Issue 1400

News

Young people said they would not remain complicit in Israel's genocide in Gaza as they rallied as part of the national Student Strike for Palestine. Isaac Nellist reports.

The Tasmanian Palestine Advocacy Network is campaigning for a ceasefire in Gaza and recently marched in the Tas Pride Parade to promote queer solidarity with Palestine. Janet Hawkes reports.

UQ students protest against Israel's genocide in Gaza

In the largest protest for Palestine in a decade, students rallied at the University of Queensland St Lucia campus in solidarity with Palestine. Sam Morris reports.

Leila Khaled and Nelson Mandela 2006

Palestine liberation fighter Leila Khaled has described Israel’s occupation of Palestine as the “peak of terrorism”. This is why Zionist organisations want to stop her from speaking, writes Peter Boyle.

Engineering students at the University of Queensland are encouraged to apply for internships and work for weapons' manufacturing company Boeing. Aisling Geraghty reports.

Leila Khaled, domestic violence and asbestos scandal

Green Left journalists Isaac Nellist and Aneesa Bhamjee go through the latest news from across the continent and around the world.

More than 200 social and community workers took unprotected strike action in support of Palestine. Elizabeth Bantas reports.

The Australian Jewish Council said any suggestion that Palestinians arriving from Gaza are a threat to Jews is “outrageous”. Kerry Smith reports.

City of Sydney residents, along with environmental groups, rallied outside Tanya Plibersek’s office in Redfern, demanding she remember her once held pro-Palestine position and speak up for a ceasefire now. Jim McIlroy and Clay report.

 

woman's face

Ecosocialism 2024 conference organiser Sam Wainwright believes the far-right objections to even allowing Palestinian freedom fighter Leila Khaled to address the Ecosocialism 2024 conference is “fake outrage”, reports Pip Hinman.

Thousands are still joing weekly protests against Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza, which has cont

Tens of thousands joined protests condemning Australia's support for Israel's genocidal assault, which includes supplying arms and military intelligence.

Ukrainian community members and supporters rallied across Australia to commemorate the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion and Ukraine’s ongoing resistance. Federico Fuentes, Alex Salmon and Anne McMenamin report.

Trade Unionists for Palestine hosted a forum which discussed workers’ rights to stand in solidarity with Palestine in their workplaces. Rachel Evans reports.

Ecosocialism 2024 will be an invaluable opportunity to share experiences in building struggles against war and the climate catastrophe with activists from around the Indian Ocean. Fred Fuentes reports.

Traditional Owners outside court

Wangan and Jagalingou Traditional Owners have filed a case against the Queensland government after it refused to suspend operations at the Adani/Bravus Carmichael coal mine, putting the Doongmabulla Springs at risk. Coral Wynter reports.

'One of the best ways to achieve justice is to expose injustice'

Stella Assange told protesters outside the Royal Courts of Justice that the case against Julian Assange is about the public's right to know about what governments do in their name. Alex Bainbridge and Kamala Emanuel report.

Despite the record heat conditions, more than 100 people protested outside the headquarters of Woodside. Alex Salmon reports.

Nauru offshore detention

Refugee rights group said 40 people who recently sought asylum in Western Australia should be brought back from offshore detention. Pip Hinman reports. 

Stella Assange spoke outside the Royal Courts of Justice on February 20, while Julian Assange's defence presents an appeal against his unfair extradition to the United States for exposing government crimes.

Representatives of more than 30 community organisations met to discuss working more closely to oppose AUKUS and the US-Australia war drive against China. Kerry Smith reports.

Green Left News Podcast Ep 32, February 20, 2024

Green Left journalist Isaac Nellist goes through the latest news from across the continent and around the world.

The family of Dunghutti teenager Jai Kalani Wright have welcomed the news that a NSW Police officer, whose car collided with the 16 year old, has been charged. Kerry Smith reports.

Two hundred people attended Geelong Rainbow’s annual Pride march, which was followed by a festival celebrating LGBTIQ performers. Angela Carr reports.

The number of asbestos-polluted sites grows by the day, people should be asking why the EPA has failed to act for a decade. Peter Boyle reports.

Residents are opposed to Santos' plan to drill underwater gas wells and lay a pipeline in the Timor Sea, pointing to opposition from Tiwi people and climate scientists. Stephen W Enciso reports.

 

Palestinian Australia Khaled Ghannam paid tribute to the common struggle across Latin America and Palestine for self-determination at the Chilean Communist Party's commemoration. Kerry Smith reports.

The Refugee Action Collective organised a vigil to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the murder of Iranian Kurdish refugee Reza Barati by guards at the Australian-run detention centre on Manus Island, writes Chris Slee.

Analysis

Greens mayoral candidate Jonathan Sriranganathan hopes to expand the party’s representation on the Brisbane City Council and told Alex Bainbridge it has policies that point to transformational change.

Wealth will trickle down from the super rich to ordinary people 'when pigs fly'

“Tax reforms” have stacked the tax system in favour of the rich, while making ordinary workers pay more, argues Peter Boyle.

A new phase in the battle for real solutions to the housing crisis has opened up with the Greens saying Labor’s “help-to-buy” housing scheme is only tinkering around the edges. Stuart Munckton and Federico Fuentes spoke with Greens housing spokesperson Max Chandler-Mather about the battle for real solutions to the housing crisis.

Labor is under significant pressure to move away from its total support for Israel’s genocidal war on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. Khaled Ghannam reports.

 

3 people sitting

Following a recent screening of the new documentary, Palestine Under Siege, hosted in Gadigal/Sydney by supporters of Green Left, local Jewish activist Michelle Berkon presented the following response to the film.

David Spratt and Ian Dunlop argue that the government is not up to speed on the latest climate science and its risk assessment process is out of time.

On the second day of Julian Assange's appeal against extradition the prosecution found itself in knots, given that a balancing act of harm and freedom of expression is warranted under the European Convention on Human Rights. Binoy Kampmark reports.

The two judges hearing Julian Assange's appeal were seemingly ill versed in the field they were adjudicating, writes Binoy Kampmark.

The stakes in Julian Assange's court case could not be higher. The outcome will determine whether the US can seek to extradite any journalist, of any nationality from anywhere with which it has an extradition treaty, for disclosing US war crimes. Kellie Tranter reports.

The appearance of a few asylum seekers on some of the most remote shorelines in Western Australia prompted the customary hysteria from predictable quarters. But, Binoy Kampmark reports, the major parties agree on offshore processing.

Leila Khaled speaks with Green Left about the International Court of Justice genocide ruling, what really happened on October 7, solutions to the Palestinian/Israel conflict, and more.

Labor’s “grave concern” about a “catastrophic” military operation in Rafah is not enough, says the Socialist Alliance. It must respect Palestinians’ calls for an immediate and lasting ceasefire, with no conditions.

The 19th weekly rally on Gadigal land/Sydney

Israel's denial that it is ethnically cleansing Palestinian people from their homes and lands reveals it is an apartheid state, a forum was told. Susan Price reports. 

World

Still from a video with a woman reporting

The starvation regime continues unabated as Israel continues its campaign in the Gaza Strip, writes Binoy Kampmark.

Palestinian revolutionary Leila Khaled responds to those who would ban her from Australia in an interview with Peter Boyle.

man's face

Aaron Bushnell became the first active duty United States soldier to use self-immolation to protest the actions of the military he was a part of, reports Peoples Dispatch.

two workers at a protest

A coordinated string of political strikes brought Finland to a standstill from February 12‒16, when more than 130,000 workers took rolling strike action in response to an array of neoliberal reforms proposed by conservative prime minister Petteri Orpo’s National Coalition government, reports Clive Tillman.

two men's faces

Moscow-based poet, translator, and activist Kirill Medvedev, of the Russian Socialist Movement (RSD), spoke with Green Left’s Federico Fuentes regarding the significance of opposition leader Alexei Navalny death in prison and the recent jailing of anti-war socialist Boris Kagarlitsky.

Lula da Sliva with Gaza destruction

Amid Israel’s ongoing military assault on Gaza, Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva declared on February 18 that Israel was carrying out “a genocide”. This drew condemnation from Israel and its far-right allies in Brazil, but also support from the left, reports Federico Fuentes.

town in Peru

High in the Peruvian Andes, in the southeastern region of Huancavelica, lies a brown, treeless mountaintop — the scars of the now-boarded-up Santa Bárbara mercury mine, whose legacy is social and environmental devastation, reports Ben Radford.

Dr Mahrang Baloch speaking to a rally

When the young activist Dr Mahrang Baloch returned to her native Balochistan from Islamabad, tens of thousands defied a government ban on public assemblies to give her a hero’s welcome, report Matt Broomfield and Robin Fleming.

protesters

Yorgos Mitralias seeks to answer how it came about that the vast majority of Israeli citizens support and even applaud the genocidal war on the Palestinian people?

woman's face, child's face

Nancy Fraser is the author of, among other works, Cannibal Capitalism: How Our System Is Devouring Democracy, Care, and the Planet — and What We Can Do About It. She spoke with Green Left’s Federico Fuentes about the need to incorporate natural wealth and care work within our understanding of modern imperialism.

Leila Khaled mural in Palestine

Leila Khaled is an iconic Palestinian revolutionary activist living in exile. A member of the national committee of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and a representative on the Palestine National Council, she gave this exclusive interview to Green Left on February 18.

map of africa

Paul Gregoire argues that against the backdrop of efforts by the West and Israel to undermine the post World War II global order, the people’s revolt in West Africa takes on global significance.

Abdullah Ocalan

Nilüfer Koç writes that imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan has become a symbol as well as an effective actor for progressive change in the Middle East — and must be freed.

Culture

people standing outside a building

An eager audience was treated to the award-winning documentary Palestine Under Siege by filmmakers Jill Hickson and John Reynolds in Gadigal/Sydney, reports Jepke Goudsmit.

Protest albums from February 2024

Mat Ward looks back at February's political news and the best new music that related to it.

DJ deck with dove of peace

With the escalating conflict in Gaza, the disproportionate violence and ongoing occupation of Palestine, a group of DJs, and performers in Sydney started talking about ways they could demonstrate their solidarity with people feeling the pain of war, reports Kerry Smith.

Film director Ken Loach on set

Darren Saffin reviews Ken Loach's film The Old Oak, which is set in a dying northern English village following the arrival of Syrian refugee families.