GLW issue number 938

Labor, Coalition attack single parents and their children

The National Welfare Rights Network released the statement below on October 9. * * * The Social Security Legislation Amendment (Fair Incentives to Work) Bill 2012 passed the Senate today saving the government $728 million over four years and cutting between $65 and $115 per week from 100,000 single parents.

EVENING NEWS: Everything you wanted to know about Muslim protests

"Professor" Andy Smokescreen answers every question you wanted to ask about Muslim protests.

GREEN LEFT REPORT #6: Tamils, equal marriage, Carlo Sands and more

Special guests Bashana Abeywardane from Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka, Karl Hand from Community Action Against Homophobia, plus Carlo Sands takes on Gina Rinehart and Clive Palmer! Activist news features 5 anti-coal protests, Victoria's massive teachers strike, protests against Julia Gillard and Julia Bishop, Dr Brian Senewiratne on the Tamil struggle in Sri Lanka and more. Produced by Green Left TV - subscribe on YouTube and support media of the 99%.

Australian News

Activists shut down Woodside rigs at James Price Point

The Broome Community No Gas Hub Campaign released the statement below on September 10. * * *

Rainbow Youth Collective kicks off in Adelaide

The newly formed Rainbow Youth Collective was officially launched in Adelaide at a social gathering at the activist centre on September 7. The event also marked Wear It Purple Day — a national youth day against homophobia. About 50 young people from a variety of backgrounds attended throughout the evening. The launch provided an excellent opportunity for networking between people involved in different queer groups in Adelaide with a rich variety of interests, contacts and specialty areas.

Further Australian News

International News

Democracy protests hit Saudi Arabia, Bahrain

The governments of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain have gone to great lengths to control information about the ongoing uprisings in their countries. This is part of their efforts to crush the democracy movements that have sought to overthrow the ruling monarchies. The protests are part of the Arab Spring uprisings that began in Tunisia in late 2010 and spread across the Middle East and north Africa.

Big polluters ignore Arctic tipping point

After melting past the previous record minimum in late August, Arctic sea ice cap has continued its rapid decline. By September 5, the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) said the ice cap had fallen below 4 million square kilometres ― “a 45% reduction in the area of the Arctic covered by sea ice” since the 1980s and ’90s. This year’s melt “didn’t just touch the record, it really drove right through it”, the NSIDC’s Ted Scambos told US National Public Radio on September 12.

Further International News

Comment and Analysis

West Papua: End Australian complicity in genocide

The Socialist Alliance released the statement below on September 10. * * * The Socialist Alliance condemns the Australian government’s ongoing support for Indonesian security forces, particularly the Detachment 88 “counter-terrorism” unit implicated in human rights abuses in the occupied nation of West Papua and elsewhere in Indonesia.

The dark side of the ‘green economy’

Everywhere you look these days, things are turning green. In Chiapas, Mexico, indigenous farmers are being paid to protect the last vast stretch of rainforest in Mesoamerica. In the Brazilian Amazon, peasant families are given a monthly “green basket” of basic food staples to allow them to get by without cutting down trees. In Kenya, small farmers who plant climate-hardy trees and protect green zones are promised payment for their part in the fight to reduce global warming.

Further Comment and Analysis

Cultural Dissent

'Can’t nobody hold us down' — PopAsia and multiculturalism

SNSD/Girls’ Generation, 2NE1, 4Minute, Shinee, BigBang — just a few South Korean band names with global hip cachet to burn. Their cult-like following has led some forecasters to predict that the centres of cultural power may well be shifting eastward, challenging the traditional dominance of US-based music companies.

New history book details Tamil struggle

Tamil Nation in Sri Lanka By Ron Ridenour New Century Book House Chennai, India Available in Australia via www.resistancebooks.com Ron Ridenour's Tamil nation in Sri Lanka is a history of the struggle of Tamils on the island of Sri Lanka for self-determination. Ridenour explains the reasons why many Tamils took up arms to fight for an independent Tamil state. He shows the history of racism in Sri Lanka and the violent repression carried out by successive governments against peaceful Tamil protests.

Further Cultural Dissent

EVENING NEWS: Everything you wanted to...

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