Life of Riley: The Wicked Wik of the North
@column intro = [Scene: Somewhere in the Australian outback around midday on a hot summer day. Flies are buzzing. Enter TWO SHEEP.]
FIRST SHEEP: What a scorcher! What we poor buggas have to do to earn
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To counter government and big business lies over the ramifications of the Wik judgment — all faithfully reported by the mainstream media — 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly has summarised the view of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission,
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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 Thursday, 10pm, and Saturday, 7pm. Access News — Melbourne
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BHP could profitably keep its Newcastle steelworks open, according to ROY GREEN of the Employment Studies Centre at Newcastle University. 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly's ANDREW TSIREPAS and ALEX BAINBRIDGE spoke to him about the implications of BHP's claims that
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Euthanasia Voluntary euthanasia opponents, Northern Territory attorney general Denis Burke and Kevin Andrews, MHR, speaking on ABC Radio on January 6 seem to have avoided logic in their arguments. Burke's assertion that residency in the NT is
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Punishments that don't fit the crimePERTH — On January 22, Western Australian taxi drivers held a picket outside parliament demanding longer and harsher sentences for people convicted of crime. What it lacked in numbers, it
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Picketer wins court case MELBOURNE — A January 13 rally outside the Geelong Magistrates Court supported Wendy Bainger, who was arrested on the picket line at E.P. Robinson's wool scouring plant in Geelong. Bainger was charged with wilful damage,
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Extremely angryWhen I become very angry, in this tiny cell, I am often taken to an ageing childhood that too quickly ended. More often than not, I am drive to the reading of poetry. Sometimes, after a few lines read aloud,
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Behind the 'moral fabric' It is "the greatest social stabiliser", the "most effective welfare system possible" and a "haven in a heartless world". When it breaks down, "society" pays a huge price — young people turn to the streets and drugs,
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On January 15, more than 600,000 South Korean workers went on strike. This was followed by another general strike on January 22. Thousands of students and workers armed with stones battled cops wearing full body armour and
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Solidarity Solidarity with South Korean workers in their struggle is important. Here are some possible actions: 1. Pass the following motion at your workplace or through your union: "This workplace/union opposes the introduction of the South
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On the Evans River at Evans Head in NSW, there used to be an extraordinary geological formation which was a sacred site. It acted as a bridge and was part of a songline or "natural corridor". Currently Graham Ingles of the Ingles
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HOBART — The environment movement was probably the biggest, most vibrant social movement of the 1980s and early 1990s. Many people became involved in environmental groups and campaigns. Half way through the next decade,
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Recent announcements of deregistration by the federal Electoral Commission of several different green parties have been greeted as "a big victory" by the Australian Greens. The active role of the Australian Greens in this
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Left On-line The Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) — The occupation of the Japanese embassy in Peru by militants of the MRTA demanding the release of political prisoners has featured heavily in the media. For the latest and most accurate
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By Chow Wei-Cheng The banking sector is undergoing rapid changes. Branches are being closed, large numbers of employees are being sacked, industrial action is increasing, and mergers are sweeping the industry, worsening the wave of lay-offs and
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We received the following e-mail message from a South Korean worker on January 13: "Many of my friends fight the labour law. One man is dead. We need your help. Today socialism is illegal in South Korea. We need international friends. Help!". The
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SA 'youth crime wave' a mythADELAIDE — In the lead up to the South Australian election due this year both Liberal and Labor are trying to out do each other in the so-called war against youth crime. In the recent Liberal Party
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SYDNEY — "Fair go in NSW" proclaimed an article in the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union (LHMU) journal, describing the new NSW industrial relations legislation. The act, drawn up by the state's Labor
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On January 15, the federal government announced the composition and terms of reference of a new review of higher education. The review will cost $2 million and is expected to provide a blueprint for the 1998 federal budget and the
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The misinformation and hysteria surrounding December's High Court judgment on Wik has reached epic proportions. Federal and state governments and their supporters in the mining and pastoral industries have
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The costs of school privatisationThe sinister side of the government push towards school privatisation reared its head in early January when the Sydney Morning Herald reported large fee increases planned by Sydney's private
News
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Direct actions to halt loggingMELBOURNE — One of the most biologically significant forests in the world is being irreparably destroyed this summer. Along with places like the Amazon and Sarawak, the ancient forests of East
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DSS unionists vote on agency campaignUnion members in the Department of Social Security around the country have been holding meetings to discuss the way forward in their campaign to protect public service jobs and conditions in the
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SYDNEY — Following a police raid on January 14, there has been a flurry of publicity about crime problems in the Aboriginal community centred on Eveleigh Street, Redfern, known as "the Block". Forty police sealed off the area and
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East Timor/Indonesia solidarity in Hobart HOBART — Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET) recently set up a branch here. It emerged from the university-based group Students in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor in an
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BRISBANE — The Criminal Justice Commission, under serious attack from the Queensland Coalition government on several fronts, has struck back with the establishment of a public inquiry into allegations of police involvement in
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The $7 billion of cuts in last year's federal budget were obviously going to have a worse impact on the poor. A study commissioned by the Australian Council for Social Service (ACOSS) and the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU)
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CANBERRA — The February 1 federal by-election in the north Canberra seat of Fraser has become a focus for the "race debate". Of the 11 candidates, six have publicly advocated racist controls on immigration.
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Greenpeace to document Antarctic climate changeIn an attempt to pressure governments to set greenhouse targets, Greenpeace has embarked on a four-week expedition to document emerging signs of climate change in the Antarctic. The
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Opposition to Sydney expresswaysSYDNEY — Questions have been raised over the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority's plan to build a city-wide "orbital road network". Randwick Green Party councillor Murray Matson said on January 16
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SYDNEY — On January 24, around 20 people attended an Indonesian language public meeting entitled "The democratic struggle under new conditions" which was jointly organised by Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor
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Queensland coal miners' victoryBRISBANE — Capricorn Coal management agreed in an Industrial Relations Commission hearing on January 22 to reinstate a sacked union shop steward at the company's central Queensland German Creek
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@columhead = It worked for Howard "The NSW Coalition plans to keep its policies hidden from voters until the last month before the 1999 State election ..." — Sydney Morning Herald, January 20. @columhead = Truth in advertising "We thought
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Student union worker victimisedMELBOURNE — On January 17, a Victoria University of Technology student union employee was sacked. The university administration has refused to renew Bill Deller's contract despite the fact that
Analysis
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A shorter working week Since its election, the Howard government has repeatedly claimed job creation as its first priority (just in case anyone got confused by cuts to labour market programs, mass lay-offs in the public service and its "cross your
World
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MEXICO CITY — The peace process in the conflict-ridden southern state of Chiapas suffered a major setback over the weekend of January 11-12. In response to President Ernesto Zedillo's modifications to a bill on indigenous rights
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Russian teachers strike for wage pay-outMOSCOW — When more than 3 million Russian school pupils ended their annual winter holidays in mid-January, some students did not return to class at all, as teachers who had gone unpaid
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A minor storm has been created in Germany by seven Green and Social Democratic Party (SPD) members crossing the floor of the Bundestag (the federal parliament) to join Chancellor Kohl's conservative Christian Democrat (CDU)
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Kurdish refugees' lives at risk The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees announced on December 21 that the Atrush refugee camp, inside the "safe haven" in northern Iraq, would be closed within a month. The camp houses 15,000 Kurdish
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PLO President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu signed a deal on January 15 that agreed on the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the West Bank town of Hebron. The original sticking point around withdrawal
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MOSCOW — In the first referendum of its kind in Russia, residents of an economically hard-hit rural area voted overwhelmingly during December to halt the building of a nuclear power plant. The victory for anti-nuclear
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A year ago, two East Timorese women, the first East Timorese women to do so, entered the Australian embassy in Jakarta, unsuccessfully seeking asylum in Australia. When Odilia Victor and Maria Sarmento sought refuge, a third
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For weeks on end, hundreds of thousands of people have daily poured into the streets of the Serbian capital Belgrade, demanding that the ruling party of Slobodan Milosevic recognise the victory of the opposition Zajedno
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TV reports of two bombings on January 16 of an abortion clinic in Atlanta, Georgia, startled the country. A particularly vicious aspect was that the second bomb was set to explode an hour after the first, which was a so-called
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Chilean political prisoners rescuedThe mass media in Chile have called it "the escape of the century". On December 30, after a daring helicopter flight by a kidnapped police officer, activists armed with M-16s landed in the
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After 37 years of civil war, the Guatemalan people are feeling as optimistic as they did in 1944, during Guatemala's democratic revolution. The general command of the URNG (Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity), the army and
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A tribute to Tony CabardoTony Cabardo, a long-time political activist and fighter for socialism and democracy in the Philippines, died of cancer in Manila on January 19. He was 43e years old and had spent most of his life in
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By James D. Thompson Sudan's rebel forces are on the offensive and are reported to have seized large areas in the eastern part of the country. Their success may be due in part to covert backing from the United States government, which has its own
Culture
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On Earth UndeadCD features Cryogenic, Tatoo Blue, Deadspawn and Ken MitchellVideo produced by Art ResistanceAvailable through South Western Sydney Area Health Service, PO Box 39, Liverpool NSW 2170 Reviewed by Norm Dixon Drug and alcohol education
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The Struggle for Democracy in Indonesia: Introducing the People's Democratic PartyPublished by Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor in cooperation with the People's Democratic Party (PRD)46pp (large format), $6 Review by Mel Bull "I
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Pick of Adelaide's music crop FruitFruitproduced by Tony Nesci and FruitReviewed by Melanie Sjoberg The 1995 Victor Harbour Folk Festival was dominated by the exciting sound of a new band called Fruit. The marquee was packed and encores demanded.
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The Herbal BedBy Peter WhelanDirected by Marion PottsSydney Theatre CompanyWharf Theatre until March 8 Review by Helen Jarvis Using fragments from the historical record, British playwright Peter Whelan has woven a well-crafted tale of moral dilemma
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New albums RiveresqueWeddings, Parties, AnythingMushroom RecordsWhirligigThings of Stone and WoodShockReviewed by Marcus Greville Weddings, Parties, Anything have, in traditional Weddos style, produced another strong folky album full of emotion and
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Taking Our Time: Remaking the Temporal OrderBy Mike DonaldsonUniversity of Western Australia Press, 1996. 206 pp., $26.95Reviewed by Phil Shannon Any passing extraterrestrial from an advanced civilisation would be scratching their two heads with
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DIY FeminismEdited by Kathy BailAllen & Unwin, 1996. 211 pp., $19.95 (pb)Reviewed by Carla Gorton DIY Feminism follows the 'zine style of bite-sized articles interspersed with computer-scanned and hand-drawn graphics. Most of the content is less
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St Kilda Writers FestivalFebruary 1 - 16 at various locations Preview by Bronwen Beechey MELBOURNE— "Beyond Writing" is the theme of the 10th annual St Kilda Writers Festival. The theme is addressed in a number of events that look at writing and
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Sparring PartnerWritten and Directed by Bogdan KocaPlaying until February 2, Pilgrim Theatre, Sydney as part of the Sydney Festival Review by Anne O'Callaghan Sparring Partner, says writer and director Bogdan Koca, "exists within its own structures
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Half-life: The NDP: Peace, protest and party politicsBy Gillian FisherState Library of NSW Press, 1995. 154pp., $14.95Reviewed by Margaret Gleeson The decision by the federal ALP government, in its first year in office, to give the go-ahead for the
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The Quest Old questions, faced down the ages, by each generation and each man and woman in their own way and in their own time. Questions, simple yet profound. Do we accept: Each against all? Survival of the fittest? Go for the