ADELAIDE — Indigenous artists and art professionals from Australia and the Pacific nations, North America and Europe will converge here from April 12 to 17 for an international symposium hosted by the South Australian Museum and Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute. The symposium is an Australian contribution to the United Nations Year of the World's Indigenous People.
BRISBANE — The autumn series of socialist study classes, organised by the Democratic Socialist Party, offers courses in Marxist theory, socialist ecology and socialist feminism, as well as introductions to the politics of Resistance and the DSP. Classes are on Monday and Tuesday evenings. Class guides and reference material are available from the Resistance Bookshop in New Farm. For further information contact the Resistance Centre on 358 4875.
- A student general meeting on March 30 rejected a call to affiliate the University of Queensland Union to the National Union of Students but approved a motion for a student referendum on the question. In arguing against affiliation, Resistance activist Sean Healy said, "With the re-election of the Keating Labor government, what's needed is the broadest possible student campaign to fight the promised attacks on our rights. Joining and paying $80,000 a year to an organisation which for its entire history has been dominated by that same Labor Party is not going to help that."
NEWCASTLE — Amid the confusion of the first month of campus, the University of Newcastle SRC has announced student elections, with voting only four days before Easter. Coupled with a university by-law that disallows posters or chalk-ups on campus, student involvement in SRC elections has been severely curtailed. In a bid to inject political debate, Resistance has nominated Belinda Taylor as a candidate for president. Running on a platform for an democratic, independent and campaigning SRC, Belinda said that the main aim of the campaign was to publicise the undemocratic nature of the SRC.
- The Third World Interest Group at the University of Newcastle on March 22 heard Dr David Brewster, senior lecturer in paediatrics and participant in Third World health programs, speak on child health programs in the developing world. Statistical comparisons indicate, he said, that equity in distribution of wealth, and not merely the "wealth" of a nation as a whole, is a key factor in determining the health of the entire population.
- Politics in the Pub at the Grand Hotel on March 23 focused on the pornography and censorship debate. Censorship supporters argued that the issue is not freedom of expression but limiting stereotyping, degradation and victimisation. Speakers against flagged the risks of joining with right-wing moralists and expressed concern that such legislation could easily be used to limit positive expressions of sexuality.