the University of
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SYDNEY — Juan Jacinto Herrera, a Cuban percussionist, singer, pianist and composer has teamed up with some of Sydney's top Latino musicians in Cubana-Oz for a Cuba-Australian experience at the Latin American Dance Fiesta at the
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Poets and Presidents: Selected Essays 1977-1992 By E.L. Doctorow Papermac, 1994. 206 pp., $24.95 (pbk) Reviewed by Phil Shannon E.L. Doctorow is one of the few American writers today who does not shy away from novels about people's social
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"Sydney's City Court in 1938 was a dreary place through which passed an endless procession of drunks, prostitutes, perverts, drug addicts, petty criminals and car thieves. So what a change, what a dramatic change then, when a
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intro = The Balkanisation of the West By Stjepan G. Mestrovic Routledge Reviewed by Phil Clarke In 1989 US state department academic Francis Fukuyama shot to fame proclaiming "the end of history" in the wake of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
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Best catch in years Go Fish Directed by Rose Troche Produced by Rose Troche and Guinevere Turner Reviewed by Kath Gelber The world of lesbian feature films is not very large. As a result, the community has tended to be fairly
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'Without culture you have nothing'PERTH — Fatima Dike, the renowned South African poet, playwright and actor, spoke on July 17 at an event sponsored by Cultural Dissent and the Western Australian South African
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Give-aways to Go Fish Go Fish, an all out lesbian date movie, is a hip lifestyle comedy that follows the lives of five women as they go on dates, have fashion crises, oversleep, wish for and deal with love. Rose Troche's stunning directorial