Issue 1221

News

More than 100 people attended a rally called by the Tamil Refugee Council on May 15 which combined a commemoration of the genocidal massacre of Tamils in Sri Lanka 10 years ago.

A small but determined group of teachers, parents and students gathered in the rain on May 3 on the steps of the Victorian Parliament to demonstrate their opposition to the NAPLAN tests.

Uber Eats delivery riders and drivers protested the millions of dollars in unpaid wages and other entitlements from Uber and other multinational food delivery companies.

Hundreds of people gathered on northern Sydney, Central Coast and Hunter beaches to protest the resumption of seismic testing in early May.

Refugee rights activists rallied outside home affairs minister Peter Dutton’s electorate office in Queensland on May 11. They are hoping Dutton will lose his seat at the federal election on May 18.

Palestinian solidarity activists rallied in Sydney on May 11, commemorating al Nakba and calling for justice for Palestine.

Palestinian solidarity actions for Nakba, stop CSG and refiuge rights actions are all in this report.

Palestinian solidarity activists rallied in Sydney on May 11, commemorating Nakba and calling for justice for Palestine.

Analysis

The right-wing dominated Coalition's win in the May 18 federal election is a major setback for the climate action movement, the union movement and the interests of working people in Australia. We must now urgently take steps to unite and step up the fight to defend the movements for progressive change in this country, writes Jim McIlroy.

The ruling by the NSW Land and Environment Court on February 8 to reject the Rocky Hill coalmine outside Gloucester is being felt beyond its local community and will have implications for human rights as well as climate change policy.

I will happily take any opportunity to wave a red flag in public. My chance to do so this year was on May 1, the International Workers' Day.

You may remember the joy of spotting a favourite animal or plant at a place you would infrequently visit. When, the next time you visited, they had disappeared, you’d come up with a banal explanation that never included extinction. But now a United Nations report says that unless there is a change in approach, we will lose 1 million species forever.

Eating meat is increasingly condemned as an unethical choice that murders sentient beings. But we need to understand that more animals die in plant food production than in abattoirs, writes Elena Garcia.

Whichever major party claims government on May 18, neither can legitimately claim to have a mandate for its dangerously inadequate carbon emission reduction policies, writes Pip Hinman.

On May 11, sensors at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii recorded that the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere had risen above 415 parts per million (ppm). The safe level is 350 ppm.

This is the first time since humans have existed that there has been this much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and it is well beyond the safe limit.

With Election Day in sight, there was a palpable sense of relief at an inner west Sydney early voting booth where I had volunteered over the past few weeks. It feels like a long campaign.

World

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 PSOE’s election campaign against Spain's radical local councils portrays them as “amateurs” and “day-dreamers” who “waste precious public resources on failed experiments”, writes Dick Nichols.

The May 13 Philippines midterm election has been marred by accusations ranging from a lack of transparency, to electoral fraud, vote rigging and vote buying.

Lengthy delays in results being released were blamed on “technical glitches” by authorities. Opposition candidates and parties have refused to accept the results and are calling for the Philippines electoral commission (COMELEC) to be replaced by an independent body.

Self-declared Venezuelan Interim President Juan Guaido has ordered the setting up of a meeting with the United States Armed Forces to discuss cooperation in his efforts to oust President Nicolas Maduro, writes Paul Dobson.

A decade ago the left believed that it could use social media to outflank the established mass media. But it is the far right that now dominates social media, writes Phil Hearse.

Culture

The highest decision-making body in the world of athletics has rendered a judgment that can only be described as both cruel and unusual, writes Dave Zirin.

Refugees are using football as a way to build communities of resistance report Eline Yara Jeanné and Beeke Katarina Melcher.

2040
Documentary by Damon Gameau
In cinemas

Damon Gameau is an environmentalist who wants to go beyond the dire facts of the impending climate catastrophe. In 2040, he convincingly demonstrates that we already have the technology to not only stop carbon emissions, we have the ability to draw carbon out of the atmosphere to make the world safe again.

This ensemble piece ranges over a series of time zones, travelling from the near future to the early 20th century, mostly in Australia, but also the Ellis Island immigration centre in New York. Its main segment is a deceptively simple, kitchen-sink style, family drama in which home truths are exposed and conventional dishonesties unravelled.