Write On: Letters to the editor
Entitlement fund
The bankruptcy of National Textiles, with unpaid workers and directors getting a bonus for increased productivity, has left workers and the public scandalised and angry. Job security is gone and
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To GST or not Exeunt PRIME MINISTER and POLONIUS. Enter HAMLET. HAMLET: To GST or not to GST — that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take up arms against a sea of
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Free bus rides will reduce car useA national survey of car drivers has shown that the private use of cars is increasing at an alarming rate. At the same time, drivers are even less inclined to use public transport, and general
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Prime Minister John Howard arrived back from holidays in January, loudly proclaiming the generosity of his government's planned income tax cuts. However, the value of the income tax cuts has already evaporated for most people, as a
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The cost of fashion The face of a young woman, wearing what looks like woven plastic wrapped around her body, peers from the magazine lift-out promoting the Melbourne Fashion Festival, on this month. The festival has been greeted with much
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Free the refugees!Having fled misery, oppression and persecution, Australia's asylum seekers are greeted with little better when they arrive in this country. Labelled as criminals by the federal government because they arrive the
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Networker: The charmless god Microsoft's Bill Gates has done it again, proving himself the consummate information technology marketer of the new millennium. On February 17 the latest version of the Microsoft operating system is released,
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Australia's minister for immigration and other politicians accuse people who arrive in Australia "illegally" of being "ungrateful queue jumpers" when they protest against their incarceration in detention centres here. Many of these refugees are from
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Austria's Pauline HansonDespite enjoying one of the highest standards of living in the world, 27% of Austrians voted for Jorg Haider's far-right Freedom Party in October. On February 4, eight members of the Freedom
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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 Sunday, 9-11pm. Ph 9565 5522. Access News — Melbourne community TV,
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The water here By Brandon Astor Jones "Penology ... has become torture and foolishness, a waste of money and a cause of crime ... a blotting out of sight and a heightening of social anxiety." — Paul Goodman This will be the first in a
News
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Protest against Ruddock PERTH — Twenty people protested against immigration minister Philip Ruddock here on February 9. The protesters demanded the repeal of the Border Protection Act, full welfare rights for migrants and refugees, and an open
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'No menstruation tax!'HOBART — Seventy people, predominantly women, demonstrated outside the office of Liberal senator Eric Abetz on February 11 to protest plans for the GST to be levied on sanitary products, such as tampons
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Blockade of Beverley uranium mine plannedADELAIDE — Opponents of uranium mining plan to set up a blockade of the Beverley uranium mine in South Australia from February 25. The mine is situated in the foothills of the
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Coalminers at the five BHP coalmines in the Illawarra region of NSW struck for a second consecutive day on February 9, claiming that BHP management harassed workers and their families during their first strike day. Construction,
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CANBERRA — In March, the NSW Labor government plans to sign the regional forest agreement (RFA) it put forward last year for the Eden management area. Eden has very little old-growth forest remaining, and the RFA
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Union leader demands Laidlaw resignADELAIDE — Chris White, the secretary of South Australia's peak union body, the United Trades and Labor Council (UTLC), has called for the resignation of state transport minister Diana
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Darwin's International Women's Day plansDARWIN — The International Women's Day (IWD) 2000 collective here is building on the gains made over the last few years. As the collective has broadened its
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Socialists to stand for Brisbane councilBRISBANE — The Democratic Socialists have announced they will be running two candidates in the Brisbane City Council election. They are Graham Matthews for the Dutton Park ward, which
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Crushing 'the lungs of western Sydney'SYDNEY — Development of the 1535-hectare Australian Defence Industries (ADI) site at St Marys in Sydney's outer west now appears imminent. The developer, Comm Land (formerly called
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MELBOURNE — The man at the head of Yallourn Energy, Mike Johnson, stated in the Age on February 8 that the PowerGen company had paid too much for the plant in 1996 and has been losing money ever since. This was the main reason the
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As was Hitler "You cannot compare us with right-wing extremists in other countries. We are a special product of the Austrian political scene." — Jorg Haider, leader of Austria's ultra-right Freedom Party. That's reassuring "Their [Romania's]
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DARWIN — In a tragic event which puts the Northern Territory's mandatory sentencing laws under the national and international spotlight, a 15-year-old Aboriginal boy committed suicide here on February 10,
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Notice The last issue of Resistance magazine reported that the National Union of Students' national education committee decided at its February 3 meeting to call a national day of action for public education on April 5. What was not reported is
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Six-year-old Elian Gonzalez was plucked from the sea after his mother drowned in an attempt to get from Cuba to the United States. The vast majority of people in both Cuba and the US believe Elian should be returned to his father
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WOLLONGONG — The Port Kembla Copper (PKC) smelter started operating here secretly on February 4. Local residents began smelling sulphur fumes at 3pm. Some people began coughing, others had difficulty breathing. At a public meeting
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BRISBANE — Forty-one students have joined Resistance during Orientation Week at the University of Queensland (UQ), February 7-11. Many of those who joined were especially interested in feminism and socialism, and were concerned
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WA uranium mine on the rocks WESTERN MINING Corporation (WMC) announced that it would hand back the Yeelirrie uranium deposit to the Western Australian government if it failed to find a buyer in two years, according to a report in the February 9
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Council calls for reactor closure during OlympicsSYDNEY — The mayor of Sutherland Shire Council, Ken McDonell, has called on the federal government to shut down the nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights during the Sydney Olympic Games.
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Union beats Yallourn EnergyMELBOURNE — Energy unions have claimed victory in an increasingly bitter battle over the future of Victoria's power industry, after the Australian Industrial Relations Commission ruled in the
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National Textiles workers still waiting for moneyNEWCASTLE — In a significant victory for working people, Prime Minister John Howard announced on February 8 that cabinet had approved $4 million to pay the sacked National
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BRISBANE — On February 5, voters in the Queensland seats of Bundamba and Woodridge returned Labor members at by-elections. Both Labor candidates were elected with more than 50% of the primary vote. In Bundamba, Jo-Ann Miller
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SYDNEY — Cuba's Olympic Committee announced Havana's bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games on February 7, during its visit to Sydney. The delegation, headed by committee vice-president Angel Iglesias, came not just to check
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CPSU to sack staff and set up a call centreCANBERRA — The national management committee of the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) has voted to restructure the administrative functions of the union, cutting staff and
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The latest craze in Sydney seems to be Cuban music. For two weeks in January, the Bacardi Festival attracted tens of thousands of people to Darling Harbour. Many trendy clubs have regular Cuban theme nights.
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ACI reneges on agreementMELBOURNE — Management at the ACI glass mould manufacturing plant has reneged on concessions made in negotiations with the union. Members of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union have been locked out
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East Timor group foldsPERTH — Thirty-five people attended the final meeting of Friends of East Timor WA (FOET) on February 6, at which the single item for discussion was a proposal that the group wind up after two decades
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ADELAIDE — On February 8, the South Australian Liberal government announced its plans to sell the TAB and State Lotteries Commission by the end of the year. Government enterprises minister Michael Armitage stated that a
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ADELAIDE — A "People's Conference" to discussed South Australia's proposed nuclear waste repository will convene here on March 4 and 5. Conference organisers have invited speakers from both sides of the debate. Speakers will
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NTEU delays strike action at UQBRISBANE — The University of Queensland branch of the National Tertiary Education Industry Union voted on February 8 to delay a 48-hour strike for a pay increase. A few hours before the meeting
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BRISBANE — Railway workers have won some concessions from the state government after they went on strike for 24 hours on February 9. The 14,600 rail workers walked off the job after their demand for a pay rise of 12% over two
Analysis
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Make the bosses pay The successful fight of the 342 workers sacked by National Textiles when it went bankrupt to secure payment of their full leave and severance entitlements is an important victory for all workers. It opens the door for other
World
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Oleg Shein is the only elected revolutionary Marxist in the new State Duma of Russia. He is one of these characters who seems to work non-stop around the clock, seven days a week. The group he represents, the Movement for a Workers Party (MWP), was
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Indian workers have launched a wave of strikes against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which leads the ruling 24-party national coalition. The actions are in protest against the BJP's Hindu fundamentalism and its neo-liberal,
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Cuba's struggle for emigres' rightsThe case of Elian Gonzalez has put the spotlight on US-Cuba immigration disputes and the United States' 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act, Cold War legislation which grants all Cubans (except
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Burmese demand independent investigationCANBERRA — Sixty members of the Burmese community marched and rallied outside the Thai and Burmese embassies on February 11. They were demanding an independent investigation into the
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Socialist parties from the Asian region have called for February 17 to become an international day of coordinated protest against the kidnapping of six-year-old Elian Gonzalez. The US government and the right-wing Cuban exile community in Miami
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The Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist (Liberation) (CPI-ML) emerged in the late 1960s from the peasant revolts in the Naxalbari region of West Bengal (known as the Naxalite movement). At first, the party relied heavily on armed
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Mexico: the poor fight for their universityMEXICO CITY — Around 100,000 people marched through Mexico's capital on February 9, clamouring for the release from prison of the strikers who had shut down the National Autonomous
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How long does it take to change a child's mind? The Cuban government has published, as a new booklet titled How long does it take to change the mind of a child?, a round table discussion with psychologists and other specialists reflecting on the
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Mbeki warns South African unionsSouth Africa's President Thabo Mbeki used his annual "state of the nation" address to the joint sitting of national parliament on February 4 to warn trade unions that the African National Congress
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VIENNA — The general elections in October brought a dramatic change to traditional politics in Austria. Support for the Social Democrats (SPOe), who polled 38.1% of the vote in 1995, dropped to 33.15%. The conservative bourgeois
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ATLANTA — More than one month after the Clinton administration announced that it would send Elian Gonzalez back to his father in Cuba, it has not lifted one finger to put this into practice. The six-year-old boy found adrift on
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Campaigning for human rights in East Timor DILI — The East Timor Human Rights Commission (ETHRC) was established on October 1 to conduct investigations and monitoring of human rights violations in East Timor, educate the East Timorese people
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The following is abridged from an open letter to United Nations' secretary-general Kofi Annan and Amnesty International's Middle East Watch, circulated on January 25 by Saman Karim from the Worker Communist Party of Iraq. There are more than 6000
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On February 5, an anti-war demonstration took place in Moscow's Pushkin Square. The demonstration was called by a number of Russian anarchist and ecologist groups, including the Anarchist Anti-war Movement, the Dikobraz group, the ecologist movement
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Culture
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CIA defeated with 72 hoursThe Bay of Pigs and the CIABy Juan Carlos RodriguezOcean Press, Melbourne, 1999212pp., $24.95 In the early hours of April 17, 1961 the "Cuban Revolutionary Council" released a statement,
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Writings of a Chinese dissident The Courage to Stand Aloneby Wei Jingsheng — Penguin Books, 1998288 pp. Review by Chris Slee Wei Jingsheng spent nearly two decades in prison for campaigning for democratic rights in China. He was imprisoned from
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Helen and David v McGoliath Review by Jim Green McLibel: Two Worlds CollideSBS, Tuesday February 22, 8.30pm This documentary recounts the McLibel story — the David and Goliath court battle between two London-based environmental activists and
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Viva East Timor! Liberdade Viva East TimorVarious artistsMushroom Records Review by Mark Abberton In 1975, Paul Stewart's brother was killed in East Timor, along with four other Australian journalists. His inspiration for helping to coordinate a
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Whistle-blower versus big capital Review by Tyrion Perkins The InsiderDirected by Michael MannStarring Al Pacino and Russell Crowe The Insider exposes the lengths that big business will go to stop the people knowing how much harm it does to make