A car convoy in Sydney's CBD, as well as protests at Liberal MLA electoral offices, were held on June 18 in opposition to the NSW government’s plans to privatise bus services, reports Jim McIlroy.
Issue 1269
News
Protesters held up four long banners outside the offices of Marsh Insurance at Barangaroo to protest the company’s contracts with the Adani coal mine in Queensland, reports Coral Wynter.
Protesters from Galilee Blockade protested outside Lantrak’s offices for supplying ballast to help Adani’s coal mine in central Queensland, reports Coral Wynter.
Moreland City Council has agreed to a procurement policy which excludes dealings with companies dealing with coal corporations, writes Pip Hinman.
The Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union is warning that changes to Australia Post threaten 2000 permanent jobs — a quarter of the workforce, reports Jim McIlroy.
Housing groups organised an action outside New South Wales Parliament on June 16 calling for direct rent relief and to continue the moratorium on evictions, reports Rachel Evans.
Small rallies calling for the freedom of detained refugees were held at eight locations across Melbourne on June 13, reports Chris Slee.
A rally for refugees proceeded safely, despite being denied authorisation by the NSW Supreme Court, reports Pip Hinman.
Two days after a powerful and emotional refugee rights rally outside the Kangaroo Point detention centre, police moved in to break up a protest camp on June 15, reports Alex Bainbridge.
In a victory for academic freedom, Murdoch University announced on June 12 that it has permanently withdrawn all action against academic and whistleblower Associate Professor Gerd Schröder-Turk, report Alex Salmon and Mark Tan.
Between 10–20,000 people chanted, danced and sang in the rain at Langley Park, Perth, on June 13 in one of the biggest protests for Black rights and against deaths in custody in West Australia ever, reports Alex Salmon.
Hundreds of people turned out for the Brisbane leg of a national day of action demanding #JusticeForRefugees, reports Alex Bainbridge.
Analysis
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and other Labor leaders are feigning surprise at the revelations coming from the sting on right-wing power broker and sacked state minister Adem Somyurek. But this cynical internal process is not new for Labor, or the Liberals for that matter, says Sue Bolton.
Modern Australia remains profoundly shaped by the violent dispossession of Indigenous people. Denying this history serves a real and material purpose for very powerful interests, argues Sam Wainwright.
First Nations leaders and environmental activists who stopped logging operations in Victoria and New South Wales in early June said the continent’s environmental crimes can be traced back to colonisation. Traditional Custodians must lead the way on forest management, writes Kim Croxford.
Jim McIllroy argues the right’s culture wars are taking a hammering as Black Lives Matter-Stop Deaths in Custody movements rise.
After having said it would not agree to any exemption on its ban on live sheep exports, the federal Department of Agriculture has now allowed a ship to transport tens of thousands of live sheep to the Middle East, reports Mary Merkenich.
As Australia and the world took to the streets in solidarity with Black Lives Matter protests in the United States, prisoners at the Bandyup Women’s Prison saw a Yamatji woman prisoner slammed to the ground by prison guards, writes Deborah Green.
University of Melbourne staff voted overwhelmingly to reject a proposed change to their enterprise agreement, writes Susan Price.
PM Scott Morrison wants unions and employers “to put down their weapons”, claiming this is the way jobs will be created. However, history shows otherwise, writes Mary Merkenich.
The New South Wales and federal governments say building new dams and raising the walls of others are the answer to the state’s water crisis. Tracey Carpenter outlines why this is not the case.
World
Socialist councillor in Seattle Kshama Sawant addressed protesters on June 10, in the wake of their takeover of Seattle’s Eighth Precinct, from which police have been driven out.
Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn has been implicated in the recent abduction and disappearance of Thai dissident Wanchalearm Satsaksit, who had been living in exile in Cambodia, writes Peter Boyle.
Geoff Mirelowitz has marched and demonstrated for civil rights and against racism for more than 50 years. But the daily protests in greater Seattle have been some of the most inspiring that he has ever participated in.
As the Black Lives Matter movement continues to deepen, Republicans are ramping up attempts to curtail African Americans’ right to vote and President Donald Trump is rallying his base ahead of the November election, writes Barry Sheppard.
With sea level rise, superstorms, mega droughts, crop failure and mass species extinction, nature is forcing us to see what capitalism denies, the interconnectedness of all life on our ocean planet, writes Jess Spear. If we allow business-as-usual to continue, the impact on us will become greater and more severe.
The rebellion against police violence and murder continues to expand in the United States. New demands are being raised concerning issues of institutional racism by Black and Brown people and in opposition to the symbols of white genocide by Native American nations, writes Malik Miah.
Culture
Filmmaker Zebedee Parkes sits down with Markela Panegyres, a visual artist, to discuss the impact COVID-19 is having on the arts community.
Carlo Sands tries to understand what is going on in the US (and Australia).
Unfree Speech is a journey of a young activist that challenges the common stereotype of modern-day youth being incompetent and apathetic, instead presenting a stark contrast of youth interested in and concerned about their futures, write Alex Salmon and Mark Tan.