By Jo Brown
An aged pensioner and spokesperson for the Gungalidda people of the north-west Queensland gulf country has taken on the might of mining giant CRA. Wadjalurbinna, travelling on her pension and sending money home to her 17-year-old
Issue 98
News
Victorian law on indefinite imprisonment
By Alex Cooper
MELBOURNE — Harsh new sentencing legislation was passed by Victoria's parliament on April 29, a week after its introduction by state attorney general Jan Wade. The law provides for
Street appeal
PERTH — Animal Liberation is a completely voluntary organisation, receiving no government or other funding, which aims to put a stop to institutionalised cruelty to animals.
Collectors are desperately needed to help with
By Bernie Brian
WOLLONGONG — South Coast Labour Council secretary Paul Matters and Australian Workers Union organiser Neville Hilton are both facing charges under the NSW Crimes Act as a result of their involvement in a picket line at the
APPM threatens Tarkine, jobs
By Rohan Gaiswinkler
HOBART — APPM on April 23 announced plans to build a $30 million hardwood woodchip mill at Hampshire, on Tasmania's north-west coast. The location would place the mill close to a
ALP moves to oust SPSF left leadership
By Adrienne Barrett
MELBOURNE — Nominations for the State Public Services Federation elections closed on April 26. The elections are being contested by four organised tickets, three of which have
By Arun Pradhan
ADELAIDE — Ecopolis and Urban Ecology Australia have initiated a new and exciting plan for the suburb of Halifax. The design is based on concepts of ecological sustainability, social equity and the involvement of people.
By Maurice Sibelle
BRISBANE — On April 27 Brisbane City Council moved to restrict severely peaceful assemblies in Brisbane malls. New regulations require organisers of mall protests to give two weeks' notice of their activity. Permits will
Australia accused on whaling
Since last year, Australia has been quietly supporting policies that would allow the resumption of commercial whaling, according to Sue Arnold of Australians for Animals.
According to the group, the Australian
For sale: the right to pollute?
By Bronwen Beechey
MELBOURNE — Companies may be able to buy and sell the right to pollute the environment in the future, if federal environment minister Ros Kelly has her way.
According to the
Kennett cuts emergency services
By Alex Cooper
MELBOURNE — In the latest round of cuts to community services the Kennett government has targeted the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, Country Fire Authority and the ambulance service.
Timorese youth tour US
A delegation of East Timorese youth toured North America in April. Delegation members Elizabeth Exposto and Danilo Henriques, who now live in Australia, told Green Left Weekly upon their return on April 28 that during
By Adam Hanieh
Strange as it sounds, plans to upgrade Australian railways are likely to lead to a big increase in road traffic. And they are certain to result in a massive loss of jobs.
Like most other public utilities in Australia today,
By Margarita Windisch
MELBOURNE — The group People Against Rape in Bosnia Hercegovina and Croatia is organising a rally on Mother's Day,
May 9.
The group is made up of members from the Croatian community, the Bosnian Muslim community,
World
US asbestos bound for Turkey
ISTANBUL — The crew of Greenpeace sailing boat Vega boarded the famous luxury liner SS United States on April 23 to protest against plans to strip her of more than 15,000 square metres of deadly asbestos and to
Middle East talks resume
By Miriam Tramer
The Middle East Peace talks resumed in Washington on April 27. Green Left Weekly spoke to Israeli commentator Amos Wollin on the possible outcome.
Wollin said that, under pressure from the
General strike threat in Fiji
The Fiji Trade Union Congress has threatened a national strike if the government fails to abolish controversial labour laws.
The Fiji Daily Post reported on April 15 that FTUC general secretary James Raman
By Norm Dixon
Just two weeks after the terrible murder of Chris Hani, the South African liberation movement has suffered another tragic loss with the death of long-time African National Congress leader Oliver Tambo.
For almost 50 years,
MARI ALKATIRI is a senior member of the Fretilin Central Committee in exile. He was interviewed in Sydney for Green Left Weekly by Max Lane.
Could you tell us why you are visiting Australia?
I have received a mandate from the leadership
By Renfrey Clarke
MOSCOW — Sixteen months after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the sense that Russia had slipped back into the era of "plebiscite" elections was uncanny. There was only one name on the ballot paper. Voters were
By S. Piyasena
"We left the government when murder became a part of politics." That was the way Lalith Arthulathmudali, a former senior minister in the Sri Lankan government, explained his break with President Premadasa and the latter's
British toxic waste down the sewer
Friends of the Earth in Britain on April 28 named 23 companies in the north-east that have been pouring toxic waste down the drain. The companies include household names such as Ever Ready, Sterling Winthrop
By Frank Noakes
PRAGUE — When Greenpeace activists first came here in 1984, they were shot at while hanging banners from one of Czechoslovakia's ubiquitous smoking chimneys in protest against acid rain. One year ago the environmental
By Renfrey Clarke
MOSCOW — Within days of claiming victory in his April 25 referendum, Boris Yeltsin was moving ahead with plans to introduce a new constitution that would transform Russia into a "presidential republic".
On April 27
Loggers cheat Solomon Islands
The Solomon Islands government says logging companies operating in the country have been cheating Solomon Islands of millions of dollars in timber export revenues annually. It will attempt to recover US$300,000
Refugee family denied asylum
By Catherine Brown
A Romany refugee family, denied asylum by the Cologne city council (led by the Social Democrats), is now in hiding to avoid forced deportation to Macedonia. Asylum was denied on the basis
Cuba fights neuritis outbreak
HAVANA — The Cuban daily Granma on April 27 lashed out at a foreign media disinformation campaign around the outbreak of optic neuritis on the island.
Optic neuritis is a vision-impairing disease. It was
By Ann McNally
WASHINGTON — Media reports of the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Rights and Liberation quoted a Park Service estimate of 300,000 participants. This would be a disappointment if true, since 1 million persons
MP's death confirmed
By Norm Dixon
The death of Ken Savia, the minister of health in the Bougainville Interim Government and former minister for health in the North Solomons Provincial Government, has been confirmed by the Papua New
Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Paias Wingti's handling of the Bougainville crisis has come under heavy fire from his own foreign affairs minister, John Kaputin.
The criticisms were contained in a letter Kaputin sent from Brussels, which was
Culture
Top Girls
The Sydney Theatre Company
Written by Caryl Churchill
Directed by Melissa Bruce
At the Wharf Theatre, Sydney, until May 29
Reviewed by Karen Fredericks
"Top Girls came out of the climate of having a right-wing woman prime
By Ignatius Kim
When the Solomon Islands Development Trust (SIDT) was founded in 1981 to inform rural Solomon Islanders about issues relating to resource development, it found that lecture-style meetings aroused little enthusiasm in the
A Celtic Breeze in the Antipodes
Sirocco
Jara Hill Records through Larrikin
Available on cassette and CD
The Evergreen Realm
Sirocco
Jara Hill Records through Larrikin
Available on Cassette and CD
Reviewed by Ian Jamieson
Overdue tribute
Ain't Misbehavin'Featuring Marian Caffey, Frank Farrow III, Carla Renata Williams, Sharon Scott and Gail Anderson
Theatre Royal Sydney until May 29
Reviewed by Norm Dixon
Tributes to the great African American artists
The enemy within
Health and the lack of it are not purely medical issues. The myriad of factors which may be involved in causing disease are taken up in Norman Swan's four-part series Invisible Enemies, screening Sundays at 7.30 p.m. (7.00 in
Mouth
By Ben Courtice
"Capitalism — your want for personal gain ... In this world there is not enough for you to own so much", screams Tim Evans, singer and guitarist for the band Mouth — a classic line, echoed on T-shirts and
Editorial
Bosnia: end the embargo
In Bosnia today we see another example of how the so-called "international community's" insistence on being the prime agent for imposing solutions on "world trouble spots" almost always increases the suffering and