When top political and business leaders gather at Melbourne's Crown Casino for the September 11-13 World Economic Forum's Asia Pacific Economic Summit, they will do more than slap each other's backs and compare notes on corporate
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PERTH — Recently, the Western Australian branch of the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) decided to discontinue the appointment of Sarah Harris to its delegation to the WA Trades and Labor Council (now known as Unions WA).
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Nike: How transnationals profit from human miseryMELBOURNE — On June 6, footwear and sports clothes giant Nike will appear in the Federal Court here, charged with breaches of Australian labour laws. This is a result of a
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Networker: Control freaks Shock! Horror! Racism has been found on the internet. Searchers have discovered web sites encouraging race hatred. Of course, all other vestiges of racism have been eradicated. Governments have ensured that racial
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Write On Earlier protests Defining the beginnings of social movements and who started them is fraught with uncertainties. 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ has published a theory about anti-nuclear movements and the anti-Vietnam War movement in Australia. Being a
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I acknowledge your kindness "Those who would administer wisely must, indeed, be wise, for one of the serious obstacles to the improvement of [the human] race is indiscriminate charity." — Andrew Carnegie, 1835-1919, "Wealth", From the North
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We are all reconciled I reckon I'm pretty much reconciled. — You do? Yep. I'm much more reconciled than I was last week. — That's great. But I have a question. Shoot. — What is there to be reconciled about? Where have you
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Ford wins greenwash award Ford Motor Company has won Corporate Watch (US)'s Earthday 2000 Greenwash Award, for the transnational corporation which best managed to bury its polluting record under mountains of "environmental" advertising and public
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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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Rural workers: why unions should be concernedWhen politicians refer to people from the "bush", there is an implication that they only mean farmers. It wasn't until last December, when federal treasurer Peter Costello called for
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The role of the International Monetary Fund in determining economic policy in Indonesia came under the spotlight after the 1997 economic crisis. In the wake of the crisis, the Suharto, Habibie and then the Wahid regimes surrendered virtually all
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The Seattle and Washington protests against the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) have forced their chiefs into damage control. But despite all the PR bunk about the IMF and WB's "non-interference" in national economies, and their
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"Financial living standards after divorce", a report based on research by the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS), shows that the financial situations of women and men after a relationship breakdown remain consistent
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The review conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) concluded on May 20 after a gabfest in New York which lasted almost a month. The NPT explicitly allows five "declared" weapons states — the United States, Britain,
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MELBOURNE — The World Economic Forum (WEF) will hold its Asia Pacific Economic Summit here on September 11-13. Hundreds of top corporate executives and political leaders will meet to discuss the global implementation of
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SYDNEY — While Prime Minister John Howard was preparing to speak at the handover of the Document of Reconciliation at the Sydney Opera House on May 27, a group of protesters from the Indigenous Students Network (ISN) and their
News
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NT minister in denialDARWIN — Country Liberal Party MP Chris Lugg labelled the stolen generations "a fraud contrived by Aboriginal activists and their supporters and legal advisors" for the purpose of "obtaining
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MELBOURNE — Country Victoria hasn't finished taking revenge on the Liberal and National parties just yet, as was shown by the election of Labor candidate Denise Allen in the May 13 by-election for the state seat of
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PERTH — Federal immigration minister Philip Ruddock and his state counterpart Rob Johnson defended Australia's harsh treatment of refugees at a public meeting here on May 12, claiming the policy was not racist. "Australia of
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Edith Cowan students reject fees for coursesPERTH — Students at Edith Cowan University here have established an education action group to reverse a decision by the university's council to establish an upfront fee-paying
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Unionists face fines, jailMELBOURNE — Five hundred union delegates rallied outside the Federal Court on May 22 in support of three union officials found guilty of contempt of court for organising union meetings. Electrical Trades
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Thousands of people around the country turned "Sorry Day", May 26, into a day of protest against the federal government's policies on indigenous rights, in particular its attempt to deny the suffering inflicted on the generations of Aboriginal
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Teachers plan state-wide strikesBRISBANE — After teachers at Sarina High School near Mackay walked off the job for 24 hours on May 23, the Queensland Teachers Union has warned that unless Premier Peter Beattie began serious talks
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A massive slap in the face for Howard The racist policies of John Howard's government took a big blow in Sydney on May 28. As 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly went to press, hundreds of thousands of people were walking across Sydney's Harbour Bridge in a massive
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The Indonesian people do? "The West might not understand our determination to make national reconciliation a priority." — Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid, pledging to pardon former president Suharto if he is convicted of corruption. Or
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BRISBANE — The University of Queensland Senate is poised to vote on a proposal to restructure the university's arts faculty. The pursuit of a "financially viable" education will see departments scrapped and general staff cuts
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SYDNEY — The NSW Labor government has once again received warm ruling-class approval for its annual budget, announced by treasurer Michael Egan on May 23. A projected budget surplus of $659 million in 2000-2001, an earlier than
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Protest hits Rio Tinto AGMBRISBANE — Hundreds of angry protesters gathered outside the annual general meeting of the mining giant Rio Tinto here on May 24, accusing the company of human rights breaches and destructive
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Truck owner-drivers blockade over pay ratesBRISBANE — Truck owner-drivers blockaded the Cunningham Highway between Brisbane and Toowoomba as part of a national Transport Workers Union campaign for improved cartage rates. TWU
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Anti-GST protesters confront CostelloSYDNEY — "Tax the rich, not the rest, no GST", protesters cried as they confronted the federal treasurer, Peter Costello, speaking at a business forum on the tax organised by the Daily
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MELBOURNE — Refusing to accept the outcome in an election for Victorian state secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, the backers of defeated incumbent Julius Roe have obtained a court injunction preventing the
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Log of claims campaign launched on La TrobeMELBOURNE — Drawing inspiration from student campaigns at the University of Western Sydney, Bankstown, and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, students at La Trobe
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University workers demonstrate against councilLISMORE — All but three members of the Southern Cross University council slunk in the back door rather than face the 100 angry campus workers demonstrating outside for a better
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Socialist seminar discusses racismSYDNEY — Mandatory sentencing laws and "zero tolerance" policing were part of a deliberate attempt to catch indigenous people in the criminal justice system, Aboriginal activist Kim Bullimore
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Workers rally for jobs ADELAIDE — Manufacturing workers, supported by a host of unions and the SA United Trades and Labor Council, marched on Parliament House on May 23 to protest against the lack of state government action to prevent job
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MELBOURNE — Friends of the Earth Australia and the Melbourne University Student Union have condemned the involvement of a corporate wing of the University of Melbourne in illegal oil and gas exploration in Pakistan's Kirthar
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Burmese target Canberra embassyCANBERRA — Fifty federal police were unable to prevent 200 Burmese pro-democracy demonstrators, chanting "Eliminate dictatorship", from staging a sit-in outside the Burmese government's embassy
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Wollongong students say no to internet fees BY CHRIS LATHAM WOLLONGONG — In the second such demonstration in a week, 100 Wollongong University students marched on the administration offices on May 24 to demand progress on a log of claims and
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Union centre teaches organising skillsSYDNEY — A new union centre in Indonesia, established with Australian trade union funds, has begun training workers in the textile, banking, hotel, tourism and teaching sectors in
World
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NORWAY: Strike ends in victory A six-day private sector strike in Norway by 85,000 workers (one-third of the private sector work force) has won most of the strikers' main demands. On May 25, almost 79% of the workers involved voted to accept the
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EAST TIMOR: Fretilin conference plans for the future From May 15 to 20, the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (Fretilin) held a conference in Dili, East Timor. It was the first Fretilin conference in East Timor since the end of the
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In early April, a Texas jury recommended that Kenneth Payne, 29, spend 16 years in jail. Payne's crime?: stealing a Snickers bar from a Tyler grocery store on December 17. When Smith county assistant district attorney Jodi Brown was asked by the
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JAKARTA — A group of fifty pro-integration East Timorese carried out a vicious attack on the office of East Timor solidarity group Solidamor on May 24 here. The gang, which according to an eyewitness was accompanied by a group of Indonesian
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May Day in Iraqi Kurdistan On May Day, 10,000 workers gathered at the centre of Erbil city and were addressed by Nasik Ahmad, a leader of the Worker Communist Party of Iraq. In Sulaymaniyah, the WCPI May Day committee organised and led a
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Iranian workers protest ILO conference Iranian workers' organisations have called on their supporters worldwide to assist their demand to bar Iranian government representatives from an International Labour Organisation conference, scheduled to
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Trade unions plan action on FijiFiji's President Ratu Kamisese Mara formally sacked Labour Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry and his government on May 27. Parliament has been suspended for six months. A minister in the Fiji Labour
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Letter from Ethiopia I hesitate to attempt an analysis of the hostilities between Ethiopia and Eritrea, but, from the day the conflict began two years ago, I have watched with growing horror the waste of tens of thousands of young lives only nine
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The following is abridged from a speech on the situation in Mindanao presented by the chairperson of the Philippines Socialist Party of Labour (SPP), SONNY MELENCIO, at a public forum in Manila on May 18 organised by the SPP and sponsored by various
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PAKISTAN: Military capitulates on blasphemy law On May 17, Pakistan's military ruler General Pervaiz Musharraf announced that he was withdrawing his plan to amend the controversial blasphemy law. His announcement came after conservative clerics
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International news briefs Sri Lankan left demonstrates against the war COLOMBO — On May 25, 3000 people participating in a demonstration called by the People's Liberation Front, the Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP) and the Muslim United Liberation
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ZIMBABWE: Can the MDC solve the crisis? The popular trade union-backed Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) poses the greatest threat that President Robert Mugabe's corrupt and authoritarian Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF)
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Behind the coup in Fiji is a retreat by 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ of the Melanesian Fijian elite to the tried and tested divide-and-rule tactic of chauvinist scaremongering. Late on May 25, the Great Council of Chiefs (GCC) announced the result of three days of
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The following speech by SHEMAL ALI from the Worker Communist Party of Iraq (WCPI) was presented to the 120 participants at the May Day toast at the Granville Town Hall on May 6, jointly sponsored by the Sydney west branch of the Democratic Socialist
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Debates in International Socialists A factional debate has broken out within the International Socialist Tendency, the political current led by the British Socialist Workers Party (SWP) with which the Australian International Socialist Organisation
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LEBANON: South liberated from Israel's occupation RAMALLAH, Palestine — On May 23, Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon finally collapsed as its local militia, the South Lebanese Army (SLA), crumbled as thousands of Lebanese residents moving
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Kurdish refugees in Turkey need help The International Federation of Iraqi Refugees has called on the United Nations High Commission for Refugees to cease its stalling on granting refugee status to thousands of people who have fled from Iraqi
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On May 17, 24 Indonesian soldiers and one civilian were sentenced to between eight and a half and 10 years' jail for the murder of Islamic teacher Teungku Bantaqiahand and 56 members of an Islamic boarding school in western Aceh in July 1999.
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On May 17 approximately 300,000 workers across Russia participated in protests against the government's proposal to introduce a draconian new labour code. The new legislation removes workers' rights that have been held for decades, renders trade
Culture
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A rush of liberation wind Cradle Will RockWritten and directed by Tim RobbinsWith Vanessa Redgrave, Philip Baker Hall, Susan Sarandon and Ruben Blades Review by Max Lane Cradle Will Rock, written and directed by Tim Robbins, is not just a breath
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The world according to Mr TV MR TVWritten and directed by Sean O'RiordanWith Andy Rodoreda, Tori Campbell, Yvette Alcott and Colin McCarlieTap GalleryDarlinghurst, SydneyThursday to Sunday until June 11 Review by Jonathan Singer In the 1980s,
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Sorry apology of a killer bean counter The Living and the Dead: Robert McNamara and Five Lives of a Lost WarBy Paul HendricksonVintage, 2000427pp, $19.95 (pb) Review by Phil Shannon In his 1995 memoirs, Robert McNamara, US secretary of defence
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MELBOURNE — Free from corporate sponsorship and government control, 3CR brings the community social justice radio with integrity. They have tried to sue us, investigate us and to keep us quiet but 3CR prevails because it is the uncensored and
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DARWIN — The play Tuckiar's Trial was performed in Darwin's now unused Fannie Bay Gaol on May 19 and 20. It was presented by the Criminal Lawyers Association. There are many stories that could be told about Fannie Bay
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Allende in his own words Salvador Allende Reader: Chile's Voice of Democracy — Ocean Press, Melbourne287pp., $29.95 Review by Jorge Jorquera Thirty years after his election to the post of president of Chile in September 1970, Ocean Press has