Issue 1281

News

NSW Police has again used the pandemic to thwart staff and students' efforts to protest Sydney University's job cuts and the federal government’s refusal to help universities, reports Rachel Evans.

Activists visited insurance company Arch Insurance to ask it to rule out supporting Adani, reports Coral Wynter.

Cam Walker argues that the federal government’s push for fossil gas amid a worsening climate crisis is reckless in the extreme.

Child protection workers and foster carers are organising for more resources because the system is dangerously overstretched, reports Janet Parker.

Unionists and social movement activists may like to tune in to an online networking program that has proven popular among unions in the United States, writes Jeremy Smith.

Artists, gardeners and knitters have created a "guerrilla gallery" on Parramatta's historic St George’s Terrace to protest plans to demolish two of the city’s most significant heritage-listed buildings, reports Susan Price.

Analysis

Julian Assange is facing a show trial, designed to warn any whistleblower and journalist not to go down the same path. He is not on trial for any crime, but rather for exposing them, argues Sam Wainwright.

The attempt to get a religious freedom bill passed into law is part of an ongoing unholy war on our increasingly fragile democracy, argues Suzanne James.

Four years after the death in custody of Wiradjuri, Kookatha and Wirangu father-of-one Wayne “Fella” Morrison, the SA Ombudsman has asked corrective services to apologise to his family, writes Rachel Evans.

Moreland socialist councillor Sue Bolton has worked hard over her two terms. Now, she is keen to be re-elected for a third, writes Jacob Andrewartha.

Helen Masterman-Smith speaks to Green Left about how university workers are learning as they campaign against management's job cuts.

Stuart Rees warns about governments' distain for human rights as police are deployed to harass or arrest citizens, and even parliamentarians.

Climate campaigner Greta Thunberg urges us to join the dots, but Pip Hinman writes that our governments won't do so unless we make them.

Peter Boyle reflects on the political significance and lessons from the epic S11 blockade of the World Economic Forum in 2000.

World

Western capitalist approaches have created dangerous conditions in California, but Indigenous communities have managed fire as a natural part of the ecosystem, writes Sonali Kolhatkar.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s personality is undoubtedly a factor in her appeal. But, politically, Ardern represents a form of centrist politics that has failed to address the challenges of our time, argues Ani White.

Catastrophic fires raging in the west of the United States are being fuelled by climate denial and bipartisan pandering to fossil fuel interests, writes Barry Sheppard.

A new Climate Justice Charter has been adopted by a mass online assembly of activists in South Africa, reports Climate and Capitalism

With the help of the new laws, western mining companies have started expatriating mining profits, contributing to the super-exploitation and underdevelopment of Burkina Faso, writes Yanis Iqbal.

The 2020 US presidential election is between Black Lives Matter, a multiracial democracy — and white supremacy, writes Malik Miah. The outcome is open, but continuing to mobilise in the streets is essential.

Culture

First written in 1938 by Tennessee Williams, Not About Nightingales tells the story of how four hunger-striking prisoners died while being locked in a steam-heated cell. Alex Salmon looks at a new adaptation of this play premiering in Australia.

Sam Wallman is a talented political comic artist with a strong worker and union focus in his work, writes Andrew Chuter