Asian crisis: powers seek to cobble together a remedyIn mid-January, when Asia's economic crisis took a new turn for the worse, Washington sent an urgent call to invite key imperialist countries to meet in February on
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ANC national conference It is with a mixture of amusement and irritation that I have just read Oupa Lehulere's story on the ANC's 50th National Conference, held in Mafikeng in mid-December (91̳ Weekly, #302). Lehulere was clearly
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Media bash 'single mums'Brisbane GP Judy Stokes has shot to media super-stardom in Queensland following her letter to the Courier-Mail calling for single mothers to be forced to give up their children for adoption after the
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Petition to support waterside workers Below is the text of a petition being circulated nationally by the Democratic Socialist Party and Resistance. We, the undersigned, understand that the Howard government's support for the establishment of a
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SYDNEY — Following the killing of two schoolgirls on the south coast last year, and the revelation that one of those charged with murder had been on bail for another offence, a review of the Bail Act 1978 was directed by the NSW
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Media intrusion: crossing the dividing lineIs Cheryl Kernot becoming the media rat pack's No. 1 quarry? In just three months since she quit the Democrats for Labor, she's had to endure more critical sniping and intrusive
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Asian crisis: why capitalism is crumblingThe Communist Manifesto ushered in a new epoch in human history. It described and projected the process of change from capitalism to socialism, the coming to power of the working class.
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Black folks do "Racism was a form of madness, a pathological hatred and cruelty that took its most despicable form in outright murder. Lynching — which took the lives of hundreds (though not, as has often been alleged, thousands) of blacks
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Feminism, Communism and Catholicism The women of Cuba have reason to celebrate after the visit of Pope John Paul II two weeks ago. The pope's call, on behalf of the majority of the world's capitalists, for the US to lift its economic
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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. Ph 9565 5522. Access News —
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MELBOURNE — On January 28, the government's latest offensive against maritime workers was launched. National Farmers Federation front companies established a non-union beachhead on the Melbourne waterfront. Part
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Wharfies seek solidarityBRISBANE — Wharfies here are ready to defend their wages and conditions. With small victories over the Liberal government last year in the Cairns dispute and over the Dubai fiasco, their morale is
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1997: the warmest year in this centuryA study released on January 23 reveals that 1997 was the warmest year in this century, further evidence that the planet is getting warmer due to the greenhouse effect. A team of scientists
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I love rupiah Department spokesperson: Some person who has the time should set about making a collection of the many pronouncements made about our near neighbour to the north by professional scribes of one kind or another. I do not suppose that
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Charity and changeI recently spent six weeks in India. I stayed at a Sisters of Charity convent in the south with my aunty who has been a missionary for 60 years. Her days are spent trying to help the vast numbers of people
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Sole parents will have a lengthy waiting period before being paid social security under provisions buried in the proposed Parenting Payment Bill currently before parliament. The bill fuses the sole parent pension with the current parenting allowance
News
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Perth protest against Howard By Sarah Stephenand Katie Miles-Barnes PERTH — On January 25, 150 people gathered outside Government House to peacefully protest against an address by John Howard. The rally was opposing the Wik 10-point plan,
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Throw the Liberals out, urge ACT socialistsCANBERRA — The Democratic Socialists have called on small parties and independents not to support the formation of another Liberal government after the February 21 ACT
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ACT restricts democracy in electionsCANBERRA — The Democratic Socialists, who are standing three candidates for the seat of Molonglo in the February 21 ACT election, are experiencing the difficulties encountered by
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New WA anti-graffiti laws By Sean Martin-Iverson PERTH — The state Liberal government has moved to make WA's already draconian anti-graffiti laws even harsher. The existing legislation, which allows for penalties of 200 hours of community
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Survival day MELBOURNE — Around 200 people snubbed official Australia Day festivities and came to the Invasion Day concert, called Survival '98, at Brunswick Town Hall on January 26. Speakers highlighted Australia Day festivities' denial of the
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None "I guess there are very few new ideas in journalism." — Sydney Sun-Herald editor Alan Revell after his paper and the Sunday Telegraph both front-paged an "exclusive" beat-up claiming there is widespread issuing of fraudulent medical
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Taxation ruling raises cost of studyingCANBERRA — The Australian Taxation Office is circulating a draft ruling that would cut students' already meagre incomes. The February 13 closing date for submissions on the draft, titled
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Howard plan punishes young peopleIn his state of the federation address on January 26, Prime Minister John Howard announced a massive expansion of the work for the dole scheme. Originally a pilot scheme involving some 1400
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Twenty uranium mines threaten WAPERTH — The federal government's decision to remove restrictions on uranium mining has given a new lease of life to mining giants interested in uranium projects in WA. Already, more than 20
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Militant struggles in isolation may be heroic, but only a struggle that gains support from other organised workers and the general public can win its demands. Over the last week, the establishment media have been doing their utmost to ensure that the
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Telstra workers resist forced transfersBRISBANE — One hundred and fifty Telstra workers attended a protest meeting on January 30 after the company announced a plan to centralise its faults-recording network in Melbourne, forcing
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Four hundred Aboriginal people and their supporters gathered in Sydney on January 26, the 60th anniversary of the 1938 Day of Mourning and Protest by Aboriginal people at the sesquicentenary celebrations of European
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NT TLC condemns Labor leader over Jabiluka By Tim E. Stewart DARWIN — Support for the campaign against the proposed uranium mine at Jabiluka has been strengthened after the NT Trades and Labour Council at its January meeting condemned NT Labor
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NEWCASTLE — A decision by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission on January 29 refused workers at Rio Tinto's Hunter Valley No. 1 mine access to arbitration to resolve the long-running dispute at the mine. The dispute
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Today's tasks: ten-point justice "Our ten points: a long-range policy for Aborigines" was adopted at the 1938 Day of Mourning and Protest held in Australian Hall, and published in the first edition of the Australian Abo Call newspaper in April
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Telstra unfair dismissal case adjournedMELBOURNE — The Industrial Relations Commission hearing of the unfair dismissal case of Mervyn Vogt has been adjourned to April 14. Vogt, a Community and Public Sector Union delegate at
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Battle against developers continuesSYDNEY — Craig Knowles, NSW minister for urban affairs and planning, is expected soon to announce the future of the former Australian Defence Industries (ADI) site
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'Slave labour', say youthBRISBANE — The Howard government's move to extend the compulsory work for the dole scheme is akin to conscription and slave labour, according to a group of young people interviewed in the January 29
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Watch Committee for Victoria MELBOURNE — Around 50 people attended a January 28 meeting to establish an Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Watch Committee for Victoria. Late last year, five men and one woman died in private prisons. The usual
Analysis
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Selecting a president Despite the Howard government's attempt to rig the constitutional convention by appointing half of its membership, the large vote for republican candidates in last year's postal vote has given a strong momentum to the push for
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Hands off Iraq! The government of the United States is openly planning still another military attack on the people of Iraq. Once again, the most powerful military machine in history is to be turned against helpless civilians, whose murder will be
World
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Recent reports from East Timor indicate that unless long-awaited monsoon rains arrive soon to break the drought, there may be a severe famine within the next few months. Speaking in Darwin on January 24, East Timorese resistance
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Suharto's business empire By George J. Aditjondro Seeking an "official" mandate for his seventh term through the puppet Congress (MPR) on March 11, Indonesian President Suharto is currently facing the strongest opposition from within his own
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JAKARTA — The opposition to the Suharto dictatorship is growing, fuelled by the economic crisis. The drop in the value of the rupiah and the slumping economy have brought a severe loss in confidence in the regime. People are
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The pope in Cuba: 'Everyone's a winner but the US'HAVANA — While the pope's visit to Cuba was officially billed as a "pastoral visit" to Catholics at the invitation of their bishops, the world's attention was nevertheless
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Bomb charges rejectedJAKARTA — The dictatorship is trying to blame the People's Democratic Party (PRD) and the National Democratic Struggle Committee (KNPD) for the January 18 explosion of a bomb in an apartment in Tanah
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Ramos Horta on the 'winds of change in Asia'DARWIN — 250 people heard Jose Ramos Horta, international representative of the East Timor independence movement, give a public lecture entitled "The winds of change in eastern
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Sex scandal diverts attention from threat to IraqFor the past two weeks, the allegations that President Bill Clinton had an affair with a young woman working in the White House has drowned out other major news. The scandal
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In a court case with big implications for democratic rights, organisations and individuals in the United States are being sued for a picket in solidarity with the Liverpool dockers. Last September, labour and community
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TB spreads in Russia as government chops health fundsMOSCOW — At about 2.5% of GDP, health spending in Russia last year compared poorly with western European levels of 7-8%. That was before the cost-cutters lopped another
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Russian miners die as government delays paymentsMOSCOW — Another horrific coal mine disaster has shocked the Russian public and angered coal industry workers. Early on January 18, an explosion and fire in the Tsentralnaya
Culture
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Graphic evidence of East Timor's plight Review by Jon Land Human Rights Violations in East Timor, a magazine-style booklet produced by the East Timor International Support Centre, contains photographic evidence of torture and murder by the
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A Dangerous Man [A tribute to Siegfried Sassoon — antiwar poet. ] Sassoon was a man,A dangerous man,Sassoon was a dangerous man.He went off to a warAnd went back for moreSassoon, what a dangerous man! And after this warHe settled his
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Telling it like it is: Land rights and the pastoral industry Bludgers in Grass Castles: Native title and the unpaid debts of the pastoral industryBy Martin TaylorResistance Books, 1998$3.95 from Resistance Bookshops (addresses page 2) or send
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Jazz Against RacismSYDNEY — What better way to protest against racism than through an art form whose roots are historically grounded in the struggle of an oppressed people? Jazz literally means "wildly active" or "lively". On
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Isaac Newton, God and the new science Isaac Newton: The Last SorcererBy Michael WhiteFourth Estate, 1997. 402 pp., $45 (hb) Review by Phil Shannon Once upon a time, way back in the 17th century, Sir Isaac Newton saw an apple fall and in a
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Socialism — the way forwardBy John PercyResistance Books, 199730pp., $3.50Available at all Resistance Bookshops Review by Pip Hinman While the early 1990s was marked by a propaganda offensive about the end of "socialism", as we near the end of
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Tasmanian Waffle Waffle Tall StoriesSunday, February 8, 7.30pmCinema After Dark, HobartWednesday, February 11, 8.30pmCafe Who$8.50/$6 concession (slightly more at the door) Review by Kathy Pinkus HOBART — Waffle Tall Stories are back. There are
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Return of a reggae pioneer Wash Over GoldWinston Grennan and Ska Rocks BandSwegway RecordsSend US$20 to 2400 Poplar Drive, Baltimore, MD 21207, USA Review by Norm Dixon Winston Grennan is not a household name among reggae enthusiasts, but he