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Courage fails under fire

Courage Under FireDirected by Edward ZwickWith Denzil Washington, Meg Ryan and Lou Diamond PhillipsReviewed by Norm Dixon The build-up to the release of Courage Under Fire made much of the US military's refusal to cooperate with its production. The

Nikitin case shows sad state of Russian rights

By Renfrey Clarke MOSCOW — "Russia's Federal Security Service [FSB] said yesterday that it had observed all relevant legal norms in its arrest and detainment of Alexander Nikitin", an Itar-Tass report on September 11 stated blandly. The security

Vanstone attempts to confuse education campaign

By Marina Cameron With four successful national days of action having been held already this year, the campaign against education cuts and the massive public sentiment behind it represent significant stumbling blocks for the government. In an

Letter from the US: Profits from poverty

Profits from poverty Since President Clinton signed the bipartisan law abolishing the 60-year-old guarantee of federal aid to poor children, one startling development has been proposals by giant corporations to take over the running of welfare

From fish and chips to proto-fascism

By Lisa Macdonald Independent MP Pauline Hanson's inaugural speech to parliament on September 10 should disgust and anger, but not surprise, us. In less than 2500 words, Hanson painted a vision for Australia that includes: the introduction of 12

Court stymies NSW EPA

Court stymies NSW EPA By Barry Healy SYDNEY — In a surprise decision, the NSW Land and Environment Court has virtually annulled the ability of the states Environment Protection Authority to enforce pollution controls. Under a ruling handed down

Looking deep inside

LifeDirected by Lawrence JohnstonReviewed by Vanessa Sparrow Lawrence Johnston's Life is a stark yet compassionate film. Based on the 1991 play Containment (written by lead actor John Brumpton), it is ostensibly about a group of male prisoners,

High school unions visit Canberra

By Paul Howes After several successful walkouts, secondary students in Melbourne and Sydney have decided to set up unions to campaign against education funding cuts and other issues affecting secondary students. The Sydney union, the United

A divided New Zealand heads for the polls

By Russel Norman AUCKLAND — It's election time here. There are four major parties competing in the October 12 election under New Zealand's new proportional representation system: National, Labour, New Zealand First and the Alliance. The polls

Victoria: a far cry from utopia

By Dave Holmes MELBOURNE —"Life wasn't meant to be easy": in its day, Malcolm Fraser's quip became notorious. Its haughty Tory disdain summed up perfectly the outlook of the capitalist class and the Coalition government towards the needs and

The politics of 'un-Australianism'

By Stuart Russell A centrepiece of the Howard government's ideological offensive against last month's "Canberra riot" has been to label those associated with the protest as "un-Australian". John Howard and other members of the cabinet have used the

Arguments for the ABC

Save our ABC: The Case for Maintaining Australia's National BroadcasterEdited by M. Fraser & Joseph O'Reilly$10.00 from Friends of the ABC in each state: GPO Box 4065MM Melbourne 3001; PO Box 1391 North Sydney 2059; 7 Grantley Ave Rostrevor 5073; 344