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Loose cannons

@columhead = Sick "If a drug is good for people, but it doesn't make a profit for the drug company, our system has a problem." — Dr Stephen Jurd, head of drug and alcohol services at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney, on the unavailability

Poem: Liberty Hall

Liberty Hall House or workers, Hall of trades, Peoples' Palace, an idea wrought in stone and blood and struggle. If those stones could attest, what stories they could tell — deals done and done deals, bitter infighting, and

Young Libs attack de facto families

Young Libs attack de facto families By Bill Mason BRISBANE — "The Queensland Young Liberals have shown themselves to be political dinosaurs over their attack on the rights of de facto couples and their children", Kathy Newnham, Brisbane acting

Looking out: Desertion

Desertion By Brandon Astor Jones "When I say that we have begun to desert and abandon one another, I mean that African-American men should start refusing to kill and maim each other. No, I am not suggesting that we start killing Caucasian men,

Memoirs of an ex-menace

Hons and RebelsBy Jessica MitfordIndigo, 1996. 227 pp., $16.95 (pb) Review by Phil Shannon Jessica Mitford, born in 1917 into a family of rural English aristocrats, had by age 15 declared herself for communism and later, during the '40s, graduated

As tasty as three-day-old bread

Capitalism, Socialism, EcologyBy Andre GorzVerso, 1994. 147 pp., $34.95Reviewed by Phil Shannon To say, as the blurb on this book does, that Andre Gorz offers "a vital, fresh perspective for the left" is like a baker selling three-day-old bread as

Port Hedland strike ends

Port Hedland strike ends By Michael Bramwell PERTH — Workers at the $1.5 billion BHP iron ore processing plant in Port Hedland have tentatively agreed to return to work following a combined union meeting on January 29. In a charged atmosphere,

and ain't i a woman?: Another form of selling with sex

and ain't i a woman?: Another form of selling with sex I was sitting around the television a few weeks ago with my flatmates. A cheer went up as a new advert came on: the camera slowly pans up a corridor; there are footprints and piles of clothing

Re-evaluating Lenin

By Mahir Ali Long after the toppling likenesses of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov personified the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, Lenin keeps cropping up in the unlikeliest of places. Towards the end of his highly readably memoir, Palimpsest, a

Queensland act 'legitimises' low wages

Queensland act 'legitimises' low wages By Bill Mason BRISBANE — Unions claimed on January 30 that the passage of the Borbidge government's industrial relations legislation that day had "legitimised" Queensland's position as the nation's

Cambodian Genocide Program releases key data

Cambodian Genocide Program releases key data The Cambodian Genocide Program (CGP) at Yale University has released information on the internet today that details atrocities committed under the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979.

Peace activists released in London

Peace activists released in London By Mark Lynas Two peace activists were given a three-month suspended prison sentence at the High Court in London on January 24, after they defied a court injunction forbidding them from carrying out protest