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Killing: welfare workers pay for cutbacks

By Julia Perkins On the evening of June 13, a worker at the Bankstown Youth Refuge was murdered. Neena Bisen, a 34-year-old youth worker with experience in India and the United States, was allegedly stabbed to death by two girls, aged 15 and 17,

NOWSA conference at Macquarie Uni

NOWSA conference at Macquarie Uni By Kathy O'Driscall SYDNEY — "NOWSA has provided a fantastic networking opportunity for women student activists since it first began in 1987. Hopefully, this year we'll be able to have more concrete

Street without children

There are streets in a Newcastle suburb where children are forbidden to live because of the health threat from industrial pollution. The company responsible is Pasminco, much in the news in Tasmania for its ocean dumping of industrial wastes —

Questions of strategy in South Africa

Comment by Jorge Jorquera The initial motivation for this comment came from reading articles on South Africa in Socialist Worker, the paper of the International Socialist Organisation. These articles don't vary much, at least not in theme, which

Lagman freed

Lagman freed By Sonny Melencio MANILA — Filemon Lagman, the underground leader of the Manila Regional Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines, was released from detention on bail of 100,000 pesos on the evening of June 17.

Brazilian unionists murdered

Brazilian unionists murdered International protests are being called for after the brutal assassination of two Brazilian unionists on June 12. Rosa Hernandes, a leader of the struggles of the agricultural workers of the region, and Jose Luis

Health insurance should be unnecessary

Health insurance should be unnecessary Recent reports to the federal health minister have once again raised the perennial problem of Australian politics — health funding. For ideological and self-interested reasons, the debate is unlikely to

New Zealand parties in turmoil

On their next visit to the polling booths, New Zealanders will vote under a new, more democratic system for their national parliament.

Treasure chest

Treasure chest Andy's Chest Martin Plaza BMG Reviewed by Graham Matthews Martin Plaza is probably best known for his work with Mental as Anything. The Mentals' irreverent hits of the '80s marked an important stage in Australian pop

Tales of the Red Pimpernel

'Armed and Dangerous': My Undercover Struggle Against Apartheid By Ronnie Kasrils Heinemann, 1993. 374 pp., $15.95 (pb) Reviewed by Phil Shannon When Ronnie Kasrils touched down at Johannesburg airport in 1989, he had chalked up 30 years

East Timor activist returns from Manila

East Timor activist returns from Manila By Sally-Anne Watson DARWIN — Robert Wesley Smith (pictured), who attended the Asia Pacific Conference on East Timor (APCET) in Manila from May 31 to June 4, believes the furore which surrounded it

Caltex moves against 35-hour week

By Dave Mizon MELBOURNE — Delegates and officials from the main unions in the oil industry met with ACTU secretary Bill Kelty on June 14 to discuss a campaign in response to the massive attack by Caltex on the wages and conditions of Kurnell