LL:DDV Working class feminist IWD tribute
The Victorian Women's Caucus of the Progressive Labour Party presents A International Women's Day tribute to working class heroines of the 20th century from working class leaders of the 21st century. When: Wednesday 8 March, 7 pm Where: Lebanese House, 268 Russell Street, Melbourne Delicious Lebanese meal Cost: $20/ $14 concession BYO drinks Booking by Thursday 2 March is essential. Phone Alison on 03-9386-5065 or [EMAIL PROTECTED] PLP members can book with their women's officer or branch secretary at their 1 March 2000 branch meeting. People of all genders who support working class feminism are welcome! Join us for an inspiring and fun evening. LL.VC -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:DDV: Events at the NIB
UPCOMING EVENTS AT THE NEW INTERNATIONAL BOOKSHOP Saturday 12/2/99 2pm Queensland academic Carole Ferrier launches her latest book, a biography of the noted writer and activist Jean Devanny. Sunday 13/2/99 Frank Hardy festival at Trades Hall. Tuesday 22//2/99 6.30 pm. East Timor: Present and Future A forum with Fretilin leader and CNRT official responsible for education, Father Filomeno, and Jane Nicholls, author of Flight 642: Jankarta to Dili. Wednesday 23/2/99 6:30 pm. Bob Ellis, Labor outsider and general troublemaker, launches his new book So It Goes, in conversation with Barry Dickins. Promises to be entertaining. Thursday 24/2/99 8pm Which way for the ALP? Andrew Scott (Running on Empty: Modernising the British and Australian Labor Parties), Lindsay Tanner (Open Australia, 'Labor's Troubled Tribes) and (hopefully - stay tuned for confirmation) Michael Thompson (Labor without Class). A must see debate! $5 entry, presented by the Fabian Society. Sunday 27/2/99 2pm The Fabian Society presents a symposium of former communist party members, discussing their experiences and assessment of the Party. Speakers include Bernie Taft, Roger Wilson, Flo Russell and Stuart Macintyre. Coffee and entry $7/$5. Tuesday 29/2/99 6:30pm Bushwalker extraordinaire Tyrone Thomas discusses his latest publication, My Environmental Expose, which recounts his first-hand observations of the degradation of the Australian environment. Thursday 16/3/99 6:30pm Sharon Beder, author of Global Spin: The Corporate Assault on Environmentalism, shows how big businesses have intervened in recent years to thwart the environmental movement. Sunday 19/3/99 (To be confirmed) Paul Mees, head of the Melbourne Public Transport Users Association, talks about the crisis in public transport and strategies for future development. All events free unless otherwise noted. Please contact the bookshop for more details on 9662 3744. LL.VA LL.VB LL.VC -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:INFO: Tetun language books at the NIB
For anyone visiting Timor, the New International Bookshopnow stocks the key Tetun language books: Mai Kolia Tetun: A Beginner's Course in Tetum-Praca, Geoffrey Hull Standard Tetum-English dictionary, Geoffrey Hull Traveller's Dictionary in Tetun-English and English-Tetun, Cliff Morris The NIB - in Trades Hall, on the corner of Victoria and Lygon St, Carlton - also has a wide range of material on the political situation in Timor. For more info, please call 9662 3744 -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: BHP 'offered $10million bribes'
Australian Financial Review http://www.afr.com.au/content/000128/news/news5.html Friday 28 January, 2000 BHP 'offered $10 million bribes' By Nina Field BHP offered "bribes" worth $10 million to induce workers to sign contracts that would ultimately lead to the demise of unionism in the resources giant's iron ore division, the Federal Court heard yesterday. The submission by union lawyers' came as the five unions at the centre of the dispute sought court injunctions against any further offer of the contracts in the Pilbara, pending the outcome of a wider case on the legality of the workplace reform. Mr Julian Burnside QC, for the unions, said BHP had offered "sweeteners" to get people onto contracts while refusing to collectively bargain in an "insidious" bid to deunionise the workforce. "The thrust of our complaint is that these contracts are a bribe to get people away from union activities," Mr Burnside said. He said workers who had not signed the contracts had been "singled out for worse treatment" by BHP. There was a causal link between signing the contracts and resigning from the unions, Mr Burnside said, pointing to similar workplace changes at Robe River and Hamersley as proof of the inevitable slide away from unions. He warned that if the process was not halted by a Federal Court injunction it would be irreversible by the time the full case had been heard. The unions' case has several aspects. Mr Burnside said the $10 million inducement, which indirectly resulted in people resigning from unions, was the strongest aspect of the alleged breaches of the Workplace Relations Act. It is also alleged that the company breached the Act by discriminating against workers who did not sign the contracts and by refusing to collectively bargain. It had also allegedly breached its contract with workers who did not sign the deal because of a clause in the award prohibiting the use of individual agreements that conflict with award conditions. Mr Robert Buchanan QC, for BHP, said the unions had not made a direct connection between union membership and the incentives offered by BHP. They had also failed to show that BHP had explicitly or implicitly made resigning from the union a condition of signing the contracts. He asked the court to dismiss the injunction application, claiming it would unfairly assist one side of the argument in an industrial dispute at the expense of the other. The unions had asked the court to believe that everything said publicly by BHP management was false and should be disregarded, with another "carefully hidden" motivation to be substituted in its place. He said there was a productivity trade-off for the generous incentives offered for those signing the contracts, with BHP benefiting from the removal of "a swag of restrictions" that applied under the award. Mr Buchanan said the act did not compel companies to bargain collectively. Justice Peter Gray reserved his decision on the injunction, saying he expected to deliver his judgement in the next few days. He refused an application by Mr Burnside for a holding order preventing BHP from attempting a last- minute sign-up of unions ahead of the injunction decision. Justice Gray questioned the BHP line of defence several times, arguing that improving the lot of some workers and not others amounted to "ignoring them to their detriment". This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited. * This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:URL: Abolish Nuclear Weapons- Join Abolition 2000
Please Reply to Abolition 2000 at: [EMAIL PROTECTED], Http://www.abolition2000.org. Dear Friends and Activists, Please allow me to introduce you to Abolition 2000, a global network comprised of more than 1420 organizations in 90 countries calling for a treaty to eliminate nuclear weapons. At the 1995 Non-Proliferation Treaty Review and Extension Conference where, frustrated by the resolve of the nuclear weapons states to maintain their arsenals, a few activists and concerned individuals had a vision. That vision of a more secure and livable world, free from the threat of nuclear weapons, was the foundation for the international movement that became known as the Abolition 2000 Network. Now, more than ever before, the work of Abolition 2000 is vital to ensure a more secure and livable world for our children, grandchildren and all future generations. We cannot succeed without your help. At our Annual General Meeting held at the Hague Appeal for Peace in May 1999, we agreed that the year 2000 poses a critical challenge for the Network. To preserve the integrity of the Abolition 2000 name and to continue the vital work of the Global network, members have committed to increasing Network membership to at least 2000 organizations by the start of the Non-Proliferation Treaty Conference in April. We will also make Abolition 2000 attendance and presence known at the NPT conference. Help make the number of supporting groups climb to over 2,000 by joining us in our endeavors! I would like to personally invite you to sign and endorse the Abolition 2000 statement. If you would like to receive more information, please feel free to contact me or visit our website at Http://www.abolition2000.org. I look forward to hearing from you. My best wishes to you in our common endeavor to create a more peaceful and just world. Yours In Peace, Carah Lynn Ong ABOLITION 2000 STATEMENT A secure and livable world for our children and grandchildren and all future generations requires that we achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and redress the environmental degradation and human suffering that is the legacy of fifty years of nuclear weapons testing and production. Further, the inextricable link between the "peaceful" and warlike uses of nuclear technologies and the threat to future generations inherent in creation and use of long-lived radioactive materials must be recognized. We must move toward reliance on clean, safe, renewable forms of energy production that do not provide the materials for weapons of mass destruction and do not poison the environment for thousands of centuries. The true "inalienable" right is not to nuclear energy, but to life, liberty and security of person in a world free of nuclear weapons. We recognize that a nuclear weapons free world must be achieved carefully and in a step by step manner. We are convinced of its technological feasibility. Lack of political will, especially on the part of the nuclear weapons states, is the only true barrier. As chemical and biological weapons are prohibited, so must nuclear weapons be prohibited. We call upon all states particularly the nuclear weapons states, declared and de facto to take the following steps to achieve nuclear weapons abolition. We further urge the states parties to the NPT to demand binding commitments by the declared nuclear weapons states to implement these measures: 1.Initiate immediately and conclude by the year 2000 negotiations on a nuclear weapons abolition convention that requires the phased elimination of all nuclear weapons within a timebound framework, with provisions for effective verification and enforcement.* 2.Immediately make an unconditional pledge not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons. 3.Rapidly complete a truly comprehensive test ban treaty with a zero threshold and with the stated purpose of precluding nuclear weapons development by all states. 4.Cease to produce and deploy new and additional nuclear weapons systems, and commence to withdraw and disable deployed nuclear weapons systems. 5.Prohibit the military and commercial production and reprocessing of all weapons-usable radioactive materials. 6.Subject all weapons-usable radioactive materials and nuclear facilities in all states to international accounting, monitoring, and safeguards, and establish a public international registry of all weapons-usable radioactive materials. 7.Prohibit nuclear weapons research, design, development, and testing through laboratory experiments including but not limited to non-nuclear hydrodynamic explosions and computer simulations, subject all nuclear weapons laboratories to international monitoring, and close all nuclear test sites. 8.Create additional nuclear weapons free zones such as those established by the treaties of Tlatelolco and Raratonga. 9.Recognize and declare the illegality of threat or use of nuclear weapons, publicly and before the World Court. 10.Establish
LL:ART: Internet pollution watchdog launched
http://www.theage.com.au/news/2128/A51297-2000Jan28.html Internet pollution watchdog launched By SIMON JOHANSON THE AGE ONLINE Friday 28 January 2000 Backyard environmentalists will be able to monitor pollution from the factory next door or those across the country with the launch of a nationwide Internet pollution database today. The National Pollution Inventory (NPI), updated regularly on the Internet, will provide detailed information on the types and amounts of chemicals factories discharge into the air, land and water, as well as showing what actions factories may be taking to reduce their emissions. "It will be an invaluable environmental management tool for governments, an unprecedented information resource for the community and an impetus for cleaner production for industry," Federal Environment Minister Senator Robert Hill said at the NPI's launch in Altona today. User can conduct searches by location or a company's name over the Internet and access a breakdown of the chemicals and quantities of pollutants factories discharge. Companies and manufacturers that use more than specified amounts of certain listed substances must report to the NPI. The pollution indicator has already received nearly 1200 industry reports. It will also contain government data on non-industrial pollutants such as motor vehicles, wood-fire smoke, and even lawn mowers. The National Pollution Inventory website is at: www.environment.gov.au/net/npi.html * This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
