Vanstone confronted
LISMORE — Students from Southern Cross University (SCU) Lismore confronted federal education minister Amanda Vanstone on July 23, as she was leaving an OECD conference on higher education at Byron Bay. The protesters
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John Howard's July 10 comments to Sydney radio interviewer Alan Jones, supporting a "homemaker's allowance" to encourage women to drop out of the labour force have been linked to a "white picket fence" view of Australia and
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Fighting racism: lessons from FranceLast August 23, police smashed down the doors of the Saint Bernard Church in Paris. Using handcuffs and chloroform, they dragged out the illegal immigrants sheltering inside and
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Private health insurance — preying on fearPrivate hospitals and private insurance are on the nose for many Australians. Membership of private funds is declining, and complaints about private hospitals such as Mayne
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True friendshipTrue friendship By Brandon Astor Jones "When you have succeeded in dehumanizing a person; when you have put that person down, and make ... this person to be but as the beast of the field; and when you have extinguished
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Hanson: neo-Nazis' 'Joan of Arc'"If I said, 'Joan of Arc', you'd think immediately of an inspired, young patriotic girl, rising from peasantry, leading her people gloriously into battle. If I said, 'Pauline Hanson',
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Attacking the worst unemployment crisisStop worrying about the young people who can't find jobs. Cancel the programs to help the long-term unemployed (okay: they've already been cancelled). There's a far more
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NTU students fight cuts DARWIN — Around 70 students attended an urgent lunchtime meeting at the Northern Territory University on July 24 in response to cuts to the ceramics, sculpture and English departments. The meeting was attended
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Low pay, no way! Solving the jobs crisis James Vassilopoulos When asked on radio 2GB on July 7 about the United States' "low" unemployment, Prime Minister John Howard said: "We have as a nation over the years adopted as part of our
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91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly's KAMALA EMANUEL visited the miners' picket line at the Hunter Valley No. 1 colliery on the July 22, the day of the mass meeting at which the miners voted to return to work. She reports here on some of her discussions with the
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Protesting racism I was pleased to see that you have continued your attacks against Hanson's and Howard's racism over many weeks. While all the issues you cover are vital, scapegoating on racist grounds is more so than others. This is
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Jobs at a price By Dave Holmes Although the tourist postcards ingeniously manage to leave it out of the picture or consign it to a hazy background, BHP's huge Port Kembla steelworks is the most obvious feature of Wollongong. The
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Marketing the backlashMarketing the backlash Last year, two friends of mine went to a record producer in Canberra and sang their songs about Aboriginal rights, racism and the need to get political. The producer responded by telling
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On July 22, a meeting of the 412 striking miners at the Hunter Valley No. 1 colliery voted to return to work on the union leadership's recommendation. The miners had been on strike since June 10. The company, Coal and Allied — a subsidiary of Rio
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In early July, the federal government announced that it will not support moves to equalise age of consent laws for heterosexual and homosexual young people. Laws differ widely across the states at present. The age of consent
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During the next two months, elections to many university student unions will be held around the country, elections that the activist student left will be heavily involved in. There has been little discussion about what the
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PC or no PC, that is the questionPC or no PC, that is the question It may be thought, and often said, that your run-of-the-mill leftie is very hard to amuse. They look for overtones, undertones, sub-tones, grunts and "philosophy"; they
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The campaign against the new reactor and reprocessing plant proposed for Lucas Heights in NSW has been stepped up. At a recent meeting Friends of the Earth, the Sutherland Shire Environment Centre, People for Nuclear Disarmament,
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Last week was momentous for 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly. For the next six weeks, passers-by and visitors to the 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ production centre in Abercrombie Street in Sydney will encounter scaffolding, building supplies, paint tins and general hubbub as
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Cuts to unemployment benefits, called Newstart Allowance, took effect from July 1. Those in share accommodation receive only two-thirds of the maximum rate for rent assistance; for many people this means a cut in income of as much as $32 a week — a
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In last week's 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, (#282) Andrew Woodroffe commended the recent introduction of green tariffs for NSW and Victorian electricity consumers. Dubbed "green power", these schemes allow electricity consumers to pay a
News
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Students fight cuts to TAFEBRISBANE — Queensland TAFE students and workers have won a small victory in their struggle to stop huge cuts to the system by the Borbidge government. In response to community outrage, the
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'Fairwear' campaign active in AdelaideADELAIDE — Shoppers in Adelaide's Rundle Mall on July 20 were exposed to the appalling working conditions of outworkers providing garments for the fashion industry as part of a
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The Mortimer report @box text intro = "Spend $21 billion on new jobs, Howard told", was the way the July 24 Australian headlined the Mortimer report on industry assistance. This reflects the Murdoch philosophy of journalism: if you have to
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TAFE teachers launch reinstatement petitionMELBOURNE — A petition to reinstate three teachers sacked from Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE was launched at the Australian Education Union (Victorian branch) annual
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Work injuries increaseWork injury rates are beginning to rise, according to a recently released publication by the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission. The federal government last year cut the budget
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Salsa for CubaBRISBANE — More than 120 supporters attended the Committee in Solidarity with Latin America and the Caribbean (CISLAC) annual fundraiser here on July 19, supported by the Australia Cuba Friendship Society
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Loose cannons Learned something "I long ago stopped expecting to be treated fairly by the system." — Brian Burke, former ALP premier of WA, after his conviction for stealing from the ALP was overturned on appeal. Perfectly ordinary
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Tax management aims to cut conditionsAustralian Taxation Office (ATO) management has begun an attack on both the working conditions of its employees and their right to union representation. Management's approach to a new
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HOBART — The signing of the Tasmanian regional forest agreement (RFA) has been postponed for a second time. Originally scheduled for June 30, then postponed until July 18, it is now due to be signed in early to mid-August.
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National uranium action daySYDNEY — About 50 environmental activists picketed the head office of uranium mining company Energy Resources of Australia on July 25 as part of a national day of action in solidarity with the
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Another fatal shooting by Victorian policeMELBOURNE — Yet another person has been shot dead by Victorian police, after they were called to a domestic dispute on July 17 and the victim allegedly attacked police with a
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Push for Tasmanian Hydro saleHOBART — The Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Trust Bank of Tasmania have released a report supporting plans by the state government to privatise all or part of the Hydro
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MELBOURNE — Tram, train and bus workers employed by the Public Transport Corporation will hold a 24-hour strike from midnight on July 28. The action will protest against the state government's persistent refusal to grant a
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Call for left unity at UQBRISBANE — Resistance activists are calling for a broad left activist ticket in University of Queensland student union elections. Activists in the education anti-racism, feminist and
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HOBART — The state Liberal government is set to introduce legislation following the August budget to hold a referendum on changing Tasmania's parliamentary system. The government has cited the perception that Tasmania is
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Protect Kimberley, say Aborigines, conservationistsAborigines are opposed to the WA state government's plans to dam the Fitzroy River, said Kimberley Land Council (KLC) director Peter Yu on July 18. Speaking after a forum
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Immigration minister Philip Ruddock cancelled the visa of US Black Panther activist Lorenzo Kom'Boa Ervin on July 25. Ervin was arrested in Brisbane and held in solitary confinement earlier this month after
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Care provisions for HIV/AIDS patients unclear SYDNEY — NSW community services minister Ron Dyer came under fire from HIV/AIDS groups on July 23, which claim that he has failed to clarify whether people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH/A) are
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'Don't privatise electricity'NEWCASTLE — One hundred people heard Victorian Trades Hall Council secretary Leigh Hubbard address an open meeting of the Newcastle Trades Hall on July 24. He argued that the privatisation
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NSW State Rail jobs to be cutSYDNEY — A review by State Rail management may result in 1750 jobs being lost in NSW. The job cuts are related to the state Labor government's refusal to continue $115 million of funding.
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CPSU rank and file meetBRISBANE — Community and Public Sector Union members met in the City Hall on July 16 and voted against the national management committee's (NMC) move to dump the union's campaign for an Australian
World
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intro = Ireland's first Socialist Party TD [MP], Joe Higgins, took his seat in the Dail [parliament] at the end of June. The following interview with Higgins is reprinted from the British Socialist. Question: What is your own political
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According to the western media, Hong Kong's Democratic Party and a few vocal elected legislators are the guardians of the struggle for democracy in Hong Kong.
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JOHANNESBURG — At the end of its executive committee meeting in June, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) announced a series of regional and national strikes as part of its campaign to have its demands around
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Toxic PVC fire in Canada HAMILTON, ONTARIO — A Greenpeace team began sampling for dioxin around Hamilton and its vicinity on July 12 as firefighters assessed the clean-up required following a fire at a PVC plastic (vinyl) plant located in the
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At midnight on July 19, four immigrants from Mexico went to the local police station in the Jackson Heights area of New York City with a three-page letter in Spanish. Nervous, they left without showing the letter to the police.
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The following is excerpted from a speech by Sinn Féin president GERRY ADAMS on the eve of the republican cease-fire announcement. The British government damaged itself badly in the eyes of many who expected better of it when the Orange march
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The official ideology of Israel, Zionism, has always portrayed itself as a liberation movement for all Jews. But although Zionism claims to offer a home for all Jews, that home has never been offered equally. The question of Arab
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There is widespread disbelief and concern in Papua New Guinea over the return to government of the parties responsible for hiring apartheid-linked mercenaries. Surprisingly, the People's Progress Party of defeated prime minister
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MOSCOW — "Greenpeace and our 'greens' have become toys in the hands of powerful forces blocking the implementation of economic reforms ..." That was how Karelia, the government newspaper of the Karelian Republic in north-west
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OPORTO — More than 200 people attended a conference here between July 17 and 20 to discuss "Self-determination in East Timor — Democratisation in Indonesia: An international responsibility". The conference was organised by the
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In October 1995, Brisbane indigenous health worker Noritta Morseu-Diop went to Tahiti, the chief island of French Polynesia, along with five other Aboriginal people. They went to protest at the resumption of French nuclear
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Indonesian MP jailedYet another opposition figure has been jailed for speaking out against the Suharto dictatorship. On July 21, Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) legislator Aberson Marle Sihaloho, who is a close aide to
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Brazilian Indians threaten energy towersAccording to a statement from the Indianist Missionary Council, the Pankararu Indians in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco are ready to burn down power transmission towers if actions
Culture
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Building the Revolutionary Party: An introduction to James P. CannonNew Course Publications, 1997100pp., $7.95 Review by Pip Hinman Full-time revolutionaries are mostly stereotyped as being narrow and dogmatic. But to read anything of James P.
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Review by Lynda Hansen BRISBANE — Women in Voice was instigated in 1993 by Annie Deller-Peterson. This performance, Women in Voice 7, on July 20, featured Barb Fordham, Jeannie Lewis, Leah Cotterell, Bronwyn Calcutt, Katrina Alberts and Alison
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Spring Writing Festival SYDNEY — A diversity of Australian and overseas writers will attend the 5th Annual Spring Writing Festival on September 13-14 at the Rozelle Hospital heritage gardens. Presented by the NSW Writers Centre, the program
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The 1995 Million Man March, initiated by black nationalist leader Louis Farrakhan, which promoted the need for black men to take responsibility for their lives and families, left many, including black leader Angela Davis,
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Reggae WrapVarious artistsIrie NegrilHurricane ReliefVarious artistsVermont Reggae FestivalLead With the Bass II and All the World in an EggVarious artistsUniversal Egg Records Reviews by Norm Dixon Any fan of political reggae will tell you that
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LINKS: International journal of socialist renewalNo 8, July-October, 1997Published by New Course Publications144 pp., $6.50 Review by Adam Maclean Now in its eighth issue, the Marxist journal Links has emerged as a sounding board for a broad
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The John Wayne PrincipleWritten by Tony McNamaraDirected by David BertholdSydney Theatre Company, Wharf 1, from July 23and Melbourne from September 8 Review by Mark Stoyich There are currently two portrayals of fucked-up masculinity showing in
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Secret Power: New Zealand's Role in the International Spy NetworkBy Nicky HagerNelson, New Zealand: Craig Potton, 1996. 299 pp., NZ$34.95 Review by Brian Martin Spying thrives on secrecy; this is nowhere more true than in the world of signals
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Vita and VirginiaWritten by Eileen Atkins, directed by Richard CottrellWith Ruth Cracknell and Jennifer HaganSydney Theatre CompanyThe Playhouse, Sydney Opera House from July 26 Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf, two of England's most intriguing
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MELBOURNE — In a city where arts festivals seem to run continuously, a bit of controversy helps to ensure that yours won't go unnoticed. The 5th Melbourne Uni Arts Festival, MUDfest (July 30-August 17), is in this enviable