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A commitment to peace

Towards Peace: A Worker's JourneyBy Phil O'BrienSHAPE, 1992. 224 pp., $5 (plus $2 postage)Reviewed by Lisa Macdonald Phil O'Brien was a soldier for six years, a waterside worker and trade unionist for 30 years and an antiwar campaigner almost all

News briefs

Unions slam maternity leave decision BRISBANE — Unions have criticised the state government's decision, announced on May 13, to grant six weeks' paid maternity leave to women in the Queensland public service. State Public Sector Federation

Thousands rally for right to education

Last week, thousands of students joined rallies and marches organised by the National Union of Students (NUS) and cross-campus committees as part of a national week of action to protest against the federal government's proposed tertiary education

Building workers to strike

By Jennifer Thompson SYDNEY — Building workers will strike around Australia on May 29, against cuts by the Howard government affecting their wages and those of apprentices and trainees. In a major slug to building workers' pay, Liberal treasurer

An Othello to be remembered

OthelloBy William ShakespeareDirected by Oliver ParkerStarring Kenneth Branagh, Laurence Fishburne, Irene JacobNow screeningReviewed by Natasha Simons Whatever your likes or prejudices regarding Shakespeare, put them away when seeing this 1995 film

Appeal for condemnation of repression

May Day events organised by the Worker-Communist Party of Iraq (WCPI) and other groups, in Iraqi Kurdistan, attracted more than 200,000 people. In one city, Duhok, armed forces belonging to the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) attacked a May 1

Action at Fairlea Women's Prison

By Kim Linden MELBOURNE — A "wringout" for Fairlea Women's Prison at Fairfield on May 19 was a resounding demonstration of solidarity with the women imprisoned there and against the scheduled replacement of Fairlea by a private prison. The

and ain't i a woman?: Equal pay and Howard's IR bill

Equal pay and Howard's IR bill A comment by the chief executive of the Metal Trades Industry Association — the metal bosses' "union" — reveals employer thinking behind their hostility to paying women and men equal pay for work of equal value.

Mayak: the other Chernobyl

By Renfrey Clarke MOSCOW — The 1986 accident at Chernobyl was not the first case in which the Soviet nuclear industry contrived to pour huge quantities of deadly radionuclides into the environment. In terms of total radioactivity released, the

Victorian government to debate drug law reform

By John Campbell MELBOURNE — The Victorian state council of the Liberal Party voted overwhelmingly on May 12 against decriminalising marijuana. While the vote is not binding on Liberal MPs, statements by leading parliamentarians, including