The Andrews’ Labor government allocated $1.8 billion in the state budget on May 27, to build 1600 new prison cells in Victoria and less than one sixth of that amount — $209 million — for 1000 social housing units.
But the capital expenditure is just the tip of the iceberg. The annual recurrent cost of imprisoning a person in a Victoria is about $125,000, while housing a family in a public housing dwelling costs about $6400.
The international release of British director Mike Leigh’s new film Peterloo marks 200 years since the infamous 1819 Peterloo Massacre in Manchester, England.
This is a battle over truth and freedom of the press. But the debate has been shifted to focus solely on one man, because it is much easier to vilify a man than freedom and democracy. Freedom will be plucked from our hands if we debate it on the merits of one man.
At 9.30am on May 16, police officers illegally entered the Venezuelan embassy in the Georgetown neighbourhood of Washington DC and arrested four activists lawfully living in the building since April 10, as guests of the legitimate Venezuelan government of Nicolás Maduro.
Karl Marx’s Ecosocialism: Capital, Nature, and the Unfinished Critique of Political Economy
By Kohei Saito
Monthly Review Press, 2017
RED-GREEN REVOLUTION: The Politics and Technology of Ecosocialism
By Victor Wallis
Political Animal Press, 2018
“The Department of Justice just declared war — not on Wikileaks, but on journalism itself. This is no longer about Julian Assange: This case will decide the future of media,” tweeted former National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden on May 23.
Peoples Democratic Party MP, Leyla Güven ended her 200-day hunger strike on May 26, after the Turkish government finally allowed imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan to meet with his lawyers.
Federal minister for Resources and Northern Australia Matt Canavan wants the Adani mine to be the pathfinder to open up the whole Galilee Basin, but some mining companies are pulling out.
Hundreds of thousands of students and environmentalists took to the streets around the world as part of the Global Strike for Future climate actions on May 24. Elections for the European Parliament took place two days later, on May 26 and resulted in Greens (along with the far right) gaining votes.
In Copenhagen, Denmark, 40,000 people took part in the People’s Climate March on May 25. Swedish student and environmentalist Greta Thunberg addressed the rally. An abridged transcript of Thunberg’s speech follows.
Italy's far right Lega, led by deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, made gains in the May 26 European elections. Salvini has now legitimised and adopted fascist slogans, including “God, Country, Family” — indulging and reviving alarming neo-fascist sentiments that are spreading across Europe, writes Daniele Fulvi.
In the May 26 European elections, Spanish social democratic party PSOE made gains, largely at the expense of the left wing Podemos. The PSOE delegation is now the largest S&D presence in the European parliament and will be the backbone of ongoing attempts to break the back of the Catalan sovereignty movement, writes Dick Nichols.
Ted was a committed trade unionist, with a hunger for knowledge and a desire to both understand and change the world.