GLW issue number 954

Celebrity watch

A selection of this week's celebrity news... Mug Shot of the Day: WCBS Anchor Rob Morrison Flashes Bloody Face After Domestic Violence Arrest http://eonli.ne/12KEkeB Mindy McCready: Why the Late Singer Shot Her Dog http://eonli.ne/12KBhTy Pamela Anderson Selling Malibu Home for $7.75 Million—Take a Look Inside! http://eonli.ne/12Kyiuh Justin Bieber Murder Plot Details Emerge: Inmate Wanted Singer Castrated With Hedge Clippers and Suffocated http://eonli.ne/WOevF7

Rapper helps kids in Gaza to be somebody

Watch Me Sam Khan www.bsomebody.co.uk At the age of 23, British Muslim rapper Sam Khan was the CEO of his own company, a clothing range, website and a record label called Be Somebody. Three years on, he has launched The B Somebody Project to raise funds for orphans in Gaza. The project follows in the fundraising footsteps of previous music he has done for Pakistani flood victims. Green Left's Mat Ward spoke to him. *******

Australian News

GREEN LEFT TV: Dayan Anthony - deported to danger

In mid 2012 the Australian government deported Sri Lankan asylum seeker Dayan Anthony back to Colombo despite the wider community, lawyers and refugee advocates mounting a compelling case to show that his claims of torture in Sri Lanka were justified. Anthony became the first Tamil deported back to Sri Lanka where it is claimed he now lives in fear and under virtual house arrest. Film by Yask Desai, submitted to Green Left TV.

Unionists rally to defend Bob Carnegie

More than 500 unionists, mainly Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) and Builders Labourers Federation (BLF) members, rallied outside the Brisbane Magistrates Court on February 11 in support of long-term union and community activist, Bob Carnegie.

Further Australian News

International News

Veteran Sri Lankan leftist Lionel Bopage on the national question, class and revolution

Lionel Bopage, 68, was jailed twice and tortured for his roll as a former leader of a mass liberation movement in Sri Lanka in the 1970s and 1980s, called the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (People's Liberation Front). He rose to the position of general secretary of the JVP but resigned from the group in 1984 over a number of differences, including his principled support for the right of national self-determination for the Tamil people. He was eventually forced into political exile together with his wife, Chitra.

Mark Steel: We must support Sussex Uni occupiers against privatisation (VIDEO)

Comedian and socialist Mark Steel addressed a protest against cuts and privitisation at Sussex University on February 12. Students at Sussex University have been occupying the university's conference centre since February 6 against the university's outsourcing of key services.

Further International News

Comment and Analysis

Gas has worse climate footprint than coal

As the fossil fuel lobby tells it, natural gas — in chemical terms, almost all methane — is clean and green. Burn it in a modern power plant, and per unit of electricity produced, only about half as much carbon dioxide is sent up the exhaust stack compared to good-quality coal. That’s like saying you’re making progress if you get off heroin onto amphetamines. Natural gas is still a fossil fuel. Even if the sums worked the way the gas corporations suggest, a wholesale switch to gas would put off climate disaster only by a few decades.

Protesters plan to mobilise against Dutch fascist

Parliamentary leader of the far-right Dutch Freedom Party, Geert Wilders, is visiting Australia this week. He is speaking at public meetings in Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. Wilders makes use of a tightly rehearsed script focusing on opposition to Islam which he describes as a "totalitarian ideology" to cover for his racist and fascist outlook.

Further Comment and Analysis

Cultural Dissent

Provocalz, a provocative vocalist

Verbal Reality Volume One Provocalz Native Sun / Hustle Hard, 2012 $15 www.provocalz.bigcartel.com "Every time you see in the media someone's been killed by police it always just happens to be an Aboriginal," says radical rapper Provocalz. It's 9.30 on a Saturday morning and the south-west Sydney spitter is telling Green Left why he made his hard-hitting horrorcore track, "Cop Shot".

The search for Rodriguez, the enigmatic singer who found South African fame

Searching for Sugarman Directed by Malik Bendjelloul Starring Rodriguez, Malik Bendjelloul Music by Rodriguez Now showing at selected cinemas Director Mike Malik Bendjelloul’s film Searching for Sugarman, which has been nominated for best documentary film at this year’s Oscars and the British Film and Television Awards, traces the efforts of two South African fans to find out what happened to the mysterious Mexican-American folksinger known as Rodriguez.

Further Cultural Dissent

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