Sam Wainwright

Blockade RTS for Climate Justice

Climate activists are gearing up for the Resources Technology Showcase (RTS), a mining and fossil fuel industry conference to be held at the Perth Convention Centre over November 27-28.

In late June, School Strike 4 Climate founder Greta Thunberg shared footage of French police pepper spraying the faces of a group of Extinction Rebellion (XR) activists blocking a road in Paris.

Given the fierce police repression used against the Yellow Vests movement since it erupted in late November, this was hardly a surprise.

We need to thank School Strike 4 Climate for being realistic by demanding the impossible, says Socialist Alliance Fremantle councillor Sam Wainwright.

One of the surreal aspects surrounding Extinction Rebellion Western Australia’s (XRWA) Day of Declaration protest at state parliament on August 15 was the frantic efforts of The West Australian to poison public perceptions of the rapidly expanding movement.

Extinction Rebellion WA (XRWA) brought proceedings at state parliament to a halt on August 15 — dubbed “Declaration Day” — as about 500 people rallied outside while a group of XRWA activists delivered a message to Legislative Assembly members.

Chicago has a proud working-class history and this year elected six socialists to its city council. At a time when social movements are on the rise and interest in socialist ideas in the United States is at an all time high, the Windy City was the perfect venue for the annual Socialism conference on July 4-7.

An urgent campaign and blockade by the WA Forest Alliance to prevent logging in the Lewin Forest, west of Manjimup in Western Australia’s south-west, has dramatically demonstrated the need for more to be done to save these forests.

One of the actions requested by the local Indigenous community in the City of Fremantle’s new Reconciliation Action Plan is the greater use of Noongar place names for new streets and parks and also for significant landmarks such as Derbarl Yerrigan (Swan River), Wadjemup (Rottnest Island) and Walyalup (the greater Fremantle region).

Barely had we digested the news of the unexpected Coalition victory when the corporate media commentators and a number of senior party leaders were blaming Labor’s election loss for it being too left-wing — “too ambitious”, “a large target” and “bit off more than it could chew”.

Green Left Weekly’s Sam Wainwright spoke with Sabrine Ali, Samah Suria, Nidal Saeed and Nagi Kodi, all Sudanese youth living in Perth, about the powerful movement in Sudan.

In early March, we saw the raw power of fossil fuel capitalism on full display in Perth. The Western Australia Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) released a policy requiring big offshore oil and gas operators to provide 100% carbon offsets for all their emissions.

Since February 22, Algeria has been rocked by huge and overwhelmingly peaceful protests against the regime of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

The epicentre of this movement has been the city of Algiers. There have been large protests every Friday, to which the police have had to take a conciliatory attitude because of their sheer size, despite street protests being illegal in the capital.