Guns and ammo
What can I say that hasn't already been said? I too abhor violence. The trigger-happy members of our society have been sent a message: you can shoot, but don't strafe. Australia is keen to stay out of the record books, and in future
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Police harassment I am writing as one of the many Brisbane Resistance members concerned about police harassment. Along with many other high school students, I attended the anti-uranium mining protest on April 26th. It was a lovely rally with about
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British feminist speaks ADELAIDE — On May 8, a meeting organised by the South Australian Women's Caucus heard well-known British feminist Beatrix Campbell speak about the impact of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's policies on
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It's an article of faith in the new federal Coalition government that it inherited a "black hole" budget deficit of $8 billion from its Labor predecessor. This alleged black hole immediately became the justification for sweeping
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Actively Radical TV — Sydney community television's progressive current affairs producers tackle the hard issues from the activist's point of view. CTS Sydney (UHF 31), every Sunday, 4pm-7pm. Access News — Melbourne community TV, Channel 31,
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BRISBANE — At least one department has been closed at the University of Queensland; it has completely disappeared, though nary a word has been heard from our student union. The Russian Department has been
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The recent resolution of the CFMEU National Executive attributing the decline in the trade union movement to the "Accord process entered into between the federal ALP and the ACTU" will be welcomed by everyone who has the
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SYDNEY — Walking in silence through a light rain, more than 200 people, black and white, came together in Sydney on March 9 to retrace the steps of one of Australia's first protest marches by Aboriginal people. This early act of
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Last week, Business Review Weekly published its annual list of the 200 richest Australians. For those who missed it, Kerry Packer is still at the top, though he's $2 billion or so down on his wealth of several years ago. Things are tough in this
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Cloud in Pants — Vladimir Mayakovsky, futurist poet, painter and Bolshevik, was the first People's Artist of the Soviet Union. He decided to become an artist for the revolution while serving a prison sentence in tsarist Russia for his political
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The Howard government's announcement that it intends to scrap Labor's three mines policy and allow the opening of new uranium mines in the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia has renewed calls for an end to uranium mining by the
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Students, vice-chancellors and university administrations have begun to prepare for an expected slash in higher education funding in the August budget. So far the government has not set a figure on the funding cut, nor has it
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Radiation protest HOBART — More than 50 parents, children and friends gathered at Lenah Valley primary school oval on May 15 to protest against Telstra's placement of a mobile phone tower next to the school. Research suggests that the
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Ray Jackson May 9 marked five years since the handing down of the 339 recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. There is, however, no cause for celebration, nor great achievements in the implementation of the
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There are lots of reasons to oppose Olympic Games — not just the 1996 or 2000 games, but all of them. A brief outline is given here. The points summarise ideas analysed in far more depth in various studies. Unfortunately, critical
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By Jo Brown. The theme of this year's Resistance national conference is "Fighting the Liberals, Fighting for Socialism". The conference, to be held in Melbourne from July 5-7, will be attended by hundreds of activists from around the country. This
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I'm sure everyone is familiar with our own national anti-hero Shane Paxton. An uproar occurred last month when Shane and his brother and sister wouldn't accept jobs on South Molle Island in Queensland. A lot of media attention was
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'Gay right' debates strategySYDNEY — There has been increasing debate in the gay and lesbian press here over how to relate to the Liberal federal government. Two conflicting right-wing positions have been prominent. Larry
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The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras (SGLMG) created a public furore on April 30 when it adopted controversial new guidelines for membership requirements for people not identifying as gay, lesbian, homosexual or transgender. SGLMG
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NEWCASTLE — The Tomago Sandbeds Action Group (TSAG) is fighting to stop the mining company RZM from destroying old growth forests, threatening endangered species and polluting the aquifer at Tomago. It set up a blockade on May 10
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MELBOURNE — After a spirited fight at the end of March, Victorian child protection workers returned to work in April hoping to have their case heard before the Employee Relations Commission (ERC). The workers are fighting the
News
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ADELAIDE — One hundred people packed the Pilgrim Church Hall on May 15 for a public meeting organised by the Keep Telstra Public Alliance. The meeting was chaired by Reverend Lee Levitt-Olson, who opened the proceedings by
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Spot the madman "The bulk of licensed sporting shooters would have quality guns worth more than $4000 each. You don't buy those sorts of weapons to kill people. It's the madmen who buy the cheaper variety." — John Wyche of the NSW Sporting
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PERTH — Forty workers from the Department of Minerals and Energy picketed their office on Adelaide Terrace on May 17. They began their strike after three weeks of work bans, all of which were organised by the Community and Public
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SYDNEY — The Maritime Union of Australia's (MUA) Action Conference on May 17 attracted around 1500 participants, mainly maritime union delegates and workers, from around Australia. The striking Vickery workers sent a
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HOBART — Tasmania's new environment minister, Peter Hodgman, was guest speaker at a Wilderness Society campaign dinner and slide show here on May 13, attended by 50 people. Slides were shown of some of the sites proposed by the
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The Northern Territory Environment Centre (ECNT) and the Australian Conservation Foundation have condemned ERA's plans to mill uranium from the Jabiluka mine at Ranger. Speaking after a week-long visit to the Kakadu National Park, ACF
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CANBERRA — At a mass meeting at the National Convention Centre on May 13, more than 2000 federal public servants voted for bans. People were forced to sit in the aisles as reports on the attack on the federal public service were
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ADELAIDE — Nearly 2000 teachers from schools in the central and western suburbs rallied in the city on May 15 in the third rolling stoppage by SA teachers in as many weeks. The stoppages are part of a campaign to secure improved
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SYDNEY — On May 15, the NSW Teachers Federation announced that it had lodged a claim with the Industrial Relations Commission for a 12% pay rise from July 1, 1997. This is in addition to a claim before the state government of 12%
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PERTH — Chanting "Stop the cuts — enough is enough!", "Education for all, not just the rich" and "Students united will never be defeated!", almost 700 students rallied here on May 15. This lively and militant "student
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BRISBANE — The battle over Australia's forests is set to erupt again with a Queensland company applying to the federal government for an annual licence to chip 140,000 tonnes of timber. Wilderness Society spokesperson Virginia Young
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WOLLONGONG — Some 350 people attended a May 8 meeting to discuss the reopening of the Southern Copper smelter, closed for economic reasons since early 1995. The Coalition for Economic Advancement, which is coordinating the bid to
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WOLLONGONG — There is a long and proud history of militant working class struggle in the Illawarra. The waterside workers, metalworkers and miners can claim much credit for winning many of the rights working people take for granted
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Hundreds of people rallied in Australia's cities on May 15 to mark World Climate Day, a non-government day of action to heighten awareness about global climate change. On the same day, several environment and development groups
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On May 16, well known battler for the working class Nick Origlass died in Sydney at age 88. Nick Origlass was one of the early members of the Trotskyist movement in Australia. He was a committed and militant unionist who led the Balmain branch of the
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BRISBANE — The Queensland government's support for gun control could split the National Party, police minister Russell Cooper said on May 13. The warning came as Coalition MPs, including Cooper and Liberal leader Joan Sheldon, faced
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After the recent round of Community and Public Sector Union mass meetings, bans are now being placed in many areas of the Australian Public Service. The bans include cutting off information to government ministers, withholding
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SYDNEY — In the face of proposed massive cuts to tertiary education funding, a stop-work meeting of Macquarie University academic staff on May 8 endorsed the national 24-hour strike for May 30. The meeting reaffirmed the
Analysis
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The Coalition government's industrial relations and shipping policies are particularly targeted at the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA). Howard and Reith want to reduce transport costs to business. More importantly, without the maritime union their
World
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By K. Govindan COLOMBO — May Day marchers here were attacked and tear-gassed by police who dispersed demonstrators, seriously injuring several of them. Just two days before all demonstrations — though not rallies — had been banned by the
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Part and parcel of the capitalist offensive against working people in the United States is the drive by both the Democrats and Republicans to trim back the gains won by blacks and other people of colour, and by women. One aspect of this campaign
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According to Noam Chomsky's April 23 article, "Israel, Lebanon, and the 'Peace Process'", the day after Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres took office, the New York Times reported "approvingly" that Israeli war planes attacked
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Except for China, India is the most populous country in the world. In 1952 it became the first country to introduce national family planning. At that point, the program was instigated to improve maternal and infant health, but the
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Two thousand students clashed with anti-riot troops in the central Javanese city of Yogyakarta on May 14. The students, mobilised by SMID (Students in Solidarity with Democracy in Indonesia), were marching in protest against the killing of 26
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MOSCOW — Partly as a result of President Boris Yeltsin's efforts to buy himself victory in the June 16 elections, Russia in coming months is due to experience its most severe financial shocks since the policies of "reform" began
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Kashmir has been a battle ground for too many years. The peaceful, friendly Kashmiri culture has been destroyed and can never be rebuilt. The only authority recognised is the gun. In a land where one death would have the valley
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NEW YORK — A "Fast for Life" called by the solidarity and aid group "Pastors for Peace" on February 21 after US Customs agents seized 400 medical computers and other aid bound for Cubs is now in its 11th week, Although one of the
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An estimated 1.3 million people gathered in Havana's Revolution Plaza on May 1, the biggest May Day celebration in Cuba's history. In the country's second largest city, Santiago de Cuba, another 300,000 marched. Tens of thousands more celebrated in
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The following is from a message sent to the Sri Lankan president on May 9 on behalf of the Democratic Socialist Party. "The Democratic Socialist Party of Australia strongly condemns the vicious police attack on the May Day march of the Nava Sama
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HAMBURG — Greenpeace has stepped up protests against the transport of German nuclear waste to the French reprocessing facility at La Hague. Since April 29, activists have been demonstrating in front of the Wuergassen nuclear power plant in North
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US government documents declassified in April reveal that in 1961 US President John Kennedy pushed ahead with economic pressure and covert actions against Cuba despite the Cuban government's willingness to give in to the US on key points, according
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National Party leader F.W. de Klerk on May 9 announced that his party will withdraw from South Africa's government of national unity (GNU) on June 30. The sudden announcement finally ends the apartheid party's 48-year continuous
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"There will be no surrender. We will fight to the last drop of blood", says DAVID ALEX, one of the most wanted men in East Timor. At war for 20 years, Alex has killed more Indonesian soldiers than he cares to remember. He is regional commander of the
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On May 6, police in Kumi, in the southern province of Kyongsang, arrested 45 union activists of the Korea Textile Company following a violent clash two days earlier between 800 workers and riot police. The workers were reportedly
Culture
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intro = Miracle AlleyDirected by Jorge FonsOpens in Sydney at the Verona Cinema on May 30; in Melbourne at Cinema Como on June 6Reviewed by Pip Hinman In Mexico City there is a place — called Miracle Alley — where miracles never happen, but
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Dinosaur in a Haystack: Reflections in Natural HistoryBy Stephen Jay GouldJonathon Cape, 1996. 480 pp., $25 (pb)Reviewed by Phil Shannon What do baseball, beeswax and yo-yo crazes have in common? They all serve as introductions in the latest
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Power Without Glory Published in the early 1950s, Frank Hardy's Power Without Glory has as its central theme the corruption inherent in capitalism. John West in the early 1890s sets up an illegal tote in the poor working-class suburb of
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And Now I Lay Me Down to SleepWritten by Frank OtisFootscray Community Arts Centre, 45 Moreland St.May 24-25, 8pm. $8/5 And Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep is a new play that takes a no holds barred look at how rape affects survivors. Directed By Andrea
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Nattering on the Net: Women, Power and CyberspaceBy Dale SpenderSpinifex, 1995. $24.95Reviewed by Patricia Brien Dale Spender's most recent book deals with computer-based technology and its implications for women. Spender engages with a historical
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James Connolly and the Irish LeftBy W.K. AndersonIrish Academic Press in association with National Centre for Australian Studies, Monash University$39.95Reviewed by Bernie Brian This book is not an account of the life of the Irish socialist, James
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The John Wayne PrincipleBy Tony McNamaraDirected by David BertholdSydney Theatre Company's New StagesWharf 2, Sydney, until June 8Reviewed by Peter Boyle "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do", but the man in question, Robbie, is a Harvard MBA who