"Given Bush's increasingly destructive role, we feel that the Earth Summit would be better off if he didn't come to Rio", said Greenpeace's Earth Summit coordinator Josh Karliner, echoing a sentiment widespread not only in Rio but around the
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A week when congratulations are in order. Congrats to a company, to its subsidiary and to the law. A toast to that fine example of law-abiding corporate responsibility, North Broken Dill Pissko, to its fine example of law-abiding
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The Korean War — remember that one? Carefully euphemised by the Pentagon as a "police action", it began in June 1950 and ended in July 1953, by which time the total of dead, wounded and missing was approaching 2 million soldiers
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By M.A. Banfield Repetitive strain injury — RSI — is often considered a "modern" syndrome. Indeed, in the early 1980s, and even today, sufferers frequently were not taken seriously by doctors (let alone by employers). Yet there is
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BRISBANE — The state government's move to grant a licence to adapt the Old Treasury Building site for a casino has provoked a storm of protest from conservationists and social welfare groups here. National Trust president Deryl McConaghy said:
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Equally outrageous In the sheer gall stakes, the fabulously well-paid vice chancellor of Macquarie University, Di Yerbury, is right up there with the best of them. When students criticised her 79% pay rise recently, Yerbury complained that they
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On May 17, more than 2000 people took part in Sydney's commemoration of the ninth world AIDS memorial. Several blocks of Oxford Street were filled with the silent mass of people, holding candles in memory of dead friends. At
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Our Jim and the big green Brisbane ALP Lord Mayor, Jim Soorley, has a proposal to make us all environmentally friendly and to stop the destruction of the biosphere. He tells us so in his many new TV advertisements on the subject. It's so simple
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Personnel from the NSW Environment Protection Authority raided the Lucas Heights nuclear facility in Sydney on June 11, and claimed to have found radioactive waste leaking from drums, and safety equipment that had not been functioning for up to
News
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Members of the Public Sector Union employed by Telecom (AOTC) have begun a campaign against plans to slash 4400 jobs in the next year. Members of other affected unions are expected to meet within a week. Some unionists claim to have seen a
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Sustainability conference plannedBRISBANE — A conference on ecological sustainability, featuring well-known environmental speakers such as Ted Trainer and Bob Brown, will be held at Griffith University in July. The
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Unflagged "Nobody can determine for the country what is immoral or scandalous, therefore this law is unconstitutional." — US lawyer David Cole after the Old Glory Condom Corporation, set up by artist and AIDS activist Jay Critchley, was
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Court 'okays gay murder'MELBOURNE — Gay rights activists are protesting that a May 28 Supreme Court jury verdict sends a clear message to the community that it is allowable for a man to kill another man who makes sexual
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Broad support for banPERTH — The WA construction industry union, the CMEU, has enlisted the support of well-known environmentalist and unionist Jack Mundey for the campaign against the redevelopment of the old brewery
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Garema Place protestCANBERRA — Garema Place has become a major gathering place for poor and homeless children and teenagers. Those who gather there spend most of their waking life in the square or on the street. Many of
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BURNIE — Capping a tumultuous week, striking Associated Pulp and Paper Mill workers voted on June 9 to return to work, ending for the time being a strike widely described as Tasmania's worst. The mass meeting endorsed a
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Youth take message to UNSYDNEY — World Environment Day was celebrated here with a rally organised by Environmental Youth Alliance outside the United Nations office in York Street on June 5. Young people heard speakers
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Fun and info shared at festivalBRISBANE — World Environment Day started on a high note with a discussion attended by two delegates from each school in the Brisbane area on June 5, and finished with a weekend information
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NEWCASTLE — A capacity crowd of around 600 people packed Newcastle Town Hall on May 26 for a public meeting to "Save the Rail". The meeting was called by Newcastle community groups to protest against the decision of the
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SYDNEY — Chanting "We want peace", "Stop the slaughter" and "Chetniks out" (referring to the Serbian monarcho-fascist militias who are responsible for much of the slaughter in Croatia and
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Plan to break Bougainville blockadeMELBOURNE — A group of solidarity activists plan to try to run the Papua New Guinea military's blockade of Bougainville later this year in a refurbished 90-year-old ketch called Flinders.
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MELBOURNE — On June 13, 350 residents and workers rallied outside Premier Joan Kirner's office in Williamstown to oppose a proposed expansion of the Mobil oil refinery. The working-class western suburbs have long been a
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MELBOURNE — An extremely successful World Environment Day rally was held in the city square on June 6. Weeks of hard work paid off as about 300 young people, mostly from high schools and on their first rally, turned up
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Nurses fight KirnerMELBOURNE — Nurses here are fighting moves by the state government to cut staffing in the geriatric care area by 50%, reduce standards of care for the elderly and cut working conditions. The Kirner
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Sand mining sparks protestsBRISBANE — "Save Shoalwater Bay, Time is running out!" was the cry as protesters marched through the city streets on June 11. Carrying huge hourglasses with sand trickling through
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Royal commission a failure, meeting toldSYDNEY — The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody was a failure, according to several speakers at a public meeting held at Leichhardt town hall on June 12. The meeting
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The WA Labor government has made a renewed attempt at developing the old brewery site on the Swan River near Kings Park in Perth. On June 2, it announced that a deal would soon be finalised with Multiplex Constructions to
Analysis
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A new tax slug In a piece of shabby demagogy, Victorian and NSW premiers Joan Kirner and Nick Greiner are trying to blame their latest round of tax rises on inequities in the distribution of federal funds among the states. The truth is, these
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Desperate Kirner boycotts ALPMELBOURNE — Premier Joan Kirner's government is looking desperate. On June 12, her sub-faction in the Victorian ALP, had to organise a boycott of a meeting of the party's state administrative
World
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PRAGUE — By sending a majority of nationalist and left-of-centre candidates into the new federal parliament in June 5-6 elections, Czechoslovakia's voters signalled that the free- market economic reform program is far from
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MOSCOW — Russia is now suffering from its worst demographic crisis of the postwar period. For the first time since 1945, deaths in November and December 1991 outnumbered births. For every 1000 residents of Moscow in
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MOSCOW — With price liberalisation and the advance of private ownership, Russians are periodically assured, their country is on course for the market. What is this market, and where is it to be found? People here who
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ALEXANDER BUZGALIN is a professor of economics at Moscow State University and one of the leaders of the Party of Labour. BORIS SLAVIN is a political commentator for the newspaper Pravda and a member of the Russian Party of Communists. VADIM
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COPENHAGEN — By voting on June 2 to reject the Maastricht treaty on European political, economic and monetary union, the Danish people have thrown the whole treaty into question. Although the margin was narrow (1.4%), the vote
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While Israelis long for peace, they seem unwilling to yield anything for it. In the current election campaign, both Labour and Likud are adamant in rejecting an independent Palestinian state. While Labour, unlike
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Helmi Fauzi, an activist in Indonesia's pro-democracy and environment movements, has been speaking to students and environmental activists in Australia about the political and economic situation in Indonesia. His tour was organised by AKSI
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As expected, the Soeharto regime's GOLKAR party suffered a small drop in its vote in last week's election. Early counting shows GOLKAR dropping from 72% to 67%. The Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), which ran the closest thing to
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BANGKOK — On May 18, we were close to Rajdamoen Avenue, where police and the military had opened fire on pro-democracy demonstrators the night before, and where protesters were still holding out. The
Culture
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Jump and Other Stories By Nadine Gordimer Bloomsbury. $34.95 Reviewed by Nicholas Southey With this new collection of 16 short stories, Nadine Gordimer, South Africa's 1991 Nobel Literature Prize winner, once again displays her marvellous
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SYDNEY — Garema Circuit doesn't exist in old street directories. It's a large new cul-de-sac in the heart of light industrial Kingsgrove, in Sydney's southern suburbs — a road that looks much smaller on the map in the new
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Oh, Calcutta! City of Joy Patrick Swayze in a film by Roland Joffe Reviewed by Brian Brunton If you think of City of Joy as Hollywood's Salaam Bombay 2, you've got most of it. But not all. Because this is a movie that tells us almost as
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AKA Grafitti Man John Trudell Rykodisc through Festival Records Available on CD and cassette Reviewed by Norm Dixon Poetry spoken to a beat is a very powerful medium for social and political comment. In the '70s and '80s this style was
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Alienation Alien 3 Starring Sigourney Weaver Reviewed by Kath Tucker Take the most incredible scenario the movie makers can conjure up. So you've got the lead character struggling against all odds, on a planet with only 20 people on it.
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A labour of love from the Blue Mountains Aboriginal Legends of the Blue Mountains By Jim Smith Drawings by Liz McCalpine Available for $12 from Jim Smith, 65 Fletcher St, Wentworth Falls 2782 Reviewed by Denis Kevans Another remarkable