Ireland: How close to peace? By Arun Pradhan and Anne O'Callaghan "The British want war, and they want to force the IRA into ending its cease-fire, hoping that the IRA will then be blamed by all and sundry." So commented Sinn Féin national
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"[When] one lives in a country where racism is held valid and practiced in all ways of life, eventually, no matter whether one is a racist or a victim, one comes to feel the absurdity of life." — Chester Himes from My Life of Absurdity. A lone
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By James Balowski In what the establishment media have enthusiastically described as "securing a major strategic and diplomatic coup", on December 18 the Australian and Indonesian governments signed the first formal security treaty between the two
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Cancer treatment and informed consent By Barbara Wright When my husband was diagnosed with cancer in 1993, a horrific ordeal occurred. Inappropriate treatment was given without basic information being offered. The unnecessary suffering associated
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As year 12 results for 1995 are released across the country, there has been an improvement for female students in comparison to male students. In every state and territory more young women than young men stay on to the end of school, more young women
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Comment by Jonathan Millar In issue 213 of 91̳ Weekly, the question of the role of the Greens in politics was raised by James Vassilopoulos in an article about the ACT Greens entitled "Can the ACT Greens stop the Liberals' cuts?". The Greens
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By Tony Iltis WOLLONGONG — A proposed luxury marina at Shellharbour is being opposed by local Kooris because of the area's historical and cultural significance. The $750 million development would also destroy the Bass Point site's unique wetlands
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International bisexual conference The Australian Bisexual Network (ABN) is looking for financial support to send bisexual activists to the International Bisexual Symposium '96 in Berlin in late May. The ABN hope that three activists will be able to
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By Mick White BRISBANE — Amnesty International will send a delegation to Australia in March to investigate the alarming number of Aboriginal deaths in custody. The delegation will examine why the rate of deaths in custody has continued to rise
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Sustainable population The reference to the Australian Democrats in the article "Racists exploit population debate" on December 13, 1995 borders on libel. The Australian Democrats have a long and proud history on immigration and race issues based on
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Sue Bull Coalition declares war on unions John Howard focused his January 8 launch of the Coalition parties' federal industrial relations policy around two promises: to reduce the role of unions in the enterprise bargaining process; to guarantee
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In a capitulation to censorship, the world's leading online service, Compuserve, has suspended access to 200 Internet "newsgroups". Though it affects all Compuserve users around the globe, the ban was initiated at the request of just one country,
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Despite the 339 recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, handed down during 1991, Aboriginal people are dying in prison at an increasing rate. In 1996 already there have been a further two deaths of Aboriginal people in custody. On New Year's Day at Townsville Correctional Centre, 23-year-old Brian Paul Robertson smuggled a rope into his cell, using it to hang himself. On January 7 Kelvin Marr died, it is believed of a heart attack. SUJATHA FERNANDES spoke to RAY JACKSON from the Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Watch Committee.
News
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By Tim Gooden CANBERRA — The ACT Liberal minority government, supported by the independents and the Greens, has offered government workers a 4.3% pay increase in return for forced redundancies and "reforms" to the public sector, including
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By Chris Slee Australian Tax Office management has attacked the rights and conditions of its workers by refusing to renew the clauses of the Tax Office Modernisation Agreement which guaranteed that there would be no compulsory redundancies, and no
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By Tully Bates MELBOURNE — For the past six months, Victorian members of the United Firefighters Union (UFU) have been negotiating with the Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB) for a pay rise. The firefighters, who have not had a rise for five years
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By Jane Beckmann NEWCASTLE — Five activists were arrested and others removed on January 4 while protesting against RZM's sand mining at Tomago. Protesters had blockaded the site after RZM attempted to bulldoze the remaining 22 hectares under the
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The 91̳ Weekly 1995 fund appeal exceeded its target of $115,000 by $300! Congratulations to everyone who contributed, either by direct donation or by supporting the many 91̳ Weekly fundraising events that were held in cities across
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By Ben Courtice HOBART — As Tasmanians prepare to go to the polls on February 24, it is looking more likely that no party will receive an outright majority. Polling indicates that the Greens are likely to gain one or two seats on top of their
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The way of all treats "Twenty-five years ago, eating at McDonald's was a special treat. Now it's just part of the furniture." — Nutritionist Rosemary Stanton. Eat the furniture: it's healthier "[McDonald's] gives you lots of salt, sugar and fat,
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Goss in deep strife over Mundingburra By Bill Mason BRISBANE — The Goss government is in deep trouble as the February 3 by-election for the Townsville-based seat of Mundingburra draws closer. Polls show Labor's candidate, Townsville mayor Tony
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By Bill Mason BRISBANE — The coal miners' union has called for changes to Queensland law in order to be able to prosecute mine managers for criminal negligence or manslaughter. This follows the release, on January 17, of the inquiry into the
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By Jennifer Thompson SYDNEY — A successful Socialist Activist and Education Conference, held here in early January, examined the experience of left and progressive movements, especially socialist parties, in a series of feature talks supported by
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By Ray Fulcher MELBOURNE — Two of La Trobe University's 1995 Rabelais editors have been charged for printing an article, "The Art of Shoplifting", in the student paper last year. Along with the editors Michael Brown and Ben Ross, the paper's
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UN agreement a disaster for ozone layerVIENNA Environmental organisations around the world have condemned an agreement reached on December 7 by 149 countries that fails to take urgently needed action on methyl bromide, a highly toxic pesticide that
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By Jennifer Thompson Weipa unionists are waiting for the Industrial Relations Commission decision — expected this week — on their claim that award workers be paid the same rates as those on individual contracts performing the same work. The
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ADELAIDE — Jason Porter died in a motorbike accident on December 31, while travelling through Indonesia. Jason, aged 23, was an activist who travelled extensively throughout the Third World. An internationalist, Jason was a supporter of 91̳
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By Nick Soudakoff CANBERRA — At a combined mass meeting on January 16, 1000 workers from the Australian National University, the University of Canberra and the Australian Defence Force Academy decided to launch a campaign for a 5.6% pay increase
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By Emma King and Shane Guthrie Peace activists from around Australia have been discussing the need for an Asia-Pacific regional networking forum on anti-militarism. Many social justice campaigns in the region find themselves up against military
Analysis
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The findings of Queensland mining warden and coroner Frank Windridge's inquiry into the explosion at Moura No. 2 coal mine on August 7, 1994, highlight BHP's culpability for the 11 miners' deaths. More than that, they indicate that the "accident" was
World
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By Eva Cheng Every dollar of economic activity officially registered by Japan in 1990 has hidden unaccounted costs to the environment worth of at least $2.50, an international conference in Tokyo was told late last year. The Japan Centre for Economic
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By Conor Twyford Alliance activists across the country are gearing up to contest New Zealand's first mixed member proportional (MMP) election, due to take place between July and November this year. MMP, brought in by referendum in November 1993,
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By Norman Taylor The McDonald's libel case is the longest in British history. It started in July '94, when young unemployed people Dave Morris and Helen Steele issued a leaflet which said the corporation was responsible for acts of environmental
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By Norm Dixon Frank O. Kokori, general secretary of the Nigerian oil workers' union NUPENG, remains in detention without trial. Most other union leaders detained since mid-1994 were released in December, according to reports that have reached the
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By Renfrey Clarke MOSCOW — For Josef Stalin in 1931 to have blown up the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, just up the Moscow River from the Kremlin, was a crime. But for Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov to have ordered the cathedral rebuilt in 1995 was
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US organisers have issued a call for papers for the Radical Philosophy Association's Second National/International conference, to be held November 14-17 at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. The theme of the conference is "Globalisation
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By Norm Dixon The British government has approved the sale of fighter aircraft to the Indonesian military. The government ignored calls from human rights groups and campaigners for self-determination for East Timor to reject the sale because of
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Since 1985, the Indian government has been implementing a neo-liberal economic program opening up industry and agriculture to competition. This has generated enormous profits for some and equally enormous costs for the poor, particularly women. Job
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Two prominent members of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) will challenge party leader and former president Daniel Ortega for the party's presidential nomination, the Sandinista newspaper Barricada reported on January 6. Human rights
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By Peter Montague As the scientific evidence linking chemical exposures to serious human diseases piles up, many chemical-dependent industries, such as pesticide purveyors, are searching for a strategy to buy themselves some time. They needn't look
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By Rashid Hilal A women's rights march was held in the West Bank town of Ramallah on January 3. Several women candidates in the elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council, including independent Hanan Ashrawi and Fatah's Jerusalem list
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By Sujatha Fernandes Having captured the northern city of Jaffna in its war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Tamil people, the Sri Lankan government has again proposed a devolution of powers. The plan involves a
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By Eva Cheng Both rural and urban women in Japan are fighting for the right to work as the five-year-old recession and the "trade liberalisation" agenda under GATT and APEC hit them increasingly hard. Though official unemployment remained around 3%
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By Adam Hanieh Israeli land confiscation continued at an alarming rate while Palestinians prepared for elections on January 20. On December 25 hundreds of acres of land were confiscated from the West Bank towns of Kalandia, Rafat and Jdeirah. The
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The sodium leak at Japan's first power-generating FBR (fast breeder reactor) Monju, which occurred on December 8, was far more serious than first thought, according to the Citizens' Nuclear Information Centre (CNIC) in Tokyo. The government-owned PNC
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West Papuan leader: 'OPM has overwhelming support' By Norm Dixon The daring January 10 raid by guerillas of the Free Papua Movement (OPM) has provided fresh evidence that the long struggle of the West Papuan people against Indonesian occupation is
Culture
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Red Light Radio5UV (531 AM), Mondays 10-11 pmProduced by P.J. Rose and the Red Light CollectiveReviewed by Penny Saunders "Loved ya since I knew ya,I wouldn't talk down to ya ...I've told you once, won't tell you again,It's a bad way." — From
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Why is Labor so rightwing?By David GlanzA Socialist Worker pamphletPublished by Bookmarks Australia, 34pp $3Reviewed by Ray Fulcher With the federal and some state elections drawing nearer, it is important to clarify the question of what sort of
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Here on Mars...By Neila Seciov (of the Martian Society of Intergalactic Archaeologists)Fast Books, 1995. 95pp., $12.95Reviewed by Alex Bainbridge Subtitled "A Martian View of the Collapse of Earthly Civilisation in the 21st Century", Here on Mars...
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When you saw me lying wounded On the battlefield of life, You swore you would carry me Until we both made it to safety. Somewhere on that road, My blood soaked your shirt And heart and soul. In return you told me of your hopes, And dreams — and
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PentecostBy David EdgarDirected by Rodney FisherSydney Theatre CompanyWharf Theatre until February 24Reviewed by Helen Jarvis Ambitious in theme and plot, Pentecost fails to realise its potential, leaving at least this reviewer with a sense of
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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. Bill Clinton — peacemaker US President
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Shostakovich: A Life RememberedBy Elizabeth WilsonFaber and Faber, 1995. 550 pp., $29.95 (pb)Reviewed by Phil Shannon Russia, it could be said, has over-fulfilled its quota of great classical composers — Tchaikovsky, Borodin, Mussorgsky,
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By Jen Crothers February is Mardi Gras month in Sydney. While most of the attention is given to the parade, the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is also a month-long festival. Now in its 18th year, the Mardi Gras encompasses art, sport, politics and
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By Brendan O'Reilly My housemate Marilyn really likes her rabbit. I serve it up to her, and she chews away happily for hours. The vet put me onto it. Marilyn was grooming and scratching herself to bits. Because there are too many cats in the city,
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That's History: Vietnam — A two-part program about the effects of the Vietnam War on the lives of two individuals. Professor Nguyen Ngoc Hung, a former liberation army soldier, talks about his experience of the war and the difficult process of
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Flickerfest 965th International Short Film FestivalPresented by Fearless PromotionsSydney: Bondi Pavilion, Jan 12-20; Alice Springs: Araluen Arts Centre, Jan 26-28Broome: Sun Pictures, Feb 8-11; Adelaide: East End Feb 15-18; Perth: Camelot Picture
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Programs of interest on Sydney Community TV (UHF 31) — Perleeka, indigenous Australians' program, nightly, 7pm. Art Experimenta, Mondays, 8pm and 11.30pm, and Tuesdays, 3am and 6.30am. Bent TV, gay and lesbian program, Thursdays, 10.30pm and
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Beirut BluesBy Hanan al-ShaykhAllen and Unwin, 1995279 pp., $19.95 (pb)Reviewed by Jennifer Thompson This well-written book, published originally in Arabic in 1992, is an insightful novel about the war that engulfed Lebanon between 1975 and its
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Justice and PrideBy Noel GardnerReviewed by Nick Everett This 13-track debut solo CD by Sunshine Coast performer Noel Gardner is a welcome contribution to Australian folk music. Gardner's lyrics pull no punches, while his music blends a variety of
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The Father We Loved on a Beach by the SeaBy Stephen SewellDirected by Mary-Anne GiffordWith Adrian Adam, Bridge Andrews, Stephen Barker, Hamish McDonald, Andrew Rodoreda, Gerard Sont and Julia ZemiroNew Theatre, Newtown (Sydney)Thursday-Sunday until