On December 10, the High Court ruled on the appeal of Heather Osland against her 14-year sentence for killing her violent husband. In a 3-2 decision, the Court resolved that years of systematic, sadistic abuse were not enough to afford Heather, who feared for her life, the right to self-defence. This ruling, by an all-male… Read more »
Posts in: International
Tenacity Pays Off: Nazi headquarters shut down!
In April this year, after a 15-month battle, Campaign Against the Nazis (CAN) celebrated the closure of a Nazi organising centre in Melbourne’s northern suburbs. National Action (NA) is a Nazi outfit which occasionally emerges from the sewers of Australian politics. In January 1997, NA opened what it called a “bookshop” on Fawkner, a multicultural… Read more »
More Deaths In Custody: Private Prisons Profit from Misery
George Drinken died at the Port Phillip Prison in Laverton North, Victoria on 30 October 1997. The death at Port Phillip brings the total of deaths in custody in private prisons in Australia to at least 18. The position of State and Territory governments that private prisons would somehow be “better” than State prisons is… Read more »
AIDS Council Needs Urgent Change: A Founding Member Speaks Out!
A change is needed in the Victoria AIDS Council (VAC). The organisation, which now employs 50 workers, must open up to give all groups affected by AIDS a genuine share of the power within the organisation or they should stop pretending to be the peak AIDS body and change their name to the Victorian Gay… Read more »
More Aboriginal Genocide: Miners Battle White Death at Baryulgil
“If the bullet takes 20 years to kill you, it’s not called murder, it’s called business” – (Paul Brodeur in Blue Murder by Ben Hills) The Aboriginal community of Baryulgil, in northern New South Wales, is fighting to redress an act of genocide — this time, the weapon is asbestos and the murderer is James… Read more »
Filling the Glass of Struggle
Much has been said already about the record 6% swing against the Australian Labor Party in the October 3 Victorian state elections, resulting in the election of Kennett and his band of small business barbarians. There is no doubt that working people in Victoria are faced with an onslaught, the like of which we haven’t… Read more »
Meriam People Win Land Title Case Indigenous rights not extinguished by invasion
Mer Island is the largest of the easternmost group of islands, the Murray Islands, in Torres Strait. About 400 Islander people live there. In 1879 the Murray Islands were annexed to the then Crown colony of Queensland. This annexation was done without reference to the Meriam people, but with relatively little disruption to customary society…. Read more »
Perkins Scapegoated For Aboriginal Control of Aboriginal Affairs Now!
As the Bicentennial year draws to a close, the government is getting desperate to undermine the growing public support for the demands of Australia’s Aboriginal nations. Their desperation came to a head in early November with the sacking of Department of Aboriginal Affairs head, Charles Perkins. Cries of “mismanagement and nepotism” surround the sacking of… Read more »
Labor’s “Graduate Tax” – Will It Make the Rich Pay?
The National Conference of the Australian Labor Party held in Hobart during June removed the plank from the ALP’s platform, which stated that tertiary education will be free. This policy move is designed to make way for the introduction of some form of graduate tax, as proposed by the Wran Committee. The decision of the… Read more »
Radical Women Statement to AZT Rally and Candle light Vigil
Melbourne, 3 March 1988 Radical Women is an international socialist feminist organisation comprised of women workers, students and welfare recipients of many races, both gay and straight, older and young. We are pleased to be represented here this evening and are delighted that we could help build this important rally. We demand that all people… Read more »
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