Modern industrial society is largely based on oil. Oil and the products of its refinement power much of industry, heat homes and offices, and are the fuel in our cars and in the trucks, airplanes and sometimes
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The 20,000 tonnes of crude oil which "escaped" into the seas off Western Australia made nationwide front page news for several days running. When it became disabled on Sunday, July 21, the Greek tanker Kirki left a slick at least 90
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PERTH — It will be some time before an accurate assessment can be made of the long-term effects of the oil spill in the Jurien Bay area of Western Australia. It is certain, though, that the spill poses a serious threat to the fragile
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LONDON — The G7's July 17 setting of a deadline on the GATT trade negotiations proved that politicians can act on an issue if they are serious about it, Greenpeace said on the same day. Spokesperson Yasuko Matsumoto commented that the G7 "say
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SYDNEY — Historically, women have experienced harsh treatment and extreme forms of discrimination in New South Wales prisons. Their needs and basic human rights have been ignored, not only by the Department of Corrective
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After taking an eye-opening journey to the depths of the Amazon forest, environmental journalists Stafford Sanders and Julie Browning spoke at a public forum in Sydney on June 27 organised by the Latin America solidarity group
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A great leap backwards When Jim Bolger's National government took power in New Zealand last October, it set about undoing a piece of Labour legislation which feminists had described as "one small progressive glimmer in the gloom of Labour's
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In a week when it was revealed that, since the socialist takeover of Canberra in 1983, the poor have become considerably poorer and the rich in True Blue Aussie With the Big Red Heart have become considerably richer, our great and
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Down Under Chelsea A recent absence from Sydney prevented me from reading Barry Healy's warmly enthusiastic review in your paper of my play Down Under Chelsea (GLW #20). I am also grateful for your encouraging comments about my long playwright
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Situation worsens in Iraq NEW YORK — A report by a special United Nations mission to Iraq released on July 15 says the country's internal economic situation and living conditions have worsened "substantially". The group, led by the UN
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NSW Greens' proposal Following a July 6 meeting of NSW Green organisations, there are now two proposals for a national meeting to discuss formation of a green party. The NSW meeting proposed a national meeting on August 17-18 in Sydney. The
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Sorry Because of lack of space, we were unable to print a number of letters received this week. We will run as many as possible of them in the next issue.
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Unemployment of 14.7% and rising, the dole abolished, all pensions and welfare benefits slashed, unions stripped of legal recognition, a per capita national debt several times larger than Australia's, Gross Domestic Product going
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The Gulf War highlighted, amongst other things, the role of the international arms trade in fuelling wars. It even seemed at one stage that the arms trade might being questioned in the mainstream media. The fact that media
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The Accord hasn't delivered Each year in Australia more and more people become impoverished and they aren't just the unemployed. Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures show that a Level 2 single person with four children is living below
News
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Academics get political PERTH — Australian academics intend standing candidates in the next federal elections as a protest against government education cutbacks. Eight marginal Labor held seats will be targeted, including four in Western
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SYDNEY — More than 2000 lesbians participated in the inspiring conference "Living as Lesbians — Strengthening Our Culture", held at the University of Technology here July 12-14. Women worked together in a collective over
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The Socialist Scholars Conference, held at Melbourne University High on July 18-21 around the theme of Ecology, Socialism and Human Survival, was a resounding success according to both organisers and participants. The second such
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Tough measures "John Major will take his revenge on the greedy bosses of privatised companies by denying them peerages and knighthoods ... The massive snub comes as a new Mail on Sunday survey reveals that the bosses of all 12 regional electricity
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The anticipated struggle for the NSW old-growth forest of Chaelundi began with a dawn raid by police on July 23. Forest campaigners have been camped in the forest for several months, erecting barricades to prevent Forestry
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Six of Australia's largest banks and insurance companies stood close to crisis on July 23 as the federal government bailed them out with special legislation immediately freezing withdrawals from several property trusts. The trusts
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MELBOURNE — More than 200 young activists attended the 20th national conference of Resistance, held here over the weekend of July 13-15. The theme of the conference was "Against their order — A new world for all!" Some of
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BRISBANE — The oil spill from the tanker Kirki off the Western Australian coast (see pages 12 and 13) has dramatically focussed attention on the threat of a disaster on Queensland's Great Barrier Reef. A 1988 report to a marine
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News by telephone SYDNEY — The Byron Bay-based data communications network Pegasus will play a major role in communications for the June 1992 United Nations environment conference. At a news conference here, Ian Peter, chief executive officer
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Bush garden in RedfernSYDNEY — Inner-city Redfern is to be the unlikely location for an organic garden, established by the Aboriginal community. Community leader Margaret Vincent explains that the garden
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By A. Simmons BRISBANE — Funding cuts to Queensland psychiatric services are resulting in cost-cutting measures that will threaten basic human rights, according to the newly formed Mental Action Group (MAG). The group, initiated and resourced
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SYDNEY — Community outrage has forced the Greiner government to back off from cuts to the Area Assistance Scheme, a funding arrangement that helps poorer people with housing costs. The government has even reaffirmed its
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SYDNEY — "Living in Sydney" is the title of a conference being held here August 3-4 to address the issues raised by living in Australia's biggest city. The conference is divided into panel sessions followed by
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Threatened ginkgo Korea's environmental movement may one day owe its birth to a 1000-year-old ginkgo tree, and a dedicated preservationist, Cha Joon Yup, attempting to save the tree's life. Construction plans for one high-rise apartment in
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HOBART — About 60 people attended a rally on July 26 to protest against the Newstart program, which entails the abolition of unemployment benefits after 12 months to be replaced by a compulsory
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MELBOURNE — Colleen Hartland, a long-time activist in the western suburbs, will contest the seat of Footscray in the next state elections. She is a member of the Hazardous Materials Action Group, and was until recently a
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B>ADELAIDE — The SA government has offered about 100,000 state public sector workers a package including a flat $12 wage rise and possible further productivity-linked rises to be negotiated at enterprise level. The offer follows a SA Industrial
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PERTH — About 80 members and friends of the Greens (WA) registered for a non-decision-making conference at the Perth Zoo Convention Centre over the July 27-28 weekend. They considered the environment, eco-feminism and green
Analysis
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National transport plan In a welcome recognition of a huge problem, the July 30 special premiers' conference in Sydney is to discuss a national approach to long-distance freight haulage. Unfortunately, the main proposals likely to come out of this
World
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Since the Czechoslovak Velvet Revolution of November 1989, there has been increasing debate over nationalism among the Slovak people, about one-third of the country's 15 million population. In the second of a series, PETER ANNEAR
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The long-held view of the African National Congress that the South African government, its army and police are behind the murderous Inkatha violence has now been proved beyond any doubt. Leaked official documents have revealed that
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MOSCOW — Will New Holland belong to France? This is the question now before the people of Leningrad, regarding the island New Holland, which is part of the city's territory. Leningrad Mayor Anatoly Sobchak plans to grant a
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ATHENS — "Greek brothers we need your solidarity. We are homeless, hungry and penniless", read a banner at a demonstration in May of Albanian and Northern Epirotes (Albanians of Greek descent) refugees. The refugees fled
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BUKHARA, Uzbekistan, USSR — Here, in the arid steppes of Soviet Central Asia, any discussion about Uzbekistan's place in a restructured Soviet Union always comes down to a single politically explosive issue: water. The region is
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Nelson Mandela's opening address reflected the fiery mood among the 2244 delegates who assembled in Durban July 2-7 for the 48th national conference of the African National Congress. The conference was the first of its kind to be
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Super-exploitation under new actWELLINGTON — A scandal over the employment of a young worker at a takeaway food shop has demonstrated how vicious the Employment Contracts Act can be on young workers in isolated workplaces. It
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Interview by Renfrey Clarke Chemistry graduate PAUL SOLER-SOLA has spent the past 10 months in the Soviet Union representing the US environmental organisation Ecologia. He has spent much of this time travelling through the USSR meeting
Culture
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Alice's dream em = By Phil Shannon The Cabinet meeting was shrouded in gloom as the heat of the summer roasted the room. The air was humid and cloud cluttered the sky from the cyclone battering the beach at Bondi. The Ministers were sweating
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Green Political Thought By Andrew Dobson Allen and Unwin. 224 pp. $25.95 Reviewedl Is environmentalism Green? Are constructing better sewerage treatment plants and fitting catalytic converters to cars truly Green
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Folk music, dance, drama, poetry and short-story telling will be some of the features of the first Newcastle and Hunter Folk Festival, to be held at Morpeth over the August 30-September 1 weekend. Included will be a strong Aboriginal content of dance
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Diving for Pearls By Katherine Thomson Belvoir Street Theatre until August 18 With Robyn Nevin, Jeanette Cronin, Marshall Napier, John Jarrett and Pat Bishop ReviewedDiving for Pearls is contemporary realist
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Terra Australis em = By John Queripel It's a bloody big land this Australia With its great wide brown barren plains. For hour after hour we fly and the landscape's still the same "Is it any different now?" she asks. "No, just the same." and
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Leningrad em = By Rosemary Evans They starved and died in Leningrad, In darkness and in snow. They starved and died in Leningrad Fifty years ago. They had no water, but each day A little crust of bread. And often it was hard to tell
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Violence is Ugly. That's the slogan of the Victorian government campaign against domestic violence. Its aims include greater police power in domestic violence situations, streamlining police procedures for initiating
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The photographs from Belfast on this page are by Irish photographer Frankie Quinn. Quinn, who grew up in Belfast, began documenting his war-torn surroundings at the age of 14. The photos here are part of an exhibition which was recently on