The Digger No.8 December 1972

B isexu ality as th e lib erated w ay to b e

by Helen Gamer: page 3

HAW KE IN HIS AER IE Bob Hawke interviewed by Jenny Brown: page 6

Ian Turner Monash history professor, helps run the Victorian ALP’s day-to-day bus­ iness. Another Labor man explains Turner’s importance in the scramble after Federal intervention last year: “ He’s the only guy who could count, without taking his running shoes off.”

According to Turner’s higher maths, Labor has won by doing things right; he’s worked too hard to see victory as something that fell into his party’s lap.

P age 1

by Frank Moor house who doesn’t believe in these things, talks to a New Wave politician about what a Labor government will mean to the counter-culture.

P a g e 7.

Ponch Hawkes reports a conversation

Cheryl Buchanan the aboriginal activist who toured China, and found China good. With images from Ningla A-Na, the film that the black delegation took with them, which the Chinese found good, Page 4 .

B ob A dam son reviews R andy N ew m an W endy Bacon on Pat M ackie’s $ 3 0 ,0 0 0 Frank Packer’s paper said some hard things about Mackie’s role at Mt. Isa. Now a jury has said Packer must pay.

BLANK PAGE FOR ISSUU VERSION ONLY

Page 1

Catholic Church goes cold on smoke:

R eport from the orchestra p it —

How Labor won

M uch M ore no more

by Ian Turner The pendulum theory o f politics — the picture of the swinging voter oscillating between the ins and the outs — is supposed to explain why Labor won. It doesn’t. If the pendulum had worked, Doc Evatt or Arthur Calwell (or both) would have become Prime Minister years ago, and Gough wouldn’t be riding high today.

Likewise the theory that it’s not the opposition which wins elections, it’s the government which loses. That’s bullshit too. The Libs have been losing for years, but Labor hasn’t been a winner. So what happened this time?

Quite a lot. It’s true, o f course, that the Libs were in total disarray.

They never really recovered from The Passing of the Third Floor Back.

(For the uninformed, that was a novel about Jesus in a bed-sitter, by one Jerome K. Jerome, whose Three Men in a Boat is still brilliant slapstick if you skip the soulful descriptions of the Thames.)

Sir Robert didn’t believe in sur­ rounding himself with leadership talent. What there was, he sacked, exiled, or kicked upstairs. He be­ queathed his government to an amiable sycophant, Harold Holt, who fought and won a khaki election on Vietnam, proclaiming himself “All the way with LBJ”, and was then swallowed by the surf.

In the Prime Minister’s Stakes, one front runner scratched — Billy McMahon, who had earlier been blackballed by Black Jack McEwen.

The race went to John Grey Gorton, the greatest outsider to come home since Wotan won the Melbourne Cup. He took it by a short head from Paul Hasluck, who was soon trans­ lated to higher spheres at Yarralumla.

But Gorton vias a loner and a maver­ ick, and he didn’t carry the establish­ ment money. They used his boozing and wenching as the excuse to give him the arse.

By now McMahon was safely wedded and bedded, and the black­ ball was withdrawn. The establish­ ment approved the “sound” (read reactionary) policies he had followed as Treasurer, and he was the pea.

But Number One was too big a load.

Gorton had behaved like a larrikin; but, while his behaviour drew public fire, secretly most people admired or envied him. McMahon didn’t have the guts to be a larrikin. He was captain of the push, but he couldn’t front the bastards from the bush.

He didn’t draw the sly shuckle which greeted Gorton; he copped the hollow laugh.

From the beginning it was a real fuckup. The man had little skill and less w it and absolutely no sense o f the occasion. Maybe he had been a good book-keeper, but he didn’t have anything going for him as managing director. He dithered on decisions. He tried to grab all the good breaks for himself, and dumped the bad ones on his colleagues. He demonstrated an unusual talent for putting his supporters offside, but little capacity for dealing effectively with his opponents. And he made gaffe after gaffe — the latest, “ We will honor the problems we have made.”

So McMahon was looking frayed around the ears, the government was in disorder, and the smart Libs were getting out from under. So wasn’t that why Labor won? It helped, but that wasn’t what swung it.

There were three decisive elements in the Labor win — organisation, initiative, and a groundswell in the electorate which Labor went along with — even anticipated — and the Libs didn’t (maybe couldn’t).

Surreal crit You have gone through a couple of highs and quite a few lows since Digger hit the streets and my eye­ balls, but whoever wrote the crit on the surrealist exhibition at the National Gallery has hit rock bot­ tom, and maybe further.

The greatest enemy o f art is ig­ norance, and he/she/it sure as hell went ahead and proved it. What sort of criticism is ‘a couple of Dali’s which were pretty good’? That is more suitable applied to meat pies than to paintings, and there is a difference.

The exhibition was no great shakes. It was fairly representative, and it’s probably the closest any o f us will get to Surrealist art. Your writer stopped a few people from seeing it, by his/her/its distinterest

This was the first time for ten years that Labor had gone into an election fight looking like a united party. Previous campaigns had seen the various sections of the party running madly in opposite directions.

The voters — who couldn’t care less about the fine points of Labor factionalism — were not impressed.

This time it was different. Labor spoke with one voice.

Secondly, initiative. Politics is like war: the side which calls the plays is odds on to win. Usually the govern­ ment has the jump, and the oppos­ ition starts from way behind scratch: This time, all of Labor’s basic policies were in the public arena six months or more ahead of the election, and the Libs were trailing.

In the last weeks of the campaign, commentators were complaining that the election was a choice of person­ alities, not of issues. So it was in some respects — because the Libs, devoid of ideas of their own, had swallowed everything out of Labor’s policies they thought they could stomach. But still there were impor­ tant differences — conscription, neutralisation of South East Asia, full employment, equality in educ­ ation, Aboriginal land rights, the 18 year old vote, a comprehensive national health scheme, urban re­ newal — and Labor was making the running.

These were the issues which were hitting the changing electorate. The Libs had already lost the young and up-and-coming voters on Viet­ nam, conscription, aboriginal rights, the Springboks, and the shortage of jobs for school leavers. They were rapidly losing the 25-35 age group in inflated land and housing prices, education, conservation, and the strangled cities. The Libs didn’t wake up — they were blinded by privilege, private enterprise, and the DLP. Labor did — in fact, Labor was out in front. This looks like a long-term shift. Certainly, it’s some­ thing the Libs in their present state can’t cope with. The likelihood is that, now they’ve been thrashed, they’ll fragment.

There were differences in style, too. An autocue can’t compete with sleight of foot on the public plat­ form. McMahon was disastrous on TV. But that was a bonus — wel­ come, but not what tipped the scales.

In the final stages of the campaign, the Libs used their DLP running dogs to throw the shit — porn, pot* law and order, flying foetuses. (For the conoisseur of Christian values, it’s interesting to note that it’s the DLP which revels in the shit the Lib silvertails won’t touch.) But it was too late. The voters had made up their minds, and the DLP went down the drain.

So that’s how Labor won — faster thinking, better organisation, better presentation, a policy which recog­ nised the needs of the new elector­ ate. And that’s why the Libs lost.

But it’s not good enough to win.

Billy on the phone to business.

Murdoch v. M cM ahon

Ripping o ff derros: .

When Rupert Murdoch had lunch with William McMahon a few months ago and decided McMahon wasn’t fit to be running kis country, it was at last exit time.

With the final curtain coming down on McMahon’s political career Murdoch returned to Australia purely for the purpose of seeing Labor be­ come government, and perhaps to supervise the kill.

Consequently his prestige news­ paper The Australian decided it was time to run a series called “What Businessmen Think About the Elec­ tion”. The three-part series was written by Dennis Minogue and heavily censored/balanced by editor Owen Thomson, who, like all good Murdoch editors, was very concerned he should not offend anybody.

Minogue was worried about how far he could actually go in saying that businessmen were all supporting Labor. But he wrote it like that, and used tape-recorded quotes for sup­ port.

On the Monday in the first art­ icle under the heading “This Governhas let us down too often” he quoted Vic Jennings of the A.V. Jennings family thus: “Australia udner Mc­ Mahon should be known as ad hoc land . . . this government could not plan a charity raffle, let alone the nation’s affairs.”

Tuesday, mining millionaire Lang Hancock was quoted thus: “This lot is okay if they’re talking about selling ice-cream or hot dogs in the street. But get them on a big deal and they won’t know what they are

talking about.” Minogue also quoted Bill Gibbs, managing director of GMH as saying “I don’t think we could say we were happy with the way things were going.” Sir Norman Giles, chairman of Elders-GM is quoted thus: “I think our industry has been disappointed with the lack of liaision in recent years.

Understandably McMahon freaked and tried to get the series canned.

Murdoch said no dice.

It then appears Billy went to the businessmen, for on that Tuesday The Australian received three com­ plaints from the relevant business­ men. McMahon must have threatened hell when the Liberals were returned, (for instance G-MH being a multi­ national company, and the question of foreign ownership.)

Thus Jennings, Gibbs and Giles all contacted their lawyers to issue writs against The Australian on the grounds of being misquoted, misrepresented and being quoted out of context.

Unfortunately for Gibbs and Giles, the tape-recorder said otherwise and they didn’t crack first base.

The Vic Jennings interview how­ ever, wasn’t on tape. He demanded and received a retraction. The re­ traction was written by the News Ltd. lawyer, and The Australian apologised for misquoting and mis­ representing Jennings. The score was one out of three to McMahon.

But likely as not, the damage had been done. * * * Reactionaries typically assume that the situation is all right — it’s

Open h/s/i’s brain and eyes more.

A d rift...

Firstly, I was very interested to read Bruce Hanford’s excellent and well researched articles on Colonial Abortion. He quotes Barry (later Barry J.) in issue 5 alluding to the case of R. v. Dudley & Stevens (1884) 14 Q.B.D. p273, and his com­ ment about “justification” is valid, but the facts are wrongly cited. The appellate court did find Dudley & Stevens guilty of murder, the penalty for which was hanging. However* executive action commuted the sen­

the criticism of the situation that’s creating the problem. So it was natural that McMahon’s energy went into stifling criticism, rather than trying to create a new situation. He was always on the ‘phone, we’re told. The ABC got ‘phone calls.

Journalists got ‘phone calls. And senior public servants in other minister’s portfolios got ‘phone calls.

Last month McMahon rang up Cook, the head of Labor and Nat­ ional Service, which is Phil Lynch’s portfolio. He talked to Cook about unemployment figures. McMahon has been trying to diddle the figures, and on one occasion in recent months, they were withheld for a few days to see if anyone missed them. (They were missed.)

It’s generally believed that unem­ ployment increased during November.

The official figures for November weren’t due for release until after the election, but . . . Labor and National Service collects mid-mon­ thly figures, which it keeps quiet.

McMahon was worried about a leak.

Cook gave him reassurances, appar­ ently, that the department would keep the statistics secure.

Well, we haven’t been able to score those figures. * * * Bolte’s biographer, Peter Blazey, tips Snedden for the Liberal leader­ ship, by February. Gorton will chal­ lenge, but his staunchest supporters will be out of parliament, with the possible exception of Killen.

Address letters/telegrams to: The Digger, 58 Canterbury Road, Middle Park, Vic.,*3206.

Michael Bisits Burwood, Vic. P.S. Is Jenny Brown for honest to God real?

Sure.

The Much More Ballroom, where 1400 freaks paid $2 fortnightly for music and theatre, closes next week­ end (Dec. 9). The promoter, Bani McSpeddon, received a ‘phone call from Monsignor Jones, the Catholic Church’s property manager, termin­ ating his tenure at the Brunswick St., Fitzroy (Vic.) hall.

Ballroom staff claim the Church is wild about dope. The story goes: a kid confessed to toking at the Ball­ room, and his confessor rang the Archbishop. Reporters’ efforts to confirm this have been met by cathedral calm.

Did the directive to terminate come from up in the heirarchy?

Jones: Not really.

Was the Ballroom closed because the Church had a complaint about drug use there?

Jones: stories will go around. I’m not even offering any comment on that.

Why ,did the Church terminate?

Jones: We have our uses for this hall, and\ it’s entirely our business . . . Mr pcSpeddon is a splendid person, we’ve come to an amicable agreement, and he was happy with the arrangement.

But did the Church act because of drug abuse in the hall?

Jones: I can’t co i firm that.

The Victoria Drug Squad patrols the Ballroom at times, but isn’t worried about it much. The local police station says they’ve never had any trouble there. The local council social worker says she’s heard stories about drugs being sold on lolly trays, but really wouldn’t know, because she had never been there.

The social worker said she’d heard the story about the confession.

“I thought it was hilarious,” she said.

tence to six months imprisonment (Smith & Hogan, “Criminal Law” London, 1965, on p.122).

Most lawyers have considered this an excessive punishment, wherein a conservative court was emotionally swayed, by the horrid act of cannabalism, to a decision Hanford rightly points out as legally dubious, and most of us would agree is morally wrong. Most people would surely consider 24 days in a longboat, with almost no water and only a few onions and cabin boy flesh adequate punishment.

In Issue No. 6, on page 3, The Digger ran an anonymous article by a schoolteacher. She wrote about an open discussion o f sex with her first formers. In No. 7, Simeon Kronenberg's letter was printed. He critic­ ized the article for implying (in his reading o f it) “that there is one way only o f experiencing sexual love, that between man and woman."

Here is the schoolteacher's reply:

Philip A.J. Derham Balwyn, Vic.

Dear Simeon, I don’t think I took on the role of sexual expert. Did it sound like

M s X replies

that? As a matter of fact I seem to remember saying “I don’t know” quite a lot. Everything else you said was fair comment on what I ac­ tually wrote, but I’d like to explain that we did talk about homosexuality — I’m not quite sure why I didn’t write about this part of the conver­ sation, but suspect it might be be­ cause of my own uncertain exper­ ience of homosexual love. I hesit­ ated over writing in the article one of the questions: HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A LESBIAN IN ACTION? and finally decided not to, because it opened up a whole new area that I felt I couldn’t have done justice to in the scope of the article.

Anarchists eye cops Social workers in inner suburban agencies in Melbourne have formed a strong suspicion that members of the Victoria Police have relieved homeless • men of their pension money, when arresting them for the usual nuisance street offences. There has been one internal police inves­ tigation. However, the men have suf­ fered less harrassment in the past few weeks. This may be the result of a direct action campaign by the Free Store anarchist group, who have been shadowing and fronting the men in the mysterious Green Van. A welfare agency is considering a scheme to get evidence about the “loss” o f money from street offenders. If in fact any police are doing this sort of thing, they should not do it anymore.

Of bombs and alternatives;

Sugar bags offs exam s On Monday the 20th at about 10.30, 712 Psychology I students were evacuated from Unisearch House at the University of New South Wales. They stood about as the police carried to the toilets an airline bag containing a bomb made

When the kid asked me that ques­ tion, I interpreted it to mean “What do Lesbians do?” My experience of a lesbian relationship was emot­ ionally ecstatic but physically puz­ zling, and when I looked at the ques­ tion I had an instantaneous flash of myself, ignorant and unsure, and it was all too close to the bone for me to answer truthfully. I mean: I could have said “I’ve been there and I still don’t know” , but I thought I could handle it better (and probably more usefully to them) by saying what I know in my head that lesbians do, and by showing that this, like guys fucking together, was another way of getting close to someone you liked or loved.

I really think I did go some dis­ tance towards what you were talking about in your letter. But it wasn’t, I should mention, a major strand in the entire conversation. I can’t tell

“There’s no denying smoking goes on here,” said McSpeddon. “The police, the social workers, even the Drug Squad say it’s going to happen in any public place, but the Church doesn’t want to know.”

McSpeddon says he’s had 30,000 paying customers through the hall without a fight. The only time he had any trouble — a fight, some theft, and property damage — was at the Nation Review's Second birth­ day party, when booze freaks and booze came into the hall.

As Jones intimates, McSpeddon isn’t that hung up about closing down. The promoter says that the Ballroom has gotten too big and out of hand. The rock scene isn’t producing the sort of theatrical acts that he wants to book, and the older head-type customer is being infil­ trated by younger, straighter kids who don’t get it on with the revues and progressive acts like MacKenzie Theory.

McSpeddon is talking about some smaller venue for a mixed-media promotion for the new year, but he isn’t certain. * * *

bellow H ouse too Sydney’s Yellow House died last week, when people setting up a wo­ man’s art show discovered eviction notices. Most of the potential mour­ ners were long since into other things, and Van Gogh’s vision of an artist’s commune in the sunny south went without a whimper. A book has been written about a segment of the House’s history; a full bio­ graphy would be gratefully received.

out of a pound of sugar, half a pound of saltpeter, alarm-clock wires and batteries, labelled “Made in China” and set to blast in 10 minutes time.

The army then moved in to defuse it.

A few minutes earlier a caller told the lady on the uni switchboard, “ A gelegnite bomb will go up in the Psychology I exam between 10 and 11.” The lady is reported to have replied, “Good, we’ll have plenty of time then.”

On Tuesday another caller told the C.I.B., “The next one will be bigger, heavier and real.”

In the past week the bomb threats have spread to Sydney, Macquarie and Canberra universities. In Sydney students are being searched before they enter the exam rooms.

Staff see it as either the work of unprepared students, or an organized threat to disrupt exams which, of course it is. * * * A trio of Sydney high school students has a scheme to have a school going by next school year which will be “a complete alter­ native to secondary school.”

The idea grew from the Alternat­ ive Community Telephone group, and a series of meetings at Glenfield Farm (a commune near Sydney).

Seminars are to be held from the 11th through the 14th o f December, somewhere in the city, then a final meet at Glenfield on the 15th.

Information: Call Kerry; (Sydney) 83-7865, Martin; 44-4656, or the ACT (see Sydney Flyer).

if this was because they sensed my uncertainty or because they simply weren’t so interested in the subject of homosexuality. I honestly don’t know if there is anyone in that class anxious about his or her homosexual feelings. The line I took, anyway, was the one that labels are pointless and that people have got the right to express sexually whatever love they have for whoever.

I wish I had felt surer about it, and I agree with you that it’s terribly important. But as I said, the channels are open between us now, and I don’t know what will happen before the end of the year. After that it will never be the same between us again, so maybe I’ve missed my chance.

Yours sincerely, The mysterious Ms X.

December 2 — December 16

Page 2

The Digger

December 2 — December 16.

Gay brothers off Anglican hardhats Published by High times Pty Ltd, 58 Canterbury Road, Middle Park, 3206.

Telephone 69 7 4 4 6 ,6 9 7447 Published fortnightly throughout Australia. Cover price is recom­ mended retail maximum.

Below: The old, retired minister came out o f the church, say the demon­ stration — his face filled vjtih glee/hate, and he waved his fundamentalist fists skyward to God. Right: The tall guy with the battered top hat a la Marc Bolan stood next to the minister and offered his hand to the devout, who needless to say recoiled as if he were a leper.

Far Right: The replacement minister and his flock . . . and there were some who wore the inverted pink triangle that marked homosexuals for the Nazi's gas chambers.

Editorial: Bruce Hanford, Phillip Frazer.

Administration: Garrie Hutchinson Advertising and circulation: Terry Cleary Artwork and layout: Ian McCausland!

Subscriptions and typesetting: Sue Cassio Editorial assistance: Tess Baster Reporting: Jenny Brown, Colin Talbot.

Sydney office: Editorial and ad­ vertising: Jon Hawkes, or Ponch.

8 Norfolk Street, Paddington, 2021.

Telephone: 31-5073.

Distributors: New South Wales: Allan Rodney Wright (circulation) Pty Ltd, 36-40 Bourke Street, Woolloomooloo, 2021. Telephone 357-2588.

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Telephone 30-4222.

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by Robert Tucker Significantly cops made up about 15% of the crowd. Uniforms and plain clothes. They were all on edge, all tense: “You take a picture of me and I’ll ram the camera down your throat.”

“How old are you anyway, son?”

- 22.

The Digger accepts news, feat­ ures, artwork or photographs from contributors.

Send material with a stamped SAE if you want it back, to The Editors, The Digger, 58 Canterbury Rd., Middle Park, Vic, 3206.

The Digger is a member of the Underground Press Syndicate (UPS).

Back numbers Copies of issue, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 o f The Digger are available from the office for 45 cents.

Send postal order or cheque to: Back Numbers, The Digger, 58 Canterbury Road, Middle Park, 3206.

Twelve months worth of The Digger, 26 issues, will set you back $7.80. Unless you come under one of the following categories: OUT-OF-TOWN SPECIAL: If your postcode is 25 miles from a capital city, you can have one year’s subscription for $5 all up.

QUEENSLAND SALVATION SPECIAL: If you live in Queens­ land, the odds are you’re not reading this unless you’ve already subscribed, given the effective ban on Thé Digger by distributors in the northern state. However and whether or not, Queenslanders pay only $5 regardless of their city/country status.

Sue Cassio, Subscriptions Manager, The Digger, 58 Canterbury Road, Middle Park, 3206.

Dear Sue, I enclose my cheque/postal order for $7.80/$5.00 ($5.00 subs are only available to sub­ scribers living outside a 25 mile radius of capital cities, or in Queensland). Please put me down for one year’s sub­ scription to The Digger (26 issues).

“And are you a homosexual, too?”

- Yes. “For Christ’s sake, what’s wrong with you, can’t you feel attracted to women, like the rest of us?”

I guess there were about 150 of us and maybe 30 cops. Sweaty

How Wainer's Fertility Control Clinic is working

Some come nervous

by Bruce Hanford Doc Wainer rang up a few days ago. It was late afternoon. He said he had a patient in the other room.

The lady had come from Brisbane, was short of money, needed a bed for the night. Wainer sounded a little punched-out. He hadn’t been able to get on to any of the womens’ or­ ganizations.

I asked the people in the room if anyone knew of a spare bed, for one of Wainer’s patients.

“There’s a spare bed here,” said Cleary, the advertising man.

Wainer has never seen this office.

I hope the lady isn’t of tender sens­ ibility — but, if it’s an emergency, well, cool, all right.

“Tell her to hurry, so we can let her in,” I said. “Everybody is going but soon.” I had a dinner party to get to.

“I’ll tell her to be there, yester­ day,” Wainer said.

About the time I gave up, the lady showed Up in a Yellow Cab. I went out front, introduced myself, and showed her in. She was a small, thin girl, and very tidy. She wore a black and white frock, and she seemed very straight to feel at home in The Digger's big dirty spooky terrace house.

I am watching the lady’s face, and becoming increasingly aware of how The Diggentes’ habitat appears to members of the Vice Squad, and girls from Brisbane.

A dentist chair, a wicker basket, a broken window, long corridors where yellowing advertising fliers walk around, impelled by drafts, naked light bulbs, flies and mice, a half; empty flagon sitting in the middle of an empty room with a red paint floor, and here and there . . . scalpels, which we use to cut paper.

In fact, here we have become the very sort of people our parents warned us against. The Friendly

Bella Abzug's garbage:

D irty little w ar

Name Address .P’code

Make cheques payable to Hightimes | Pty. Ltd. crossed not negotiable.

Sydney Sunday morning 9.30 a.m.

— the great unwashed assembled.

Wicked, defiled, unworthy, unre­ pentant. Cops lurking around the peripheries, threateningly.

At first, not a straight parishioner to be seen — well, except for a poor old Italian lady with her grossly over­ weight Sydney silky. She kept on looking at me, turning her head time and time again, then broke down weeping, her head in her hands.

“Getta de filth outta de Church.”

The television people arrived.

Three months ago they wouldn’t touch us and here they were today — three crews. Just another story for

-fro m UPS New York — Bella Abzug owns stock in the war industry. Abzug, lower Manhattan’s congresswoman, is a loud opponent of the Vietnam war.

The disclosure was made by A.J. Weberman, a writer who studies people’s garbage. Weberman is wellknown here, and elsewhere, for his analytical article on Bob Dylan’s garbage. He has been collecting cel-

Strangers.

“Well, I’ll show you the kitchen . . . there’s tea if you’d like to make yourself a cup . . . and Tez — you said there were clean sheets up there in Jenny’s room — yeah? Well . . .”

The lady is beginning to sniffle.

She’s had a hard day.

Children By Choice told her she could score an $80 abortion in Mel­ bourne, and gave her Wainer’s ad­ dress.

Brisbane doesn’t run on Daylight Savings Time. A direct flight from Brisbane to Melbourne costs $111.80; you are 110 minutes in the air, and you arrive 50 minutes after you de­ part . . . confusing. So here you are in Melbourne, looking for an $80 scrape, and you take a taxi to an address.

The address is a complicated building, and it isn’t expensive or modem. In fact, it’s a little confusing.

There are Liberal Party signs in the hallway, and someone has written graffiti on them. You ask at the Real Estate office where to go, and you leave your port there, and then you have to walk up the stairs to see Dr Wainer. That seems odd, that a lady 17 weeks pregnant should have to walk upstairs.

At the top of the stairs is a lan­ ding. To the right is a waiting room.

Across the landing are two doors.

One is shut. The other is open. Dr Wainer’s sister was in the little room with the open door. She talked to you. You waited, and got to see Dr Wainer. You’re not sure whether to trust him for being famous, or not.

He talks to you, gives you some tests, and another address. You go there. The second doctor talks to you. He’s talking about $250. After a while, he’s talking about $160.

You want it for $80, which you heard about in Brisbane. The second doctor seems to suss you’ve got some

J ebrity garbage as research for a book, to be called You Are What You j Throw Away. Abzug’s garbage con­ tained notices to a stockholder, authorization cards, and annual re­ ports of two corporations, Litton Industries, and American Machine & Foundry.

Litton Industries produces Royal typewriters, and Monroe calculators.

It also holds a $30-million contract for fighter-bomber navigation gear, ! and a $12-million contract for an­ ! other large weapons system.

American Machine & Foundry, j which produces Voit sportsgoods, | AMF 10-pin bowling equipment, and Harley-Davidson bikes, has govern­ ment contracts totalling $80 for three types of bombs.

Confronted with the story Weber­

us defiled. the 6 o’clock news. Like hell, most As we chanted — Down with of them were apprehensive, so many fags and dykes out in the open. We’re1 Church hypocrisy, the minister shook hands with his flock and smil­ all gay, we’re all straight, b u t. . . ed, such a well washed, scrubbed up The real parishioners were arriving. man. The parishioners looked as They were impervious or at best hos­ though they were enjoying the con­ tile. In they filed, mainly women flict being on the side of right. Did in their fifties, their necks old and any of them miss Peter Borsall-Boone wrinkled and quite a different color since he was sacked as their church from their heavily powdered faces secretary for publicly stating his ho­ with bright red lips, rouged cheeks, mosexuality on “Chequerboard”? pink/violet/grey/white hair, small “Well, he was more or less proud hats and a couple of net veils. Being of it, had he expressed some repenold in Mosmon would be no fun, tence it may ave been different.” either. Their legs bowed under the Or so the Reverend Bruce Smith said spreading weight of their bodies. on TDT. We were all supporting this In they went to be saved, and called guy, Borsall as he’s called, not be-

cause we liked him especially — when I saw the “Chequerboard” I thought the only thing he revealed was that given half a chance homo­ sexuals were as boring as anyone else — but because he was a gay brother, kicked around and arsed-up by the arrogant Anglican hard-hats.

The demonstration was important for us as homosexuals. It was bigger than any of our previous demonstrat­ ions, it was aimed at a direct and blatant oppressing institution and it set a precedent for employers who are going to sack any jpubliballyhomosexual employee.

And the ferry trip was really nice (we saw the Governor on the

balcony of Kirribilli House, in his pyjamas, or so John maintains). At the church there were lots of gay brothers and sisters unabashed, un­ ashamed and uninhibited by the cops and Church heavies. We were young and old, straight and freaky.

I liked the two gay men about 35-40, in immaculate black tailored suits, white shirts, grey silk ties, Italian shoes, belts and handkerchiefs with dazzling Gay Liberation orange and yellow badges on their lapels and black armbands with inverted pink triangles on their sleeves — the sign Nazis put on queens before gassing them.

money. You have, in fact, got $120, which Wainer mentioned, but . . .

The appointment is for 9.30 the next morning. You leave the second address, and remember you’ve left the first address, and discover the Real Estate office is locked up for the day. You go upstairs to see Dr Wainer. He can’t seem to do anything about it. What are you going to do?

He says he’ll see if he can find you a place to stay. After a long time, he comes up with an address . . .

“I couldn’t stay here”, she says.

She has a Kleenex in her hand. She hasn’t told me her first name.

“Well . . v then we’ll find you another place. Come along with me, I’m going to a dinner,'there’s a lady there who’ll know someone who may give you a bed.”

The lady grows less distressed when we are in the cab. I talk a lot of versimiltude, to convince her th a t I am not an aborter. She seems willing to believe that I am not.

By the time we get to the city, she asks me if there is a People’s Palace in Melbourne.

“Two blocks up the street — there, you see it.”

“Maybe I could get a room there.”

We discuss ways of getting money from Brisbane to Melbourne early in the morning. She asks me if they’ll give her a room, if she doesn’t have her port. I go in with her. They do.

I write my name and number in her notepad, and ask her to ring me if she has any more trouble. She rang the next day, but I wasn’t in.

The dinner party ran on until two the following afternoon. * * * “Isn’t it funny, mate,” Tez says, “how things go wrong on the day of the abortion? I don’t know how many flat tyres I’ve had. I don’t know how many times I’ve misplaced money.”

I went to talk to John Halpin, a draft resister, the other day.

We were in an empty house. The residents were moving. We had a long talk in an empty room, Halpin looking through these papers, and reading them to me. He pulled out a quote from Elridge Cleaver about the violence that oppressed people commit on each other.

Halpin said that, in bourgeois culture, people attack each other as

though social problems were caused by individuals doing the wrong thing.

When they do this, their attention is diverted. They bicker about each other’s personalities, instead of get­ ting it on to discover the social causes of problems. This kind of criticism is destructive.

Revolutionary criticism is con­ structive. Instead of trying to portion out the blame on comrades, it is devoted to discovering the correct political analysis of the situation, so that the situation can be changed.

Doc Wainer is referring to regis­ tered doctors, men who are not quite outlaws, men who want to make a good, comfortable, middle-class life from abortion. These men are sup­ ported in their ambition by a law that oppresses all of us, by denying women control of their own, indiv­ idual fertility.

Until that law is repealed, there will be a great weight on every wo­ man who gets pregnant. That weight is felt every time men and women couple. You all know what I mean.

Men tend to relate to women and their sex like bandits.

I don’t th in k ,, however, that Wainer is to be despised. The fertility control clinic is a tactic. He says he will use it to get a better price for the customers, while the present law exists. And by making the mar­ ket for abortion more visible, and by showing that it can be manipulated by the customers, if they act to­ gether, he is probably making it more difficult for the law to affect us. He may contribute to the repeal of the law.

Anybody who expects Doc Wainer to do the Right Thing, or be omnis­ cent or infallible, or Solve The Problem* or even to stay continually sober, celibate, clean-shaven and of decorous language, has got the op­ pressor inside their head. Anybody that says that’s the way he should be, and ain’t it awful that he ain’t, is the oppressor. The important thing is to off the law on abortion, because it’s a law that’s screwing up a lot of people.

When you criticize Wainer, crit­ icize him for what he’s doing, not because you need a hero . . . or a villian. Anyhow, that’s what I think.

I went to 104 Wellington Pde.,

East Melbourne, to see Wainer. The clinic is running about 12 appoint­ ments a day, and quite a few more people come in from the street.

Wainer finished with his patient, a woman in her mid-30s. Her husband has been hospitalized for years, and has two children, who have just become schoolage. She gets a pen­ sion. She got pregnant a little while ago. The putative father shot through.

She’s been to eight GPs, who’ve knocked her back. She went to Casualty at Queen Vic, and they told her to come back to the abortion clinic in three weeks. She came around to see Wainer. Now she’s going somewhere else. I go into his office. It looks more homey than it did a fortnight ago. There’s a screen, an examining table, a little bit of paraphenalia.

Apparently her boyfriend flew down from Brisbane the next day.

He heavied Wainer about referring to backyarders. He had a run-in with the second doctor about the price. The second doctor felt (A) that they had the money to pay $160; and, (B) that he was justified in asking the price because the preg­ nancy was in the 17th week, which meant a more complicated job for him.

A fter the argument, he told the lady and her boyfriend to piss off.

They thought about it for a while, and rang him back. They said they'd pay the $160. He told them he had a tight schedule, and couldn't see them again for at least two weeks. “ . . . off the street, who come in shaking and terrified, without an appointment. I try to see them, if they’ll wait. You can’t say push off.”

“You’re losing your tan,” I tell Wainer.

He smiles, hiding his teeth. He’s been open several weeks, and he’s got a case load of about 60 or 80 a week, from the look of things.

How many patients has he struck who’ve been cranky? “It’s weird,” he says. “This one fellow came in, and just stood there saying, ‘so this is an abortionist’s clinic’. It’s not, I told him. ‘Sure it is,’ he said.

He would not be convinced.”

“But how common is that pat­ tern?”

“Aw, not really common. I’ve had

three like that, so far. I don’t know what they expect — maybe that’s part o f it, too. Most o f them don’t know what to expect when th ey come up here.”

“How are the prices going? It sounds, from the lady you sent to me, that somebody’s trying to get it up.”

“I think we’re averaging about one-two-oh, one-four-oh. It’s negot­ iable/’ “Well, what’s the range?”

He gives me a very low figure, on up to $250. “ Don’t quote the low figure,!’ he says. “If you do, every­ body will reckon they’re entitled to it.” “ $250 is the price for late-interm jobs?”

“Yep . . . well, it depends on the complexity of the job, you know.”

“And the risk?”

“I don’t consider we’re in a risk situation. We’ve got the haemoglobin, the patient’s blood group. We’re in the proximity o f a good public hos­ pital.” Then he gives me a rundown on the formal qualifications of a couple of the doctors. “You can look it up in the medical director.”

I have.

“They getting their receipts for medical benefits?”

Wainer shows me a few.

Wainer says “I believe it’s having that effect, I believe the prices are crumbling a bit in Melbourne.

“I saw a patient who was set for a $20 psychiatrist’s letter, and $180 for the operation. She told them she’d come around here, and they said, what the hell, we’ll do the lot for

man made from her stolen garbage, Abzug admitted owning the stock.

She added, “It’s wrong to profit from this dirty war.” She would not say if she would dispose of the stock.

annual report of the Victorian Social Welfare Department listed its capac­ ity as 110.

In mid-October this year, the Social Welfare minister, Ian Smith, said 50 boys would be released from Baltara. Smith said he was opposed to “institutionalizing” children. He also said that Baltara had a capacity of 120, and was then holding 170 boys.

Doyle, the young Liberal backbencher who chaired the party’s poverty study, that party loyalty counts for more than attention to social reality.

Bolte suppressed Doyle’s poverty study, and gave Social Welfare to Smith.

Smith is unpopular in his de­ partment. He has not had much success in the portfolio. Pentridge gaol has exploded, and the young minister has made a number of stupid public statements about unmarried mothers and the poor that have earned him negative press.

Melbourne Truth recently carried a couple of blind stories (no names) about the sex lives of Liberal polit­ icians. Rumors with wide currency have filled in the names of Dudley

The retort o f the Social Workers

K ids com e back Baltara Reception Centre is in the Melbourne suburb of Parkville.

It holds delinquent boys. The last

The minister’s announcement el­ icited a letter of protest from 75 social workers, employed by the Social Welfare department.

Smith is the son of a grazing family. He got the portfolio because Sir Henry Bolte had something to prove. Bolte had to prove to Julian

$ 100 .”

Wainer points out that he isn’t just referring to abortionists. “I just sent a girl around to the Council for Single Women. She wanted to keep the kid . . . naw, we don’t say it that way, she decided to continue the pregnancy, y ’know? Less inflam­ matory.

“I’ve also seen seven non-pregnant women who’ve been told they were pregnant.”

“By people who’d sell them a job?”

“Yep. D&C on a non-pregnant ut­ erus. Easy money, mate.”

“How’d they show up here?” “ Looking for a second opinion, or a better price.”

Erwin and Ian Smith.

Social work sources point out that in 1966, there was a similar mass push-out at Baltara. Of 50 boys discharged, 40-odd were retur­ ned within six months — all with a brand new set of convictions. In obtaining those convictions, they tended to bring fresh co-offenders into the Children’s Court.

History seems likely to repeat itself. Within a fortnight of this latest push-out, the first boy to re­ appear in Children’s Court was duely returned to Baltara. Within a month, the total was up. to seven — and these seven have brought with them a number of co-offenders, who had no previous experience with Baltara.

The Digger

Page 3

Peter Dickie

December 2 — December 16

Most people I talked to said “Not many.”

N ot “what on earth's happening to me?" but There hasn’t been much notice­ able change in men’s public demean­ “What stopped me from doing this before?” our. The more I looked round me, and the more questions I asked, the clearer it became that if anyone is making a decision for bisexuality, it’s wo­ men. Men’s reactions to the mention of bisexuality as a choice tended to the terse.

“Couldn’t come at it myself.”

“I suppose it’s an act of rebell­ ion.”

“That decision stuffs bullshit.

They just think it’s trendy to say they’re bi, but when it comes to —by Helen Garner was afraid of her cunt, and I guess the crunch, they’re not serious.” she was afraid of mine. And;another Further conversation which got past A long time ago, before I’d ever thing — although I felt a response tq their alarm or irritation revealed vary­ heard o f Women’s Liberation, I read her just like the arousal I’d known ing shades of tentative curiosity,, a review o f a novel. The reviewer, for years with men, I was afraid that outright eagerness and regretful dis­ in paraphrasing the book, remarked ishe would find this response and my missal. in a sympathetic tone that the main expression of it gross, or revolting.’

Everyone I spoke to agreed that, character made love with her friends, So we fell back in confusion, and given the possibility of such decision­ women and men, because she loved the initial rapture trickled away, and making, women find it easier to them. This comment hit me like a we became friends. Since then she’s act on their choice than men. There is, ton of bricks. I stared at the page like come out, and I wonder exactly what an obvious link-up here with the Keats looking out one of his magic I’ve done.

Women’s Liberation movement. My casements: how marvellous! And What are you deciding when you own experience with consciousnessthen I suppose I forgot about it, or decide for bisexuality? And what’s raising, in particular the drama work­ perhaps it was working away in there bisexuality anyway? Can you be shop methods we used for the wo­ under the surface until the next thing both homosexual and heterosexual, men’s play B etty Can Jump, was one came along to bowl me over, my of the important changes of my life. completely? first woman.

“What’s liberation?” asked one I don’t expect to feel again with She was camp and only just be­ straight guy I talked to. “Are you such immediate intensity the meaning ginning to come to terms with the not fully liberated till you’ve had of the word “sister”, but I hope I fact. She worried, and was anxious, your cock up a guy’s ass?” This never lose the openness to other and thought that, having turned me person suggested that there was some­ women that these sessions engendered on to women, she now had me as a thing self-congratulatory about a in me. Whole layers of defences and dreadful responsibility. But I was so straight’s proclamation of bisexuality. fears were stripped away. ga-ga with love that I simply pre­ He also wondered how pure some sented myself to her with a sort of But our new tenderness towards men’s motives were in making such each other was by no means neces­ rabbity, helpless, unexamined, a proclamation : “Some guys make sarily sexual. In fact, in some groups ignorant lust. the choice in a public way because I’ve been in, there was no physical Feeling like that about a woman they’re interested in Movement wo­ contact at all. I’ve visited schools to was like being given a beautiful and men, who in their turn are interested talk to kids about Women’s Liber­ unexpected present. I didn’t even only in guys who would like to be ation, and after an hour or so of start to think about it until I was bi.” Often, he reckons, these guys rapping solidly in mixed groups, I’ve right in the middle of it, and then I have no real sexual interest in other noticed that the girls would be look­ thought till my head was bursting. I men. was a new person, I was more than ing at me and at each other in a new just a woman, I looked at my women Are women really pushing this way: with direct eyes, not veiled or friends with freshly opened eyes. I line? I don’t think you could dispute cool, but as if a kind of joyful laugh­ thought my. life was going to be dif­ the fact that women are a lot more ter were welling up behind them. ferent from then on. If there was openly physically affectionate in The next move, sometimes, with these public these days than they used to kids, was not made — touching hands, ever a choice, this was it, the fact that I embraced the idea of sex with be. (OK I’m talking about women in maybe, or ^reaching out arms — but a woman without a moment’s doubt.

The Scene, around Carlton, in some the possibility of its* being made was But then, we never did get it on. pubs, in the radical theatre groups, in clear to all of us.

Talking with people about the pol­ universities, and obviously in women’s In the same way, if it’s possible liberation groups). Plenty of hugging to make a decision with your heart, itical decision for bisexuality, I’ve and hand-holding, foreheads together decisions of a sexual nature have found this has been a very common when they’re talking, arms round been made. These are the ones that experience. As one guy put it, “People often don’t get involved be­ each other when they’re walking. I seem to me perfectly untrendy. Of­ suppose some people must think ten, probably, they are never even cause they don’t know where to put their finger.” What was I to do with there has been a sudden outburst of spoken about. It may be that action lesbianism round the place. And per­ will never follow, simply because her? I wanted desperately to get near haps there has. How many of these women who make this choice may her, but I’d never realised before women who are so happily into never meet any others, gay or straight, how strong was my conditioning in touching have had what you could who feel easy and confident about a submissive or, rather, a responsive role. I didn’t know how to initiate. I strictly call homosexual experience? initiating a sexual encounter. But

Bisexuality:

joining the middle

the wall has been breached.

Naturally there are people for whom bisexuality is in no way a matter of choice or even of intel­ lectual speculation, but a name fbr what their sexual experience has always been. This sounds a pretty enviable state of affairs; some bisexual people I’ve talked to, and read, con­ sider themselves privileged or ex­ tremely lucky. There was also a tinge of doubt, however, in their attitude towards those of us straights who would like to be bisexual.

One woman told me that, before she realised she liked fucking with other women, she had a lot of un­ satisfying fucks with men which, looking back, she realised were bad because the guys involved were ig­ norant (and ¿o was she). She came out, started having fulfilling relation­ ships with women, was exclusively camp for a year or so, then became aware that, while functioning in a camp scene, she had been repressing her responses to men. At this point she saw that her best course was what Ann Koedt calls “joining the middle” , and she now relates happily to both men and women.

One woman I spoke to was labour­ ing under vihat appears to me to be a delusion springing directly from theory not accompanied by action.

This is the idea that a woman finds the prospect of a sexual relationship or love affair with another woman less threatening than a similar re­ lationship with a man, because she is not afraid of being constantly put down and made to feel inferior on account of her sex by the person she’s in love with.

I don’t want to sound dismissive about "this kind of relief , because I’m sure it must be real; but firstly, this is a negative and rather cerebral reason for approaching other wo­ men, and secondly, although the sexist put-down can be avoided in a woman-to-woman relationship, it’s absurd to think that the fears exper­ ienced in any close involvement are felt only by the woman, and only in terms of sex power. The fear of giving too much of yourself, of being rejected, of plunging in and being neglected, of not being taken seriously, exist independently of sex roles and gender, and no doubt plague homosexuals as painfully as straights.

It would be a serious mistake to think you can escape these pains and pressures by opening yourself to homosexual experience.

Roles of dominance and submis­ sion are certainly not restricted to man-woman relationships. I imagine that two women (or two men) sharing a high level of consciousness about

roles, might be capable of transcen­ ding them. And I hope so, for surely the idea of “joining the middle” means just that: transcending sex roles, or casting them aside, so that you’re loving or touching or fucking another person before anything else.

An attack on your own sexual conditioning is not something that should be undertaken lightly, or to prove a point, or to make a political statement. In fact I can’t imagine it being done at all, except in a mean­ ingless, cerebral, phoney way, unless you get some kind of shock to your system of preferences and defences, probably in the form of the arrival in your life of some person who just pushes all the shit aside and leaves you standing there with the utterly unweatherbeaten emotional skin of a new child.

Maybe some people do retain that child-like curiosity that keeps them yearning for what they haven’t had, or for more of what they’ve only briefly tasted. One woman, who fucks happily and successfully with men, had never been in a consciousnessraising group, but had experienced a strong sexual urge towards another girl.

“I wanted to get it on with women, but I didn’t dare.”

“It’s strange to restrict yourself.”

“I haven’t had many scenes with women, really. I will have. I can tell.” But she was afraid of com­ mitting herself emotionally to a woman.

“I’m afraid of becoming amazingly committed. You’re more at risk with a woman, because it’s something that can’t work.”

Was this because there don’t seem to be any social channels already mapped out for a lesbian affair to flow through?

“No,” she said, “it’s rather that I find it hard to relate to women in a social way. There’s an incredibly complex little net of things that makes me feel it can’t work.”

This sounds like the reverse of the Women’s Liberation position that I outlined earlier. Which end is it easier, or better, to approach from?

And where will we finish up? I’ve talked to many women in the move­ ment who find sexual and other re­ lationships with men pointless and distressing. Some argue for celibacy, others (like the Radicalesbians) for a total sexual commitment to women.

Others battle on in confusion, opting' for the first solution by default, knowing it to be unsatisfactory for them, and not daring to consider the other because of its strictness.

There must be a middle way.

I didn’t intend to make this a

dissertation on the Liberated Wo­ man’s Sexuality. But I felt so much more empathy with the women I spoke to about the bisexuality choice than with the men that I feel unsafe now on the men’s turf, and appear to have retreated onto my own. And on the subject of our respective turfs: why aren’t men establishing theirs?

Turf is a bad word for it. I well remember the rage and fear the several men I know used to exhibit when I came back from consciousnessraising sessions all melty and starryeyed.

“You’re always telling secrets, what do you talk about? You can’t be talking about sex, what’s going on down there?”

Well, we weren’t only talking about sex, but we did talk about it a hell of a lot. I can’t understand why men aren’t learning to talk about it too in an honest and humble way.

Men I know who are eager to talk out experiences and fantasies both hete ro- and homosexual report to me in frustration that they can’t seem to get other guys to open out, or even to listen without awkwardness.

If they can’t even talk about the past, how are they going to get it together in the future?

This brings, me to what, if you can divest it of its Swingers Inter­ national overtones, ought to be the bisexual experience par excellence: group sex. I found it hard to get people to talk about it, but I’ve got a feeling that there’s more of it round than meets the eye, or should I say, passes the lips. People who have talked about it, and also my own limited experience of it, lead me to conclude that it is often not bisexual at all, that what’s happening is two (or more) heterosexual couples fuck­ ing alongside each other; and if there’s any cross contact, it’s between the women, not the men. It’s the same old story: I keep trying to get away from it, but it comes back to this in spite of my efforts. If anyone’s choosing or wanting or trying to be bisexual, it’s the women.

Are the examples I’ve talked about only trendy aberrations? Can people fuck joyfully and freely with their friends of both sexes? It’s a beauti­ ful thought. Even the merest ex­ perience (like mine) of real contact with a person of your own sex is so lovely that all the time you’re thinking, not “What on earth’s hap­ pening to me?” but “What stopped me from doing this before?”

Page 4

The Digger

December 2 — December 16

“People in China often seemed to have the same feelings I find in the Aboriginal community.”

Cheryl Buchanan interviewed by PonchHawkes Cheryl Buchanan grew up in Cunamatta, a small Queensland town where the only jobs for black men are station work or kangaroo shooting and the only work for black women is producing more children.

Her grandfather was a full-blood Maori and her grandmother a fullblood black. “My grandmother was left with six kids and then me. I love her so much — she told me so much about the tribal ways” .

Her father was white and she never knew him.

Cheryl Buchanan sees herself as having been the ‘token bung’ at High School, head prefect and cap­ tain of a couple of sporting teams.

“My mother always pushed me to get an education, to make it in the world and express what is happening to Aboriginal people. Lots o f things happened to make me believe that, times when our family starved, and' this was happening all over.

“I came to believe I had to do something, I always had a chip on my shoulder because I wasn’t, as black as the other kids, a real prob­ lem o f how to identify”.

Cheryl is 20, doing Arts II at Queensland Uni, majoring in Aus­ tralian history. About 2 months ago she learned she’d been invited to spend 4 weeks as part of the First Aboriginal Peoples Delegation to visit China. Invitation courtesy o f the Chinese Association of Friendship with Foreign Countries. Also invited on the tour (which left Australia October 18) were Gerry Bostock of the National Black Theatre; Terry Widders, student teacher from Arim idale, Chicka Dixon, wharfie; Lilia Watson, student from Queensland; Ruby Hammond, field officer for the National Women’s Council in S.A.; Ken Winder, secretary o f the Aborigines Advancement Council in W.A.; Lyn Thompson, black activist based in Sydney; and Peter Long, a tribal black.

They took with them a print of Alessandro Cavadini’s film Ningla-a-na (Hungry for Our Land), a film about aborigines and their struggle for land rights now. (See photographs on this page.)

I was extremely apprehensive about this interview. ,I’d seen Gary Foley in Ningla-a-na doing a very heavy number on whites he thought were fucked in their attitudes to blacks. I’d seen the black women making equally strong statements about the white women’s movement in the same film. And like most young white urban freaks I’d never had any contact with aboriginals, and their struggle has only come into my consciousness in the last few years, two years of which I didn’t spend in Australia.

Cheryl didn’t want to talk about herself much.

She’s been in the black movement in Queensland for about 3 years, has done a lot of community work there, setting up legal and medical services for blacks. She was active in the aboriginal embassy demonstrations in Canberra and is now working to or­ ganize a black studies program, as Director o f Abschol. She describes herself as a socialist, long past wor­ rying whether she’ll cop the “commie” smear for her China visit; “It’s irrelevant, I don’t care, they’ve called us everything anyway” .

She continued; It was a really opportune time for us to go. There has been a lot of international publicity about Vesteys and the position of the ex­ ploitation of mineral wealth in Aus­ tralia. Because of this, people don’t realize how important the Aboriginal question is.

We didn’t meet Mao or Chou but we had a meeting with officials from the Foreign Ministry in Peking and Kuo Mo Jo, he is the vice-chairman of the standing committee of the National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. I don’t think he is- that well known internationally, but it was very important in China that we had met with him.

They all sat around us passed ques­ tions on pieces of paper.

■ 1 1 . - '''••»»i— i The question of the position of women kept coming up ail the time, white as well as aboriginal women.

Also general questions about culture, they also asked us for a position Above: Cheryl Buchanan is greeted in Peking by Kuo Mo Jo, vice-chairman state by state which was very diffi­ o f the standing committee o f die National Congress o f the Chinese?Communist cult, because the position is so dif­ Party. Above right: The First Aboriginal People's Delegation as guests o f the ferent; so before I left I drew a map children at Shangai's Children's Cultural Palace of the ‘bung’ and all the pressures on him.

We talked a lot to Joe Farachi who is the High Commissioner for Malta and he talked to Chou about the Aboriginal question. It is a very sensitive time in relations between China and Australia and at the mo­ ment I think they are really hoping Labor gets in.

We previewed Ningla-a-na to the; Foreign Ministry and then they took ■ m m %J the film and showed it all over. It was being shown all the time we were in China . . . they really wanted to show it to everyone. Once at a uni­ versity we came in as it was being shown and when it came to Gary Foley saying ‘fuck this’ and ‘fuck that’, the interpreter just couldn’t a l go on. They all laughed like mad at The delegation posed with their interpreters outside Mao's birthplace in Shaoshan. The hosts had a great fondness for group shots. the translation of ‘communist under the rug’. When everyone recognized to a national minorities area, and culture. But they were bothered a bit us they started cheering and pointing visited Huhohat and Dar Mo grass­ by our numbers, aboriginals are such and smiling. Everyone knew who we land areas in Inner Mongolia. They were wherever we went, there were a a minority group.

We were taken to a Worker’s Re­ had this incredible horse-riding dis­ lot of articles in the press, and bill­ boards with who we were and what sidential Area in Shanghai where they play, men and women riding, no had kept some shacks from pre­ hands, at about 100 miles an hour. the aboriginal cause was all about.

The emphasis was as it always has We were free to go anywhere we liberation days. We said these are been in their culture — nomadic wanted and crowds always gathered good compared to what a lot of . . . We must have given away 1000’s aboriginals live in, they couldn’t be­ families living in tents. When they of the land rights badges; people lieve it. In a way we had a feeling have special guests they roast a whole lamb, you cut off big chunks didn’t like to take presents, the that they didn’t believe us, because badges were about the only things you know the film didn’t have any­ — no plates no pretensions or bull­ shit, really just like the aborigines. thing about the reserves in it. Once they would take.

We really wanted to stay there. I they had seen the film it was easy to The Chinese media always had us don’t know what influence Mao’s get across the land rights question, posing in groups, I got so sick of thought had on them. They were but we couldn’t get through what group photographs. typical country people who couldn’t But they were so patient and the reserves were. That’s what shits relate to big city ways. me about whites in Australia, always nice, sometimes it was hard to take In Peking we went to the National because we weren’t used to it. Dif­ saying ‘What can we do?’, they can Minorities Institute. It was bitterly run off figures about health etc., ferences like the people who open but they’re still sitting on their arses. cold when they welcomed us, repre­ lifts being as important as the people They don’t get out onto the reserves sentatives of 54 national minority who go up in them. And when we went to the hospital once the inter­ and see what’s really happening. It’s groups in their national costumes, very important for the black move­ and they had overcoats for us to put preters w re taught how to take our ment to do lots more work in the on. At the Institute students from pulse and temperature, just because country areas. But even if they stuck country areas come to learn about that was something they didn’t know every aboriginal in a house it other groups. They don’t go back to before. There was no fear of the wouldn’t take away racism, would say ‘what a wonderful experience I doctors or nurses. The thing there is, it? That part of the assimilation had’ but to teach people what they for example, if you can sew, you policy is going to create quite a back­ learnt. They leam the Han dialect teach everyone you meet. You don’t which is the most common one in lash with the white worker saying, keep it to yourself.

‘Why are they putting all these abos China. The really impressive thing is The Chinese people feel they have that the minority groups are encour­ a moral obligation to support op­ into houses, what about me?’

We went to China as the First aged to retain their culture. pressed peoples. They feel the abor­ As for the position of women, Aboriginal Peoples Delegation, not iginals are the only ones who have well, there have been 23 years since as some pig government group, and a moral right to a movement; they the main interest I had was finding liberation. Consider the thousands feel the whites came later and that of years before that when the Chinese out about the national minority 'there is an onus on them because groups. The sizes of these groups women had no real position at all, of what they have done. They’re not inclined to support things like wo­ varied but some would be about as no names and their feet were bound. small as aboriginal groups. We went What you see now blows your mind. men’s liberation or the alternative

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Certainly there is a feeling of equal­ ity. I think men play the major role in the top structure, but I think that’s going to change. We did speak to a lot of women who related what had happened in the past and how they were really happy now.

We saw people walking hand and hand in the street. I don’t think I saw anyone kissing though. It was puritanical, you could feel that.

All out interpreters were married with children and we talked to them about married life. They might be away for four weeks but they knew their kids were being looked after in a. communal way. Every commune and factory has a child care centre because it’s the responsibility that everyone is cared for. Women nat­ urally get time off for feeding and are given fifty-six days leave when they have a baby. Contraception is freely available and abortion is free on demand, and they encourage people not to have more than two kids. ferent from the way the blacks want to live. They all have the answer to the problems of society but they are only prepared to work when they cap benefit. They don’t think about starvation or infant mortality. They never have to think about where the next meal is coming from. Blacks have never had the freedom to think of getting on top of the system.

That’s one of the things that seems so ridiculous, after China with 800 million people and people here are talking about population control in Australia . . . It’s not a real issue.

And shit when I think of all these freak/white/ do-gooder/pate r n a 1i s t i c doctors going out to the settlements to put aboriginal women on the pill.

Black women, in fact, past, pres­ ent and future play a very important role . . . the black woman is often the breadwinner. I’m not fighting to be on top of men, but that we work beside one another. I wouldn’t work behind any man I’d say Tuck it’.

I don’t want to use cliches but women’s liberation is very elitist, no real emphasis on the fact that they want to educate others outside.

It struck me like lightning, that for the meeting that was shot in Ninglaa-na (in Canberra between black wo­ men and a women’s liberation group), they* had to have a meeting to decide whether they would talk to Us.” When are people going to realize the pigs that are oppressing them?

That’s what shits me about the alternative culture too. It’s a pity they can’t see that in many ways the way they want to live is not difThey just have to wonder where the next meal is coming from, or whether Dad is going to get a job. * * *

You could feel the happiness of the Chinese people, they don’t walk around with Cheesy Queen Elizabeth smiles but the way they do things, you can tell they love doing them.

The thing I dug most was the kids. Everything turned me on so completely about them. They could really relate to everything around them.

We visited the Children’s Culture Palace in Shanghai, 200 rooms, all of it extra-curricular activity.

Kids doing something '(different in every room; learning about the basics of guerilla warfare, they had a shooting game of knocking down planes marked “U.S. Imperialism” .

In other rooms they were having confidence sessions, they had to tell a story to the rest o f the class.

Other kids were playing chequers snakes and ladders, learning how to read morse code and designing aero­ planes and ships. They also had plots of Chinese herbs which they were learning to recognize and use, and in one room they had plasticine models of people with needles to leam about acupuncture.

It really affected me for days afterwards. I kept thinking o f all those dickheads who say they’re brainwashed or indoctrinated. The kids are no different, they do lots of things kids do here. When we went into a room there was usually a spasmodic response ‘Welcome Un­ cles and Aunts’. One little girl kept laughing her head off at our clothes.

I had a fairly set idea about China, but the kids were no different — curious, interested, wanting to get up in front and perform. It was real life, no fuckin’ bullshit Tarzan and the apes or Batman, the puppet shows they made had little morals to them about being selfish and how it doesn’t pay in the end. The kids said they’d read about Australia.

They knew about the trade unions and the universities and the aboriginal situation. They had lots of news­ papers and reading material available to them. And they’re all so healthy, they do exercises four times a day.

The big difference in the educat­ ional system is what they are learning is what they are living and fighting for. There is a real understanding o f Marxist-Leninist theory and what im­ perialism is and what it does. For what they’ve been through and what they have, I don’t think it’s authorit­ arian. Given the goals it would prob­ ably be easy. People are just so happy.

Going to drama lessons or working, they know it’s going to help them as people and help them attain their goals. They are willing to make sac­ rifices to make China self-sufficient; and China is certainly well-prepared for anything that might happen in the future.

Since I’ve come back, I keep being asked about individuality in China. But I just don’t think the Chinese people have lost their indiv­ iduality.

Everything is so different. W hile we were there a young guy ran into an old man with his bicycle and broke his leg. He was tried right there on the street by the people who saw what happened. His punish­ ment was to look after the old man till he was better, cook and clean for him. It reminded me of the old aboriginal way. Putting people in jail doesn’t help anything . . . The crime rate in China is very low. Al­ most no crimes of violence and the majority of cases are settled out of court.

We went to an animal husbandry centre and there was a horse chewing its cud lying down. They stuck the acupuncture needles in, made a 12 inch split finished, sewed it up again and the horse walked away. Later at another place we saw kids with need­ les in their ears talking and laughing with absolutely no fear. Those doc­ tors must be right on with knowing where to put those needles. There has been a big change in the use o f acu­ puncture since the Cultural Revolu­ tion, — a lot more research trying to fuse together Western and Chinese, methods of doing things.

We all got diahhorea, and the big thing there is the “barefoot doctor” someone who knows herbal medicine.

We ^11 had doses and it fixed us up fantastic, worked just like that. * * * I had some misgivings in China, a lot to do with my natural suspicions about things. I mean in Australia I don’t trust whites the same way that whites say you can’t trust blacks.

But people in China so often seemed to have the feelings that I find in the aboriginal community, and they were sincerely interested in the cause o f oppressed peoples. I guess we were used and manipulated . . . but that happens all the time here any­ way.

Because of the situation I was in for four weeks I had a freedom I had never experienced before. I didn’t have to worry about being knocked all the time, I had time to think about things.

I agree with everything they are doing and the way they are doing it. I wouldn’t necessarily do it that way, but if you want to have a soc-, iety work it’s brilliant. But I’m not a raving Maoist. Australia is a differ­ ent story — we have to look at what we are and the resources we’ve got.

I read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and it just cut me. There are a lot of parallels in the history of the red indian and aboriginal people.

Like most of the other black activists, I’ve done a lot of reading about the blacks in the States but at no time did I think that could apply here. We are such a minority — one percent of the population; it would be too romantic.

What you see in China is after a revolution. We can’t shove all .those post-revolutionary trends in here it’s not going to work.

We had talked for a long time — Cheryl concluded , When we crossed the border into Hongkong we were all bawling our eyes out and so were the interpre­ ters.

*■« Black rights Ningla-A-Na

The film that showed in China Ningla-a-na is a film about aboriginals. It’s about facts like that the aboriginal infant mortality rate is the highest of any ethnic group in the world, that aboriginals in Queensland are treated like dangerous and bnbecilic children, and that those in the rest of the country aren’t much better off. And about images — images of a growing black awareness of repression, of anger, of a growing pride, images of patience, of laidback humor, of bitter humor, of hunger, of play, of frustration.

The photos are stills from the film — enquiries about showing it can be made to The National Black Theatre, Regent St., Redfem, N.S.W.

THE MOST IMPORTANT POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY THIS YEAR

BOLTE

Filming o f Ningla-a-na was over many months, many places. A t the Black Moratorium in Sydney, where Bobbi Sykes is shown addressing the crowd (left); at Canberra where, on July 31st this year, the Aboriginal Embassy marched to parliament house (below left), after police had de­ molished the encampment (second from left, far right). The July 31st demo also involved clashes with police ordered into action by McMahon's government by a “government ordinance" (second from right).

A t right is Gary Foley, prominent in the movement and the film

$5.95 AT ALL BOOKSELLERS AUTHOR PETER BLAZEY

December 2 — December 16

The Digger

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If he's got the clap, you got to cop it too . . .

W ell, why can’t a man rape his w ife?

by Beatrice Faust The short answer is because it has been stated as a general principle of law that he cannot. This means that, although there is no law per­ mitting rape in marriage, the laws that do exist suggest a man cannot be prosecuted for raping a woman who is his wife, and cases argued

from these laws reinforce the idea. is to relax and, if not enjoy it, at The lack of protection against rape least not make matters worse by strug­ in marriage irks many women, liber­ gling, the fact that a girl gives in ated or not, but it is mainly dedicat­ quietly may not satisfy the law that ed Women’s Liberation members who she has consented. Many young men sweat over the problem. wind up passing the best years of Rape is essentially having sexual their sex lives behind bars simply intercourse with a woman without because they innocently took silence her consent. Since many girls believe for consent. Rape can be committed that the only way to survive a rape without violence, and even without coercion, although the judge often interprets what coercion means to favor the female. (One1feels for the girl whose assailant claimed she did not object to intercourse, without admitting that at the time he had been carrying an axe . . . This is a fairly clear case of silence indicating commonsense more than consent.)

But what about the youths who were jailed for ten, twelve and fifteen years on the evidence of two girls who claimed they had been forced to a secluded place and raped, when there was a third girl present who avoided the fate-worse-than by simply saying that she did not want to be in it?

The judge in this case didn’t get the message that the third girl had not been raped because she had re­ fused her consent, while the other two could not have been raped be­ cause they gave theirs. He also came to some touchingly stupid conclusions about the girls’ mental state, on the evidence that they had escaped from the scene of their dishonor by swim­ ming across the Yarra and climbing an embankment. In a country where one of the few equalities open to women — indeed, expected of them — is the ability to swim, this is not an indication of amazing fear.

The issue in most rape cases should not be whether the woman consented, but how far can she go before she changes her mind. Many men who offer girls a lift home when what they really want is a lay, are surprised when the victim accepts the lift and rejects their sexual ser­ vices. “Ride home” may be a male euphemism for “fuck”, and it is time everyone in the race faced up to this. On both sides, the penalties for confusion are severe. Many wo­ men will undress without intending to facilitate carnal connection. Ap­ parently, lawyers are very familiar with the complaint “It wasn’t rape — she took her gear o f f ’ and judges are familiar but unsympathetic. On

balance, the men who think that any female who accepts a lift is consent­ ing to intercourse are no more dis­ honest than the women who think they can doff their panty-hose and still say “no.”

Where a spinster is concerned — sorry, unmarried female, individual consent has to be given for each en­ counter. This is a trap for young players who. take continuing consent for granted. One miserable youth had been going through his girl­ friend’s Moonee Ponds’ bedroom window regularly, and was provoked into some not too gentle suasion the night she refused. No-one accep­ ted his defence that he had been led to expect co-operation on the basis of past experience. However, it also catches girls who are used to taking their sex or leaving it: they do not realise that marriage hot only makes sex respectable, but obligatory.

Marriage is a contractless con­ tract. Its bare essentials are laid down in the Commonwealth Marriage Act 1959, and followed most accur­ ately by the Registry Offices. In that form it is simple and manifestly untrue, since it commits the partners to life-long monogamy, when they both know that marriage is not only not indissoluable, but it is dissolved so often that they may even be delu­ ded into thinking the process is easy.

The information conveyed in the simplest marriage service is not only misleading, it is totally inadequate.

In the more complex religious ser­ vices it may be misleading (so long as ye both shall live etc.), inadequate (leaves out all the fiscal and domes­ tic obligations that go with marriage) and irrelevant. A Roman Catholic bride, for instance, promises to re­ gard her spouse as he regards Christ.

Now, while the bridegroom may well be her savior, if she is pregnant, or burdened with an obnoxious fam­ ily, or a boring office job, no wo­ man in her right mind wants to give uncritical adoration which is due The (one and only) Savior.

Marriage confers rights and res­ ponsibilities: usually sexual rights and financial responsibilities for him, and financial rights and sexual responsibilities for her. None of the religious services makes these clear in a way that would satisfy a lawyer drawing up a contract for any other

sort of partnership, although the Jew­ ish service lays down a fairly realis­ tic, and equally shared set of duties and privileges, including a prohibit­ ion that husbands should not force their wives to fuck. This may be one reason why relatively fewer Jew­ ish marriages end in divorce.

The divorce law reformers and the Women’s Liberationists both know that something stinks in the state of wedlock, but they appear to be attacking it at the wrong end. Di­ vorce could certainly be made more just, and less expensive, but couples would still contract foolish marriages unless these terms are well under­ stood before the ring is on. In par­ ticular, women are encouraged to use sex as a means to marriage — either as a reward for an engagement ring, or a form of blackmail, usually helped along by pregnancy. Then they choke on their own wedding lines, because at marriage, a woman gives a blanket consent to inter­ course, which she cannot legally re­ tract. Her husband obtains the right to use her, and she is under a duty to submit. She can only be released from this duty by legal action: a court order, a judicial separation, an agreement to separate which spec­ ifies no-sex, or an outright divorce.!

strong, that while in marrying, ai woman consented to intercourse, she did not consent to acts endangering her health. That is, a woman who re­ fused her lawful wedded could ex­ cuse herself on the grounds that intercourse might endanger her health, and she could use the fact that her husband insisted on his conjugal rights despite the danger as evidence of cruelty in a divorce hear­ ing.

In another cloak and dagger case three years later, a male-chauvinist' by the name of Jackson kidnapped his wife, who had left him, refusing to return even when the court or­ dered her to. Some chivalrous soul took out a writ of habeas corpus to make the hubby let her go. The court decided that even though the woman had defied its order to re­ turn to her husband, he was not entitled to use force to make her.

The widening of the grounds for divorce seemed to give enough lee­ way for women to protect themselves without trumping up rape or assault charges against their partners. This peaceful situation remained until 1949 when the court was asked to explain when a woman could take back her consent. In this case, a Mrs Clarke had a separation order against“ Mr Clarke on the grounds The principle that marriage com­ or persistent cruelty. The order con­ mits the woman to perpetual consent tained the usual clause that the wife and protects the husband from ac­ was no longer obliged to share the cusations of rape, was so widely sheets with the man who was still accepted that it was not even formul­ her husband. When Mr C forced ated until Chief Justice Hale took the Mrs C to fuck, the court convicted matter up in the early nineteenth him of rape. In 1953, Mrs Miller century The precise question of was not so lucky. She had put in whether a man could rape his wife a petition for divorce, after a bit of was not tested in the courts until tooing and froing. The court decided 1949, so that Liberationist arguments that Mr Miller could not be guilty that it should be possible to protect of rape, because although they were a woman from rape in marriage estranged, and likely to be more so, sound naive, or even wrong-headed the wife’s consent was not revoked to lawyers. This is not to say that by simply starting divorce proceed­ the law condones marital brutality. ings.

There are lots of American cases It would be interesting — and ex­ which spell out a duty of forbear­ pensive to see a man taken to court ance for the husband that matches his wife’s duty of submission: he for not using contraception in marital has a right to sex, but he has no intercourse. There are a lot of men who refuse to take this responsibility, right to use violence to get it.

British law is very sparse on this and frustrate their wive’s need for protection from pregnancy. But this area — despite any impressions you is a hard way to prove that a wo­ might have got from the Forstye Saga. In 1888 a cad named Clarence man may consent to copulate in was charged with unlawfully and mal­ marriage without consenting to risk promiscuous conception, and no one iciously inflicting greivous bodily could guarantee that^women’s rights harm on his wife. He had forced in marriage would be widened. her to submit to intercourse, knowing Reform is probably a better-aven­ that he had the clap, and knowing ue — especially with the vast weight that she might be infected, which she of legal opinion now backing divorce was. The court consisted of thir­ law reform. It should be possible to teen judges, who let the man off in get the contract arid modified. The a nine to four verdict. There was least one would ask is that women some feeling, unfortunately not very are granted the right to refuse inter­

course with their husbands — al­ though there are probably a lot of men who feel that women do enough refusing without giving them legal support.

It might be worth legislating that women have the right to their hus­ band’s sexual services. At present, the religious services do assume that women have rights to sex, but the law tends to see women’s marital rights as financial, not erotic, while men have little claim to financial support from their wives, but do have sex rights.

The same reform that equalised the sex. rights/duties, could also equalise the financial rights/duties to give women more responsibility in marriage.

Ideally, couples could write their own contracts, perhaps using a stan­ dard formula as a jumping-off point, as we do now with leases. This could cover all the basic problems about sex, contraception, number of chil­ dren, division of housework and other work, and still leave room for unique needs.

Women would benefit more from a thorough overhaul of the legalisation of marriage than through winning the petty right to say, “ No” .

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The Digger

Page 6

Bob Hawke interviewed by Jenny Brown

AN HOUR W ITH THE DEALER The people who work at the ACTU are matey. If you wait for the man with the key at the door, you can get into conversation with them.

When someone approaches on the footpath, another will call out, as though the business of being work­ mates starts at the distance of twenty feet. Perhaps this is a sign of good morale.

If you say you’d like to see Bob Hawke, one of them might shake his head with a soft smile, and say, “Bob’s hard to see —he’s overloaded. ” Everyone who knows Hawke calls him Bob, in the same way that people who have a stake in knowing Menzies call him Sir Robert.

The ACTU has shifted from that odd brick building, across from Mel­ bourne Trades Hall in Lygon St. The new headquarters are above the Bourkes-ACTU department store, in Elizabeth St. The offices are made of modular partitions, and as you walk down the corridors, you see piles of research material stacked on the floor, because the shelving hasn’t yet been constructed. The staff gathers near a sidedoor after nine, and about 9 .3 0 someone unlocks the door and people go up the special elevators. Assistants to the industrial advocate begin the day by bending over the stacks on the floor, selecting bits of this and that, and heading over town to the Arbitration Court, where the Nation­ al Wage case is being heard.

Hawke doesn’t go down to the Aribtration Court these days. He used to go down there and do the arguing, before he became president of the ACTU. And he isn’t in the office much these days, or around at the John Curtin hotel. Hawke has spent the weeks before the election campaigning for Gough Whitlamand the Labor Party, flying all over the place, addressing meetings and crowds at the factory gates.

When David Porter called up to arrange photographs for this article, the man at the other end of the line read out Hawke’s schedule. Porter was won, immediately. Hawke’s hel­ per told Porter where Hawke would be through the day, minute by min­ ute — “such ‘n such hotel, two beers, then to the mocassin factory at 574 Poontang Rd., where he’ll . . .”.

Outside the GMH Assembly plant at the appointed hour, Hawke got up and laid a rap on the workers, tough, solid, matey, and the men called out “good on ya, Bob!” And Hawke walked around, touching people, less diffident about touching than those he touched.

It is not easy to get on the sched­ ule. You make many ‘phone calls.

I called Dave Rubin, he called some­ one in the ACTU, and after a while an agreement was made, and then I rang the ACTU . . . maybe three times a day, until, by continuous dialling, the tumblers fall, the door to the safe wherein lives the schedule opens, and upon it time is written.

It’s time for the Public Relations person to speak to you, then it’s time for Hawke to do an interview.

The schedule is not exactly written on stone. It’s a modern schedule, four dimensional, a space-time thing with some elasticity, and arrange­ ments in it tend to tenativeness . . . all appointments within it are tensed with a great sparceness of time.

I am also tensed.

Bob Hawke, President of the ACTU, Senior Federal Vice President of the ALP, is something weird. He’s a dealer in people, power, and vibes, already TV familiar, and special.

On TV, he talks tough, confident, and through to it, right through the interviewers’ strategems, to his vision of what’s going down; he doesn’t let them shape that.

He usually seems to be more on the side of sanity and reality than all those other guys. The other guys usually look older, and as if they don’t really know or care about what’s going down.

Anthony, sitting on his stump, dyslectic, dropping the clots of words he’s learned that work. Whitlam, still with a barrister’s mamer, rolling things in his mouth like a thick port, tasting their place in the pattern of what he wants to appear. McMahon to whom the future must seem a black hole, tries to scratch his way

back up onto the dirt of the past.

Gair growling at the camera what he wants it to think, for the greater glory of God and Gair. Barton trying to tie things into principles, without a sense of theatre . . .

I can’t relate to this company. I’m 20-Y-O, female, no training, no ex­ perience of the factory floor, no degrees of art or science, rising out of the black lagoon of unscheduled sex, poetry, dope and rock ‘n roll, with a bad case of bronchitis and requited ignorance about why these people do what they do, the way that they do.

The election approaches, and there are issues, and some of the issues even affect us in the black lagoon.

Gazza, for instance, is appealing a National Service conviction; the ap­ peal is listed for after the election, and the result of the election affects his chances of going to jail.

I suppose I could have turned up a few people, and asked them what to think about Hawke. Maybe one of them might have told me that he has a button no one has pushed for years, which, if punched firmly, would produce an amazing rave that would make a Book of Revelations for the election-day issue of The Digger.

Browsing through a borrowed seminar paper, stumbling over farflung raves about Bank fur Germeinwirtschaft, the bank the Ger­ mans unions run, trying to think of something to talk about with Hawke . . . Hawke’s secretary rings. Yes is the answer. She confirms with Bob through the intercom, and he asks what I look like . . . I laugh. The deal is that I arrive at BourkesACTU in an hour, which I do, iwondering if the tape recorder will work and if he will find rapport with a black lagoon lady in jeans, T-shirt and cowboy hat.

Just walk into this new office, which is just like any new office, and there’s Bob Hawke, TV familiar, who looks up and for a moment flashes Good Christ!, and asks, “what paper did you say you were from?” * * * This is a story about a tape of an hour spent in Bob Hawke’s office.

He looks tanned and self-confident and as hawk-like as ever. I had seen his cartoon in the morning paper.

He has momentarily settled in this undistinguished office, behind a reasonably tidy, busy desk, and is surrounded by a corona of the elec­ tricity of changes. As you will see from the syntax of his replies, the mood shifts during the hour.

The shift was not, purely, the development of a rapport. There was something like that in it. How­ ever, there was a purely animal analogy. If a strange animal comes into another animal’s place, the ani­ mal at home there gives the stranger an attention. That attention is to determine whether the stranger is likely to cause trouble, and if the attention determines that there is no problem, then the animal settles back into the more ordinary atten­ tions it gives to the routines of its place.

In this hour, I did not see much happen on Hawke’s face. Most of the fine nuances were in his voice.

He changes. Tone, volume, inflec­ tion, accent. Sometimes I heard the politician’s emphasis on prepositions — “the attitude o f the Labor Party . . . ” -----*- and at other times, the emphasis on verbs which comes from gut humor. These meanings are not conveyed in transcript.

There is also the matter of his accent. In some of the ‘phone calls that came through, his accent be­ came much more broadly Australian, and, of course, this is shown by the change in vocabulary. There are de­ grees of formalness, digressions in colloquial . . . a few fragments of the legend occur in those runs, such as the allusion to his World Beer Drinking Championship. Any man who could open his throat and pour down flat English beer so quickly, must have an understanding of far modes of self. * * * Hawke: What is a normal day?

I’m afraid more and more the situat­ ion is becoming that . . . the normal

is becoming abnormal . . . or the abnormal is becoming normal.

1972 has been an unusual year; because it’s an election year, and one in which we believe that our interests, as a Trade Union move­ ment, are very much involved in getting a change of Government.

So 1972, for me, has largely involved this intertwining of industrial in­ volvement with political campaigning.

And it has involved an enormous amount of travel . . . the schedule, for instance — just take last week and this week.

I went to Canberra last Sunday; Sydney on Monday; early Tuesday morning, across to Perth; down to Bunbury on Tuesday night; back to Perth, yesterday morning; back here (Melbourne) at 5 a.m. this morning (Thurs. Nov. 16th); meetings tonight and tomorrow night here in Victoria; then up to Brisbane, Queensland, on Tuesday and Wednesday; back to Sydney for Thursday and Thursday night; Melbourne again on Friday . . Trover to Adelaide on Sunday night; in South Australia Monday and Tuesday; back here Wednesday morning, and straight across to Tasmania; then Melbourne again on Thursday.

(Hawke hasn’t been reading the schedule; he knows it j Q: And is that travel mainly in­ volved with campaigning?

Hawke: That is all campaigning. * * * Q: The previous President of the ACTU, Albert Monk, said “I never wanted to get into politics . . . I reckoned it was too dangerous trying to make big industrial decisions if it could be thought you could be in­ fluenced by one party.” Do you recognise mixing politics with trade union problems as a danger . . . or an inevitability?

Hawke: I don’t think it’s danger­ ous. It’s not inevitable, but I think it’s, highly likely that if you’re going to be concerned with the advance­ ment of the interests of the wage and salary earners of this country, that you’re going to realize — after twenty-three years of conservative government, which has consistently acted against the interests of those people — that there’s a limit to what can be achieved, on behalf of these people, by industrial action; and> there’s a need to achieve a govern­ ment which is . . . sympathetic to the legitimate aspirations of the wage and salary earners. So I think it’s become, in a sense, almost in­ evitable that you have to be involved politically. (He looks up pointedly.)

And on the point of presidents of the ACTU, the President before Mr Monk of course moved from the presidency of the ACTU into Federal Parliament. Mr Clarey. No-one seems to remember that fact.

Q: Since your election as Pres­ ident in 1969, the ACTU seems to have broadened its sights upon many problems of inequality — education, black problems, retailing . . .

To what extent do you think you personally instigated these extensions in involvement?

Hawke: Well it’s a mixture of per­ sonal responsibility and the reactions of my colleagues.

In the campaign that I undertook prior to achieving the Presidency, I made it quite clear to all people that I did regard it as necessary that the Trade Union movement should broad­ en its horizons — and, if you like, I was elected with that charter. So it represented not merely my ideas, but certainly the reaction of the majority of the people responsible for the election.

(One of Hawke’s phones is giving the double buzz ringing signal. He answers; goes through a short volley of yeps and nos; is put through.)

G’day Johnny. Not bad mate. Oh fantastic. Oh yeah. Had the biggest meeting up there they can remember for twenty-three years. And the dear old granny ABC didn’t cover it, ah and when inquiries were made by people who were rather irate about this, the reply was that they were only going to cover the leaders of the Parties — which just has us down 3—1. (Laughs.) Bloody beauties aren’t they? However, we had a great meet­ ing down in Bunbury the night be­ fore, and a good meeting last night,

¡1

Hawke at Dandenong; “Good on y e r B o b t h e men called. before hopping onto the plane. We’ll not only stand up, we might pick up a seat. Yep. Mmm-mm.

(Conversation about Hawke’s schedule continues. He is to cam­ paign for the ALP tonight at Heidel­ berg. He agrees to be picked up at his office . . .)

Quarter to five — to get there at six? Oh shit. Bloody unions. On strike. Should shoot ‘em all.

(My mouth twitches, Bob Hawke laughs.) O.K. Thanks. Bye. (He hangs up, but is right on the tail of where he left off.) I’d reached the point that the majority of the people who had to make the decision about the Presidency obviously en­ dorsed that position; and certainly, since I’ve been President, the Exec­ utive and the Congress of the ACTU have gone along with these ideas of expanding our interests and involve­ ment.

Q: What concrete changes has the ACTU influenced, to date, in scenes like education and black problems?

Hawke: Well. In regard to educ­ ation we have made a point of stres­ sing our concern with the inequalities of educational opportunity; we have had discussions with student organ­ isations and teachers in this field; made representations to Government.

From our own enterprise, we have created two scholarships — to enable children of low-income parents to remain in the secondary education stream. We regard that as only a start, and of course we have been working hard for the return of a Labor Government, which we believe is committed to the abolition of these inequalities. I suppose, in a sense, that has been my major involvement in this issue in this year, in 1 9 7 2 .1 have been spending a large amount of time campaigning for the ALP. And that particular sort of concern, about education, is one of the major reas­ ons.

In regard to, ah, aborigine issues . . . we have accepted the respon­ sibility of calling together a meeting of representatives of the' aboriginal people. We’re not going to be able to do that before the end of this year, and how, I don’t know. I’ve had my assistant making inquiries from the Office of Aboriginal Affairs, the Commonwealth Office, and we are receiving advice there — and perhaps assistance — to bring together these people. The purpose of that is to make ourselves available to them and say, now look, you tell us, what is it the Trade Union movement can do to help you on specific issues? It’ll be out of that conference we’ll call, that we’ll be able to move constructively to specific areas where we should be able to help.

Q: Would you see any involvement in further issues — beyond those things?

Hawke: We’ll be undertaking feasability studies, now that we’ve receiv­ ed the reports back from our West German and Israeli colleagues. We’ll be investigating, I think, the fields of Consumer Credit, Insurance, Housing Finance and Construction. Those are the areas we’ll be looking at.

Q: Banking?

Hawke: No, not Banking as such at this stage.

Q: Certain members of the press seem to have arrived at the conclus­ ion that you hold a 7-10 voting power in the ACTU Executive — Hawke: A which?

Q: A 7—10 voting power in the Executive. Would it be possible to ascertain such an influence; and would you consider their conclusion to be correct?

Hawke; These stories about the break-up in voting are pretty unreal.

The reality is that ever since I’ve been President the over whelming majority of decisions have been un­ animous. I would think at least 95% of decisions have been unani­ mous, so it’s a bit unreal to talk about a split-up of voting like that.

Q: What were the issues that the Executive were unagreed on?

Hawke: It’s difficult to remember . . . The only issue, I think, that went to a point of having the State branches of the ACTU brought in to vote — and on major issues, Exec­ utive decisions must be ratified by State Labor Councils — was back in 1970, on the issue of support for the Moratorium. There was a majoirty decision in the Executive, but the Labor Council split, three-all. That’s the only issue I can remember.

Q: Is there likely to be another Moratorium?

Hawke: I wouldn’t think so. The unperceptive, conservative people of this world I think have come to the understanding that they’ve been wrong on Vietnam. And I would think that it will be a relatively short time now before that particularly immoral committment is over . . .

Q: Is it possible to have as much, or even more politicial power — in a nation like Australia — in a position such as yours, rather than a Minist­ erial position in Parliament, in the Government?

Hawke: Well, not just personally as such, but because you have the responsibility of being head of the Trade Union movement. Yes, there is a lot of power I suppose . . . I don’t know if that’s the right word . . . opportunities for doing things.

And I suppose it is true that, at times at least, that opportunity is greater than in some ministerial pos­ itions, not all.

(Reading my next suggestion, I laugh.)

(The next question amuses the lady?)

Q: Mmm. Germaine Greer — Hawke: My friend Germaine.

Q: has mentioned your sex appeal Hawke: Has she? Mmm . . .

Q: Do you think personal charac­ teristics, such as sex appeal, enter into a political figure’s public iden­ tity?

Hawke: I don’t know. I must say . . . when I look at political figures, I don’t think about their sex appeal — Q: Well, there aren’t many female ones!

Hawke: Yeah. That’s a question you’d have to ask other people.

(Mystified) I don’t know whether it has any influence at all. Mr. McMahon, it’s said, gets a better vote with the women than he does with the men but I find that, in my mind, it would be an appalling indictment of the judgement of the fair sex, if they thought that Mr McMahon had sex appeal.

Q: It’s a traditional thing for women to tend to vote Liberal, isn’t it?

Hawke: All the polls, whether they are straight Party political polls or polls on Issues, show that the vote of Australian women is consistently more conservative than that of men.

Q: How horrifying.

Hawke: You should do something about it.

Q: Mmm. How do you feel about the “abortion on demand” contro­ versy going on at the moment, in­ volving Dr Bertram Wainer?

I Hawke: My position is quite sim­ ple on this; I think abortion should be a matter between the woman and the doctor. Simple as that.

Q: Should the voting age be lowered?

Hawke: Of course it should, it should be bought down to eighteen.

The remarkable paradox of obser­ vation of our Government is that they’ve endorsed the vote at eight­ een for Papuans and New Guineans, some of whom — without any dis­ respect, it’s a historical fact — are just out of the Stone Age. But they don’t entrust it to young Australians. This is obviously because they know that if they did give it to young Australians, the size of their defeat — which is looming on the second of December — (Phone buzzes again, once more Hawke volleys syllables and is put through.)

Hullo? Yes . . . oh yes. Well, I still haven’t seen The Australian, because I just flew in from Perth this morning. I haven’t seen the paper, but I’ve been spoken to by a couple of other people . . . Neville was the first professional bloke to speak to me, and he says it’s undoubtably de­ famatory. Yeah . . . exactly. Well, it seems to me that it should be done;

(A), on the grounds that I don’t like any bastard getting up and saying that; and secondly, it’ll shut the bas­ tards up anyway. Yeah. Well that’s right . . . Thank you. Bye. (Hangs up.)

Q: What was all that?

Hawke: We’re going to issue a writ against Sir Robert Askin for defamation . . .

Q: What did he say?

Hawke: Oh . . . he said that the Labor Party would be run by vermin . . . included me with a few other people.

Q: Pretty heavy.

Hawke: I think so.

Q: I’m not eligable to vote until a month after the elections . . . (“Bad luck” says Bob quietly, with levelled eyes). On what information should the voting age be based?

How do you decide when someone is old enough to decide for them­ selves which party to vpte for?

Hawke: Well I don’t know; by definition it’s abitrary. I suppose the age of eighteen would be one where you could say, well, at that stage young people have finished their secondary education — whether that be straight academic or technical.

That would be about the age at which you’d catch up the completion of secondary education. And that seems to be a reasonable reason for picking that age as an indication of maturity.

Q: Do you feel the present Gov­ ernment’s stand on censorship is too extreme?

Hawke: Well, it varies from state to state, doesn’t it? My own prediliction is towards a minimum of censorship.

Q: Could you see a Labor Govern­ ment allowing more “ freedom of speech” for the press, theatre, radio, T.V., and so on?

Hawke: Yes. I think there’d cer­ tainly be more freedom of expression insofar as this matter was within the purview of a Federal Government.

It’s more basically a State matter, but in the area where it could do something, it would. For instance, in regard to the ABC, it would es­ tablish the real independence of that from political interference. So it could be, as it should be, the forum for critical comment of the Govern­ ment.

I mean presumably, it could be said that we would have an interest in pursuing the McMahon Govern­ ment’s policy o f trying to shackle the ABC. Well we’d do the opposite.

We would make sure that the ABC was independent, so it could provide a real forum for freedom of speech and criticism.

Q: How does the McMahon Government try to shackle the ABC? Hawke: By the way in which dir­ ectives have been issued from within the ABC; this, without any question,

Page 7

December 2 — December 16

dodgers. They did in the second world war.

CL

-o o

Play it again, Sam:

N o m atter w ho you vote for a p olitician gets i n . . .

by Frank Moorhouse be one of . . . Well, I think the easiest way I can answer that — and when I say easiest, I’m not trying to find an easy way out of the question, I mean the way in which I can most easily convey our attitude — is to say that we don’t look at the problems of society with the view of saying, those who take drugs are evil people who have to be punished. The taking of drugs is a result of attitudes to society — and society itself has got a lot to answer for, in terms of engen­ dering a large degree of despair, dis­ satisfaction, frustration with the or­ der of things. And Labor’s attitude there would be constructive, I think . . . in that it would, in moving to try and create a better society, in that long-term sense, be removing one of the basic causative factors in the move to drug-taking.

goes back to Government desires to cut down the critical political com­ ment within programmes, current affairs programmes. Now that’s crazy.

Once you start that sort of thing you’re on the way to a very one­ sided type of community. A de­ prived community.

Q: By the way, is the limit for campaign expenditure still a thous­ and dollars?

Hawke: No, they’ve changed the legislation. I’m not sure whether they’ve abolished the limit altogether, or just lifted it; but apparently some recent events had some effect in this regard.

In fact, Hawke scored on Liberal Senator Greenwood in a televised debate over the favourite Lib “Law and Order" issue when he repeatedly grilled Greenwood over Liberal cam­ paign expenditure, and Greenwood was repeatedly and obviously evasive over the issue.

Q: Do you think it was a realistic limit?

Hawke: No, of course it wasn’t.

But it was a law, and because it was a law, it should have been obeyed.

Q: Should more research be en­ tered into the effects of censorship and non-censorship?

Hawke: I think research into most areas is useful. If I had limited re­ search resources I would think of a number of other areas that I’d like to see research done into first? But if resources are available and people want to do it, yes, O.K. Q: What other areas?

Hawke: Well, research into what sort of education system is going to be best suited to releasing the talents of Australians in the sort of world they’re going to live in in the next quarter- or half-century . . . and that in itself would be enough to take up just about all the available research resources in many respects I would think. In regard to social services, and how a society should look after the material and other needs of people, in an increasingly stressful world, there are many things into which I could see a great deal of research done. Within an overall structure like that, something like research into censorship and its effects would probably make sense.

But it’s not the thing which would come number one on my list of priorities.

The Labor Party's policy speech stated that they will establish a Schools Commission o f Inquiry, and a Pre-Schools Commission o f Inquiry; McMahon's policy speech did not.

Q: It’s been suggested that the “equal pay for equal work” for women issue has not gained the sup­ port it could have from the ACTU, partially because the traditional goal has been to aim for a realistic mini­ mum wage — for a man, his wife,

and two children.

Hawke: Oh I think that’s non­ sense. We took a case in 1969; put a lot of time and effort into doing that case; and we are now in the process of doing exactly the same thing. And with the limited resources of bodies, finance that we have available, to take and mount two major cases in three years, seems not consistent with that sort of proposition.

Q: You don’t think that if the female work force was paid equally as the male, then the whole price structure built around the family would change?

Hawke: No. The proposition is quite simple. For too long, employers have been given a cheap source of.

•labor , and in that sense women have been made second-class citizens. If they do the work, they should be paid for it.

“Equal pay for equal work" was adopted by the Arbitration Com­ mission after the ACTU's submission in 1969. Though equal pay has been granted to many women working in the same “job classifications"as men, it hasn't meant a very radical change.

Men tend to get better “job classif­ ications", through unequal prom ot­ ion and hiring and training.

This year, the ACTU submission for equal pay is slightly more offen­ sive to sexism. I t pertains to “ Sched­ ule Nine" types of em ploym ent — work that is done mainly by women.

“Equal pay for equal work" is a lame concept in this area. The very work exists because women will do it as second-class employees.

More than half the women who work, work in “Schedule Nine" jobs.

Hardly any men work in these job classifications. I think sexual equality requires a wage which would attract men to these jobs, but the ACTU doesn't go quite that far.

The Liberal Government doesn't go anywhere at all. This year, their submission to the Arbitration Com­ mission says that, for the first time, the Government accepts equal pay “in principle". This acceptance is hedged with two conditions. The first is a “ work-value" inquiry into each classification where equal pay is desired. That is grounds for years o f legalistic delays and obscurantism.

And there's a further demand that equal pay be phased-in over a three year period.

The Liberals' “equal pay" for­ mula amounts to an attem pt to pre­ serve the exploitation o f women in “ women's work" for at least a decade.

Q: If a Labor Government was voted in, do you have any idea whether they would continue the present policy on drug usage — or would they tend to re-examine the legislation and the particular drugs involved?

Hawke: Now the attitude would

And I think that the concern of a Labor Government would be more with those who are trying to profit from the dependency of people on drugs. Insofar as one was entering this field in a punitive frame of mind, it would be in regard to those people who do try to profit from dependency. And I think that the attitude of Labor to those who are currently dependent upon drugs would be to try, (within the present Health Scheme), to increase the avail­ ability of treatment centres and so on, for those who do have this de­ pendency.

In other words, it’s not the creat­ ion of the “permissive society” , in which you say, alright, everyone go for your life, as it’s depicted by our opponents; but rather it’s a more compassionate approach, of trying to say — let’s talk about the naturej of society. And insofar as you’re trying to punish people in any way, your concern should be with those who are trying to mount profit from the misery of people — and it is, for many of them, in the area of the hard drugs, anyway, a condition of utter misery.

Q: What about the non-addictive drugs — marijuana in particular?

Hawke: I can only speak person­ ally on that. I have some medical friends who are . . . enlightened, compassionate, whatever word you want to use . . . and they say to me that the evidence is not conclus­ ive that marijuana itself cannot lead onto the taking of hard drugs. I know there are a lot of reports which state it is the case, that it doesn’t lead on, but at least two of my medical friends dispute that that is definitive. Now it’s because of that doubt that I personally have perhaps a different attitude to this question to others, who are satisfied about the nature of the evidence. I’m not convinced in my own mind.

Q: I think that the more general attitude among young people now is that it’s not a logical conclusion to say that the smoking of marijuana leads to the taking of hard drugs, rather it may be a wild postulation — not something that logically fol­ lows.

Hawke: Oh no, no, I’m certainly not arguing, no sensible person could argue, that it follows logically . . .

(Phone One buzzes, Hawke an­ swers.)

Yep, Eh? Well, this is the Pom. I’ve got the letter here somewhere . . . (rummages, mutters) . . . Oh yea, that one, is it? Wack him on.

Yep. Yep. Yeah. Yes Bob. Robert.

James. Lee, L-E-E . . . K-E. (Other phone buzzes.) Could you just hang on a minute please?

(Switches.)

Yeah — yes mate. Yeah, sure.

Well, do you wanna have lunch with Cliff and I, what do you wanna do? Well I’m going to wait here until Cliff comes, and then I’ll probably go up to the Duke of Kent, I s’pose.

Coming down after lunch, are you?

Righto . . . Well it’s just to say, it’s a reference that you’re a fit and proper person to have a pub? This is a requirement under the Licensing Act is it? Oh, I understand that the reward for so signing the testimonial that you’re entitled to the pub is that I always get free grog in there — is that right? Oh I.see . . . I can drink a lot in thirty seconds, you ought to see me. I didn’t have that World Record for nothing, Comrade.

(Laughs.) Alright . . .O.K., thanks.

(Switches phones and tacks onto the middle conversation as sudden as a rabbit-trap snaps.)

Ah, twenty-five Royal — no, as in State Loyalty, Royalty — Avenue, Sandringham. The real touch of the monarch . . . living in Royal Avenue and one of her castles’ names . . .

So that’ll be known to the press then this afternoon, will it? Neville’s got that under control . . .? Righto Brian . . . Thankyou.

(Hangs up and refocuses attention) Sorry.

Q: We were on drugs . . .

Hawke: The point I was making was yeah, sure it’s illogical to say that if a person takes marijuana then

he’s going to go onto hard drugs — but I was approaching it from the other point of view. Some people say it is medically established that there is no relationship between the two for anyone; whereas I’m saying that I don't know . . . and some medical people who are friends, as well as able to be respected for their opinion, say that they don’t accept yet such a conclusive proposition that there can be no connection.

And it is on that ground, that I perhaps take a slightly more cautious line on this than others might.

Q: Do you think that the Joe Cocker deportation order was partly a political move?

Hawke: Let me put it this way; I think that the response of Forbes was a conditioned political response.

It may well be his own opinion that the Moke,shouldn’t be deported, but he felt that he would be treading on the toes of the extreme right wing of Australian politics, (who the Liberal Party have consistently de­ pended upon for support), if he didn’t take some strong action.

Q: It was a Labor member who originally bought up the subject in Parliament. . .

Hawke: Was it? I don’t know.

Oh well, let’s not be unreal about this. The Labor Party doesn’t lay down hard and fast, binding rules of policy on issues — (Phone rings, Hawke answers, says “No, no, he’s not” , and hangs up.)

— like this; and then you could get a range of opinions amongst people within our Party, as you do in others.

Q: The Labor Party seems to have modernised its campaigns . . . there was a full page advertisement in Digger, which was a Register-ToV>te cartoon — it was exciting and interesting and funny . . .

Hawke: Was it? I think it is true that our campaign has become more imaginative, more with-it, in 1972 . . . the whole “It’s Time” concept, that was imaginative I think. Just that the slogan grabbed — in a couple of words — a whole concept.

And the use of a lot of people from show business, involving themselves in the song; the sweaters; the buttons; the car-stickers and so on; it’s a much more imaginative campaign than has ever been before I think.

The slogan “It’s Time” has almost become part of the language . . .

(Phone again. The interstate call Hawke booked earlier, when I started dreaming about dope laws and forgot what I was going to ask, has come through.)

Bob Hawke speaking. Is Bart there?

(Bart was. They talk schedules, times, tours . . . arrangements.)

Now listen, I’ll probably have Hazel with me. So Mick suggested . . . Youngie suggested that she should go . . . I’ll just mention that, in case there’s any way you want to use her . . . I mean that in a political sense, and no other way . . . (laughs) . . . Yeah . . . (laughs some more) . . . Thanks, Darling. How are things going? What’s the standard answer that’s being given? Yep . . . (More times, methods, places . . .)

Oh I don’t know mate — where you had us last time was pretty good. The Town Hall’s the one that put the bloody Apartheid people up, isn’t it? We can give them the bloody kiver! No. Righto mate. Thanks.

(Hangs up.)

Where were we?

Q: “It’s Time”.

Hawke: I’ve said all I want to about that.

Q: O.K. Do you think the Amer­ ican Presidential Elections might in­ fluence the Australian voters at all?

Hawke: No. Q: Can you tell which areas of the voting population are likely to be pro-Labor?

Hawke: I think that what the polls seem to indicate is; the younger the voter, the greater the tendency to vote Labor.

Q: What about the various nation­ alities which are blended in Aus­ tralia?

Hawke: Going on the evidence, there’s the suggestion that on this occasion, Labor’s going to do much better among the migrant vote than it has in the past.

Q: Would Labor ever consider participating in a coalition Govern­ ment?

Hawke: No. We’ll win in our own right, and win comfortably.

Hawke told me I could come to see him in action that night, at a meeting at Heidelberg, where he’d speak for the ALP. He told me to come early — seats would go quickly — and said he’d have a beer with me later, more talk. I went home . . . and that evening, about six, I fell asleep and didn’t wake up until about ten, and was furious with my­ self.

Does the counter-culture have a real-politik. Yes! Hold it! I’ll tell you what I mean by counter-culture.

I mean those who traditionally, or by some circumstance of the times, feel themselves apart (if not dis­ affiliated) from the wider society who live, sometimes by choice some­ times by circumstance, by distinctly different mores. Perhaps it is better called a sub-culture. I include ideol­ ogical gypsies — politically conscious bums — pirates — minstrels — skep­ tical anarchists — utopian anarchists — kooks — some of the young — politically conscious full-time gam­ blers — merry pranksters — ragers — semi-nonconformist middle class who prefer the company of those on this list — anxiety neurotics — hipsters — hippies — yippies — declasse acad­ emics — alienated writers, film makers, painters, musicians, — old world bohemians — fifties beatniks — libertarians — liberationists — communalists. What Jim Baker calls the “lumpen intelligentsia”.

There has always been a resis­ tance among these people to politics as an activity while often a high interest in politics as an absurdist panorama and as a threat to noncomformist life.

So in one sense we’ve always felt or said the politics has nothing to do with us or in another sense it has had everything to do with us. All the laws we are forçed to break to live a sub-cultural existence are made and enforced by parliaments.

This election has led more sub­ cultural people to interest themselves in political activity — the campaign, the electioneering. Some have even began to believe in the ALP! So we’ve had all sorts of back­ sliding in conversation with expres­ sions of “faith” in politicians, tones of hope and nationalism.

It has been common enough for even the Libertarian Broadsheet to reiterate policy and pull their drift­ ing ideological soft-heads back into line. Though even they, this year offer rationalisations for voting.

In an analysis of possible liber­ tarian-anarchist positions on the election “Jack Diamond” a pseudo­ nym for one of the academic phil­ osopher libertarians says, “There is a grave need to re-assert our basic principles on elections.” Thence to “expose” the ALP as a false party not truly socialist (why this should matter to a libertarian or anarchist is not superficially clear — I think there lurks a romantic identification with the proletariat). It fails to de­ liver any of the basic libertarian ob­ jections to politics and instead talks like a Trotskiest, if you “ . . . vote for the Labor Party- you are a reac­ tionary defender of the existing capitalist system.”

Other possible libertarian or anarchist or nihilist positions are briefly outlined.

(1) Leave the McMahon govern­ ment in because of its tranquil inertia — “Vote for the Liberals — they’re the nearest thing to anarchy we can get.”

(2) Vote the ALP in so that it will expose itself for what it is.

(3) Vote Liberal — the longer they are in power the easier the revolution will be made (which re­ volution is that?)

Finally, the Broadsheet puts the violent anarchist position “if it asks you to vote for it blow it up”. (No letter bomb instructions were en­ closed and no consideration of the anarchist position that assassination is censorship).

The fundamental Libertarian pos­ ition is the “No matter whom you vote for a politician always gets in.”

It is a handy-size package of some respectable political theory — Pareto, Michels (Political Parties, a sociological study of the oligarchical tendencies in modern democracy), Max Nomad (Aspects of R evolt), Machajski — who have said something of the same thing in greater detail.

Machajski says that those who put themselves forward as spokesmen and agents for the working. class (or “wage earners”) in reality belong already to a class of a new kind, the political class, who he argued, would defend their own interests against all others.

Politicians come, half consciously, to the conclusion that any system which gives them power and status, can’t be a bad sort of system.

But the Machajski theory is a way of looking at political theory at another magnification. Analysis of libertarian slogan shows it to be what I feared, a misapplication of this broad truth to the short-term management house-keeping functi ons of representative democracy.

Politicians, as “house keepers” , behave differently. There are differ­ ent sorts of politicians who have different values, different affiliations, and owe their power to different pressure groupings.

Politicians are not, at this level, “all the same” . DLP politicians would do different things for differ­ ent reasons to, say, Catholics within the ALP. Even if the motivation of polit­ icians is basically the same (that is, authoritarian ego) the expression of this is varied by overlays of ethos, ideology, and contained within social pressures and the opposition of other authoritarian egos.

Another fact of political life which fractures the slogan: the same politicians behave differently at dif­ ferent times of their political tenure.

A long term in office, an insecure term in office, and so on.

Political parties change the pattern of their affiliations — their contrac­ tual relationships (what they are doing for whom) during their life in power.

Political parties are contractually tied to pressure groups. If you belong to a pressure group which is linked with a power group you can expect payoffs.

The counter culture, to return, is not a pressure group. No party in power would want to know about most of its diverse parts.

I suppose we should look at what the ALP politicians are offering the counter culture. Here it should be noted that there has not been an ALP government for so long that we can only compare promises and policy with the concrete performance of the Liberal Party. Promises and policy are always more generous and more radical than performance so that in looking at ALP policy you have to, say, halve it.

Censorship McMahon, with pressure from the DLP would certainly maintain tight censorship, especially sexual censor­ ship, and if returned would probably tighten it under some sort of back­ lash.

The ALP promises the abolition of all censorship except cinema ad­ vertising. It intends to maintain cen­ sorship for children.

The ALP is made up of Moral Rearmament supporters, methodists, presbyterians, socialist puritans, and catholics. They might introduce a slightly more liberal book censorship but there is no hope in hell that they will ever abolish it. Anyhow, uniform censorship has broken down and no matter what liberalisation the ALP introduced the States would tighten up.

One New Wave ALP politician (graduate, early thirties) I talked to recently told me how he had evaded the issue of the Little Red Schoolbook in his electorate. “When asked about it I said it was ‘Marxist’ — they didn’t bother to ask me if that meant it should be banned — they just assumed that I meant it was wrong.”

I guess the politician implied by tone he thought it was wrong.

He then said that the high-minded pseudo-liberal thing “anyhow, what about all the garbage on the news­ stands — if they really worry about censorship they would do something about that.”

Anyone who uses the word “gar­ bage” that way to mean anything he disagrees with or dislikes, is still a censor.

Abortion reform The ALP has offered a free vote on conscience. If they ever get around to taking the vote, which I doubt, it will be lost. If it was passed it would apply only to the ACT and the N.T. (it is State law).

My New Wave politician said, “I’m against abortion because it brutalises the nurse and doctor involved because they have to destroy the foetus. I’m unresolved about how I would vote.”

He avoided the public meeting at which the candidates were to put their positions on it.

Homosexual law reform The ALP old timers says, “there’s no votes in poofters.”

My New Wave politicians said that he can’t see why people should be punished for being “what they are”.

I can’t see this coming to the vote for years. Public opinion runs about 65 percent against reform. Again, this would affect only the territories.

Marijuana Legalisation No chance.

Conscription Yes, the ALP will probably abol­ ish it but it has to be remembered that they are not against it in prin­ ciple.

As my New Wave man said, “I’m for it in times of real crisis — one in all in.”

I want to be the person who decides what is “real crisis” and which side I’m fighting on, if any.

In this sense the ALP is the same as the Liberal Party except that they disagree over which wars to conscript for.

Given a different situation we would have the ALP gaoling draft

The Arts In return for more money we will have a centralised system.

Albie Thoms talked with Senator .Doug McClelland, shadow minister for the Arts, and McClelland wanted to “tidy it up” — too many different committees and bodies.

Albie told him that we liked it untidy — less political supervision — and the government didn’t always know what was happening.

But the ALP will tidy it up.

Initially we can expect more hand­ outs though.

The British Labor Government in its first year of office doubled the grants to the arts. Then it stablised again.

Womens Liberation This is only marginally a matter of legislation. Maybe there is more chance of equal pay in Common­ wealth awards.

My New Wave ALP man did not have an appreciation of the sociopsychological issues involved in Lib­ eration and could not see past the conventional marriage.

Social services for unmarried mothers and women without men, could increase.

Freedom o f p rotest Let’s see how the ALP takes satire, critical comment on This Day Tonight, demonstrations outside parliament house. The batons will swing again.

Secret police, ASIO The ALP will keep ASIO going along with telephone taps, dossiers, and harrassments of “ threats to system”.

Booze Abolition

of

the

wine

tax.

Secrecy in government As John Edwards pointed out in the Financial Review, Whitlam is already forgetting some of the good intentions behind the book Secrecy; Political Censorship in Australia by his aide, Jim Spigelman. I bet Spigelman does too, once in power.

Freedom o f movement This is my own single-handed; campaign against the enclosure acts of the eighteenth century. I want to see all the large properties of the West and Central West, all Crown land, all forests, that is, just about all land not used for personal housing open to public use. The “ No Tres­ passing” signs, the “No Shooting” signs, the “No Camping” signs have to come down. I already cut them down whenever I have the time.

Alright let them run their sheep and cattle but let the campers, poets, hermits and communalists use it.

We are prisoners of the cities while a handful of people sit on all the land.

National Parks are simply small, policed playgrounds which we have to keep clean,, and behave ourselves in. I mean land without rangers or restrictions.

But the distaste for politicians, political activity, and finally for “government” among the sub-culture is that all government is control.

Some people wanting to control others. Non-conformists are always 'in conflict with controllers by defin­ ition. All government involves im­ position by force of certain rules.

Some of these rules don’t matter — others do.

The party system in Australia, despite the formation of some splin­ ter groups, is a false unity of diverse interests (another part of convention­ al politics — masking divisions and natural conflicts — Whitlam calls for a national anthem and greater nation­ al unity for godsake!)

Politicians are also prisoners of civic decency and the prevailing morality and whatever their private lives, and private opinions, they have to pretend to be virtuous — espec­ ially in legislation.

I don’t want to imply that I find politics “immoral” (as if I had any “morality” anyhow). No, I find political activity befuddling. It is so much based on finding verbal formulations and legislation which will “appeal” , thus gaining power, all disguised as rationality. It irritatingly uses the language of inquiry “re­ search” , “inquiries” , “fact finding” and so on but is really intellectual compromise.

To involve oneself in it is to tangle in a mess of illusions, self­ mystification, and compromises.

A vote may be cast according to some de-mystified motive (say one of those listed earlier) but the voting system will reinterpret it anyhow, the system does not “register” those sorts of motives.

But we have to study politics, we have to know what’s going on, what’s likely to happen, so that we can avoid harrassment by concealing ourselves, and by the exercise of cunning. Those who live in the crev­ ices of society in an unconventional way can only be threatened and harrassed by conventional government.

In all reality, anyhow, it has to be remembered that elections are decided on voting in a handful of electorates (about 30 out of 125) and in those electorates by a handful of voters (the swinging five percent).

Vote informal and stay armed.

Note: And cut down those No Trespass signs.

Page 8

The Digger

The Daily Telegraph lied about the Mt Isa lockout; jury awards damages to rank-and-file spokesman

PatM ackie whips Packer in court

by Wendy Bacon Pat Mackie, the battler in the base­ ball cap, just won $30,000 from Sir Frank Packer, the millionaire who made Billy McMahon Prime Minister of this country. Mackie won the money in court, by suing Packgj^ Consolidated Press for libel.

Mackie claimed he was injured by an editorial and a story that ap­ peared on 3 February, 1965, at the height of the Mt Isa mines upheaval in outback Queensland.

That was the day after the AWU convention, when Mackie’s appeal against his expulsion from the union was refused.

The Daily Telegraph said the AWU was right to expel Mackie, because he was the man preventing a settle­ ment of “this disastrous strike”.

According to the editorial Mackie was an international criminal, who had entered the dispute to take control o f it from the AWU and allow it to be exacerbated “ by Communists and Left-wingers” .

A story in the same edition gave allegations that Mackie had 15 court convictions in five countires, and gave details of the alleged convictions.

The Daily Telegraph's defence was, that the story and the editorial were not libel, as they had been published in the interests of truth and public benefit Mackie’s case made another story, which emerged in devidence, and which convinced the jury that the paper was wrong.

The jury awarded $10,000 dam­ ages on the story about the priors.

Unlike what you might expect, they gave the greater weight — $20,000 — to the defamation in the editorial, which they found gave a false picture of the dispute and Mackie’s role in it.

The Mt Isa conflict emerged as a classic picture of what battlers must battle. The dispute was over pay and conditions of work. , On one," side, we see the workers; on the other side, we see the company, the courts, the tamecat union bureau­ crats, the parliamentary government of Queensland, the police, and the big capitalist press, radio and TV. Despite the notoriety of Mackie and the Mt Isa dispute, the libel case went unreported in the press, except for a mention on the first day, and a report of the verdict four weeks later. * * * Mackie was represented by Jimmy Staples and Mary Gaudron.

Staples, extremely energetic in court, is Sydney’s best known civil liberties lawyer.

Staples opened Mackie’s case by addressing the jury. He called no evidence.

Consolidated Press was represen­ ted by Sir Jack Cassidy and Alec Shand. Cassidy is over 70, small, white-haired, and said to be success­ ful with juries.

Pat Mackie was in court all the time during the case. Born in New Zealand, he became an organizer for the Seaman’s International Union in Canada, where he acquired touches of a North American accent. In his travels, he had the usual brushes with the law — drunkeness, some minor narcotics frames, indecent behaviour etc. These were made much of, by people who wanted to discredit him during the ML Isa dispute. His legal

record was inaccurately reported by the Daily Telegraph article at issue in the case.

Mackie stood out amongst the people at the front of the courtroom, a rough but kindly face, crew-cut, with battered ears and tattooed hands.

In cross examination, the Tele­ graph lawyer asked: “Were you the leader of the men?”

Mackie: “The press claimed that.

I was no more the leader than 60 other men who comprised the com­ mittee.”

In other passages, Mackie said, “I was the watchdog directed by the membership to look after their af­ fairs”, and “I was instructed by them at all times.”

The court heard a great deal of evidence about the Mt Isa dispute, which showed the context in which Mackie — and the press — had acted. * * * Mt Isa is 1200 miles northwest of Brisbane, and is almost a company town. Mt Isa Mines Ltd., which is half-owned by an American com­ pany, has sole rights to the vast reserves of copper, lead and zinc in the area, and is the chief em­ ployer in the town. (Mt Isa’s news­ paper is owned by the company’s former PR man, and carried no ac­ count of Mackie’s libel suit, despite considerably local interest.)

MIM Ltd. paid workers according to their schemes — a minimum wage plus bonus, a wage, or by individual contract. The contract was, in effect, a piece-work scheme which forced the worker to go hard for money, and it was very productive for the company.

In 1961, the Queensland govern­ ment clamped down on the wageand-bonus arrangement. In the years that followed, MIM Ltd. whittled .jdewn the contract rates. The gogetters had to go even harder, and the wage scheme became more attrac­ tive. But the men had other problems.

MIM Ltd. introduced American speed-up methods — short-manning jobs, closer supervision, stopwatches etc. Inland Queensland is a place of heat, dust and flies, and the men felt irritated.

In July, 1964, the workers elected Pat Mackie to chair the local AWU meetings. The next month, the In­ dustrial Commission refused a 4 Pound wage claim. The company re­ fused to negotiate directly with the workers, and on 24 August, Mackie and AWU officials met with com­ pany brass, and told them that all the workers in the union would be turning in their contracts and rever­ ting to wages. The company stood to lose production from this move.

On 15 September, an incident oc­ curred that showed the State Exec­ utive of the AWU didn’t like Mackie much. A meeting was held, and a resolution was passed to make Mackie a member of the Section Commit­ tee, which would have given him official status in the union hierarchy.

Members of the State Executive were present, and said nothing during the discussion. But at their own meeting, away from the rank-and-file, they decided not to let Mackie have the position. The evidence on the matter is confused; apparently the resolut­ ion was simply “lost”.

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witnesses against Mackie was a man named Treacy, president of the Nor­ thern District branch of the AWU for the past 20 years. Jimmy Staples produced this exchange, in cross ex­ amination:— Staples: The only way you can get on to a local committee or a section committee of the AWU is by getting the approval of the branch executive?

Treacy: The only way you can get onto the district committee is that you are a good unionist and not a type like Pat Mackie.

From such testimony, came a pic­ ture of the AWU as an autocratic, venal institution. Other testimony built up a picture of how it worked against the interests of its own mem­ bers, as though AWU officials were more sympathetic to the courts and the company than to the workers who paid their dues.

On 30 September, 1964, the AWU appealed against the refusal of the 4 Pound wage claim, before the Presi­ dent of the Queensland Industrial Court, Judge Hanger. Hanger said he wouldn’t consider the appeal until the “AWU had set its house in order.”

Meaning: get the men back working on contract.

did. Both men’s conflicting evidence was corroborated by other witnesses.

Both sides agree that the division on the recommendation to drop the ban was confused, but disagree on the size of the majority that refused to lift the ban on contract work.

It is agreed that a no-confidence motion in Mackie was put to the meeting, and defeated. The partic­ ulars of this are subject of disagree­ ment.

Mackie’s alleged conduct at this meeting was the basis for his expul­ sion from the AWU. The next day, the Section Com­ mittee — on ^rhich the union hier­ archy refused Mackie a seat — met and decided Mackie had to show cause why he shouldn’t be expelled from the AWU. The minutes secretary of the Section Committee, Clay, testified that no one told Mackie about this, that the decision was not posted or announced.

Two days later, on October 14, the State Executive of the AWU changed its own rules, without not­ ice. Under the new rule, Mackie, the elected chairman of the local worker’s meetings, could no longer chair those meetings. The new rule

Mackie, with his battered ears and baseball cap: did he cause the trouble, or did he ju st cop the heat?

Ed. Note: In reinstatement ap­ peals heard later in the dispute , Merv Rutherford notes that Hanger's wife owned 1,235 M t Isa shares.

These shares lost $1,500 in value during the dispute.

On October 11, the workers came to a meeting in Mt Isa to hear Cos­ tello, a member of the AWU state executive, recommend that they lift ban on contract work. The workers rejected Costello’s suggestion.

Apparently the men reckoned that the company wouldn’t give them their old jobs back. A company executive, cross-examined by Staples, agreed that that would have been impossible, at that time.

That much is common ground, and so is the testimony that the meeting was noisy. Beyond that, witnesses for the plaintiff and the defendent had quite different stories. Mackie, who chaired the meeting, said legal opinion was that the AWU could not win the 4 Pound from the court, and that the union was only using the appeal as a ploy to get them back to work.

Mackie denies calling AWU offic­ ials by nicknames, sticking up his thumb, and leading the singing of Auld Lang Syne. Costello says he

said the chairman had to be chairman of the Section Committee, which the Executive appointed.

Or so it seems. Staples worked hard to get that clear a picture of the way the AWU bureaucrats were playing in Brisbane. Anyhow, no one told Mackie about the rule change until October 24, the day after he had been sacked from the mines.

Mackie was sacked for taking time off to do union business. When he was dismissed, he went to see a com­ pany supervisor, Finlay. With him went Costello, the AWU’S northern district secretary, who had brought the recommendations from Brisbane which the men had knocked back, and the local paid AWU organizer.

What went on between the four men is the subject of disagreement.

Mackie didn’t get his job back, and the AWU said it would conduct his case for reinstatement. Mackie later decided to conduct his own case, after he learned from a member of the Section Committee that the AWU had snuck his chair from under him.

Cassidy, for Consolidated Press, asked Mackie: “ . . . you were taken

by Mr Costello and Mr Seargent to see Mr Finlay to endeavour to get

Such is the sickness o f many a good thing:

Randy Newman’s foreign songs Stone has come up with, Randy Newman: The Amazing Human, I’ll Wallace Stevens wrote a poem, have to turn about and say — Newman it was probably the last one he might be amazing — but human? wrote, and called it simply O f Mere And with Sail Away, we have the Being. It contains a terrific image most beautiful ‘foreign song’ ever that catches the meaning of Randy’s sung. The more you listen to this singing, or maybe the meaninglessness song, the more you realise Randy’s of his singing. For all Newman’s lang­ not asking us to ‘sail away’ into uid gestures, his LPs throw out a some acid-ridden doom or heaven, fantastic energy when played: and but to a kind of Yeats-like Byzantium, yet this power is not directed at “That is no country for old men. The anyone ‘though you might hear young in one another’s arms, birds laughing spinning, swinging madly in the trees — those dying generat­ across the sun, it’s not aimed at ions — at their song’ and a city anyone, it’s just escaping on therun.’; where the ‘gold feathered bird’ is Anyway, the lines from Stevens: made by Grecian goldsmiths ‘to keep A gold feathered bird a drowsy Emperor awake’: Randy’s Sings in the palm, without human vision of America no less. There is meaning, no promise of revolution or even Without human feeling, a foreign revelation after we’ve sailed across song. ‘the muddy waters’ to Newman’s So instead of going along with one promised land, maybe there’s not of the most haunting subs Rolling even a promised land. What does

by Robert Adamson

December 2 — December 16 your job back, weren’t you?”

Mackie: Yes . . .

Cassidy: And they were doing their best to mollify the position?

Mackie: On the face of it, they were making it look good.

Cassidy: Are you suggesting treachery behind it?

Mackie: It appeared so, when we found the rules had been changed.

On October 25, 1964, Costello tried to chair a meeting in the Star Theatre, Mt. Isa. Grogan, the Section Committee Chairman, had refused.

Costello left the hall after a general uproar, and Mackie was given his chair back by popular consent. The meeting resolved to continue the ban on contract labor, and expressed no confidence in Costello, and no confid­ ence in the AWU State Secretary, Williams.

On November 22, the rank-andfile members of the AWU voted to form a Committee for Membership Control. It’s aims were the election of union offers by AWU members, and the right of members to deter­ mine union policy. The next week, the Industrial Commission granted a restraining order on the ban on contract work, and the miners at Mt Isa voted to defy the court. M ac­ kie’s case for reinstatement in his job failed in a local magistrate’s court.

The company argued that Mackie was no longer an official of the AWU, after the secret change of rules — which Mackie was not told about.

On December 7, the AWU district committee expelled Mickie from the union. Treacy gave evidence that Mackie pleaded guilty to a charge of disruptive and disorderly behaviour at the 11 Oct. Meeting in Mt Isa. On cross examination by Staples, he changed his evidence. Costello gave confused evidence about the hearing.

Mackie had to change some of his evidence in cross examination. The picture that emerged in evidence was that Mackie had pleaded not guilty, but perhaps did not deny specifics, such as holding up his thumb. * * * It was on, one and all. 10 Decem­ ber, the Queensland government de­ clared a state of emergency, and threatened the workers with six months jail unless they returned to work, and accepted contract rates.

The Trades and Labor Council, a peak organization of other unions, admitted the Mt Isa AWU members as TLC members, and the men de­ manded that the TLC be the sole negotiating body for their demands, which* included Mackie’s reinstate­ ment. A few days later, 1500 people booed AWU officials out of a meet­ ing, and refused to accept the Govern­ ment order. The next day, 14 Decem­ ber, MIM Ltd., with the government’s OK, sacked all the workers.

Staples asked Bliss, the AWU law­ yer: “On 14 December there was a lockout, wasn’t there?”

Bliss: No, Mt Isa Mines termin­ ated the employment of all of our workers.

Staples: That was not a lock­ out?

Bliss: They terminated.

The mining company said anyone who wanted — except Mackie — could return to work. Only 28 men scabbed.

In the second week of January, a compulsory conference failed. The company would not negotiate on wage, conditions, or Mackie’s rein­ statement. Mackie and some others of the CMC applied to attend. The AWU and Mt Isa mines successfully opposed this. On January 16, a mass meeting shouted Industrial Commis­ sioner Harvey, and AWU state sec­ retary Williams, down, chanting: “We want Mackie”.

That meeting was important to the defendent, Consolidated Press.

The issue was, whether Mackie or­ ganized the disruption. Cassidy’s first witness was the then industrial roundsman for the Brisbane CourierMail, Theime, Theime’s description of the meeting was largely supported by others among the plaintiffs wit­ nesses.

A number of AWU bureaucrats were on the platform, and as Williams, the state secretary, rose to spaak, pandemonium broke out. It contin­ ued for several minutes. When the AWU lawyer, Bliss, took the mike, he was equally unsuccessful in mak­ ing himself heard. Mackie then rose, in his red baseball cap, and with his chair on his head, and walked down the aisle to the platform. The AWU officials left. In the calm that fol­ lowed, Mackie said: “Come to the CMC meeting, a decent meeting.”

The meeting then dispersed.

Evidence was, that Mackie was the only man who could restore decorum at the meeting, and that at least one AWU official felt he could­ n’t afford to be on the same platform with Mackie, whom he had denied a place in the compulsory confer­ ence.

Bliss, the AWU lawyer, said that Mackie had organized the town to behave in a certain way.

Mackie’s position, in evidence, was that he had acted as a represen­ tative of the workers. * * * On 27 January, the Queensland government issued an order-in-council — police rolled into Mt Isa with power to expel or arrest without warrant; power to seize, without war­ rant, any material or equipment; power to remove or turn back any person from entering the town.

1 February, 1965: the AWU An­ nual Convention refused Mackie’s appeal. Tom Dougherty, the federal president of the AWU, said that Mackie had “thumbed his nose” at the convention by not fronting. How­ ever, Mackie was given notice of the appeal by telegram, and the telegram was not delivered because of the state-of-emergency.

An AWU official told the court that Mackie’s solicitor’s letter, setting out the grounds of his appeal, was not read to the convention. Staples managed to subpoena a letter from the union to Mackie’s solicitor. It was not admitted in evidence.

it matter to him ‘all you fools out there’ and he goes on ‘Listen to the people pay, just for me — all the applause, all the praise, all the money I have made — O it’s lonely at the top.’ The trouble with New­ man is the more you think about his songs, the more entangled you become. If you happen to play Sail Away between 2 am and dawn (this is no tim^ for old ipen),. two things generally happen, you either fall down sleeping or become very para­ noid.

Now the music on Randy’s records is death-defying. I don’t understand it, and like Newman himself, it’s almost ordinary. Most of the time his tunes are dance-hall or honkyjazz, he plays the piano in a slouching style — the trouble is that you get the feeling he could stop at any moment from the sheer boredom of it all — this to me is very discon­ certing especially when I’m really turned-on to him. Now that I’ve played this album seven hundred times, I know that he won’t go to sleep when we’re half way there, but it doesn’t seem to help — it’s as if the LP is infused with a living person who could at any time, close the grooves. And that’s not all with

Randy’s music, sometimes he uses Great String Inevitables, who come soaring up behind Newman’s piano like some horrible parody of Mahler.

Though nevertheless I have the sneak­ ing feeling that Randy can and does at times play a very mean piano.

Who knows? * * * Then there’s his voice, it’s the same thing: an overwhelming throw­ away tiredness. It makes you feel like you’ve been conned something terrible: all those speed-freaks, hard­ working powerhouses, from the Big O down through Dylan, The Band, Mothers, Zappa to Van Morrison, Randy just rambles on almost as if he is stoned on whisky or some other weird trip. I don’t think he is though, he probably has to shoot-up vitamin E just to keep awake. Just listen to ‘God’s Song (That’s Why I Love Mankind)’ it’s the last track on Sail Away, and it sounds like Randy’s absolutely exhausted. But again he turns it to his advantage, it’s one of the most perfect songs ever put down. Again I can only compare Randy Newman to Stevens or Yeats, so I won’t. There are 12 songs on Sail Away — and every one of them deserved to be received

two years, the company holds an across-the-table conference with the unions. * * * The editorial’s reference to “ Com­ munists” apparently referred to the Queensland Trades and Labor Coun­ cil. Of three TLC representatives to Mt Isa, one was a communist.

It was suggested that at the 1965 Senate election, the communist party polled about 40 votes, in an elec­ torate o f 17,000. * * * Who prolonged the dispute? Con­ solidated Press argued that Mackie was a shrewd man, capable of lead­ ing men less intelligent than „himself, who would use any means, including unlawful ones, to get what he wanted.

Cassidy elicited, evidence that Mackie had been refused an AWU organizer’s job in 1962, and was vindictive, and became more so when he was re­ fused appointment to the Section Committee. Cassidy pointed to Mac­ kie’s encounters with the law, and his attitude to arbitration and the AWU officials, to indicate that the baseball-capped worker was the man who had engineered the troubles.

Staples put the history of wage claims in the period prior to the dispute before the court. He argued that MIM Ltd. had adopted an ex­ tremely provocative position. Staples said that, although the defence had consistently referred to the dispute as a “strike” , the men had been on firm legal ground to revert to wages, and at no time, did they withdraw their labor. Staples said there was no evidence that the men had rejected lawful arbitration, although the conduqt of the courts had caused them to lose confidence in those processes.

According to Staples, the action of the company in December, and the legislation of the Queensland government, were factors in prolong­ ing the dispute.

In his address, Staples said that given the way the AWU and MIM Ltd had cooperated to get rid of Part o f this letter read, 11 . . . I Mackie, the workers’ elected chair­ have got news for you. Solicitors are man, the demand of his reinstate-' not perm itted in AWU appeals so I ment was not unreasonable. In evid­ must respectfully suggest that you ence, Mackie said he’d suggested in mind your own business and keep January that the demand be dropped, your long nose out o f it. I trust and had been “roundly booed” by you perfectly understand me.'' the men. Besides, it was put, his The next day, The Daily Tele­ reinstatement wasn’t the only issue: graph ran the story about Mackie’s although Cassidy put it to Mackie that alleged convictions, and the editorial contract rates had been increased, Mackie denied that; and, further, that began:— claims for improvement in working The AWU Federal convention has conditions had not been adjudicated. done the right thing in refusing to let * * * the unofficial leader of the Mount As Mackie left the court after Isa strikers, Mr Pat Mackie, pack the verdict, most of the jury gathered into the union. around to congratulate him. He was an editorial that concluded: last seen heading off down King It is time for the miners to make Street with a group of them. One a choice — between Mackie’s way of said that ten, of the jury had been “direct action”, Communist-suppor­ in favor of awarding Mackie more ted disruption and intimidation, money. which has gained them nothing; and Libel laws are part of the censor­ the w a y ' of arbitration, which is ship apparatus. However, they oc­ the law of the land, and which has casionally provide some protection already brought them considerable against a monopolised press. As the gains. jury apparently recognized, the daily A vicious campaign in the press papers of the time grossly misrepre­ and parliament against the workers sented the Mt Isa dispute, and the pic­ had its effect. A slow trickle of men ture presented by them was the only returned to work. Picketing was step­ one available to most people at the ped up. The AWU appealed to the time* The evidence in this trial does Government to pass an anti-picketing not present a complete picture of law. the dispute. In the terms o f this It did.

Under tremendous pressure, the case, much was not relevant, and men gave in, in April. Mackie recom­ even where relevant from a layman’s mended a return to work, and the point of view, Staples was often men voted for it. 48 members of the prevented from asking questions. A Committee for Membership Control certain amount emerged, but it was were blacklisted forever by the com­ not published by the press. This pany, but many more men were re­ article has been an attempt to see that the controllers of fact do not fused re-employment.

When these men applied to the entirely succeed.

In a note he passed to Staples courts for reinstatement, Justice Taylor remarked that it was obvious during his final address, Mackie wrote: that only the AWU’s opposition pre­ “ For the Mt Isa workers, this is a vented the company from re-employ- shining hour.”

Irony: The AWU’s lords may be ing them.

While many men, including Mackie toppled by the men it blacklisted were never reinstated, the dispute in Mt Isa seven years ago, in the did result in some gains for the wor­ election being held to replace dead kers. Physical conditions at the mines boss Tom Dougherty. The story is have improved remarkably, and every in the next issue of The Digger.

utterly; it takes a passive quality like in zen on the part of a listener to Randy before anything is revealed.

It’s all there though, even politically Sail Away has some of the strongest and sophisticated radical ideas in existence. Above all though is the anti-energy, it comes across in a strange way, but it’s there if you’re ready. I called it energy at the start of this rave, it’s hard to tag. Randy’s humor is like Lenny Bruce, Jewish, Black, Spiritual. * * * A word of warning: if you’ve been thinking of buying Sail Away, or if this speil has made you wonder, don't rush out and buy it. Just take it easy, get your six-dollars together (I had to sell Leonard Cohen and Nashville Skyline) and then stroll down to your friendly record-shop and casually purchase your Randy Newman — then don’t expect too much until you’ve played it, listening preferably from a bed, at least 20 times. A final word from Randy in Godface: you all must be crazy, to put your Faith in me — that’s why I love mankind/you really need me — that’s why I love man­ kind . . .

December 2 — December 16

The Digger

A spooky eco-western

!

Essentially the film is a western, with the focus on the John Voight character who can’t really explain why he totes along on his friend’s great outdoors excursions until he is forced to play the survival game, backing his resources against the hill­ billies’, the river and finally the law.

For most of the film the location camera work following the canoes is a joy to behold, (as is the oh so tight editing of the action sequences) and I can’t help feeling rather sorrow­ ful about the distirubtor’s decree that the image is to be restricted by a relatively cramped screen.

Casting for the film was excellent, apart from Burt Reynolds as Lewis, an unattractive, latter day Tarzan.

Certainly he has the worst lines of the film: “Sometimes you have to lose yourself before you can find anything”. And again when the fall guy of the movie exaults, “We won!

We beat it!” Reynolds replies “No, nobody ever beats a river.”

Although these are the classic

Burt Reynolds, whose huge penis earned him a start in the blue movies, has graduated to mouthing the corniest lines in ecology drama,

i

one-liners that used to have us quot­ ing that these hushed listeners were ing from the Holly wood greats, they thoroughly digging the communal simply don’t work in a movie that fear structure we had constructed has a lot of unstylized and appar­ between us and the fire. Being safe and scared at the same time can ently spontaneous dialogue. Even if Boorman wanted us to see Reynolds be a distinctly pleasureable sensation.

Some o f the muffle o f gasps as some sort of dick-head who had and squirmings of the audience at wholly bought the projected John the appearance of some unbelievably Wayne, Bogart bag, the two types heavy hillbillies in John Boorman’s of presentation clash and distract us. new film Deliverance, would seem to indicate that these sensations are I The film makes some nice visual by no means restricted to kids.

I points, among them is a simple meal The film starts with a sort of | that comes late in the piece, after half heard conversation as a quartet we have involuntarily come to share o f well-offj but not-too-bright cityVoight’s apprehensions about Geor­ jerks drive towards a river in the gia Crackers only to find with a Georgia backwoods. Their object is real sense of relief that they are to canoe down its awesomeness be­ people after all; and that we had fallen for that old trap of considering fore the whole area gets the Lake Peddar treatment. them as aliens because of an exper­ ience with only two of their kind.

While this talking goes on, the image cuts and pans along all these Deliverance meanders to a halt big earth moving monsters and we in rather a confused way with Voight hear Burt Reynolds talk about the giving the impression of a survivor “rape o f the goddam landscape”. rather than a winner. Maybe the At the film’s end we see more evid­ audience felt a little that way too. ence of this, but before it gets that I still reckon that Boorman is a far we see a rape of one of the party pretty good director and I’ll keep in the landscape, which sheer gut­ trying to see his earlier movies. nastiness I don’t particularly want Point Blank and Hell in the Pacific. to see equalled.

‘N A N TU C K E T SL E IG H R ID E ’

stairs from the boys and has become the object of .great ribaldry. Simon* can’t handle her at all but gets a vague sort o f date out of her.

This scene is played in front of a hole out of which a voice (‘gravel Jon Hawkes goes to see a production in quality’) and a hand occasionally of White With Wire Wheels, a play he emerge. The Independent production once played, and replays a few scenes had this hole surrounded by a milk from the Carlton Rennaissance. Is the bar facade a la Kubrick — paper Rennaissance over? mache tits and pop art colors (in marked contrast to the rest o f the Three years ago, almost to the play). It was an effective if over day, I got involved in a play that done .signal that the play is moving gave me more of a charge than any­ in a new direction. thing else I’ve ever done in theatre.

Next scene, a couple of days A week ago I went, as The Digger later, finds the lads just returned critic, to see the first professional from a piss up and a bum in the production in Sydney of the same hills, pruned and ready for action. play.

Helen comes down, is completely The play is now being done by ignored and leaves unnoticed. An a group that, back in those paranoid argument develops about the relative days, we regarded as the epitomy of merit o f various automobiles. mediocrity, creeping liberalism and “The absurdity of the argument and castrated culture. They were the its snow-balling quality should be opposition, and now they’re messing heightened by full technical effects with our fucking plays.

— flashing lights, colors, silhouette The play is by Jack Hibberd, or shadow lighting, etc. The argu­ called White With Wire Wheels, and it ment is finally swamped by the racing will be running at Sydney’s Indep­ car sounds at extremely loud volume, endent Theatre at least until Christ­ and these lead to a climactic chorus mas. In trying to write about it I’m of carhorns, klaxons, even foghorns discovering that I’ve got to describe perhaps. the old days too. W.W.W.W. means so “Sudden darkness and silence” . much to me personally, historically, Naturalism has freaked out. The theatrically that recalling my exper­ symphony has reached a natural but iences in the darkness last week I’m non-realistic climactic crescendo. We overwhelmed by what went down are left somewhere up there holding years before. our breaths. After what seems an Kevin Howard (Simon), Kristen Mann (Mae), and Peter Corbett (Rod) in the Independent Theatre 's version 1972.

W4 was Jack Hibberd’s first play, age o f stillness Helen is revealed. She written in 1967 when he was 27, says.: three years after graduating in medi­ ] munity action against the status quo, did we have tickets on ourselves.

Blundell and Dwyer hung on till a The purpose o f this play, cine from the University o f Mel­ theatre that the left, the students, the month or so ago and are now into Invited to Perth, we had to decide Should the playwright have his bourne. Hibberd is a renegade poor could identify with. Blundell was what to do. Out of the endless their own trip . . . Hibberd, too, way, Catholic, film freak and has been pretty amenable to this. It tied in squabbles over this grew the seeds has left.)

Is general and not particular, through the med. faculty dirty- well with his ideas about com nitSo, the plays were published, the of destruction. The group never had’ For Malcolm, R od and Simon are anatomical-joke syndrome . ment to being a good actor — which a written constitution, but a hierar­ APG got itself into a building and ; N ot simply the blacker side of The play was first performed at involved hours of workshop activity, chy, albeit a professedly unwilling into debt and into the position of white.

Melbourne Uni Sept. ‘67 (directed by not directed towards a particular one, had developed with Blundell in having to keep plays going with big Please flip the coin tonight.

David Kendall), was done again by performance, but into creating an the hot seat. houses simply in order to exist — the Contact Theatre in early ‘68 and ensemble of people who could relate What follows has become known We ended up choosing two Hib­ a sort of cultural consumerism not by the Australian Performing Group together so well, who had such con­ berd plays (Who? & W4), a Romeril as the Dream Sequence. Many have unlike the problems associated with in early ‘70 — both in Melbourne trol over their bodies, their voices, (Chicago, Chicago) and a ring-in from argued for cutting it from the play keeping a newspaper coming out as it has the three men tell Helen and at the Perth Arts Festival (these so full of performance skills that Sydney writer Alexander Buzo every two weeks. And the authors their dreams in what can be seen as last three directed by Lindsay Smith). whatever they did would blow (Front Room Boys). These were became respected, to the extent that It was with the A.P.G. that I was people’s minds. simplistic Freudian imagery — an eventually published by Penguin in W4, which was seen in ‘67 as being involved. unecessary recap of what has been We thought we knew what it was a collection called Plays. The choice a bit of undergraduate dirt, can In April ‘68, Hibberd, Graeme all about — established theatre was left a lot of resentments hanging coming down in the play’s real now be seriously analysed by writers Blundell, Kerry Dwyer, David Ken­ ratshit, catering for the elitist soulless around in the group . . . world. in Nation Review and The Australian dall, Brian Davies and a few other anachronistic pseudo-intellectual bour­ I believe that as Hibberd’s natural­ and performed by straight companies I’d rather remember the good ex Melbourne U. heavies got together geoisie. The counter culture was get­ things and W4 is one o f the best. ism has an underlying weirdness to like the Independent Theatre. a ‘season of short plays’ entitled ting into very personal non-verbal Smith directed it with Blundell, it, so his dream world is more than In the meanwhile, my head has Brainrot in the Architecture Theatre stuff which we put down as touchyit seems. The dream sequence ends at Melbourne University. Lindsay touchy feely-feely group therapy — with a sudden tableau of Rod, Mai Smith and I saw the production to­ reactionary bullshit. There we. were, and Simon ‘huddling together as if gether! At the time we were dis­ in between somewhere, seeing our­ in a car and driving at high speed5. illusioned about theatre in Australia selves as saviours of both Australian Around them they hold the objects and had built up a lot o f condescen­ theatre and the Australian revolution. of their dreams — a gearbox, w h eels ding attitudes towards local produc­ We were a messianic group, convinced and a steering wheel. In the back­ tions — but Brainrot was something of our own purity and of our great ground we hear the Beach Boys. else — I still vividly remember being importance.

Unfortunately the Independent used mindfucked by the raw energy and “Good .Vibrations” — the song that The responsibilities of being the savage humor of the evening. heralded the Beach Boys arrival in only decent theatre group in the In November ‘68, we heard that land weighed a bit heavy at times, the psychedelic age — hardly approp­ the same people (minus Hibberd), especially as we were pretty ignorant riate to the days of hot rodding, the who had left for Europe) had begun of developments overseas and else­ days of “ Little Old Lady from (pen workshops at Betty Burstall’s where in Australia. We were inno­ Pasadena” and “ Little Deuce Coupe” La Mama coffeeshop in Carlton. cents who thought of ourselves as . . . they lost a lot of relevant vibes.

John Romeril, Smith, his wife Margot heavies, and this is perhaps why the Still it remained an unknown and and I fronted to check out what the work we did was so fruitful. We disturbing note in the middle o f the Carlton push were doing. And once were a disparate group, all wanting play, and they had as much diffic­ again we were blown away. ulty keeping the flow as we did. different things out of it, and without The next two scenes have Helen Most of the creative force in the name-calling and over-reaction we destroy the men’s supportive system, group was coming from Blundell — would probably have fallen apart. and the final moments find the three an ex-Melbourne Theatre Company 1969 was the high point of the of them brawling on the floor, Helen actor, a brilliant and inventive comic La Mama Company. There must have ! Dwyer, myself and Bill Gamer in changed a great deal about theatre interrupting them with news o f her who seemed obsessed by two things. been about 25 of us and what held i the cast, and the rehearsals for this (changes that grew to a large extent I imminent departure and a desperate First to create a ‘genuine’ Australian us together was two outstanding j production were classics in the a rt. . . out of the work we did on W4) and I was able to approach the In­ attempt by the lads to get it back theatre and secondly to find an writers in Hibberd and Romeril, two | never have I experienced a group dependent production with less trep­ together again which leaves them environment in which he and other good directors in Smith and Blundell of people so heavily into discovering idation than I could have two years frozen as the play ends. actors, directors and writers could and a lot of energetic actors and what a play was about, what they ago. learn together the skills required to actresses. A lot of this energy was were about, how this related to * * * The play works around the lives produce theatre that meant spent trying to define a line, largely “outside” , and how best to com­ The Independent Theatre prod­ of three young (25) executives. The something. unsuccessfully. It was on-stage that municate it. It was very heavy and uction didn’t trip very much on the dialogue circles about four themes — freakiness of the play, but concen­ very beautiful and in a way des­ What that something was he we got it on. carousing, cars, careers and cunts. seemed a bit unclear about. Our lot, By the end of the year we were troyed the A.P.G. trated on the script, on getting the We see a week of action in which they fresh from the Monash political scene famous, invited to the Perth Arts (It went on, in fact still goes on words down . . . trusting that with a all disconnect with separate women were able to set him straight in that Festival, in line for an Arts Council — but all those people have since bit of symbolism in the design of and come together around another department. We wanted committed Grant, had changed our name to the left — in April of ‘70 Smith split the set, the colors of the clothing, theatre, angry theatre, theatre not Australian Performing Group. The for the States where he still lives, I one (all four being played by the a couple of labored sight gags, that same actress) only to shatter again. necessarily following a particular reviewers were taking us seriously, left the group around the same time, whatever was there would come out.

A great deal of the play is, to quote political line, but involved in com- La Mama was always packed out — Garner left sometime in ‘71 and A whole lot did but a lot more Blundell, ‘quasi-naturalistic’. Hibberd was missing. It was a very literal in this mood has a lot in common interpretation of the dialogue — with Pinter — his language is orches­ speed was substituted for any imag­ trated, noise and silence are used inative use of the rhythms and the together — as if the rhythms and movement, on which so much of sounds of the words communicate Hibberd’s ebbings and soarings de­ more than what’s being said. Hibberd pend was stilted, self-conscious, still puts this poetic surrealism into an and obviously planned. A number The Digger is planning a cartoon supplement, along similar aggressively humorous, almost vaude­ of the power plays, the pecking lines to the poetry double-page spread in issue number 6. ville surrounding. The result is very order definers, were shown visually Deadline for cartoons is Friday next, December 8th — but weird. but in such an overt manner that The Digger encourages readers any artists who have a project underway that may take On one level everything is cool — they, like the color symbolism (Mai to write on records, theatre, film, longer should contact this office by Friday and discuss an three dudes getting it on, drinking, in blue, Rod in green, Simon in or any other such matter. For fantasising, male chauvinist piggying e.t.a. brown, even down to matching bed­ record raves, of whatever format, — just your average satire of the aver­ spreads on their womens’ beds) be­ we can offer an album for each age Oz male (on a par with Barry came boring . . . sort of a 1+1=2 review printed.

Humphries only a bit more biting trip. This literalism even went as far Below is a list of albums we and a lot less celebratory). But un­ as the actors being physically smaller have received “for review”. When derneath all sorts of contradictions, in the same order as the power game sending a review — of any record expectations and tensions build up went.

Since soliciting readers’ record raves, The Digger has received you like — mention two or three — the poetry is such that at times Although Hibberd may now be a more reviews o f Van Morrison LPs than any other artist’s. It albums of your preference off this the sounds take over and spin off ‘profound playwright’ this produc­ seems many people share the view that Morrison’s Astral Weeks list, and we’ll send one out if your into complete irrationality yet the tion gave no hint that the crew is just about the nearest thing to fulfilment on record. rave is printed. rhythms keep on in there punding wanted anything more than a realis­ In our never-ending search for truth in such matters, we intend Send to Records, The Digger, through to the end. Words cease to tic satire of the budding bourgeoisie.

58 Canterbury Rd., Middle Park, printing a number of Astral Weeks reviews. be meaningful in any everyday sense But here was a lot o f energy Vic., 3206. and the sounds just bounce around Van Morrison freaks should address copy to Astral Weeks, 58 there, a lot of brash arrogance that in your head (a lot like good rock Canterbury Road, Middle Park, Vic., 3206.

I really got off on.

Records received for review: lyrics.)

In a way the play can’t fail because David Ackles, American Gothic This uneasy naturalism dominates both actors and audience will find the first half of the play. We watch (Elektra) things about themselves in there.

England Dan and «John Ford Coley, Mai, Rod and Simon get up, converse And its such a joy to hear the Aust­ and leave for work, we see each of Fables (A&M) ralian idiom used with integrity.

Digger readers are cordially invited to list their favorite ten The Doobie Brothers, Toulouse them in turn alone with a woman (It took me at least five minutes LP records and send the list to The Digger.

Further, should on whom they lay very heavy num?

Street (WB) to find a word to finish that sentence readers habor a lingering love for single-play 45 rpm records Finnegan & Wood, Crazed Hip­ bers and we see them return home with and it still sounds pompous.) as immortalised on top 40 radio over the past decade or two — sters (Blue Thumb) to their supportive fantasy world It’s just that Hibberd is a dark a list of ten All Time Great singles would be fine too. where they are all virile supermen.

The Grass Roots, Moving Along motherfucker — not only does he (Probe) An average Day In The Life . . .

Why readers should do this, we have no answer to. dress as if in mourning but his vision Dick Heckstall-Smith, A Story The second half of the scene is in It’s an exercise in . . . well, it might be fun. So far we have is a very gloomy one. Yet his plays Ended (Bronze) an open air milk bar where Simon a coupla dozen All Time Greats, and when the figure boosts are all extremely/ funny, Capture Grand Funk, Mark, Mel and Don encounters a new and enigmatic some more, we’ll print a selection. both those qualities and you’ve got 1969-71 (Capitol) lady (played, remember, by the same Send ALL-TIME GREATS to The Digger, 58 Canterbury Rd., yourself a great piece o f theatre.

Sun, Sun 1972 (RCA) actress as the other three). This one, The Independent were very funny.

Middle Park., Vic., 3206.

Helen, has moved into the flat up-

From heavy relating in C arlton to m atching bedspreads

Pleasure from comfortable fear:

DELIVERANCE AUSTRALIA CINEMA 1 - MEL­ BOURNE

by Peter Carmody A couple of winters ago I took a bunch o f kids to stay in a Marys­ ville guest house. They annoyed the manager, because they appeared to have foresaken sleep for the duration.

There was one little nook near the games room where the kids would gather after “Mr Guesthouse” had pulled out the light fuses, and they’d spook each other around a dying fire with stories of seances and ghosts o f unlucky baby brothers. With a snow " laden wind outside and my belly comfortably warmed from my surreptitious rum stash, I found my­ self entertaining this audience with stories that had once set my long gone third-form soul a-quivering and shaking.

In retelling the Monkey Paw (the long dead son dripping scabs of mag­ got chewed flesh was just kicking in the door of his aged parents’ rude hut on the moors), I remember think­

READERS’ RECORD REVIEW S

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G etting o ff on Van M orrison

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Page 9

|

The Digger

Page 10

December 2 — December 16

SYDNEY FLYER MOVES

C A R O T A irvites you to the

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by Michael Boddy, nusic by Patrick Flvnn. Directed by Aarne Neeme, with John Denims Terry Clarke, Max Cullen, Jon Hardy, Carole Skinner, John Wood, from Dec 12, Tues—Sat 8.30; Sun 7.30 Phone: 31-3754

National FilmTheatre of Australia Commonwealth Centre Theatrette, cnr Phillip and Hunter Streets, Sydney A.M.P. Theatre Building, Circular Quay.

FRIDAY NIGHT CLASSICS

B USTER KEATON in his greatest comedy

The G eneral plus Harry Langdon and Chaplin shorts Fri. Dec. 8,7.30pm AMP Theatrette, Circular Quay Fridays following — Eisenstbiir.’s The General Line, and D.W. Griffiths’, Hearts of the World.

Dec 2 Invisible Tracks (a surf movie) 8.00 p.m.' $1.50 Union Theatre, U. of Sydney.

Dec 3 Wizard of Oz 5.30 p.m. Union Theatre U. of Sydney You’re Telling Me & Animal Crackers 8.00 p.m. Union Theatre, U. of Sydney.

Dec 5 Rebel Without A Cause and Attack!

7.15 p.m.

Common­ wealth Centre Theatrette NFTA Screening Dec 7 The Left Handed Gun and a film

by Elia Kazan 7.15 p.m.

Commonwealth Centre Theatrette NFTA Screen­ ing Dec 8 All Night Long, Behind The Screen and The General 7.30 p.m.

A.M.P. Theatre NFTA Screening Dec 10 Realist Films 7.30 p.m. Union Theatre U. of Sydney Dec 11 Ai Capone and Hud 7.15 p.m.

Commonwealth Centre Theatrette NFTA Screen­ ing Realist Films 7.30 p.m. Union Theatre, U. of Sydney Dec 12 Realist Films 7.30 p.m. Union Theatre, U. of Sydney Dec 13 Realist Films 7.30 p.m. Union Theatre, U. of Sydney Dec 14 Stage Struck & Baby Doll 7.15 p.m., Commonwealth Centre Theatrette NFTA Screen­ ing Dec 15 Bumping Into Broadway & The General Line 7.30 p.m. AMP Theatre NFTA Screening

ENQUIRIES PHONE: 5243118

MOVIES: currently showing

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JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR HURRY, LAST WEEKS SOON TO BE ANNOUNCED

Book at Capitol, Mitchell’s, D.J.’s, Grace Bros., Playbox. Nightly at 8.30pm, plus Fri. and Sat. 6.00pm.

Group concessions: 211-0199

CAPITOL THEATRE Tel, bookings: 212 3677

Ascot 246 Pitt. The Adventures of Barry McKenzie finished Dec 14. Tales o f Beatrix Potter starts Dec 15.

Barclay 681 George.

A Clockwork Orange Century 586 George.

- The Salzburg Connection finishes Dec 6. Young Winston starts Dec 7.

Classic Cinema 9 Spit Rd, Mosman. Portraits Of A Woman and The Bookseller Who Gave Up Bathing.

Collaroy Classic 109 Pittwater Rd, Collaroy.

Mash and Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid finishes Dec 6; Willard and Whatever Happened To Aunt Alice? Dec 7 to Dec 13; The Go Between and Blind Terror starts Dec 14.

Dendy 360 Pacific Highway, Crows Nest.

Harold And Maude.

Embassy, 79 Castlereagh. A Reflection Of Fear.

Forum 749 George.

Gone With The Wind.

Gala 236 Pitt. I Can Jump Puddles.

Sats.

10.15 p.m. Viridiana.

Liberty 232 Pitt.

Wrath Of God. Lyceum 210 Pitt.

What’s Up Doc. Mayfair 73 Castlereagh, Cabaret.

Metro Bondi Junction 530 Oxford. Bedroom Mazurka.

Metro King Cross 288 Orwell. Bedroom Mazuka finishes Dec 14; The Adventures of Barry McKenzie starts Dec 15.

New Arts 166 Glebe Pt, Rd, Glebe. Kama Sutra Dec 2 to Dec 13; Concert For Bangladesh and Zachariah starts Dec 14.

Orpheum 386 Miltiary Rd, Cremorne.

Nicholas and Alexandra Dec 5-15; Blind Terror and Bless The Beasts And

>RflYCOLUMBUS

(EXCLUSNE)J

Babes on Broadway and Piccadilly Lily, musical revue at Bona­ parte’s Theatre Res­ taurant, 152 William, 212-2666. Mon. to Sat. from 6.00 p.m. to 3.00 a .m .

(S h o w runs 8.30-10.30) $7.00 concessions for groups.

Banjo cone. & dir.

N orm an M cV icker, Pocket Playhouse, ■ 94 Terry St, Sydenham.

55-6411. Frid. & Sat. at 8.00 p.m. — prices: $2.00 — concession. Stu­ dents & pensioners $1.50.

Basically Black, An Aboriginal Revue dir.

Ken Horler.

Nimrod Street Theatre, 10 Nim­ rod St, Darlirighurst 31-3754. Tuesdays to Saturdays at 8.30, Sun­ days at 7.30. Prices: Tues, Wed, Thurs t"— $2.00, Fri, Sat, Sun ’— $2.50. Concessions to actors, students and members: s: Tues, Wed, Thurs $1.50, Sun. $1.75. Closes Dec 3rd.

A Delicate Balance,

by Edward Albee dir.

Douglas Hedge. Genesian Theatre, 420 Kent 29-6454. Fri. & Sat. at 8.15. Closes Dec 9.

Don’s Party, by David Williamson dir. John Clark opens Dec 6. Old Tote Theatre Company, Parade Theatre, UNSW, Anzac Parade, Kensing­ ton, 663-6122. Mon. to Sat. at 8.00. Sat. Mat. at 2.00. Prices: Mon. to Thurs. $3.50, Frid. & Sat. $4.00. Sat Mat. $3.00. Concessions to students Mon. to Thurs. & Sat. Mat. Father Dear Father Come Over Here by Ron Harrison dir. Ron Ferrier. Australian Theatre, cnr. Lennox & Probert Streets, N ew to w n 51-3841.

8.00 p.m.

Prices: $3.50, $2.50.

Concessions for students.

Fools Paradise by Peter Coke, dir. Dennis Allan. Arts Theatre, Surf Road, Cronulla.

523-6888. Fri. & Sat. at 8.15 p.m. $1.30. Con­ cessions: Pensioners 50c, students $1.00, children 70c.

The Ghost Train by Arnold Ridley, dir. Peter C o llin g w o o d .

Com­ munity Theatre, 2 Mari­ an Street, Killaura 498-3166. Tues-Sat at

The Mavis McMahon Show dir. James Fishbum, MacLeay Theatre, 81 Macleay St, Potts Point, 35-0433, Mon. to Sat. 8.30 (dinner at 6.00) Thurs. mat. 2.00. Prices: $6.00 with dinner.

Memories The Best of Six Years Killara 680 Coffee Theatre, 680 Pacific Highway, Killara 498-7552. Tues-Sat at 8.30 Nov. 18 & Dec. 2 at 3.30. Concessions for children & students.

Mother Goose Young, Peoples Theatre, AMP Theatrette, AMP Build­ in g, Circular Quay 38-2992, 2nd, 9th Dec. N o rth sid e Ballet Company, Dec 2 & 3 at 2.00 p.m., Dec 4 at 10.30 a.m., The Nut Cracker Suite. Dec 2, 4 & 5 at 8.00 p.m,, Dec 5 at 10.30 a.m., 5 New Ballets. At the Orpheum, 386 Military Rd, Cremorne.

A Pretty Kettle Of Fish musical revue at the Fishmongers Hall, 336 Pitt St, 26-5313. Mon-Sat, 8.30, Sun. 7.30.

Prices: Sun. to Frid. $7.50, Sat. $8.50.

The Spring Heeled Terror Of Stepney Green by & dir. Stanley Walsh, Misic Hall Restaurant, 156 Military Rd, Neutral Bay, 909-8222. Mon. to Sat. 8.30 — dinner from 6.00. Mon-Fri $2.70, Sat. $3.20 (not including food and drink).

Summer Tree, by Ron Cowan, dir. Hayes Gordon.

Opens 11th Dec. Ensemble Theatre, 78 McDougall Street, Milsons Point, 929-8877, Mon. to Sat. 8.00, Sat. mat. 5.00. Prices: Mon. to Thurs. & Sat. Mat. — $2.75 & $2.25. Fri. & Sat. Eves. — $3.00 &

$2.50. Concessions to 'students: Mon. & Tues. $ 1.00, remainder re­ duced by $0.50.

Victoriana cmp. & dir. by David Goddard.

Repertory 200, 259 Pacific Highway, Lindfield 498-5597. Thurs. to Sun. at 8.15. Prices: $2.50. Concessions: Stu­ dents & pensioners $1.50.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Burgess dir. David Goddard, In d ep en d en t Theatre, *71 Miller St, North Sydney.

929-7377.

Sat. 2.00.

Prices: $1-2 adults, $0.60 children. A children’s play.

White With Wire Wheels by Jackson Hibberd dir. Ceila Blake, Independent Theatre, 271 Miller St, North Sydney, 929-7377. Wed. to Sat. at 8.15. Prices: $3.00, $2.00, $1.00. Sat. $3.00 & $2.00. Con­ cessio n s: S tu d en ts, $1.50, $1.00.

ROCK BANDS BAND OF LIGHT & FRIENDS Dec. 16. Green Elephant BLACK FEATHER Dec. 8. Barrenjoey High School (lunch turn conect) 9. Corrurnal Commun­ ity Hall McKENZIE THEORY Dec. 13. Maccabean Hall 15. Green Elephant CAPT. MATCHBOX Dec. 13. Maccabean Hall 15. Green Elephant 16. Green Elephant MOTHER EARTH Dec. 9. Green Elephant ITAMBU Dec. 9. Green Elephant LIZARD Dec. 2. Cronulla (Bottle) 8. Leichhardt Town Hall 9 Cronulla (Bottle) 69ERS Dec. 2. Green Elephant 15. Auburn Soccer Club HEAD BAND Dec, 3 John Rodgers Manly.

COUNTRY RADIO Dec 3.

Woolongong Theatre 5. Campbell Town Civic Centre 6 Meadowbank High School 8 Green Elephant 10 Newcastle Theatre HOME Dec. 2. Newcastle Bus Stop 8. Green Elephant 9. Cronulla 13. Maccabean Hall 15. Chequers 16. Chequers.

SUN Dec. 2. Green Elephant 14. Marketing Soc. Rod Island 1st Ferry 6.30.

LADEDAS Dec. 2. Bowra Memorial Hall Bendooley St. 3.

Sydney Showgrounds. 3 Dog Night Concert 6. Meadowbank High School 8. Green Elephant 9. Green Elephant 1 0k Woolongong 16. Paddington Town Hall.

PIRANA Dec. 2. Roundhouse Ball UNSW 3. Newcastle Theatre 5. Manlyvale High School Cabram atta High School 6. Paddington Town Hall 8. Manlyvale Hotel

• B V ’L ’L T ’R Q Q

9. Manlyvale Hotel 14.

Newcastle — Cessnock Town Hall 15. Green Elephant 16. Harbor Cmise (depart. 7.30 No. 3 Wharf) BATTERSEA HEROES Dec. 7. Paddington No, 2 Haü 8. Green Elephant 14. Great Synague Hall 16. Paddington Town Hall.

PHONE GUIDE More info about the numbers below in the last two issues of Digger 6 & 7. If you think your group should be listed give us a ring 31-5073.

A lternative Com­ munity T elep h o n e (698-2652). Box 23, PO Surrey Hills, 2010.

Womens Liberation.

25 Alberta St, Sydney.

Mens Liberation. 67 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe (Monday nights).

Gay Liberation. 67 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe.

Camp Inc. (82-4023) Box 5074, GPO, Sydney.

A b o rtio n Action Campaign. C/- 25 Alberta St, Sydney.

Abortion Law Re­ form A s s o c ia tio n .

(36-6016). Box C35, Clarence St PO, Sydney.

The Digger has a great little pamphlet called “Abortion is Free and Legal” send us a stamped addressed envelope to 8 Norfolk St, Paddington, 2021 if you want it.

Lifeline (33-4141).

Poisons Information Centre (51-0466).

Drug Referral Centre (31-2579) 43 Craigend St, Darlinghurst & 91 Pittwater Road, Manly (977-2197).

Wayside Chapel Crisis Program. (35-1010 & 35-6577) 29 Hughes St, Potts Point.

Alcoholics Anony­ mous (26-6968) 550 George St, Sydney.

Al-anon F am ily Groups (31-9668) Cnr Bourke and Burton Sts, Darlinghurst.

Divorce Law Reform Associatiön (85-3211) PO Box R325 Royal Exchange.

Nexus Group PO Box 325 St Marys.

Callan Park Psychia­ tric Centre (82-6601) Balmain Rd, Rozelle, 2039.

Public S o lic ito r (61-6581) 55 Market St, Sydney.

Law Society of NSW (25-5395) 170 Phillip St, Sydney.

Legal Service Bureau 32-34 York St, Sydney.

Council for Civil Liberties (660-7582) 149 St Johns St, Glebe.

Aboriginal Legal Ser­ vice (669-1109) 142 Re­ gent St, Redfern.

Family Planning As­ sociation of Australia (62-5211) 92 City Rd, Chippendale.

V en ereal Disease, NSW Health Dept. 93 Macquarie St, Sydney.

United Dental Hospi­ tal (211-4322) 2 Chalmers St, Surrey Hüls.

A 1ternative Health Centre 23 Collins St, Surrey Hüls.

Ecology Ac t i o n (29-6717) 189 Clarence St, Sydney.

Public Interest Re­ search Group (PRIG) C/SRC Level I, Wentworth Buüding, Uni of Sydney.

Consum er Affairs Bureau (2-0344) 53 Martin Place, Sydney.

Draf t R e sisto r s’ Union PO Box 85, Newtown, 2042.

Womens’ Electoral Lobby (36-2245) PO Box 24 Neutral Bay Junction 2089.

R evolutionary Marxist Group PO Box 13, Balmain 2041 , Socialist Youth Al­ liance (26-2121) 139 St Johns St, Glebe A u stralian Labor Party (26-2732) 377 Sussex St, Glebe Communist Party of Australia (26-2161) 4 Dixon St, Sydney Glebe * Anti-Express­ way Group (660-5835) PO Box 82, Glebe Sydney Day Nursery and Nursery Schools Assoc. (26-5421) 39 Park St, Sydney

To advertise in THE SYDNEY FLYER phone Michael Zerman at The Digger, 31 5073, or call at the office, 8 Norfolk Street, Paddington, 2021.

r INRISE LET IT BE SUITE 15 100 D R U M M O N D ST

s a p 13053-

^iLSflEElF’ M ELBO UR NE BANDS:

DADDY COOL, INDELIBLE MURTCEPS, COUNTRY RADIO,SPECTRUM, CAPTAIN MATCHBOX

HOW ABOUT A DIP? Most municipalities operate public swimming pools. Prices for adults never over 20c and kids V2 price. Kogarah to Woolahra water babes will have to wait till next week.

HÉÂD OFFICE SUNRISE M ANAGEM ENT 32 U N D ER W O O D S T BADDNGTON, 2021 312111.

WHOOPEE

BAND,

MISS

UNIVERSE, GARY YOUNG'S HOT DOG, MACKENZIE

THEORY,

BLACKSPUR,

CPT. QUACK & THE THICKET DUCKS. IN TE R S TA TE BANDS:

SYDNEY:

LA

DE

DAS,

SHERBET,

PIRANA, 69ERS, BATTERSEA HEROES, WIZARD, BAND

SUN, OF

MOTHER

LIGHT,

EARTH,

HEAD

BAND,

GLEN CARDIER

City of Sydney Domain — open 7.30 a.m.-7.30 p.m.

Prince Alfred Park — 7.30-6.30 M on-Fri. Weeken ds 7.30 a.m.-7.30.

Victoria Park, Broad­ way — 7.30 a.m.-6.30 Mon-Fri. Weekends 7.30 a.m.-7.30 p.m.

Ashfield felizabeth St, Croy­ don, 6-9 Mon.-Sat. Sun­ day 6 a.m.-6 p.m.

DESPITE O TH ER A D V E R TS , THESE BANDS A RE E X C L U S IV E !

Auburn Church St, Lidcomb — 6 a.m.-7 p.m.

Bankstown Olympic Parade, 6 a.m.-6.30 p.m. Mon-Sat. Sundays 6 a.m.-5.30 p.m.

Baulkham Hills Oxley Av. 5.3JD a.m.-6.30 p.m.

Blacktown Boyd St, 6 a.m.-8.30 p.m. Weekends 6 a.m.-6 p.m.

Burwood Portland St, 6 a.m.-7 p.m. Weekends 6 a.m.-6 p.m.

Canterbury R o sela n d s, Wiley Park, 6 a,m.-6.45 p.m.

Concord Cabrita Baths, 6 a.m.-6 p.m.

Drummoyne Henry Marine Park, 6 a.m.-7 p.in. Weekends 6 a.m.-5 p.m.

7.30pm—Midnight, closed Monday

229 DARLING ST., BALMAIN

THE

DAWN

OF

A

NEW

ERA

IKXBB8B1 iKBflfHSrfl CAPTAIN MATCHBOX WHOOPEE BAND NTKENZIE THEORY SUN BATTERSEA HEROES SUNDAY DEC. 10, 7.30-?

GREEN ELEPHANT ANZAC PDE. KENSO SI.80

Fairfield Broomfield St, City Vale, 6 a.m .-9 p.m.

Weekends 6 a.m.-6 p.m.

Holroyd Wentworth Vale, 6 Sat 2nd: 69ers, Sun, Madder Lake a.m.-7 p.m. Sundays 7 Fri 8th: La De Da’s, Battersea Heroes, Home a.m.-7 p.m.

Sat 9th: La De Das, Mother Earth, Itambu Merrilands 6 a.m .-7 Fri 15: Capt. Matchbox, Pirana, McKenzie p.m.

Theory Sat 16: Capt. Matchbox, Band of Light, Hornsby Friends Epping, Stanley Rd, 6 а. m.-6.30 p.m. Weekend 3 WALL LIGHT SHOW BY U.F.O. б. a.m-7 p.m.

ALL BANDS BOOKED THRU SUNRISE Hornsby, Pacific High­ 266 ANZAC PARADE, KENSINGTON way, 6 a.m.-6 p.m.

GREEN ELEPHANT

First Floor, 590 George St. (between Century & Plaza Theatres) Phones: 61-2604 and 61-2569

Jf / V

Anchorites of Sydney’s celebrated UPSTAIRS BOOKSHOP lavish devoted care on your every book want.

Also Anchor caters for some special interests: • Movie books ,* Race Relations . Mental & Social ecology • Local & overseas periodicals in these areas Why not pay us that ole su’prise visit?

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81 Hall St Bondi 305429

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FRIENDS * MflPPERLflKE * FFPHEE RflY BROWNS ONE-TON QIPSf CONTEMPORARY ROCK ASSEMBLY ... ^ JAPE HURLEY

A4

Presented byMcPhee Enterprises Bookings DJs ErMitcheli's

THEATRE

8.15. Sun. 7.30, $3, $2.25. Concessions: Stud ents & pensioners $1.50. Closes Dec 16.

An Isolated Case of Heter-Chromia by R.C. Herbert dir.

Shirley Broadway, New Theatre, St Peters Lane, East Sydney 31-3237. Opens: Sat. Nov. 4, also Sun, Nov. 5 then every Fri, Sat, Sun at 8.15. Price: $2.00.

Concessions: Students, $ 1.00, children & Pensioners, 70 cents.

Closes Dec 9.

Jesus Christ Superstar

by Tim Rice & Andrew Lloyd Webber, dir. Jim Sharman, Capital Thea­ tre, 13 Cambell Street, Haymarket, 212-3677.

Mon to Sat at 8.30, Fri & Sat mats 6.00. Prices: $5.20, $4.20 & $3.20.

Concessions: Party book­ ings.

The Last Supper Show by Michael Boddy, dir. Aarne Neeme. Opens Dec 12. Nimrod Street Threatre, 10 Nimrod St, D arlinghurst 31-3754.

Tuesdays to Saturdays at 8.30, Sundays at 7.30.

Prices: Tues, Wed, Thurs — $2.00, Fri, Sat, Sun — $2.50. Concessions to actors, students and members: Tues, Wed, Thurs — $1.50, Sun. $1.75.

Les Girls, All male revue. Cnr. Roslyn St and i Darlinghurst Rd, Kings Cross. 35-6630. 2 shows nightly MonThurs. 3 shows Fri. & Sat. Prices: Mon-Thurs $3.00, Fri. & Sat. $3.50 The Manly Christmas Fairy dir. William Orr. Music Loft, 7 The Corso, Manly. 977-6585. Mon. to Sat. Open till 6, dinner at 7 show 8.40.

Price $7.00.

FOR THE SERIOUS RECORD COLLECTOR SYDNEY'S LEADING MAIL ORDER SERVICE FOR AIR-EXPRESSED IMPORTED RECORDS FROM U.S. & U.K.

« HZ.

The Children Dec 16.

P aram ount 525 George. The Godfather Paris 205 Liverpool.

The House That Dripped Blood finishes Dec 13; Man Of La Mancha starts.

Dec 14.

Penthouse 85 Darlinghurst Rd, Kings Cross.

Nudist Paradise and Mat­ ing Urge.

Plaza 600 George.

Dust, Sweat And Gun­ powder Rapallo 527 George.

Joe Kidd.

Regent 487 George.

Trinity Is Still My Name Roma 628 George.

The Devils.

Savoy 29 Bligh. Ulys­ ses finishes Dec 13; King Lear starts Dec 14.

State Theatre, 49 Market. Dracula A.D. 72.

State Theatrette 49 Market. Dagmars Hotpants.

T own 303 Pitt.

Butterflies Are Free.

Village Twin 377 New South Head Road, Double Bay. Cinema 1 — Deliver­ ance.

Cinema 2 — The Emigrants.

Sound by Taxel Lighting by Ellis I?Fogg Ray Arnold Security Seruioe

M l? 0 3 9 3 3 0 M B 18 Beigrave St Manly

977 3928

BOX 39 P.O. BLACKTOWN 2148 LOW PRICES - CATALOGUES - REGULAR RELEASE LISTS DELETIONS - RARE TAPES - INFORMATION - SOME N.Z. & EURO ROCK - COUNTRY - JAZZ - BLUES - CLASSICAL - FOLK.

The best and biggest selection of heavy underground rock in Sydney.

Page 11

The Digger

December 2 — December 16

MELBOURNE FLYER PUBS Sandown Park/ Sat 2/ Marcia Jones Waltzing Matilda/ Sat 2/ New Dream/ Colleagues Sun 3/ New Dream Thur 7, Fri 8, Sat 9/ Tony Braddock Southside 6/ Sat 2 (afternoon) Carson (night), Blue Echoes Sun 3/ Friends Wed 13/ Blackfeather Moreland Hotel/ Sat 2/ Wheatfield Dorset Gardens/ Sat 2 Robert Genari Fri 8/ Toni Lawford Sat 9/ Toni Lawford Croxton Park/ Wed 6 Gary Young & Hot Dog Thur 7 Coloured Balls Wed 13 Lizard Thur 14 Carson Tottenham Hotel/ Sat 2 Liza Ryan, Cycle Sun 3 Robert Genari Thur 7 Terry King, Cycle Fri 8, Gerry Marsden, Cycle Sat 9 Gerry Marsden, Cycle Sun 10, Double Tempo, Cycle Pier Hotel/ Sat 2, Gerry Marsden Sun 3 Una Valli Sat 9 Terry King Sun 10 Terry King Winston Charles/ Sat 2 — Sun 10 Gerry Marsden Top Hat/ Sat 2 Tony Braddock

r

Distillery/ Sat 2 Una Valli, Colleagues Tues 5 — Sat 9, Una Valli, Tony Braddock

THEATRE Pram Factory/ 325 Drummond St, Carlton, bo oki ngs 347-7133.

A Night In Rio and Other Bummers with Jack Actor and The Suicide Pact. Opens Dec 1, then Tues to Sun 9 p.m. and Sun 4 p.m.

La Mama/ 205 Faraday St, Carl­ ton, bookings 41-2735.

Never know just what until the moment, usual­ ly Fri Sat Sun 9 p.m. supper show 11 p.m. Fri. Cl a r e mo nt Theat re Centre/ 14 Claremont St, South Yarra, bookings 24-6405.

You’ll Come To Love Your Sperm Test by John Antrobus. Thurs — Sun, December.

St Martins Theatre/ St Martins Lane, off Park Street, South Yarra, 26-2188.

2 Feydeau farces, nightly til xmas.

Russell St Theatre/ Bookings 645-1100.

Tom by Alexander Buzo, nightly.

uuea

MOVIES ALBANY, 230 Col­ lins St, Klute, Dirty Harrv ATHANEUM: 188 Collins St, Willard AUSTRALIA 1: 270 Collins St, Deliverance AUSTRALIA 2: Billy Jack BALWYN: 233 Whitehorse Rd, Ryans Daughter BERCY: 128 Bourke St, What’s Up Doc? CAPITOL: 113 Swanston St, Adventures of Barry McKenzie CHELSEA: 178 Flin­ ders, Spartacus DENDY MALVERN: 243 Glenferrie Rd, Murmer of the Heart.

D ENDY BRIGH­ TON: 20 Church St, n.a.

EASTEND 1: Bourke St, Clockwork Orange EASTEND 2: Decameron EASTEND 3: Stork ESQUIRE: 238 Bourke, Trinity Is Still My Name.

FORUM: 154 Flin­ ders, Carry On Matron METRO: 20 Bourke, Wrath Of God MIDCITY 1: 200 Bourke, Cabaret MIDCITY 2: Fiddler on the Roof to 6th, then The Young Winston MIDCITY 3: The

Mechanic.

MIDCITY 4: Bourke, Man Of LaMancha MIDCITY 5: Butter­ flies Are Free ODEON: 283 Bourke, I Am A Dancer RIVOLI 1: 200 Camberwell Rd, Haw­ thorn, Garden of the Finzi Continis RIVOLI 2: Macbeth RAPALLO. 11 Rus­ sell, Girl on a Motor Cycle, Dutchman STAR: 34 Elizabeth, Miracle of Love SWANSTON: 129 Swanston, The Candidate ROMA: 255 Bourke, Bedroom Mazurka TIMES: 283 Bourke, Bedside Dentist TRAK: 445 Toorak Rd, 2001

FILM CLUBS& FESTS A two week film festival will be held at the UNION THEATRE University of Melbourne from Monday 4th December to Saturday 16 th December. The 'season includes the premiere of a new Egyptian film on Satur­ day 16th December and

introduces a significant new director Shadi Abdelsalam.

All screenings com­ mence at 8 p.m.

NATIONAL FILM THEATRE 5 Dec: A1 Capone, and one other film, Dental Theatre, Grattan St. 6 Dec: 7 Year Itch and Hud, Carlton Theatre, Faraday St, Carlton.

12 Dec: Come Back Little Sheba and Attack, Dental Theatre.

13 Dec: East of Eden and Wild River Carlton Theatre.

Members only, but you can join at the door.

MELBOURNE FILM­ MAKERS CO-OP. 161 Spring St, Mel­ bourne, 662-3418.

Dec 3: Red Red Red

by John Phillips.

Dec 10: The Sabbat of the Blackcat by Ralph Marsden.

TRAK and ST MAR­ TINS THEATRES have late shows Friday nights.

Ring 24-9333 or 26-2188 to find out what. You may be surprised.

DISCO S Q Club: Sat

Country

Radio, Talabene, Lang­ ford Lever, Pie, Edison Heights.

Sat 9: Carson, Gary Young’s Hot Dog, Syd Rumpo, Warren Morgan, Browneye Lites.

Easy Rider: Sat 2: Don Martin, Phase 2 Tues 5: Paradox Wed 6: Coloured Balls Thur 7: Carson Fri 8: Big Push (56 Rock) Sat 9: Ron Blaskett and Gerry Gee, Phase 2 Tues 12: Paradox Wed 13:: Coloured Balls Thur 14: Blackfeather Fri 15: Big Push Garrison: Sat 2: Madder Lake, Syd Coloured 'Balls, Rumpo Sun 3: Friends, Syd Rumpo Thur 7: See ad Fri 8: See ad Sat 9: Mighty Mouse, Mantis Tank Sun 10: See ad Iceland: Sun 3: Murtceps Sun 10: Gary Young’s Hot Dog Berties: Sat 2: Jade, Carson Sun 3: Miss Universe, Country Radio Sat 9: Jade, Madder Lake

Sun 10: Jade, Murt­ ceps Sebastians: Sat 2: Syd Rumpo, Blackfeather Fri 8: Coloured Balls, Syd Rumpo Sat 9: Matt Taylor, Talabene Polaris Inn Hotel: Nicholson St, Carlton folk/Wed jazz/Thur folk/ Frijazz/Sat Union Hotel: Fenwick St, Carlton folk/Fri

North

Joannas Cellar: Cnr Elgin and Can­ ning Sts, Carlton, jazz, Fri, Sat, Sun, food good now.

La Mama: 205 Faraday St, Carl­ ton.

Niaggra: Mondays 8 p.m. Free music, 80c.

Mordialloc Youth Club: 115(a) Warren Rd, Mordialloc 2 Dec: Murtceps

THE LAST MUCHMORE BALLROOM!

NEW BOOKS Bol t e: A Political Biography, Peter Blazey, Jacaranda, $5.95.

Blazey is half con­ temptuous, half admiring of Henry, and the book contains a number of pulled punches —still the libel laws being what they are, it’s as good a biography as we’ll get for a while. Garrie Hutchin­ son enjoyed reading it.

Rolling Stones: an un­ authorised biography, David Dalton, Amsco, $8.70.

Collected magazine st ori es, very good graphics, plenty sheet music collected by Rol­ ling Stone writer, put out by a record company and therefore staggeringly ex­ pensive.

TIPS CHEAP PRINTERS

R.A.M.: 57 Palmer­ ston St, Carlton.

Sat 9: S P E C T R OS C OP E .

Spectrum, Miss Universe, 115 LaTrobe St, Melb.

Captain Matchbox, Murt­ STRAWBERRY ceps, Gary Young and Hot Dog, Leaping McSpeddons, PRESS: 211 Gore St, Tribe, trick cyclists. It’s Fitzroy.

TESSPRESS: Tess at a late show, finishing at 3.30 in the morning.

419-3037.

LEARNING EDUCATION SHOP, ground floor Bourkes, near escalators, 347-4411.

THE LEARNING EXCHANGE, 1078 High St, Armadale, 50-3286.

ALBUMS

by Mark Rubbo Rock of Ages, The Band, Capitol Sabb 11045 (Cassette also), $9.95.

Perhaps one of the most important, albums in recent years, marking the end (or at least the beginning of the end) of a musical era. It’s a beautiful set that if given the proper attention will give you a great deal of pleasure.

Alan Toussaint’s horn arrangements for the old numbers and a few new ones don’t detract from their origi­ nal beauty —they add to it. The local presentation compares more than favorably with the over­ seas pressing.

Jim Sullivan Playboy (Astor) PB103 $5.95.

Jim Sullivan plays the 12-string guitar and sings.

On the whole the album is very good, however, the quality o f the first

THE STORE WITH A THREE STAR RATING FROM ARCHIE AND JUGHEADS, NESTLED IN THE HEART OF PICTURE­ SQUE CARLTON BRINGS TO YOU:

EXPERT & PERSONAL TUITION IN ALL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

ARE GEARED TO THE EXCEPTIONAL RATHER THAN THE AVERAGE

EGVAN MORRISON

EAST COAST PROMOTIONS MUSIC SCHOOL

ENROLMENTS ARE NOW BEING ACCEPTED PRIOR TO THE OPENING OF THE SCHOOL EARLY IN THE NEW YEAR. ALL TUTORS ARE GRADUATES OF THE CONSERVATORIUM & LESSONS ARE HIGHLY PERSONALISED & CATER FOR BEGINNERS AND ADVANCED MUSICIANS. ENQUIRIES: PHONE 480-2944 435 ST GEORGES RD. THORNBURY

track isn’t quite sus­ tained. HiS voice is vaguely reminiscent of early Tom Rush (Six Days on the Road, etc) and his handling of the 12-string guitar is at times exceptional.

Live Dead Grateful Dead Warner Brothers 1830 $8.95.

WEA have just re­ leased the imported ver­ sion of this old Dead double set at a very reasonable price. This is in line with WEA’s laudable policy of im­ porting those LPs that don’t get local release.

Should see in the near future Randy Newman’s 12 Songs the first Allmann Brothers, early String Band and others.

Make sure you pressure retailers to make them pressure the company.

9th Symphony Beet­ hoven, Czech Philhar­ monic Chorus and Or­ chestra, Paul Kletzki, Supraphon 50600/1, $6.

A two record boxed set, magnificently presented.

The quality is excellent, though the standard of the performance is not as good as Karl Bohm’s on Deutsche Grammophon.

However, at less than half the price the Supra­ phon recording is very good value.________ _

366LgonSt„Carfton 347703

John McLaughlin w. Mahavishnu Orchestra — Inner Mounting Flame $5.95 My Goal's Beyond Devotion

$6.20 $6.20

plus a huge range of imported jazz from Atlantic and Kudu at $5.95 plus Murtceps' Warts Up Your Nose, Carson's Blown and Duck plus Live Dead $8.95

LIBERATION

Mail orders welcome; please add 304 for postage.

A Different Kind O f Record Shop ÔRETHREN you Too a M tk 7H£ HAU&MJAH TftUL /V THIS MONTHS R/ftS MAffAZ/N£- fel/EL IN JESPSS 5ECONP ÔOMINÇ. $££ -THEHAtity/JTTiS MAN PERFORM THE

G regory Young — The R eco rd C ollector BS 2633

Corner of Toorak Road & Davis Avenue, South Yarra Telephone: 2671885

saint dom inies preview

FROM OUR NEW SHIPMENT John Lennon: "Sometime in New York" King Crimson: "Earthbound" Capt. Beefheart: "The Spotlight Kid" Jethro Tull: "Living In The Past" "Matching Moll"

And Dozens More

FURTHER PROOF ASTRAL WEEKS - WS1768 MOONDANCE - WS1835 TUPELO - WS1950 DOMINO - WS2487 HIS BAND & STREET CHOIR - WS1884

Open till 9.00pm Wednesday and Thursday till 9.00pm Friday & all day Saturday

TO BALL IN AND EVERYTHING ELSE THAT MAY HELP AT THE HOUSE OF STRIPES ELIZABETH ST & AT REFLECTIONS - TIVOLI ARCADE

f l i f O 7F/S month MTS TARES TO PR/NT A H/OHLy erotic totA lv/ nude female Pin -UPshes Got her " Pa n ts o ff fñea/p^ yo V se e w e \ i iN DUlNQ ßLACk C WHITE o w W ÍM A ¿DT O F S a- Ff STùNESJ^RT û ONS¿ w other assorte# vhu/A . P f\E E ih ever/ RATS- Amazing wAíe -Tü -NAil calendar ~

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PRO M O TIO NS

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fREEBVS! THE DIGGER HAS

on sale At leading newsagents

H EAVY ROCK BLACKFEATHER, LONDON EXPRESS, CLYDEHOUSE COMMERCIAL LIGHT FANTASY, PHASE II, RONDELLS, BIG PUSH, PAUL JONES, FUZZY DUCK, YEOMEN.

I N T iS m iN M E N f EXCH ANG E. BOOKINGS FOR AUSTRALIA'S TOP GROUPS PHONE: 51-0661 24 HOUR SERVICE.

FREE TICKETS to A.RG’s new sex& rock th eatre show

CARSON, FRIENDS, COUNTRY RADIO, LOBBY LOYD’S COLOURED BALLS, MADDER LAKE, MIGHTY MOUSE, LANGFORD LEVER, MATT TAYLOR & TALABENE. AND MANY MORE.

"A NIGHT IN RIO 8t OTHER BUMMERS. WITH JACK ACTOR & THE SUICIDE PACT'

CLU B

FOR SUNDAY MATINEE PERFORMANCES Write in — you'll probably score a double Address to A NIGHT IN RIO, The Digger, 58 Canterbury Road, Middle Park, 3206.

A GOOD JOINT..

166 High Street Windsor.

Sat 2:

Madder Lake, Coloured Balls, Syd Rumpo (W.A.) Sun 3: Friends Thur 7: Musos Night: Mighty Mouse, Tank Fri 8: McKenzie Theory, Friends Sat 9: Mighty Mouse, Tank, 69ers Sun 10: Mighty Mouse, Tank Thur 14: Musos night: Mighty Mouse, Tank Fri 15: Langford Lever, Murtceps ADMISSION

WED THUR FRI SAT SUN

8.3 0-1.30 9.0 0-2.30 9.0 0-3.30 8 .3 0 - Late 8.3 0-2.30

$1.00 $1.00 $1.50 $2.00 $2.00

SAL2 355 Exhibition St. City Saturday 2nd: BLACKFEATHER, SYD RUMPO Friday 8th: LOBBY'S COLOURED BALLS, SYD RUMPO Saturday 9th: MATT TAYLOR & TALABENE

COUNTRY RADIO TALABENE LANGFORD LEVER PIGS EYE MORGAN AND THE EDISON LITES

FAT ALROY FAT ALROY Friday 15th: SYD RUMPO, MATT TAYLOR & TALABENE

admission $1-50

SA T. 9 CARSON GARY YOUNG’S HOT DOG SYD RUMPO WARRIGUL PIG MORGAN BROWN EYE LITES

/*er.~ /r mas e m u M ic e o p y o u w

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HE*S SUCH A CAPtTAUST PIG - rt£ £0/tfS 50P«e INSURANCE COMPAMM OK SOMETHING •« • A * < 0

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