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Drug usage: key facts

Dependant heroin users (NSW): more than 50,000 Opiate (eg, heroin) overdose deaths: Australia-wide in 1992: 327 (aged 15-44). Australia-wide in 1998: 700+ (aged 15-44) Percentage of drug users with hep C:50-70% Cost of drug consumption,

A woman's place is in the struggle: Labor undermines domestic violence services

Victorian Premier Steve Bracks' Labor government is putting pressure on non-governmental community services organisations to make "productivity savings" in order to enable annual cuts to the Department of Human Services (DHS) budget over the next

National stoppage against ACI's corporate thuggery

BY STEPHEN GARVEY MELBOURNE — On July 22, hundreds of workers at ACI workplaces across the country stopped work in response to the lockout of 77 ACI Mould Manufacturing workers in Box Hill. The purpose of the stoppage was to support the

Class-struggle unions: we can beat Howard

BY SAM WAINWRIGHT PERTH — In the June Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) election, two of the three positions in the Western Australian branch were won by the Rank and File ticket, which called for a return to democratic and militant unionism.

'Save Medicare'

BY NICK EVERETT SYDNEY — A rally to save Medicare was held outside NSW Parliament House on July 22, where a Senate committee was commencing its hearings on the federal government's changes to Medicare. Around 150 people attended. Organised by

Injecting centre saves lives

BY DALE MILLS SYDNEY — The final report on the medically supervised injecting centre in the red-light district of Kings Cross has approved its continuation. It was the English-speaking world's first state-approved illegal-drug injecting centre.

Adelaide bus drivers strike

BY JOHN NEBAUER& BRONWEN BEECHEY ADELAIDE — More than 150 bus drivers went on strike here on July 25 and 600 on July 28. Their actions follow strikes earlier this month. Another strike is planned for August 4, with the the prospect of further

Union activists call for campaign against Carr job cuts

BY MELANIE SJOBERG SYDNEY — NSW Premier Bob Carr's Labor government calls its plan to cut 1000 jobs in the Department of Education and Training (DET) "lifelong and learning". However, public education needs more, not less, jobs. Students need

Write On: Letters to Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly

Zionism and Palestine The views outlined by Kimberley James Roachelle (Write On, Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly #544) are a very clear-cut case of ignoring those aspects of Zionist history and its dispossession of the Palestinians that conflict with her

MUA militancy: A major victory

BY SUE BOLTON Anyone who thinks union militancy is dead, hasn't been paying much attention lately. In the last two months, the WA and Victorian branches of the Maritime Union of Australia and the Victorian branch of the postal union have elected

Solomons intervention serves Australian big business

BY DOUG LORIMER On July 21, the first contingent of some 155 Australian Federal Police (AFP) and 1500 Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel, including 200 combat troops, began departing for the Solomon Islands' capital of Honiara. They will be

Anti-war coalition's future to be decided

BY NICK EVERETT SYDNEY — A special meeting of the Walk Against the War Coalition, the group which organised the 500,000-strong February 16 anti-war rally, will be held to decide the coalition's future. The meeting will be on August 18. Two of