Issue 1358

News

The NT government is committed to keep incarcerating children in Don Dale Youth Detention Centre until at least “late 2023”, reports Stephen W Enciso.

Anti-war and peace protesters from Stop AUKUS-WA protested the Indian Ocean Defence and Security Conference. Kerry Smith reports.

Twenty three Victorian councils have already, or are intending to, privatise their aged-care service since the federal government changed its funding model. Kerry Smith reports.

Gomeroi Elders are planning a day of music and cultural activities to celebrate the beauty of the Pilliga Forest and build the resistance to Santos' proposed gas drilling. David Killingly reports.

The NSW government is pushing the rail union to compromise on safety as well as to agree to a cut in wages. Jim McIlroy reports.

Public housing residents and supporters protested the proposed demolition of a Waterloo public housing estate. Rachel Evans reports.

In a victory for the environment and common sense, the Dendrobium mine expansion will not go ahead. Jim McIlroy and Alex Bainbridge report.

Socialist Alliance candidates running in the Victorian elections say that solutions exist for the cost-of-living pressures. Jacob Andrewartha reports.

Geelong Housing Action Group co-convenor Angela Carr says there is not enough housing for those who desperately need it. Chris Cherry reports.

Exercise Pitch Black further entrenches Australia with the United States' war drive, the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network says. Kerry Smith reports.

Analysis

The Anthony Albanese Labor government is heading in the wrong direction by opening up new fossil fuel exploration, writes Samantha Hepburn.

The Scott Morrison multiple-portfolio saga is just the tip of the credibility crisis plaguing politics. Sam Wainwright argues we need to look a lot further than the restoration of Westminster conventions.

Fossil fuel billionaires' record profits need to be seized as a first step in democratising the energy sector and transitioning to a jobs-rich clean energy future, writes Alex Bainbridge.

David Shoebridge talks about a federal ICAC, the Restoration of Territory Rights Bill, the failure to implement the findings of the Royal Commission into Black Deaths in Custody and the challenges of work-life balance.

While the energy sector remains in private hands, it will resist any transition away from fossil fuels. Greens MLC Abigail Boyd discusses the urgent need to take it back into public hands.

A lot more can be done for homeless people in Australia, argues Gerry Georgatos, including building more public housing and prioritising supports for the homeless.

Australia seems to be helping Fiji set up a defence facility in Lami, although Canberra is keen to eschew the military intent. Binoy Kampmark reports.

In the lead-up to the federal Jobs Summit, it is worth remembering that Australia is carrying a burgeoning precariat of unemployed and underemployed people, writes Malcolm King.

The Women’s Abortion Action Campaign was launched in 1972. Christine Smith discusses its origins and approach, and the need to be vigilant about reproductive health.

What happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki is why the vast majority of people totally abhor nuclear weapons and want to see them decommissioned, argues Gem Romuld.

Greens Senator David Shoebridge and Socialist Alliance member William Briggs discuss Australia’s “defence” on the Green Left Show.

World

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has dismissed two top government officials for allegedly “turning a blind eye” to “traitors” in their agencies, report Malik Miah and Barry Sheppard

Zaporizhia nuclear power plant

The more than 10,000 workers at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant have issued an urgent and impassioned plea for global support, reports Federico Fuentes.

Protest in Argentina

Thousands of people took to the streets across Argentina on August 18 to protest rising living costs and demand the government take action to improve material conditions, reports Ana Zorita.

Welder

Almost a month after Ukraine’s parliament adopted two anti-worker bills, President Volodymyr Zelensky finally ratified Draft Law 5371, removing union rights for most of the country’s workers, reports Federico Fuentes.

Colombia’s new government, led by President Gustavo Petro, has vowed to tackle violence and illegal mining, enact drug reforms and normalise relations with Cuba and Venezuela. Ian Ellis-Jones reports.

The water problems Chile faces are historically embedded in a neoliberal framework that has remained tilted in favour of the ruling class, writes Yanis Iqbal.

Najib Razak

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak was finally sent to jail on August 23, more than two years after he was convicted of corruption, reports Peter Boyle.

Under capitalism, wars are fought to gain access to markets, resources and to harness the working class in its service. The suffering of the Ukrainian people attests to this, writes William Briggs.

Zinar Bozkurt

A 26-year-old Kurdish refugee in Sweden is at risk of being deported to Turkey as a result of an agreement signed between Ankara, Stockholm and Helsinki for the Nordic expansion of NATO, reports Medya News.

Lithium mine

The people of Potosí in Bolivia, like the people of Tierra Amarilla in Chile, want to imagine a different kind of extraction: one that does not destroy the Earth, write Vijay Prashad and Taroa Zúñiga Silva.

Culture

Climate protest

Hans Baer reviews Climate Change as Class War and recommends ecosocialists, ecoanarchists and degrowth proponents alike should grapple with it, as it takes the notion of class struggle seriously.