Issue 1321

News

We're skipping lessons to teach you one

More than 10,000 students joined climate strike actions around the country, reports Alex Bainbridge and Jim McIlroy.

Casual workers at the University of Sydney have launched a $2 million wage theft claim against university management. Georgie Dixon reports.

Inner West Council is the first of the forcibly amalgamated councils in NSW to give residents a direct say on a demerger. But, as Pip Hinman reports, it will distribute questionable information to residents.

Protest on the roof of the parliamentary annexe

An Extinction Rebellion action highlighted the critical danger facing the Great Barrier Reef. Alex Bainbridge reports.

Precarious workers in Cairns are bearing the brunt of the COVID-19 economic crisis in Far North Queensland. Jonathan Strauss reports.

Residents are organising to oppose the NSW government's efforts to open up the valley of Rylstone in the Central Tablelands to coal mining. Coral Wynter reports.

Bernard Collaery will be allowed to make public certain information in his trial. While he should not have to face a trial at all for helping his client, Witness K, this is a positive step, writes Jim McIlroy.

An international peace webinar drew speakers and participants from across the world to condemn the new Australia-United Kingdom-United States alliance. Jim McIlroy reports.

CFMEU members are campaigning for an enterprise agreement, three years after the old one expired. Steve O'Brien reports.

Domestic and family violence shelters with good connections to communities have fared better in the lockdowns, writes Markela Panegyres.

Long-term community and union activists Andrew Chuter and Rachel Evans will run for the Socialist Alliance in the New South Wales Senate. Jim McIlroy reports.

More than 300 people took part in an online rally organised by the Tamil Refugee Council to demand protections for refugees and ensure they are not deported to danger. Chris Slee reports.

In response to the plan to rapidly phase out the disaster payment, the Australian Council of Social Service said the JobSeeker rate needs to be lifted to $80 a day. Arie Huybregts reports.

Suzanne James writes about the rise in public support for the Voluntary Assisted Dying bill and the likely impact of the change of leadership in New South Wales on its potential passage.

Prisoner rights activists are demanding that authorities heed the health advice and protect people in prison. Elliott Guerrero and Rachel Evans report.

The  Australian Criminal and Family Lawyers is challenging several New South Wales Police powers under the COVID-19 public health orders in the Supreme Court. Elliott Guerrero reports.

The Combined Rail Unions and the Rail, Tram & Bus Union are continuing protected industrial action in New South Wales as negotiations for a new NSW Trains and Sydney Trains Enterprise Agreement break down. Jean Dor reports.

Compost the rich: September 30 action outside Bluebird Property.

Activist gardening collective Growing Forward held an action outside the offices of luxury developer Bluebird Property. Alex Bainbridge reports.

A Victorian coroner has found that a high-speed police pursuit resulting in the death of First Nations man Raymond Noel Lindsay Thomas in 2017 was unjustified. Chris Slee reports.

Analysis

Climate Council member Will Steffen spoke to Green Left about climate science and politics in the lead up to the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.

Whistleblower Frances Haugen has called out Facebook and its sister site Instagram for exacerbating body image and mental health issues in teenage girls, writes Janet Parker.

The capitalist establishment has spent years debating whether or not Australia should have a 2050 climate target. It is a distraction from the task at hand, argues Alex Bainbridge.  

As NSW eases restrictions for fully vaccinated people, vulnerable First Nations people are still struggling to be vaccinated, write Rachel Evans and Elliott Guerrero.

Socialist Alliance strongly supports vaccination as a public health measure. Vaccines should be free and easily available.

In part three of our series on the draft Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill (NSW) 2021, Green Left interviews NSW Greens MP Cate Faehrmann, co-sponsor of the bill to be introduced by Independent Sydney MP Alex Greenwich.

The extent to which the ruling class will go to protect those accused of sexual violence is on full display in the case of the PM's treatment of the former Attorney General Christian Porter, argues Markela Panegyres.

Rachel Evans spoke to Tamil refugees and activists Kalyani Inpakumar and Renuga Inpakumar about the continuing persecution of Tamils in Sri Lanka and the campaign for rights here.

Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, warns that unless the federal government restrains its pandemic spending, the country will end up like Sri Lanka. Michael Cooke and Lionel Bopage argue that this is neoliberal nonsense.

Neoliberalism has turned universities into “hungry” institutions that act like zombies: consuming brains for profit rather than enriching minds. Aleks Wansbrough discusses the crisis in higher education.

With new fossil fuel corporations finding it increasingly difficult to find the finance, the Scott Morrison government has come to the rescue with public subsidies. Margaret Gleeson reports.

Green Left interviews Beverly Baker, chairperson of Older Women’s Network about the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2021, soon to be debated in the NSW parliament.

Green Left speaks to Shayne Higson, Vice President of Dying With Dignity NSW, about the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2021, soon to be debated in the NSW Parliament.

Gladys Berejiklian, the soon-to-be-former premier of New South Wales, has been a major player in the Liberal-National Party's sell-off of public assets to corporate mates. Andrew Chuter reports.

World

Face mask

How should the working class respond to a pandemic and protect workers’ interests at the same time? Malik Miah reports on the situation in the United States.

The Taliban are hunting down women’s rights activists in Kabul. Yasmeen Afghan files this account of one such activist who is now underground.

Berlin’s referendum to expropriate corporate landlords is a watershed moment for rental politics and a rare win against international real estate capital, reports Thomas McGath.

Helen Jaffe, Sujatha Fernandes and Ian Ellis-Jones discuss the the July 11 protests in Cuba, the corporate media's distortions of them and what is happening in that country now.

The COP26 Coalition is hosting the People’s Summit for Climate Justice, from November 7‒10, and has called a global day of protest action for climate justice on November 6. Green Left spoke to the COP26 Coalition's Camille Barbagallo.

West Papua - children

Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea have raised the issue of regional human rights at a recent United Nations General Assembly meeting, a move welcomed by West Papuans, reports Yamin Kogoya.

Discarded lifejackets on a Mediterranean coastline. Photo: Pixabay

Australia’s brutal policy of turning back refugees at sea has been picked up by Britain, reports Binoy Kampmark.

Supporters of abortion rights turned out across the United States in protest against laws in Texas and Mississippi that effectively outlaw most abortions, reports Barry Sheppard.

The Social Democratic Party's platform to raise the minimum wage and for single-tier health insurance resonated with voters and contrasted with the left's failure. Sibylle Kaczorek reports.

R&B singer R Kelly's conviction on racketeering and sex trafficking is a victory for Black girls and women, who have not been listened to in sexual assault cases, writes Malik Miah.

Brazil’s Supreme Court reserved its judgment on a historic case winding back Indigenous land rights, known as marco temporal (timeframe), on September 15, reports Davi Bertges.

Recent statements by Taliban figures banning perfume have been protested and derided in social media, reports Yasmeen Afghan.

In October, the Central Jakarta District Court ruled on a lawsuit accusing the Indonesian government of unlawfully permitting air pollution in the capital to exceed permissible, healthy limits, reports Binoy Kampmark.

Culture

Ssangyong workers strike, inset Lee Jung-jae

Alex Salmon reviews Squid Game, a dystopian tale set in Asia's economic "miracle".

despotism on demand book cover

Bosses claim the modern, flexible workplace is a wonderland of freedom and self-expression, but a new book reveals what it is really like for workers, writes Barry Healy.

escape from manus book cover

At 21, Jaivet Ealom fled persecution in Myanmar, finding himself on a small boat with 100 other men, women and children destined for Darwin, writes Janet Parker.

Climate and Capitalism editor Ian Angus presents seven new books for understanding and changing the world.

Nahuel Pérez Biscayart and Lars Eidinger in Persian Lessons

Barry Healy reviews a new film about a Belgian Jew who survives the Holocaust by pretending to be Persian.