Issue 1224

News

500 people gathered in King George Square to reaffirm opposition to the Adani mine in the wake of the federal election. The Queensland government is rushing headlong into fast tracking the mine which would be a climate pollution disaster.

The march proceeded into the Queen St Mall - where protest is basically prohibited - in a sign of preparedness to take whatever steps are necessary to end this mine and to avert a climate catastrophe.

About 60 people attended a forum organised by Right to Strike NSW on June 4 where a panel of union activists discussed the struggle for union rights after the re-election of the Scott Morrison Coalition government.

The 2019 Rich List, published by the Australian Financial Review in late May, revealed that the wealth of the 200 wealthiest people in Australia has increased by more than 20% over the past year. Their combined wealth totalled a massive $342 billion.

Below is an appeal, initiated by Michael Rubbo and signed by many journalists, to the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) to pull out all stops to do more to get Julian Assange released.

This year will be forever etched in our collective memories as the year Labor lost what was widely seen as the unlosable federal election.

Everyone who met Deguefe Odysseas Hailu, who passed away after a short period of illness on May 22, remembers him as a quietly spoken and gentle person.

Analysis

Many asylum seekers had hoped a Labor government, having supported the medical evacuation law (Medivac) and agreed to accept New Zealand's offer to resettle 150 people a year, would mean an end to six years of torture. The election result has killed that hope, writes Zebedee Parkes.

The economic slow down means the Coalition will either abandon its promise of increasing budget surpluses and increase government spending — on infrastructure for instance — to stimulate the economy or it will double down on its commitment to a surplus, necessitating spending cuts. Its track record suggests the latter, writes Graham Mathews.

More support services may not have saved Courtney Herron’s life. But surely she, and other vulnerable people, have a right to expect more support, writes Sue Bull.

Could you be described as being “non-faith”? The newly re-elected Coalition government has a law in mind for you, writes Barry Healy.

It is bad enough that our rulers insist on pushing ahead on a course so disastrous that when a new report says human civilisation could end by 2050, you think “that’s optimistic” as you just saw another report saying the Arctic is melting so rapidly the scientists trying to measure it keep losing their tools, but, honestly, do they need to be so fucking smug about it?

We have a right to know what the government is doing in our name and we also need to demand the repeal of the anti-terror laws that criminalise journalists and whistleblowers, writes Pip Hinman.

“I don’t see how reflecting on myself is going to stop women being bashed or murdered,” media personality Joe Hildebrand said in the wake of the murder of Courtney Herron in Melbourne on May 25.

The extreme violence directed at women are at the root of contemporary debates with the #NotAllMen faction which, by definition, declines to engage in thoughtful reflection.

World

The demands of the Sudanese people right now, after the crackdown on the sit-in is very clear: It is for civil disobedience and a general strike.

Tens of thousands of protesters shut down Westminster in London on June 4 to protest the United States President Donald Trump.

Tens of thousands of protesters shut down Westminster in London on June 4 to show their opposition to United States President Donald Trump’s state visit.

Teachers around Aotearoa New Zealand held a historic one-day strike on May 29 with both primary and secondary teachers joining together in a “mega-strike” to demand pay rises, parity between primary and secondary teachers, staffing increases and more time for preparation and out-of-classroom activities.

On May 26, journalists from the Real News Network (RNN) interviewed residents and local representatives from the barrios in Caracas about the impact of US sanctions on critical water supplies.

The Indian left is facing tough challenges following the reelection of Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.

In his latest column, Barry Sheppard explores the history of the US Espionage Act, from World War 1 to the war on the public's right to know.

Culture

3CR Community Radio in Melbourne is holding its annual radiothon to raise essential funds.

Big Brother is watching.

Styx
Director Wolfgang Fischer, starring Susanne Wolff and Gedion Oduor Wekesa
English & German with English subtitles
Screening as part of the German Film Festival

The Styx was the name given by the ancient Greeks to the river dividing the land of the living from that of the dead, Hades. This film is a modern allegory for that journey.

Gundermann
Directed by Andreas Dresen
Starring Alexander Scheer, Anna Unterberger, Peter Schneider, Bjarne Mädel & Milan Peschel
German with English subtitles
Showing as part of the German Film Festival

Bauhaus Spirit: 100 Years of Bauhaus
Documentary directed by Niels Bolbrinker & Thomas Tielsch
German & English with English subtitles
Showing as part of the German Film Festival

The Bauhaus was a design school that flourished in Germany from the early 1920s through to the 1930s, when it was extinguished by Nazi repression.