Issue 1245

News

Blockade RTS for Climate Justice

Climate activists are gearing up for the Resources Technology Showcase (RTS), a mining and fossil fuel industry conference to be held at the Perth Convention Centre over November 27-28.

Health workers blockade Adani’s coal mine in Queensland on November 13.

Doctors, nurses and public health professionals blockaded Adani’s Carmichael coal mine in Central Queensland on November 13. 

Justice for Kumanjayi Walker protest in Brisbane on November 13.

Aboriginal rights activists rallied across the country on November 13 against Black deaths in custody. The protests were organised in response to a police officer shooting and killing Warlpiri man Kumanjayi Walker.

Defend Medevac protest in Sydney on November 9.

Refugee rights activists rallied across Australia on November 9 to defend the Urgent Medical Treatment Bill (Medevac), which was passed in February.

Justice for Kumanjayi Walker protest in Brisbane on November 13.

A police officer has been charged with murder over the shooting death of 19-year-old Warlpiri man Kumanjayi Walker following nationwide protests.

Farmers have lost an appeal to stop a coal mine extension in the Darling Downs, but they haven't given up.

The struggle for LGBTI rights continues in WA under the banner of Rainbow Rebellion.

Meanjin (Brisbane) march of around 1000 people on November 13 to campaign against Black deaths in custody, to say #JusticeForWalker and #IStandWithYuendumu.

The Refugee Action Collective organised a protest in Brisbane on November 9 to save the Medevac bill. The Medevac legislation applies to around 600 refugees in PNG and Nauru. It means that refugees who need medical care can receive it without political interference. The government plans to repeal the bill but doesn't seem to have the numbers to do so at this point.

Analysis

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 arrest a protester at Blockade IMARC in Melbourne on October 30.

That two police officers have been condemned for inappropriate conduct indicates that public backlash over the police violence has had an effect. But for the government and police, it is a good way to deflect attention from the role the police play in society.

Anthony Albanese and Bill Shorten

Labor’s federal election post-mortem ignores a giant elephant in the room — culpability for its defeat lies in its decades-long embrace of neoliberalism and abandonment of progressive “traditional Labor values”.

Climate change, government policies and agribusiness farming are affecting the environment in which animals, including humans, live. But could they also be impacting on the spread of diseases?

Harry Creamer crashed PM Scott Morrison's bushfire media visit in Wauchope, NSW. He tells us why he did it.

State Wide Protest for Black Lives Matter in Sydney.

A key recommendation of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody asserts that, in dealing with First Nations peoples, the criminal justice system should apply both arrest and imprisonment as sanctions of “last resort”. But like most of its 339 recommendations, this has simply been ignored.

On a catastrophic fire day for NSW, November 12, the Liberal-National government had planned to push through a bill to weaken the state’s planning laws, in favour of coal and gas corporations.

A snap action outside NSW parliament that day drew hundreds of people from across the state. They made their opposition to the bill known and expressed support for the NSW Rural Fire Service, which is battling the flames with shortages of equipment and personnel due to budget cuts.

NSW bushfires

With all hell breaking loose as catastrophic fires ravage parts of New South Wales and Queensland, all Prime Minister Scott Morrison can advise is to pray. It’s a poor excuse from a government that has criminally refused to take action on the climate crisis. 

World

On November 12, largely in reaction to the rise of the right-wing Vox, Socialist Workers' Party leader Pedro Sánchez and Unidas Podemos' Pablo Iglesias stitched up a pre-agreement for government in less than 48 hours, writes Dick Nichols.

Throughout the intense wildfires that gripped California since July, the media barely mentioned their underlying cause — climate change and energy company profiteering, writes Barry Sheppard.

A popular uprising has broken out in Idlib, a province in the north of Syria, against the reactionary Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), according to Leila al-Shami, a well known Syrian activist and author.

The uprising began in the town of Kafar Takharim, when people refused to pay increased taxes imposed by HTS on goods and services, including bread, electricity and olive oil. They stormed HTS-controlled olive presses and police stations and evicted HTS from their community.

The women’s cooperative village of Jinwar was built by women on ecologically sustainable principles as a refuge for women fleeing war and patriarchy. However, since Turkey launched its invasion of Rojava on October 9, the sounds of war have become dangerously close and Jinwar is under serious threat.

Army generals appearing on television to demand the resignation and arrest of an elected civilian head of state seems like a textbook example of a coup. And yet that is certainly not how corporate media are presenting the events in Bolivia

The following joint statement from the Asian left and progressive groups was issued on November 11, in response to the coup in Boliva.

* * *

Stand with Evo Morales and the Movement Towards Socialism!
Resist the US-backed coup!

We stand with Evo Morales and Bolivia’s Movement Towards Socialism (Movimiento al Socialismo, MAS) and condemn in the strongest possible terms the United States-backed coup against Bolivia’s democratically elected president, the government, the progressive social movements, trade unions and indigenous peoples.

This year has been the most violent year on record for Mexico, with almost 26,000 intentional homicides between January and September.

The following message was released by the the Political Committee of the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) in Bolivia:

* * *

Resist, so that tomorrow we can fight again

Today, November 10, the humble, the workers, the Aymaras and Quechuas, begin the long path of resistance, to defend the historic achievements of the first indigenous government, which ended today with the forced resignation of our president Evo Morales as a result of the civic-police coup.

After three weeks of protest and social upheaval, people are still taking to the streets in Chile in overwhelming numbers, calling for social justice and demanding dignity.

I have spent a week in Santiago, witnessing first-hand the police use of force and repression.

An armoured vehicle with a water-cannon chased protestors down my hotel’s small street at least twice and multiple tear gas attacks occurred outside my hotel window on several days.

Hong Kong police unleashed a new wave of violence against protesters on November 11, killing one and injuring others. Green Left’s Pip Hinman asked student activist Wlam*, who is currently studying in Australia, about the democracy movement and where things are headed. (*Wlam is a pseudonym to protect his identity.) 

World leaders and organisations expressed their solidarity on November 10 with former Bolivian President Evo Morales under the hashtag #ElMundoconEvo (the World with Evo) and strongly condemned the right-wing coup which forced Morales to resign.

The ongoing coup attempt by the United States-backed opposition in Bolivia has reached boiling point. Sections of the police have declared mutiny and far-right protesters attacked and shut down the government’s media outlets, assaulting its journalists. Now new elections have been called by the Bolivian government in an attempt to defuse the situation.

Bolivian President Evo Morales has announced new elections will be held, following two weeks of violence and an attempted coup, as the right-wing opposition seeks to overturn the election results of October 27 that returned him to office.

Culture

Mrs Lowry & Son
Directed by Adrian Noble
Starring Vanessa Redgrave & Timothy Spall
In cinemas as part of the MINI British Film Festival

This film adaptation of the stage play by Martyn Hesford shows the early life of one of the titans of modern British art, L. S. Lowry, famous for his paintings of “matchstick people” going about their lives in working class northern England.

His simplistic style evokes beauty in what was considered squalid and lower class.

Adam Driver in The Report

The Report is based on the real-life work of US Senate staffer Daniel Jones, who led the investigation into the Central Intelligence Agency’s international torture program that followed the 2001 World Trade Centre attacks.