By Natasha Simons The election of the Coalition federal government has raised fears among higher education student and staff unions. The Coalition's higher education policy statement "Quality, diversity and choice" included the threat of up-front
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The following is extracts from a speech given by Sinn Féin president GERRY ADAMS in West Belfast on February 15, just days after the ending of the IRA's cease-fire. For many years, Sinn Féin has sought through patient but intense
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By Tom Flanagan Environmental organisations held a national phone hook-up on March 5 to discuss action against the Howard government's plans for open slather uranium mining. The discussion included people from the Northern Territory Environment
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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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Walk against Want Community Aid Abroad's 30th annual Walk against Want, raising funds to fight hunger in the Third World, will take place on March 24 with more than 100 events across Australia. To register for the walk, ring 1800 034 034. Cuban
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Ready to go "Does our economic stability require that some ... of the population be kept in poverty?" — Max Frankel in the New York Times I saw a very poignant cartoon recently. It was a nine-frame panel by Matt Groening. He uses the same two
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Pesticide threat to farmers' children Children of agricultural families are at risk of exposure to multiple pesticides in potentially hazardous concentrations, according to a study recently published in Environmental Health Perspectives, the journal
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By Pip Hinman The big business press has been playing up incoming PM John Howard's "mandate" to encourage him to fast-track the deregulation of the labour market and micro-economic "reform" (as well as dump many of his pre-election promises). But
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By Sean Healy If the dramatic ending of the Irish Republican Army's cease-fire on February 9 was aimed at breaking the 14-month deadlock in the Northern Irish peace process, it has certainly succeeded. But now the British government looks poised to
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By Jorge Jorquera PERTH — The West Australian's editorial on February 29 epitomised the media's efforts throughout the federal election campaign to direct protest votes to the Democrats rather than the WA Greens. It argued that the "Australian
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What's so super about super? By Chow Wei-Cheng Superannuation assets in Australia are estimated to be $230 billion, or about 53% of GDP. They are expected to grow to between $450 billion and $600 billion by the year 2000. Coverage of employees has
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Choices: Soul Mothers — Women facing parenthood alone talk about support networks, custodial issues and money. Sole mothers are often disadvantaged, whether working or on the pension. Choices will be relayed to 28 community radio stations around
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Election Aftermath: Woe Is Me Let us face facts. Coffee has shattered our nerves; takeaways make us slaves to indigestion; Joseph Stalin has made us shrink from the name of socialism, and has destroyed, in the more refined part of the community (of
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By Natalie Woodlock HOBART — Students at Sorell High School have come under criticism from John Bednall, a columnist for the Mercury, and others for defying a rule which bans male and female students from holding hands or playing sport together
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Jabiluka: the next uranium mine? By Paul Roguszka DARWIN — The Jabiluka uranium deposit is situated about 22 km north of the Ranger mine, adjacent to the Magela Creek in the northern part of Kakadu National Park, from which it is excised. The
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Solidarity? Traditionally, progressive activists from all the social movements use election campaigns as an opportunity to raise the profile of the issues we're concerned with and strengthen our various campaigns and organisations. They also often
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By Allen Myers Step right this way, ladies and gentlemen, and I'll introduce you to your new parliament. In here is the House of Representatives. Let's start with the opposition. It's easier to deal with them, because there are so few. In fact, it's
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Not the church, not the state In Latin America, debate is raging over reproductive rights. According to an article titled "The Gender Wars" in the January-February issue of NACLA: Report on the Americas, the debate has participants from widely
News
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NEWCASTLE — The notion that feminism is irrelevant in the '90s is being challenged on Newcastle University. After a period of several years without a prominent feminist presence on campus, a group of inspired women who recognise that the fight for
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By Alex Bainbridge NEWCASTLE — CRA subsidiary, Novacoal, rejected an offer on March 7 by miners' union, CFMEU, to guarantee its profits to the tune of $250,000. The Vickery mine near Gunnedah has struck for almost seven months over compulsory 12
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By Nikki Ulasowski WOLLONGONG — Fifty women attended the year's first women's collective meeting at Wollongong University. The meeting discussed ideas of what the collective should be and what campaigns should be organised. Ideas flowed, such as
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By Anthony Benbow and Justin Randell PERTH — A mass meeting of bus drivers on March 7 demanded the state Liberal government suspend its "competitive tendering" process or face further industrial action. The drivers, members of the Public Transport
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By Lisa Macdonald Despite the large number of small progressive parties and independents contesting the federal elections on March 2, the vote for these alternatives was relatively low. The Australian Democrats, promoted by the establishment media
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By Lisa Macdonald The right-wing National Association of Forest Industries (NAFI) is sponsoring an end of the month visit to Australia by former Greenpeace campaigner Patrick Moore. Since 1991, Moore has been working for the British Columbia Forests
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Right credentials "He has shown more than most politicians a good understanding of how business works and would certainly have most of the credentials that a board would look for." — A representative of an "executive search" company on the further
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By Seetal Dodd MELBOURNE — Hospital services in the northern region, covering the Austin, Repatriation, Fairfield, PANCH, and Bundoora hospitals, are entering their third week of industrial action. Strong bans have been in place on all hospital
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By Bill Mason BRISBANE - Several hundred Aborigines and supporters rallied in the Ipswich Mall on March 7 to condemn the newly elected independent MP for Oxley Pauline Hanson for racism during her successful election campaign in the Ipswich-based
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By Bill Mason BRISBANE It only took a week for the revelation that Queensland is returning to the bad old days of Bjelke-Petersen, former Democratic Socialist candidate for the federal seat of Brisbane Zanny Begg told 91̳ Weekly. The secret
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By Pip Hinman Big business is salivating at the prospect of appropriating an even greater share of the country's wealth under a Coalition government. But given that John Howard says he intends to honour his $6.4 billion election promises despite a
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By Susan Price MELBOURNE — Hoping to capitalise on the Howard Liberal/National Coalition victory and the spin-off from the Grand Prix, Premier Jeff Kennett has called a snap state poll for March 30. The Democratic Socialists are all geared up with
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Thousands of people from around Australia took to the streets in rallies, marches and festivals to mark International Women's Day last week. From Perth, Julia Perkins reports that 350 people attended a rally and noisy march around Northbridge on
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By Nicolle Berell SYDNEY — On March 7, NSW teachers struck in support of their demand for a 12% pay rise with no productivity trade-offs. More than 2500 teachers packed Town Hall in one of several strike meetings that took place across the state to
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By Chris Raab The four 1995 editors of the La Trobe University student paper Rabelais are being threatened with six years' jail and a possible $72,000 fine each. An increasing number of students in Victoria are being arrested and charged with a
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By Neil Eveleigh BRISBANE — ASIET (Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor) hosted a forum at the Resistance Centre on February 29 on "East Timor and Australian foreign policy". The forum included speakers from the Australian Democrats,
Analysis
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Both the establishment media and the major party bosses have attempted to characterise the racist pre-election statements of National Party candidates Bob Katter and Bob Burgess, disendorsed Liberal Party candidate Pauline Hanson and former ALP
World
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By Norm Dixon The premier of South Africa's North West Province, Popo Molefe, signed an agreement with leaders of Cuba's Santiago de Cuba province on February 26 that will lead to exchanges in the fields of education, health, culture, sport,
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President Ernesto Samper of Colombia is struggling to hold on to power amidst increasing evidence that his 1994 election campaign was financed by the drug cartels. LUIS AUGUSTO GARCÍA GUERERO of the Camilista Union — National Liberation Army
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AIDS: Is the Cuban strategy working? By Karen Wald [This article is a response to a letter in GLW #215 from Ken Davis, criticising an article by Karen Wald in issue 214.] I wish I had time to answer individually and promptly all the people, like Ken
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By Renfrey Clarke MOSCOW — International outrage is spreading following the February 6 arrest of Russian environmental activist Alexander Nikitin on charges of "betraying the motherland by espionage". A former naval captain, Nikitin was employed in
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By Norman Solomon The news should have caused a national uproar. In a decision with momentous implications, the new World Trade Organisation ruled that the US law known as the Clean Air Act is unacceptable because of restrictions it places on
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By Peter Montague In 1978, a small group of biologists studying the Elevenmile Creek in Escandia County, Florida, were "startled" to find a population of tiny mosquitofish that all appeared to be males, even though some were pregnant and were bearing
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On February 26, Cuban Television interviewed JUAN PABLO ROQUE, a pilot from the anti-Cuban US group Brothers to the Rescue. The following transcript of the interview was translated by MERRI ANSARA. Question: In the last few hours the Cuban Foreign
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By Jennifer Thompson The immediate costs of the four suicide bombings carried out in the last fortnight by groups in the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) are plain to see. While the Israeli political establishment has
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By Phil Hearse LONDON — The February 15 publication of the report into the "arms for Iraq" scandal revealed what everyone already knew. In defiance of UN guidelines, Margaret Thatcher's government in the 1980s, and then John Major's in the 1990s,
Culture
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Ballot Measure 9ABC TVWednesday, March 20, 8.30pm (8 in SA)Reviewed by Jen Crothers Coming two weeks after the ABC's coverage of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, Ballot Measure 9 is a reminder that the fight for equal rights is yet to be won.
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The Demidenko FileJohn Jost, Gianna Totaro, Christine Tyshing, (eds)Penguin, 1996, 300 pp., $14.95 (pb)Reviewed by Phil Shannon Helen Darville's prize-winning novel, The Hand that Signed the Paper, is an anti-Semitic apology for the Holocaust. Yet
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Bongo FuryBongo FuryIndependentReviewed by Jenny Long Bongo Fury, the first album from Ray Pereira's Melbourne-based band, draws together the rhythms and sounds from countries and cultures that connect drumming with community life. The band's music,
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Palimpsest: A MemoirBy Gore VidalAndre Deutsch: 435 pp.Reviewed by Dave Riley On the final page of this book, Gore Vidal informs us that the actor Paul Newman has just rung and proposes dinner with the Clintons. Why not? "Since no one else is talking
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Economic Fundamentalism: The New Zealand Experiment — A World Model for Structural Adjustment?By Jane KelseyPluto Press, 1995. 407 pp., $34.95Reviewed by Eva Cheng Economic Fundamentalism is a well-documented and substantial attempt to evaluate
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The Doom GenerationStarring Jonathon Schaech, Rose McGowan, James DuvalDirected by Greg ArakiScreens from March 21Sydney: Verona Cinema, PaddingtonMelbourne: George Cinema's and variousReviewed by Natasha Simons If you liked Pulp Fiction, you'll also