1986
Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday March 31, 2010
The National Education Crisis Committee in South Africa decided its battle against apartheid would not be served by continuing education boycotts but by a national three-day strike to mark the 10th anniversary of the Soweto riots, in which 575 people were killed. The conference voted for children to remain at school while parents and teachers drew up political lessons to supplement the syllabus. At the start of the conference, Zulu vigilantes attacked delegates and killed two of them.The federal government's Building Industry Act, designed to get rid of the Builders Labourers' Federation, was a "draconian law" with implications for the union movement generally, said a BLF secretary, Peter O'Day. Under the act the Minister for Industrial Relations would be able to dismiss or appoint union officials and could impose a $10,000 fine on a union.The crime figure Abe Saffron, pictured, was named after a NSW Appeals Court found a fire at the Creole Discotheque at Bondi in 1980 to be suspect. There had been a series of suspicious fires, beginning with one at the home of Saffron's business partner Todor Maksimovich. Further fires followed in quick succession at a Kings Cross massage parlour, a gay bar in Bondi Junction and at the Creole. Saffron and Maksimovich had a link with each establishment. The fires appeared to have been deliberately lit, and there was an insurance claim.
© 2010 Sydney Morning Herald