SYDNEY — As university administrations around the country contemplate government cuts to higher education funding, it is becoming apparent that larger universities will introduce fee-paying courses for Australian
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Film launches PRD solidarity campaign A spectacular new documentary on the underground opposition to the Suharto dictatorship in Indonesia will be shown at federal Parliament House on March 18. The screening, organised by Senator Margaret
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Anti-feminist 'socialists'Anti-feminist 'socialists' The establishment media's coverage of International Women's Day on March 8 focused, not on the thousands of women who marched demanding better wages, child-care services and access to
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IWD was celebrated around the country on March 8 with rallies and marches in support of women's demands for measures needed to make equality a reality. A spirited group of 300 women and men attended the first IWD rally in Canberra for four years.
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Los Angeles on Sydney Harbour?SYDNEY — Could Sydney be a city where the car can take you anywhere? Where freeways dart in all directions and all you have to do is jump in your car and head for the open road? That's what
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WOLLONGONG — In recent months the NSW ALP has been experiencing widespread stacking of branches. A record 2094 membership applications were received in just one month, 600 coming from the Wollongong region alone. A large number
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Last October, federal industrial relations minister Peter Reith quietly tabled a report in parliament titled Enterprise Bargaining 1995. The report, written by the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR), was not highly
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Socialists organise in LismoreLISMORE — With the launching of a Resistance club at the Lismore campus of Southern Cross University, organised socialist activity is happening in northern NSW for the first time in many
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HOBART — Last June, the Tasmanian Liberal government announced the closure of the hospital in the isolated West Coast community of Rosebery. However, a mass campaign by the local community has brought it a reprieve, although its
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DITA SARI, chairperson of the Indonesian Centre for Labour Struggles and a leader of the People's Democratic Party in Indonesia, was arrested by the Suharto dictatorship in the wave of repression that began last July. She was arrested on July 8 while
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Indonesia: Rise of the student democracy movement 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly's JO BROWN talked to ROBBY HARTONO, an activist with the People's Democratic Party (PRD) in Indonesia who recently toured Australia, about the role that students are
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Momentum is building on universities around the country for the March 26 national day of action in defence of public education. After protests and strike action last year against federal government cuts to higher education, 1997
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Why greens should be redsWhy greens should be reds By Peter Boyle n this relatively wealthy country, too many of those who are concerned about ecological issues forget the first half of the popular environmentalist slogan: "Think
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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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Rally rejects airport in Sydney basin SYDNEY — More than 400 demonstrators rallied in Fairfield on March 9 to oppose the building of a second international airport at either Badgerys Creek or Holsworthy. Holroyd Mayor Stuart Graham
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"Ministers warn of health crisis", trumpeted the February 28 Australian. "Medicare emergency", warned the September 24 Bulletin cover, "what the health crisis means to you". "Failing fast" said the Bulletin's January 14
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Were the Jews a nation? In his latest attempt to argue that anti-Zionism is a form of anti-Semitism, Philip Mendes (GLW #266) claims that the establishment of the Israel state was an expression of "Jewish national aspirations". This
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"Anybody has the option of buying a BMW any time they choose", according to Felicity Kennett, wife of Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett. Felicity Kennett has recently been appointed an "ambassador" for the German luxury car giant, and one of the
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A friend's trustA friend's trust By Brandon Astor Jones "A friend ... is someone who knows where you've been, and where you hope to go — accepts all, and encourages you to grow." — Laura Seddon (d. 1895) BAJ: What is your
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Parliament: a class actParliament: a class act When was the last time MPs took industrial action? Doctors do it. Lawyers are thinking about it. Teachers and nurses strike. But MPs? I don't think so. Why? Is it written "I say unto
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The media are once again focusing on the low immunisation rates of Australian children. The federal health minister, Dr Michael Wooldridge, dismisses the 2-5% of parents who actively oppose it. He has proposed "incentives" to
News
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CANBERRA — A symposium entitled "Youth Employment: Looking for Solutions" was convened on March 8 by the Youth Coalition of the ACT and the ACT Southern Tablelands Area Consultative Committee. It provided few answers to
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Environmental vandalism escalates On March 14, the federal government announced a decision to move the Coode Island chemical and fuel storage plant near Melbourne to Point Lillias. Port Lillias is protected by the international Ramsar convention
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Save Redfern Block campaign continuesSYDNEY — Rumours of the appearance of bulldozers from March 17 circulated as Aboriginal Redfern Housing Coalition members mobilised for an Aboriginal Housing Company meeting on March
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Coalition for Access to Justice formedBRISBANE — A rally of 200 legal aid and community legal services workers and supporters on March 14 voted to form the Queensland Coalition for Access to Justice (QCAJ) to fight
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SYDNEY — For 49 years the NSW Police Special Branch has been monitoring the activities of left activists in NSW. After the NSW Royal Commission into Police Corruption heard evidence in February of Special Branch's
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NSW hospital waiting lists growSYDNEY — In the 1995 state election campaign, Premier Bob Carr promised to cut hospital waiting lists by half or to resign after one year. On March 7, the state government conceded that
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Melbourne public transport dispute continuesMELBOURNE — A mass meeting of 2000 public transport workers on March 6 voted almost unanimously to stop work from midnight, March 7, until midnight, March 9, over the Australian
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Socialists do well in Brisbane electionBRISBANE — "The vote of more than 6% for Democratic Socialist candidates in the Brisbane City Council election on March 15 shows that a sizeable number of people are beginning to look
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Stephanie Wilkinson Stephanie Wilkinson, the founder of Australians Against Executions, died of cancer in Sydney on March 8. She was 62. Stephanie — half her friends knew her as Stephanie, the other half as "Jill", a nickname given to go
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Beazley's back flip on Hindmarsh Island condemnedADELAIDE — The Kumarangk Coalition, which has been campaigning against the Hindmarsh Island bridge proposal since 1993, says that the federal ALP's decision to support the
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Project highlights violence against gays and lesbiansSYDNEY — The South Sydney Council and the Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project (AVP) have announced the establishment of the Mary's Place Project in February to
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'McMountains' development defeated KATOOMBA — In a victory for grassroots community action, the fast food giant McDonald's informed local activists organised in the Mountains Against McDonald's (MAM) group on March 7 that it would not
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Roxby to test law on union accessADELAIDE — The Roxby Downs uranium mine in South Australia is shaping up as a major test site of the Howard government's new industrial relations laws. Western Mining Corporation
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NTU students vote for education campaignDARWIN — The Education Action Group at Northern Territory University put a motion to a student general meeting on March 12 for a campaign against the Liberals' attacks on higher
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Inspired research "Want to improve the lot of welfare beneficiaries? Cut the benefits. That's the conclusion to New Zealand Treasury research ..." — Financial Review, March 6. Save it for pensioners? "There is something wrong when
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CANBERRA — Delegates attending the March 13 branch conference of the ACT Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) expressed strong support for a united and effective fight against attacks on the public service. The meeting
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More than 1000 doctors across NSW have been on strike since March 10 in a bid to reverse legislation restricting new doctors' access to Medicare provider numbers. Mass meetings on March 14 resolved to broaden the campaign,
Analysis
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One-way 'mutual obligation' Federal cabinet last week approved plans to double the size of a work for the dole scheme announced by PM John Howard last month, and to introduce tougher penalties for young people who refuse to participate or drop
World
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Bomb blasts in China Seven people were killed and 67 injured when three bombs exploded on public buses on February 25 in Urumqi, the capital of China's north-west Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. A fourth bomb was found before it exploded.
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By Gim Joong-gen First World bosses point to the social values of Asia's newly industrialising countries (NICs) as a universal recipe for prosperity: unswerving loyalty to family, company and nation. The most genuine progress in these
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Beijing secured legislative backing to tighten its repressive rule at the latest parliamentary session of the National People's Congress held in the capital between March 1-14. This first major national gathering after the death of
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Kisangani, east Zaire's most important city and the Mobutu dictatorship's last stronghold in the country's east, fell to the rebels of the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire (ADFL), led by Laurent
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Revolution in AlbaniaA people's power revolution is taking place in Albania, where a furious plundered people have taken up arms against the thieving, US-backed regime of Sali Berisha. The rebellion began with a
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The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) may call another general strike in May to force the Kim Young-sam government to remove repressive new labour laws. In a deal struck between the ruling parties and the parliamentary
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Following a meeting between Australian PM John Howard and PNG PM Julius Chan in Sydney on March 9, Howard hinted that military aid to PNG may be boosted and more Australian army "advisers" sent to replace the hired guns from
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Attending the World Humanist Congress in Mexico City in November provided an opportunity to hear immensely well-informed speakers from 26 countries, including world figures such as Pakistani writer Taslima Nasrin, forced to flee
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MEXICO CITY — US government certification of Mexico's efforts to counteract drug trafficking have unleashed a storm of protest here. Washington's yearly certification process comes on the heels of several weeks of new and
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Immigrant workers fight backImmigrant workers fight backOn March 8, hundreds of workers at two plants in the San Francisco Bay Area, and their supporters, held rallies and pickets in a fight to win union
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On March 11, an explosion took place at the Mura nuclear reprocessing plant in Tokai, Japan, 10 hours after a potentially deadly fire broke out at the scene. It is not the first major nuclear "accident" in Japan. The last known
Culture
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Globalization and Its Discontents: The Rise of Postmodern SocialismBy Roger Burbach, Orlando Nunez and Boris KagarlitskyPluto Press, London and Chicago, 1997, £12.99. Review by Paul Clarke It should be universally recognised that in the
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Roaming in the Gloaming(For Pauline Hanson MP) They live in the gloaming,in the shadow of the Land of the Leal.Half peoplefor whom the sunshines not.For them our worldis threat and fear ...They fret and fumepicking the scabs offthis and
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SYDNEY — FRANK GOMEZ talked to JILL HICKSON, PATTY BIANCO, MARYANN WYLDER and BOB SHORT, members of the community television access group Actively Radical Television (ARTV), about what it is like being involved in community free-to-air television.
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WOLLONGONG — "There is nobody like Fred" is accepted by all progressive movements in the Illawarra. Known as "Dad" to local Kooris and activists — blood brother to the Jerringa people and an honorary life member of the
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Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement From the 1950s to the 1980SHenry Hampton and Steve Fayer (eds)Vintage Press, 1995. Published in Australia by Random House. 692 pp., $22.95 Review by Arun Pradhan The history of the
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KolyaOpening on March 27 at Dendy Cinemas Review by Margaret Allan The latest film to come out of the former Czechoslovakia is set in the 1989 "Velvet Revolution", in which the characters play out a charming story of the relationship between a