... and ain't I a woman?: Less, not more choice on campus
In the six years that the University of Western Australia guild (student representative body) has been operating under "voluntary student unionism" (VSU), thousands of dollars have been
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Taking on the system A few weeks ago, the NSW ALP organised a $1000-a-head fundraiser at one of Sydney's most exclusive seafood restaurants — hardly a function for the "battler". And who won the 12 bottles of Grange Hermitage (worth around $3000)
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Never again: women's experiences before the '70sPERTH — Denise White was the honorary secretary of the WA Association for the Legal Right to Abortion during the 1970s and early '80s and a founder of the Abortion Information
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Computer swallows research grant applicationsNew research grants in medicine for 1999 throughout Australia were announced on November 20. As usual, only 25% of grant applications to the National Health and Medical Research
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My meeting with GA Here I am, in the full term of my mature years, after years of this and that, and I'm turning Celtic. I've seen it happen to others. I've watched as some of my best friends have crossed over. Out go rhythm and blues, reggae
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'Illegal' labour and inhumane immigration policyThe front-page newspaper photos showed workers sitting on the ground, handcuffed or bound with rope. Their employer, Joe Vraca, a farmer at Murchison near Shepparton in Victoria, told
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Jabiluka: World heritage nightmare for governmentOnce again, the federal government has been seriously embarrassed over the possible listing of Kakadu National Park as "world heritage in danger" because of the potential impact of
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In January, a confidential Australian Taxation Office paper was released to the Australian under the Freedom of Information Act. In it, tax office officials lament that "control" of the tax system has been snatched by the big
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Chimps, AIDS and the environmentIn the February 1 New York Times, Lawrence K. Altman reported that scientists have discovered the origin of the AIDS virus in a subspecies of chimpanzee called Pan troglodytes troglodytes. The
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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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Anarchism misrepresented As an anarchist, I find it necessary to respond to "Socialism Versus Anarchism" by Yanni Cotis and Jo Ellis. It is a perfect example of the kind of misrepresentation of our views that we have come to expect from others on
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By Claudette Bégin BERKELEY — On February 2, a federal jury ordered a national coalition of anti-abortionists to pay $109 million in damages to four doctors and two clinics in Oregon. The jury determined that "Wanted" posters and a web
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Most of the International Women's Day marches around the country in the next week will be demanding the abolition of all anti-abortion laws. This call is not new. For more than 20 years, pro-choice activists in Australia have been
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Too much humanity? By Brandon Astor Jones "And homeless near a thousand homes I stoodAnd near a thousand tables pined and wanted food." — William Wordsworth A friend who live in England has asked me, "What is it like to live on death row?"
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SYDNEY — The NSW health system is failing to meet the needs of a large group of women. One in three to four women will have been sexually assaulted by the time that they turn 18. Yet there is only one specialised service for
News
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Crew strikes against BHP cutbackSYDNEY — Maritime Union of Australia members aboard BHP's Iron Flinders struck on February 25 against the company's decision to withdraw its ships from the trans-Tasman route. The workers
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BRISBANE — An interview with jailed Indonesian trade unionist Dita Sari, filmed secretly at Jakarta's Tangerang women's prison in August, was shown here on February 20. A documentary, Bitter Paradise, by Canadian
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ADELAIDE — Paralowie School's new principal, Greg Petherick, is determined to introduce school uniforms. At least two students (myself included) have refused to wear uniforms because it is conformist and of no benefit to
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Timbarra: Stuttering frog joins the fightImportant new witnesses have been called in the legal battle against the Timbarra gold mine in northern NSW. Stuttering frogs, palmer wallabies and glossy black cockatoos are the
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After two months of shadow boxing, federal education minister David Kemp has come clean and presented a bill to gut student unions' political activities. The bill legislates for "voluntary student unionism", prohibits the levying of any compulsory
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BRISBANE — According to Brisbane's Courier-Mail, when Gerry Adams entered the civic reception organised in his honour by Mayor Jim Soorley his "welcome was more befitting a rock star than a politician at City Hall, with the crowd
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Or sleeping "If I let my members make speeches as often as they would like to, the upper house would still be sitting." — Dorothy Isaksen, government whip in the NSW Legislative Council, when asked why some Labor backbenchers don't participate
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HOBART — The establishment media have kept quiet about the continuing health funding crisis in Tasmania after hints from the state government that it is aiming for a balanced budget in May. The funding crisis became headline
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BRISBANE — Two more One Nation state MPs are out of the party, bringing its number in the Queensland parliament down to five — compared to 11 after the June state election. Member for Maryborough John Kingston and member for
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Activist groups square off in QueenslandBRISBANE — The National Union of Students Queensland (NUSQ) education committee, at its first meeting last week, overturned decisions made by the Cross-campus Anti-VSU Collective
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Anti-racists protest tying up of migrantsYDNEY — On February 22, the Democratic Socialists and Resistance organised a demonstration to condemn the recent arrest and roping up of "illegal immigrants" in Victoria (see article page
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The debate between anarchism and socialism is not one between "libertarian" and "authoritarian" models of change, as the anarchists claim. It is a debate about what strategy is needed to overturn the capitalist status quo. Consciously
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SYDNEY — Staff at the University of Sydney held a strike on March 1, the first day of classes, over enterprise bargaining. Management has proposed a wage rise of just 1.75%, way below the inflation rate, and wants numerous
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Palm Sunday protests against Jabiluka Rallies will be held in many centres on Palm Sunday, March 28, to protest against the Jabiluka uranium mine and other aspects of Australia's involvement in the nuclear fuel cycle. In Melbourne, the rally is
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The article "Socialism versus Anarchism" [Resistance, February 10] was so full of popular misconceptions and half truths, that we members of the group "Consciously Anarchists" felt it was imperative to submit a reply. Even before beginning the
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EMERALD — More than 1000 miners and their supporters marched through Emerald in central Queensland on February 27 chanting "What do we want — scabs out" and "Workers united will never be defeated" in
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DARWIN — Two Aboriginal women, Jacqui Katona and Christine Christopherson, began serving a 12-day jail sentence on February 26 for "trespassing" on traditional Aboriginal land during a protest at the Jabiluka uranium mine.
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SYDNEY — More than 500 people attended a lively protest against the abduction and imprisonment of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan on February 23. The protesters included Kurds from Iran, Syria, Turkey, Iraq
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Truss picketed at CentrelinkBRISBANE — Around 20 members of the Community and Public Sector Union and their supporters picketed the Centrelink Brisbane Call Centre on February 23 to protest against the presence there of Warren
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Do youth wages create jobs — or slaves?Young workers in Australia are discriminated against; because of their age, they are paid less for work of equal value. Reith and Howard claim that this gets young people a foot in the door
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ADELAIDE — Six hundred people attended a rally and march against the Jabiluka uranium mine on February 21. The action coincided with the world music festival Womadelaide and was organised by the Jabiluka Action Group (JAG). The rally
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Democratic Socialists launch NSW campaignSYDNEY — The Democratic Socialists launched their election campaign for Sydney seats in the March 27 state election with two well-attended functions on February 26. At the Parramatta
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HOBART — On the Parliament Lawns on February 20, Resistance organised a speak-out against the Jabiluka uranium mine. The speak-out was chaired by Edwina Foster; speakers included Huw Lockwood, Ema Corro and Alex Bainbridge, all
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SYDNEY — Thousands of women are expected at the International Women's Day march and rally here on March 6 to demand abortion rights, funding for women's services, free child-care and equal pay. "Everyone should turn up to the IWD
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This is a vexed question in feminist circles, many asserting that feminist consciousness is intrinsically linked to female biology and that therefore only women can be feminists. But does biology really determine political ideas? Or
Analysis
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The heroin problem, and the other one In English writer Samuel Butler's 19th-century satirical novel Erewhon, the inhabitants of the mythical country attempt to breed a race of healthy and beautiful people by punishing sickness and infirmity as a
World
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Tools of oppressionA recent wave of killings in East Timor, coinciding with a propaganda offensive proclaiming the imminence of civil war, indicates that the Indonesian military has discovered the usefulness of paramilitaries in
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Images of the cruel treatment of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan by the Turkish government — without a peep of protest from the self-proclaimed champions of freedom and human rights in Washington, Europe and
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Italy's Communists move forward after splitROME — Last October, Italy's Rifondazione Comunista (Party of Communist Refoundation — PRC) brought down the government of Romano Prodi by using its balance of power to reject the
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Indian authorities aid crackdown in Bhutan Around 400 Bhutanese refugees were deported to Nepal by the Indian Central Reserve Police Force in January, according to the Students Union of Bhutan. These refugees were trying to participate in a
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Timorese students support referendum On February 21 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly's SAM KING Spoke with MARCOS DA CRUZ, the chairperson of Renetil (National Resistance of East Timor Students) Yogyakarta. Question: There has been much pessimism in the
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On February 24, the Indonesian language news service SiaR reported that the government body (P-4 Depkeh) overseeing registrations for Indonesia's July 7 election has "postponed" accepting an application to register the People's
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The post-budget love-in between big business and the African National Congress government has become an annual ritual in the "new" South Africa. Capitalist spokespeople and their media boosters are falling over themselves to praise
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WELLINGTON — The New Zealand government is proposing a law that would extend the powers of the Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) to break and enter into "any place" in New Zealand. The New Zealand Security Intelligence Service Bill 1998 is
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RAMALLAH — If you believe the Arab media and the leaders of Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, the Israeli elections in early May are essentially a vote for or against peace. The internal Israeli debate, though, has been
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Lesbian and gay organising in IndonesiaSYDNEY — Indonesian society has become more accepting of homosexuality since the fall of former president Suharto, a leading Indonesian gay activist said on February 19. Speaking at the
Culture
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The Crisis of Global CapitalismBy George SorosLittle, Brown & Company, 1998245 pp., $39.95 (hb) Review by Allen Myers George Soros, the billionaire hedge fund manager, is worried, even alarmed, at what he considers the dim prospects for
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Southern comfort Lyrebird — Tales of HelpmannBy Tyler CoppinDirected by Adam CookAt the Playhouse, Sydney Opera HouseUntil March 19 Review by Mark Stoyich The three greatest South Australians of my lifetime were Don Dunstan, now sadly mourned;
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Rock dinosaurs roar Live at Winterland '68Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding CompanyColumbia/LegacyDo What You LoveBig Brother and the Holding CompanyOrder both at <; Review by Barry Healy When Janis Joplin
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A rebel against the sexual double standard Other Powers: The Age of Suffrage, Spiritualism, and the Scandalous Victoria WoodhullBy Barbara GoldsmithGranta, 1998 — 531 pp., $35.00 (pb) Review by Phil Shannon Victoria Woodhull was the first woman
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The Sugar Factory The Sugar Factory is the story of a psychologically troubled young man, Harris (Matt Day) who falls in love with an older woman, Helen (Rhondda Findleton) living alone with her two children. Tragedy strikes while he is
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Las Perlas del Son thank activistsADELAIDE — Around 300 people attended a reception for the all-woman Cuban band, Las Perlas del Son, at the Governor Hindmarsh Hotel on February 22. The reception was organised by the
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A Place Called ChiapasSBS March 9, 11.30pm (11pm SA) Review by Sandra Wallace On January 1, 1994, several thousand indigenous campesinos staged an uprising that gave them control of 25% of Chiapas, Mexico's southernmost and poorest state. The
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SYDNEY — 2SER is relaunching itself as Sydney's underground music and talks station. After many months of discussions about the station's programming, we came up with the idea of uniting our music and talks programming under the
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Adelaide's big laughADELAIDE — Music lovers here had their treat with Womadelaide; now it's the turn of comedy fans to indulge themselves. The Adelaide Festival Centre is presenting The Big Laugh — two weeks of comedy
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BRISBANE — For many years, the local branches of the Democratic Socialists and Resistance have been involved in various forms of cultural dissent. At first, after opening the Resistance Centre at New Farm in 1986, these occasions
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Utterbox: speaking out against violenceWOLLONGONG — One in four women in Australia is sexually assaulted by the time she turns 18. The most common site of violence against women is in their homes. This reality has prompted