Venezuelan ecosocialist Miguel Angel Nuñez, an adviser to Chavèz on agro-ecology, discusses one of the big challenges for the revolution "How can the revolution be liberated from the oil economy" in an interview for Green Left TV. The interviewers were Jim McIlroy and Coral Wynter, authors of Voices from Venezuela. Filmed and edited by Peter Boyle.
Peter Boyle
Professor Miguel Angel Nuñez is an adviser to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on agro-ecology. He was recently in Australia and spoke to Green Left TV about the impact of Chavez's ill health on the Venezuelan revolution, and how the international media are misrepresenting the situation. He also spoke on the role of oil in the revolution, the environmental consequences and prospects for eco-socialism in Venezuela.
Veteran political commentator Michelle Grattan has dubbed PM Julia Gillard's early announcement of a September 14 federal election as the opening of the “longest election campaign in history”. She says it's “clever tactics” on Gillard's part. Another prominent political commentator, Lenore Taylor, says that this is an attempt by an embattled ALP government to “reboot the political debate”.
About 150,000 people converged on Merdeka Stadium, Kuala Lumpur, for an opposition-called People's Uprising rally (Himpunan Kebangkitan Rakyat) on January 12.
This huge but peaceful mobilisation was an implicit warning to the Barisan Nasional (BN) government not to “steal” the coming general elections through the intimidation, corruption, electoral registration fraud and gerrymanders that have been used to hang on to power since formal independence from British colonial rule in 1957.
Hashim bin Rashid, 25, the general secretary of the Lahore branch of the Awami Workers Party — recently formed out of the merger of three left parties in Pakistan — will be the international guest speaker at the Socialist Alliance ninth national conference to be held in Geelong Trades Hall, over January 18-20.
He replaces Alia Amirali who was not given a visa by Australian authorities in time to travel to the conference.
Once again the question of left unity is on the agenda in Australia. There have been exploratory talks between the Socialist Alliance and Socialist Alternative and also between the Socialist Alliance and the Communist Party of Australia (CPA).
The Socialist Alliance and the CPA worked together in a Housing Action election ticket in the Sydney City Council elections this year.
This is the last issue of Green Left Weekly for this year. Our small staff which works very hard, week after week, to get out this publication will take a much-needed break after a hectic political year, and get ready to relaunch in mid-January.
The 2012 Green Left Fighting Fund has now raised about $193,000 so we have to try to raise a further $57,000 by the end of the year to get to our $250,000 target — or as close as we can get.
Two spectacular banner drops on Sydney's Darling Harbour Convention Centre exposed some of the "dirty deeds" of the world's biggest mining company, BHP Billiton.
Environmentalists and Aboriginal rights supporters rallied outside the company’s annual general meeting on November 29 to highlight the billions of dollars profit BHP makes annually from the dirty energy sector, inclduing uranium, coal, oil and coal seam gas.
It's just about impossible to watch a commercial TV channel anywhere in Australia without being assaulted by slick mining company ads telling us how good they supposedly are for the community. Incredible amounts of money are being spent on these brainwashing campaigns.
One set of these advertisements more specifically targets communities that are resisting the onslaught of the coal seam gas (CSG) miners, particularly in precious water catchment areas and prime food producing regions. These ads are often more targeted in their messaging, but they have been caught out lying.
About 1500 people rallied and marched in Sydney on November 24 in solidarity with the people of Gaza and the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation and war. Speakers were: As'ad Awashra, Palestinian student from the West Bank; Ahmad Mustafa, Palestinian Cultural Centre; Ray Jackson, Indigenous Social Justice Association; Lee Rhiannon, Greens Senator; Lynda Voltz, NSW Labor MLC; Paul MacAleer, Maritime Union of Australia; Antony Loewenstein, Independent journalist and author; Fr Dave Smith, Holy Trinity Anglican church. A powerful poem was performed by Candy Royalle.
In the dead of night on November 22, 100 containers of concentrated rare earth ore mined in Western Australia began to be transported, under heavy police escort, through the port of Kuantan to a new refinery built by Australian company Lynas.
BHP used to be called “The Big Australian”. It is now BHP Billiton — a global corporation, the largest mining company in the world and the largest Australian headquartered corporation by market capitalisation.
Its CEO Marius Kloppers is described as being one of "the top 20 most powerful people in business worldwide".
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