Sue Bull, Ballarat
Staff at the University of Ballarat have rejected a second non-union enterprise bargaining agreement proposed by management. In a November 22-23 ballot, staff voted 401 to 323 to "reject", with a large number not voting.
The
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Doug Lorimer A meeting of Coalition MPs on November 30 agreed to support the Howard government's Anti-Terrorism Bill (2005) with some minor alterations. Only two days earlier, government and Labor senators on the Senate committee examining the
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This an abridged version of the speech by Gillian Myers-Brittain from the Hunter Regional Violence Prevention Unit at the first Reclaim the Night rally and march in Maitland on October 28. Sixteen days of activism for the elimination of violence
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Rachel Siewert [On November 29, Greens Senator Rachel Siewert attempted to block the adoption of the Building and Construction Industry Improvement (BCII) Act (2005) regulations in the Senate. In her speech, abridged below, she related a grim
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Norm Dixon The terrible devastation wreaked on New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina in late August, which took the lives of at least 964 people, and the subsequent political crisis caused by the failure of US President George Bush's government to
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Never believe that a few caring people can't change the world. For, indeed, that's all who ever have. — Margaret Mead Without agitators, there would be no advance towards civilisation. Without dissent ... democracy in its true sense remains
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Nick Fredman The execution by hanging in Singapore of convicted Australian heroin trafficker Nguyen Tuong Van on December 2 caused revulsion among people around the world — including among Singaporeans fighting for democratic rights and for the
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The following resolution was passed by the Australian Council of Trade Unions in November. The ACTU Executive congratulates and supports the Venezuelan government for its utilisation of the country's wealth and resources for reforms to benefit
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Tony Iltis Human rights lawyer Julian Burnside, who acted for the Tampa refugees in 2001, believes the federal Coalition government's "anti-terror" laws will "seriously undermine basic civil freedoms that have been recognised for at least three
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Doug Lorimer With a growing majority of US voters favouring the rapid withdrawal of US troops from Washington's failed counter-insurgency war in Iraq, and many in his own Republican Party worried about a voter backlash in the 2006 mid-term
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This November, the federal government had the opportunity to give three year's notice to terminate the agreement which permits the United States base to continue operating at Pine Gap. It didn't, and several peace activists have decided to travel
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Sarah Stephen Preventative detention orders will allow state police to detain those whom they suspect of intending to commit a terrorist attack. However, they are also designed for those against whom there is no evidence, or not enough, to bring a
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Women's choice In Volume 167 (1997) of the Medical Journal of Australia, obstetrician Richard Henshaw reviewed the literature comparing surgical abortions and medical abortions using RU486. He observed that, in relation to safety, efficacy,
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Sarah Stephen Given the significant number of people wrongfully detained under the migration act, the potential for innocent people to be wrongfully detained under the preventative detention orders in the new terror laws is frightening. So-called
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Alex Miller A Scottish miner was walking home one night with a bunch of pheasants he had poached from a local landowner's estate when the landowner appeared and demanded that the miner hand over the pheasants. "Why should I hand them over to you?",
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Trent Hawkins and Nathan Verney Many pro-war politicians attribute the failure to locate weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to mistakes made by Western intelligence agencies. For Scott Ritter, former chief United Nations weapon inspector in Iraq
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This is the last issue of 91̳ Weekly for 2005 — we're taking a break until January 18. However, you will find lots more holiday reading and can stay in touch during the break by visiting our website at
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[The following abridged letter was read out by Tony Kevin at a rally, organised by the ACT Network Opposing War and Racism, protesting the terror laws on November 28.] Dear Mr Howard, You are reported as saying that the federal government will
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Sue Bolton After the tremendous success of the November 15 protests, the union movement is debating how to maintain the momentum against the federal government's Work Choices legislation. A motion was unanimously passed by the November 15 Geelong
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As part of its efforts to whip up an atmosphere of "imminent terrorist attack" in Australia, and thereby ensure public acceptance of its new, anti-democratic "anti-terrorism" laws, the federal government staged a drastic attack on civil rights with
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In August, more than 20 Resistance members travelled to Venezuela with dozens of others in the first ever Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Brigade. Kiraz Janicke and Federico Fuentes stayed on to help establish the 91̳ Weekly bureau in Caracas.
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Chris Williams, Wollongong When Fred Moore was called up to the Wollongong Entertainment Centre stage during the November 15 mass meeting against PM John Howard's WorkChoices laws, every single person present — close to 10,000 — spontaneously
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December 7, 1918: 100,000 textile workers strike in Lancashire, England. December 17, 1918: Hundreds of trade unionists take over Darwin and chase the corrupt administrator John Anderson Gilruth out to sea. December 21, 2003: Sydney high-school
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Pip Hinman Maureen has worked hard all her life, beginning at age 15 at the giant vegetable cannery Edgells, and later as a nurse. It's only been in her middle age that Maureen has been able to tackle her tertiary preparation certificate at TAFE,
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Dick Nichols On November 26, the Brisbane Courier Mail front page screamed: "Barnaby to wreck Howard's IR agenda". Less than a week later the "maverick Queensland senator" was trying to convince the country that government acceptance of his
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Jon Lamb & Kathy Newnam, Darwin The likely passing of the federal government's Radioactive Waste Bill has not dampened the fighting spirit of Darwin's No Waste Alliance. 91̳ Weekly spoke to four members of the campaign group, Justin Tutty,
News
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Reject an Iraq run by... "The enemy in Iraq is a combination of rejectionists, Saddamists and terrorists. The rejectionists are by far the largest group. These are ordinary Iraqis, mostly Sunni Arabs, who ... reject an Iraq in which they are no
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Jo Obronschka, Sydney More than 300 people attended a meeting organised by the Marrickville Transport Action Group (MTAG) on November 26 to discuss the Labor state government's plans for motorways, road construction and traffic increases in the
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ADELAIDE — Fifty people gathered on the steps of Parliament House on November 28, surrounding a coffin shrouded with a black cloth declaring "Free speech", to protest against Howard's new "anti-terror" laws. Organised by the socialist youth
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NEWCASTLE — Sixty people attended a forum at the Panthers Club on November 29 to discuss the federal government's new "anti-terror" laws. The speakers — Pauline Wright, vice-president of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, and associate
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Tim Gooden, Geelong An important test case for the federal government's new industrial relations laws, which aim to destroy organised labour, has arisen involving all building unions on an isolated construction site in Victoria's west. The
World
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Oscar Olivera is the leader of the Federation of Factory Workers of Cochabamba. He is well-known in Bolivia and internationally for his role as a leader of the Coalition in Defence of Water in the heroic victory of the people of Cochabamba against
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On November 29, Brazilian federal police arrested 18 people for crimes against Indians and the environment. During the past decade, an uncontacted tribe known as the Rio Pardo Indians have had their land invaded by land grabbers and loggers. Despite
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On December 2, KFC workers in Balmoral went on strike in opposition to lower wage rates for young workers. The strike was organised by the Unite union, and more than 150 strikers and supporters protested at the store. Representatives from other KFC
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Workers demonstrated outside the German embassy in Kuala Lampur on December 1, calling on the German ambassador to Malaysia to intervene in an industrial dispute at a German-owned factory. The workers also staged a noisy but peaceful protest outside
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Sami Ramadani was for many years an exile from his native Iraq as a political refugee from Saddam Hussein’s regime. Today, he is an outspoken opponent of the U.S. invasion and occupation. At an international antiwar conference in London in
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Julian Coppens, London Four hundred people attended the second annual conference of the anti-war Respect coalition in London on November 19-20, including 350 delegates. The conference followed a year of unprecedented successes. The left gained
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Eva Cheng In response to the moral outrage among broad 91̳ of the populations of developed capitalist countries at the growing inequality of wealth and living standards between the rich "First World" countries and poor "Third World" countries,
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Thousands of Labour Party Pakistan (LPP) activists demonstrated in Lahore on December 6 against the imperialist onslaught of privatisation and the World Trade Organisation, on the eve of the WTO ministerial meeting in Hong Kong. Trade union
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Doug Lorimer In a speech given on November 30 at the US Naval Academy on November 30, US President George Bush admitted that "ordinary Iraqis" made up the majority of those fighting the US-led occupation of Iraq. The speech was the first of
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Pablo Stefanoni, La Paz In a press conference with foreign journalist, just before the December 18 national elections, Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) presidential candidate Evo Morales laid out a number of strategic points for a future leftist
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Federico Fuentes, La Paz At 4000 metres above sea level and sprawling above the capital La Paz, the inhabitants of the fastest growing city in Latin America — El Alto — have consistently shown their readiness to fight for their rights,
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Stuart Munckton "To the anger of many in Washington, Citgo Petroleum Corporation, a company controlled by the Venezuelan Government, will supply more than 45 million litres of oil at 40 per cent below market prices" to poor residents in Boston and
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Stephanie Long, Montreal From November 28 to December 9, more than 170 countries are engaging in negotiations under the Kyoto Protocol and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. To date, 157 countries have ratified the Kyoto
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John 'Briggs' Bomba I was among 120 people who were arrested on the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU)-led Action Against Poverty demonstration on November 8. Hundreds of people had protested against spiralling levels of poverty. Those
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Rachel Evans & Samuel Pala Fabian Escalante joined the Cuban revolutionary movement in 1950 at the age of 15, when he became active in a socialist youth organisation. This extraordinary man was imprisoned a number of times before Cuba's 1959
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British water company Biwater has taken legal action against the Tanzanian government after the company was kicked out of Tanzania earlier this year, two years into a US$100 million water privatisation contract. Biwater had failed to meet the
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Jamal Juma More than a year has passed since the Israeli occupation forces declared the completion of the first section of the Apartheid Wall — running from Jenin to Qalqiliya. Rapid construction around Jerusalem, Ramallah, Bethlehem and Hebron
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Doug Lorimer At a December 17 Baghdad new conference, the main Sunni-led alliance that contested the December 15 elections for a new Iraqi parliament hailed the high voter turn-out by Sunni Muslims. Participation by Sunnis in the election had
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On November 30, actions and meetings took place across the US calling on California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to grant clemency to Stan Tookie Williams, including a 1000-strong protest outside San Quentin Prison. Williams is scheduled to be
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Gregory Wilpert, Caracas Chavez's party, the Movement for the Fifth Republic (MVR), won 114 or 68% of the 167 seats in the new National Assembly, according to preliminary results that MVR deputy William Lara announced on December 4. Pro-Chavez
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Rachel Evans, Merida On November 29, three of Venezuela's leading opposition parties announced they would not participate in the December 4 National Assembly elections. Late on November 30, a fourth party announced that it, too, would pull out. The
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Barry Healy UN troops in Haiti are actively terrorising civilians, a coalition of human rights activists said in Washington on November 15, as they filed two legal petitions with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). The
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Raul Bassi In the lead-up to the election of the centre-left Workers Party (PT) presidential candidate Luis Inacio "Lula" da Silva in 2002, one of the PT's key election promises was to get rid of corruption. Undoubtedly, in a country where
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On December 1, South Africa's Constitutional Court unanimously ruled that same-sex marriages have equal status with those between men and women. The court stayed its ruling for one year, so that parliament may amend a 1961 marriage law to reflect the
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Stuart Munckton "In what Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias has declared a victory for sovereignty, Spain proceeded with its sale of 12 aircraft and 8 patrol boats to the South American nation", reported Venezuelanalysis.com on November 28.
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On December 1, police crushed a World Aids Day march in Harare, arresting several of the organisers, including activists from the International Socialist Organisation and Women Aids Support Network. Hundreds of people joined the march, demanding
Culture
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All the contention that is focused on the world wide web's innate ability to facilitate the sharing of music files has obscured the significance of some more recent web audio developments. If the Mp3 revolution is impacting on sales
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Melbourne's 3CR Community Radio is celebrating Australia's long history of creative resistance with a calendar featuring a collage of photographs from the lens of Australian activists. With a radical event listed for each day and photographs of
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Brotherboys: The Story of Jim and Phillip KrakouerBy Sean GormanAllen & Unwin, 2005269 pages, $29.95 (pb) REVIEW BY PHIL SHANNON For over a decade, two brothers mesmerised hundreds of thousands of football fans with their skills of hand and foot
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The broom-bristles-for-eyebrows neolithhammers away at our enmeshed foundations,ignoring centuries of same-sex promiscuities.He's teamed up with God to decide what's natural and right,hiding from the mardi-gras that leaves pride and defiance like
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Praised be our racehorse owners,Well-tailored and well-heeled,Who gaze from the enclosureUpon the surging field.Red-faced they cheer and stamp and screamAs if they'd go berserk,And dream upon their winningsWhile the horse does all the work.They're
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Manifesto: Three Classic Essays on How to Change the WorldKarl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Rosa Luxemburg, Ernesto Che GuevaraPreface by Adrienne RichIntroduction by Armando HartOcean Books, 2005168 pages REVIEW BY ALEX MILLER Given 170 or so
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I is for InfidelBy Kathy GannonPublic Affairs Books, 2005 REVIEW BY BILL NEVINS Kathy Gannon is an "old Afghan hand" and her book on Afghanistan is crucial reading. Four years after 9/11 and well into the third year of the US-led occupation, Iraq
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Good Night, and Good LuckDirected and co-written by George ClooneyScreening nationally from 15 December 2005 REVIEW BY LACHLAN MALLOCH Edward R. Murrow is the hero of the best and most politically prescient film scheduled for release this
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91̳ Weekly #639 published a review of Alan Woods' The Venezuelan Revolution: A Marxist Perspective by Dave Raby. Below is another perspective on Woods' book written by John Riddell, originally published by Canada-based website Socialist
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The larvae of light will never move in his eye,Despite his mother clapping her hands,And the drum throbbing, and the Udh thrumming,And the drum burrowing down the ears of the Universe; His legs will never unfold and run,Despite his mother taking
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REVIEW BY SARAH STEPHEN Following Them Home: the Fate of the Returned Asylum SeekersBy David CorlettBlack Inc Books, 2005220 pages, $24.95 "The Australian government has long declared that it owes no duty of care to those asylum seekers it
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The Weathermakers: The History and Future Impact of Climate ChangeBy Tim FlanneryText Publishing, 2005332 pages, $32.95 (pb) REVIEW BY PHIL SHANNON Who cares about Bufo perigelenes, the golden toad of Costa Rica? We all should, argues Australian
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And in the Third Worldpeople drop dead, asheavy, dirty rain in a storm And here, we dancewith effortwe singwithout songthey make us build their modernspace age buildingswithout colourwe createtheir paintings and gardens andlarge billboard
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Upstaging: Leah Purcell — Profile of Indigenous artist Leah Purcell, who has performed as a singer, actor, writer, choreographer, producer and director for theatre, film and television. ABC, Friday, December 9, 1.20am. Living Black — Indigenous