Zane Alcorn

This episode of Green Left features an important discussion with National Tertiary Education Union branch presidents and Socialist Alliance members Jonathan Strauss and Helen Masterman-Smith on the kind of politics and fight needed to save universities.

Historically, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union has been a leader in championing stronger safety guidelines. It needs to step up now during the COVID-19 emergency, writes Zane Alcorn.

Climate activist Zane Alcorn looks at a groundbreaking, decade-old report that showed how Australia could have had 100% renewable energy by now.

On December 9, Labor leader Anthony Albanese reaffirmed his party’s support for ongoing coal exports which make this country the Saudi Arabia of coal exports. Absurdly, Labor's supposed “climate action” wing, the Labor Environment Action Network (LEAN), backed Albanese and attacked the Greens for questioning Labor's climate credentials.

The Alternative Liberal Party under “climate champion” Anthony Albanese supports Australia maintaining its status as the “Saudi Arabia of coal”. No surprise there, unfortunately.

An Extinction Rebellion protest in Brisbane on October 12.

One thing has been made crystal clear this week — no amount of extended droughts, catastrophic bushfires, coral bleaching or record-breaking temperatures will snap the Coalition out of its bloody-minded refusal to take climate action seriously

Police spray chemical foam at anti-IMARC protesters

A protester recounts how Victoria Police brutally attacked protesters with chemical foam and pepper spray at the peaceful blockade of the International Mining and Resources Conference on October 30.

Kalgoolie Super Pit

On the eve of Australia’s largest mining conference, the International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC), which will be held in Melbourne over October 28-31, Green Left Weekly’s Zane Alcorn looks at the myriad problems that arise from a system in which mining corporations, not communities, decide what needs to be mined and where.

Australia’s political class is addicted to fossil fuels. We will need to build a people-powered movement capable of proposing and winning clear demands to break that addiction. Zane Alcorn looks at 21 proposals that could pave the way for the kind of just transition away from coal that the current climate emergency demands.

The latest report from Melbourne-based independent think-tank Breakthrough — National Centre for Climate Restoration, Existential climate-related security risk: A scenario approach, provides graphic descriptions of what lies ahead if we do not immediately take action.

Green Left Weekly’s Jacob Andrewartha and Zane Alcorn spoke to Justin Akers Chacón, a Mexican-based, US immigrant rights activist, in Melbourne for the Marxism conference in April.

The mining and energy division of the Construction, Forestry, Mining, Maritime and Energy Union (CFMMEU) does not seem to have a strategy for life after coal, if the leaked minutes from its Queensland division’s December meeting can be believed.

It intends to cling tightly to the coalmining multinationals and hope for the best as global climate and renewable energy policies kick in.