Comment & Analysis

Letters to the Editor

LETTERS Change the system, not the climate!

RESISTANCE! If greenhouse gas emissions continue to spiral, scientists predict ecological disaster: melting ice sheets, erratic and destructive weather patterns and increasing desertification. All this will turn hundreds of millions of people into refugees. » Racism helps the boss

RESISTANCE! Almost a year ago, in the same week the Howard government’s industrial relations “reforms” were passed by the Senate, most of the media’s attention was focused a series of “anti-terror” raids that targeted a group Muslim men in Melbourne. Despite all the media surroundi... » Stop Bush!

RESISTANCE! In the lead-up to the November 7 US Congressional elections, President George Bush’s Republican Party tried to terrorise the US public into voting for the party responsible for leading the country into the disastrous Iraq war. » Chavez not Bush! Venezuela's challenge to the empire

RESISTANCE!, VENEZUELA Venezuela’s socialist President Hugo Chavez spoke for people the world over at the United Nations General Assembly in September when he attacked US imperialism’s attempt to dominate the world and subjugate its people. Referring to US President George Bush’s speech the day before, Chav... » Capitalism leading us to total disaster

CASE FOR SOCIALISM The fundamental environmental problem facing humanity today is catastrophic climate change brought on by runaway greenhouse gas emissions. The relatively narrow band of climatic conditions within which we can function has been destabilised. As average temperatures rise extreme weather events (cyclon... » Their values and ours

CASE FOR SOCIALISM Nationalism is a central component of the ideological glue that holds capitalist society together, and just about all capitalist governments are happy to beat a nationalist drum. However the Howard government has been particularly noted for its efforts in this regard, not least in its championing of... » Hundreds of thousands mobilise against Work Choices

Across Australia on November 30, hundreds of thousands of workers answered the Australian Council of Trade Unions’ call to protest against Work Choices. The ACTU estimated that around 270,000 people took part, the majority hooked up to the Sky Channel broadcasts from the Melbourne Cricket Ground (... » A different planet from the one we know

The Stern report makes recommendations that will allow for a temperature rise of around 3°C, but this is likely to be devastating for the planet. George Monbiot says that, “Two degrees is the point at which some of the most dangerous processes catalysed by climate change could become irreversi... » Australia isolated at Nairobi climate meeting

As annual negotiations on the Kyoto Protocol were about to begin on November 7 in Nairobi, Kenya, Senator Ian Campbell, federal environment minister, claimed that the Kyoto signatories had agreed that a new agreement was necessary as the old agreement was not working. Campbell asserted that Australi... » Bring David Hicks home!

December 9, the fifth anniversary of David Hicks’ capture by the US, will be marked by national protests calling for his immediate return. » Carbon trading: an essential tool in the greenhouse struggle

In their article “No to carbon trading: make the polluters pay” (GLW #691), Tim Stewart and Pip Hinman argue against the use of carbon pricing in general, and emissions trading in particular, as an important tool for reducing Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions. » Drive for nukes ignores vast geothermal resource

The federal government’s Uranium Mining, Processing and Nuclear Energy Review, released on November 21, had only one real purpose — to provide John Howard with “evidence” for championing the nuclear power cycle. What other conclusion can we come to, when the review made its asse... » Green Left Fighting Fund: We have the power!

Last Friday, as I sat down to write this, a progress report on the Green Left Weekly fighting fund was emailed in from Will who heads our small but serious finance team. More than $16,000 came in from our supporters the previous week (donations and fund raising events), taking the total raised this ... » Gurindji leader dies

Mick “Hoppy” Rangiari, one of the last surviving members of the historic 1966 strike by Aboriginal pastoral workers at Wave Hill Station in the Northern Territory, died on November 12. » Kyoto's (not so) Clean Development Mechanism

A year after the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, which involves 166 countries and commits 36 industrialised nations to binding CO2 emission cuts of 5.2% by 2012, global emissions are rising faster than ever. This is because Kyoto promotes carbon trading as the key mechanism to reduce CO2 emissio... » NSW firefighters prepare for Work Choices struggle

Jim Casey was elected senior vice president of the NSW Fire Brigade Employees Union (FBEU) in its May elections. Casey, a socialist, was part of a left ticket of four, running with an ALP member, a syndicalist and a rank-and-file unionist with a history in of activism in the Maritime Union of Austra... » Queers building 'AIDS care not warfare' movement

Activists from Sydney-based Community Action Against Homophobia (CAAH) went to Melbourne to form a queer bloc for the November 18-19 G20 protests. The bloc called for money for AIDS care not war. » Reproductive rights and women's health

“Reproductive rights embrace certain human rights that are already recognised in national laws, international human rights documents and other consensus documents. These rights rest on the recognition of the basic right of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number,... » Saving the planet needs the support of the working class

With the advent of the industrial revolution society underwent significant changes. The age of steam had arrived and a huge new source of energy was unleashed upon society. The immediate effect of this new source of energy was to bring about a qualitative change in the productive forces. The method ... » Socialist Alliance - looking towards 2007

Dick Nichols was elected national coordinator of the Socialist Alliance (SA) at its 5th national conference held in Geelong at the end of October. Green Left Weekly interviewed him about the challenges and opportunities for the SA in the year ahead. » Stern avoids rocking the foundations

Commissioned by the British government, the October 2006 Stern report on global warming was greeted sceptically by PM John Howard, and lauded by the ALP and green organisations. But does the Stern report go far enough, or is it an unholy compromise between the science of climate change and the econo... » Still fighting for refugees' rights

The old adage “one step forward, two steps back” encapsulates the experience of the refugee movement in 2006. Despite some positive changes to refugee policy, the result of consistent campaigning by refugee rights activists and organisations over a number of years, the Howard government ha... » Transgender hate crimes remembered

On November 20, a meeting initiated by the NSW Greens marked Transgender Remembrance Day. Below is an abridged presentation by Rachel Evans, co-convener of Community Action Against Homophobia, National Union of Students female queer officer and NSW Socialist Alliance upper-house candidate. » UNSW redundancies Women's services bear brunt of neoliberal backlash

Despite increasing recognition about the problem of violence against women, most refuges, community and non-government organisations devoted to helping women and children in crisis, allocate a good deal of their stretched resources to writing submissions for limited funding. This is because both the... »

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Also in GLW #693:

read »International News

A sportswriter at the barricad...

Australia helps block UN decla...

AWB and Iraq: How Howard waged...

Balochistan's history of insur...

Chavez victory: Venezuelans vo...

Chavez wins with over 60%

Defend Venezuela's revolution!...

Israel tightens the noose: 'su...

Killed in a hail of NYPD bulle...

Leftist candidate wins Ecuador...

Love and solidarity in the pou...

Marta Harnecker: Venezuela’s...

Michael Moore: 'Cut and run â€...

Millions demand Siniora's resi...

New Labour's war on the Kurds

Nicaraguans’ vote for Ort...

The mid-term elections and Ira...

US janitors' victory

Venezuela's election a means o...

Why Washington wants regime ch...

Women's right activists arrest...

read »General

Can you lend us your ute?

Corrections

Final issue of GLW fo...

read »Australian News

Ajax Fasteners workers hold si...

Court confirms workers' right ...

Greens gain in Victorian elect...

Iraqi refugee executed on retu...

Library backs down on anti-gay...

N30: Slavery on the Gold Coast...

Second legal victory against G...

Six hangings at Baxter detenti...

UWS board backs down

Workers mobilise for their rig...

Brief: Aboriginal icons...

Brief: Garret coal comm...

Brief: West Papua indep...

Brief: West Papuan flag...

read »Cultural Dissent

Review: A snapshot of i...

Review: Dubious allianc...

Review: Getting the peo...

Review: Lebanon (2006)

Review: Mao's rise

Andorra at Leichhardt peace fe...

On the Box

Soldier's Joy

read »Loose Cannons

Loose Cannons