Issue 1240

News

Capitalism is Killing us - Extinction Rebellion Action 11 October 2019 Brisbane

Hundreds of people took part in a mass blockade of the William Jolly Bridge — a major river crossing in Brisbane — on the final day of the #SpringRebellion week on October 11.

Australian Council of Trade Union’s president Michele O’Neil told an October 2 forum that the Coalition government’s attacks on refugees is a distraction from its failure to act on low wages, insecure work and climate change.

Lawyers for Climate Action Australia wants peak legal bodies to recognise the climate crisis and declare a “climate emergency in recognition of the need for urgent action”.

Venezuelan chargé d’affaires Daniel Gasparri said that his country's problems stem from the economic blockade imposed by the United States.

Greens MP Jamie Parker condemns Turkey's invasion of Syria

On October 8, NSW Greens MP for Balmain Jamie Parker addressed the first of a round of emergency protests against Turkey's invasion of the Kurdish-liberated democratic autonomous territories in northern and eastern Syria, popularly known as Rojava.

Extinction Rebellion's (XR) Spring Rebellion kicked off in Sydney with an occupation of the busy intersection in front of Central Station on October 7.

A colourful and dramatic 'Bee-mergency' action was held in Sydney's Hyde Park on October 8 — Day 2 of Extinction Rebellion's (XR) Spring Rebellion.

Thousands of climate activists are taking direct, disruptive action across Australia as part of Extinction Rebellion's international week of rebellion.

After 10 weeks of protected strike action, Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMMEU) members and hazardous waste removal company Gbar have reached an agreement for a better enterprise agreement.

A media conference in Geraldton, Western Australia,  on October 2.

Social justice workers and local First Nations community members spoke out about the dire need for action in the Yamatji region, at a media conference in Geraldton, Western Australia, on October 2.

Bruce Shillingsworth, the Yaama Ngunna Baaka Corroboree Festival tour organiser, said on October 1 that First Nations people need to be given back the power to make key decisions about water flow and the rivers.

Family members of three Aboriginal children murdered in Bowraville on the mid north coast of NSW between 1990 and 1991, together with Black Lives Matter supporters, marched through Sydney CBD on September 29 to demand that NSW Parliament change the law so that a new trial can be held.

Analysis

Some unions have been rightfully criticised for sending mixed messages to members regarding the September 20 Climate Strike, writes Crimson Coconut.

There is a lot of whinging from bleeding heart liberals about “attacks” on the unemployed such as proposed mandatory drug testing, expanding welfare “quarantining” and the ongoing process of knowingly sending incorrect “robodebts” to welfare recipients that has been tied to large numbers of suicides

Two important issues facing residents in Fremantle and its surrounds are the proposed Roe 8 highway extension and new container facility at Kwinana Outer Harbour. Green Left Weekly’s Janet Parker spoke to four progressive candidates contesting council elections on October 19 about them.

More than 38 people, including myself, were arrested during an Extinction Rebellion (XR) protest in Sydney on October 7 to demand immediate and serious action to tackle the climate crisis.

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.

“The problem is mismanagement of the Barwon-Darling rivers” activist Fleur Thompson told the Yaama Ngunna Baaka Corroboree Festival bus tour, as it passed through the western New South Wales town of Bourke on September 30.

“The federal and state governments could step in anytime and fix it, but they don’t and won’t. To do that the governments would have to admit fault.”

Well-documented corruption on a huge scale has dried out the Murray-Darling river system. Aboriginal communities along the rivers and its tributaries are calling it genocide. From September 28 to October 4, Aboriginal activist Bruce Shillingsworth helped those communities hold the Yaama Ngunna Baaka Corroboree Festival. Green Left Weekly's Mat Ward, who took his nine-year-old son on the second bus, gives a blow-by-blow account of the trip.

Day 1: Sydney to Brewarrina

One of the more atypical protesters at the September 20 Climate Strike was Newcastle coal miner Ian Hodgson. But he exemplifies a large number of workers, including those in the fossil fuel industry, who want real action on the climate emergency, including new secure jobs for those who may lose theirs in any transition.

An abortion rights rally outside NSW parliament on July 31.

Abortion has finally been decriminalised in New South Wales, after decades of campaigning and nearly 40 hours of parliamentary “debate” that generated widespread anguish around what should be a basic health matter.

World

The horrific violence that has been devastating Syria for the past eight years is intensifying, writes Tony Iltis. On October 9, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan gave the order to NATO’s second largest army to begin the shelling and aerial bombardment of civilian populations of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AA).

The results of the October 6 elections for the 230-seat Portuguese parliament delivered four main outcomes: a historic thrashing of the right; a strong lift in support for the governing Socialist Party (PS); increased variegation of the vote to the left of PS; and a record abstention rate, writes Dick Nichols.

Ecuador’s workers are rising up against President Lenin Moreno’s IMF-mandated neoliberal attacks, writes Denis Rogatyuk.

Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince looks post-apocalyptic, reflecting the fierce class war which has raged here since last year, if not since 1986, writes Kim Ives.

The recent uprising in West Papua was sparked by racist attacks on Papuan students in the Indonesian city of Surabaya. However, the West Papuan people have been struggling for more than 60 years against Indonesian occupation, human rights violations and for the right to self determination.

Indonesian occupation has led to human rights abuses, disappearances, kidnappings, extrajudicial killings, forced displacement and the death of an estimated 500,000 Papuans.

On October 9, after many months of military build up and threats, the Turkish military began a new invasion of north-east Syria where, seven years ago, Kurdish freedom fighters established a federation of democratic self-governing cantons popularly known as "Rojava".

This attack came just days after United States President Donald Trump announced the withdrawal of US military units from the area and gave an implicit “green light” for Turkey's invasion.

The House of Representatives impeachment inquiry into United States President Donald Trump was launched by Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on September 24 and marked a departure from her previous stance of resisting calls by the so-called “left wing” of the party to begin the impeachment process.

The exposure, by an anonymous “whistleblower”, of Trump’s attempt to force Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter for alleged corruption, caused Pelosi to make this step.

The following statement was released by Make Rojava Green Again, an international campaign aiming to find solutions to the ecological problems facing the Rojava Revolution in Northern Syria.

MRGA has been financially and practically supporting projects in Rojava in the spirit of solidarity and internationalism, and seeking to spread the word about the inspiring process in this region, which Turkey is now trying to annihilate.

On October 7, three Bulgarian judges from the Supreme Court of Cassation decided they would need up to two months to review the Sofia Court of Appeal’s decision to grant Australian citizen Jock Palfreeman parole on September 19.

On October 7, in an unprecedented departure from the rule of law, three judges will review the parole decision handed down to Australian citizen Jock Palfreeman on September 19 in Bulgaria.

Palfreeman has served 11 of a 20 year sentence and, under Bulgarian law, prisoners who serve half their sentence can be paroled. Currently, Palfreeman is being held illegally in an immigration prison.

Culture

On December 9, 1966, the Australian government signed a public agreement with the United States to build what both countries misleadingly called a “Joint Defence Space Research Facility” at Pine Gap, just outside Alice Springs.

Officially, Pine Gap is a collaboration between the Australian Department of Defence and the Pentagon’s Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency. In reality this conceals the real purpose of Pine Gap as a CIA-run spy base designed to collect signals from US surveillance satellites in geosynchronous orbit over the equator.

Below are the opening remarks by long-established West Australian artist, Lynne Tinley at the opening night of Earth Grief, a retrospective exhibition of her art. The exhibition was displayed at the Sustainable Housing for Artists and Creatives (SHAC) Colab2, White Gum Valley, Fremantle beginning on September 27.

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Grief is a passion, an emotional force; it is the dark cloud that brings the rain.

This Australian-made film dramatises the experience of a 14-year-old Cambodian boy who is tricked into boarding a fishing vessel, where he is enslaved.

This dastardly duo deserve dusty derision, writes John Monfries.