Issue 1408

News

Richard Boyle, who exposed serious misconduct in the Australian Taxation Office, lost his appeal to be protected under whistleblower laws. Pip Hinman reports.

The University of Newcastle student encampment in solidarity with Gaza is calling for allies to show their support. Niko Leka reports.

Antisemitism is weaponised when Palestinians, the indigenous victims of Zionism, are vilified as terrorists, Muslim extremists and antisemite, a forum was told. Sarah Hathway reports.

Mohamed Mayara, a visiting Western Sahara journalist and trade unionist, told a public forum that the Moroccan regime was imposing a “systematic policy of repression”. Jim McIlroy reports.

Socialist Alliance councillor Sue Bolton believes that state and federal Labor government attacks on pro-Palestine protesters is a “sure sign” they have lost hearts and minds over Israel’s war on Gaza. Darren Saffin reports.

empty wallet

Anglicare Australia not only wants Labor to raise all welfare payments, it is also calling for an independent 'Social Security Commission' with the power to set and adjust payments based on the actual cost of living. Isaac Nellist reports. 

Pine Gap’s total number of satellite radomes, smaller dishes and antennas at the spy base is now at its highest ever. But Australians are being kept in the dark. Mark Robinson reports.

Australian workers do more overtime than almost any other OECD nation, a new survey for Unions NSW has found. Jim McIlroy reports that on average they forfeit $21,500 a year.

Sydney protest for Palestine

Protests for Palestine coincided with the beginning of Eid al-Adha on the weekend of June 15–16, reports Isaac Nellist.

Students, staff and Palestine supporters rallied outside the Australian National University’s chancellery to protest management’s expulsion of a student for supporting Palestine. Paul Oboohov reports.

Fremantle welcomes refugees

Grandmothers for Refugees held their 200th weekly vigil. Alex Salmon reports.

podcast graphic

Isaac Nellist and Riley Breen discuss the student Gaza encampments, public servants speaking out for Palestine and the South African elections.

“People before profit” is the rallying cry of six grassroots activists who are standing for positions in the City of Sydney Council. Jim McIlroy reports.

Woolworths workers are campaigning against a proposed enterprise agreement that would cut real wages and reduce rights for many. Isaac Nellist reports.

Whatever Australia’s reason to deny a visa to the President of the Palestinian Football Association, it is not a good look for Australia or its attempts to woo the world’s major sports events, including football. Khaled Ghannam reports.  

The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation voted to reject Victorian Labor’s latest enterprise bargaining offer despite the union and government reaching an in-principal deal. A Victorian nurse reports.

Nimiah and Leon, students at the University of Newcastle, told Niko Leka that there is strong popular support for the encampment.

Thousands rally in Gadigal Country/Sydney, June 9

Palestine solidarity actions over June 8-9 entered their ninth month, as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition leader Peter Dutton launched their attack on those calling for an end to the genocide. Alex Bainbridge reports.

Analysis

Wendy Bacon reports on a draft bill that proposes a new form of urban governance that could give NSW business property owners a special say over how public spaces are used.

Big Tech behemoths have much to answer for: the destruction of privacy, the ruthless monetisation of user data, behavioural modification and hypnotic seduction. But Binoy Kampmark argues that censorship is not the answer.

One hundred and fifty academics have sent an open letter to Labor urging it to acknowledge Israel’s genocide, the slaughter in the West Bank and to support the International Court of Justice the International Criminal Court. Paul Gregoire reports.

Immigration minister Andrew Giles has caved to Coalition pressure and announced that he will be deporting non-citizens. Paul Gregoire reports.

Labor denies sending weapons to Israel. By focusing on the word “weapons”, it ignores exports of “ammunition/munitions” and “parts and components” which are covered by a 2014 arms treaty Australia has ratified. Michelle Fahy reports.

Comedian Akmal Saleh spoke at the Magan-djin/Brisbane rally in solidarity with the people of Gaza. Video by Alex Bainbridge.

As the climate emergency and extinction crises deepen, there is no choice but to struggle to democratise the economy so that it can be made to serve social needs and ecological sustainability. Peter Boyle reports.

Climate records are being broken by large margins and Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton are both failing to offer solutions writes Alex Bainbridge.

Labor pretends to support a ceasefire on Gaza, but as Sue Bull argues, it has refused to take concrete steps to sanction Israel. It is therefore helping give Israel the political cover it needs to continue its now nearly nine-month genocide.

NT citizens are hoping that the new ACT voluntary assisted dying law leads to them also gaining the democratic human right to compassionate end-of-life choices. Suzanne James reports.

Paul Gregoire spoke to Cathy Peters, a former Greens councillor in Marrickville, who successfully moved a boycott, divestment and sanctions motion and who co-founded BDS Australia about prospects for the campaign against apartheid Israel.

Labor Senator Fatima Payman spoke out against genocide at the Friends of Palestine WA rally in Boorloo/Perth. Video by Wade McDonald.

World

election leaflet in a door

John Mullen argues that anti-capitalists should unite around the new left electoral alliance, Nouveau Front Populaire, while continuing to mobilise in the streets against the far-right.

cartoon by Carlos Latuff

The Israeli raid on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza on June 8 was celebrated for rescuing four hostages, but resulted in 1000 dead and wounded — the worst massacre since Israel’s war against the Palestinians in Gaza began on October 7, reports Barry Sheppard.

Boris Kagarlitsky in handcuffs

Suzi Weissman writes that the international campaign of solidarity with Russian anti-war socialist Boris Kagarlitsky will continue until he is released.

Workers Party of Belgium candidates

The Workers’ Party of Belgium secured strong results in European and national elections, mounting resistance to the far-right’s growth, reports Ana Vračar.

graph of election results

Dick Nichols reports that the parties to the left of the social democracy appear to have held their ground against the surge of the far right and mainstream right in the June 9 European parliamentary elections.

Keir Starmer and Nigel Farage with background of prison fence

Since Conservative Party Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called the election, it has so far been a largely dull campaign, which from Brexit to Palestine, has ignored important issues and strategically focussed on trivia, reports Derek Wall.

people protesting

Salim Vally began his activism as a student leader fighting against his country’s apartheid regime. Today, he heads up the South African BDS coalition. Green Left’s Federico Fuentes spoke to Vally — who will be a guest speaker at Ecosocialism 2024 — about the global campaign against Israeli apartheid.

protest in the streets of Buenos Aires

Argentina’s Senate narrowly approved far-right President Javier Milei’s Omnibus Bill — a suite of neoliberal reforms geared towards big business interests — on June 12, marking his first successfully implemented laws since he took office in December, reports Ben Radford.

With universities about to go on summer break in the United States, Green Left’s Isaac Nellist, Jacob Andrewartha and Chloe DS caught up with US pro-Palestine solidarity campus activists Cyn Huang, Daniil Sapunkov and Amey about the state of the student protests.

emissions from power plant and inset image of Jason Hickel

Jason Hickel, progressive anthropologist and author, gave the following speech at the 50th Anniversary Congress on the New International Economic Order, held in Havana, Cuba from April 28 to May 1.

anti-fascist rally in Paris

Green Left’s Susan Price spoke with John Mullen, an anticapitalist activist living in Paris and a supporter of the left-wing France Insoumise, following the far-right's gains in the recent European elections and French President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to call a snap election.

young protesters

Malik Miah argues that racism lives on in California, echoing its history as a 'free state' during slavery.

Culture

Book covers

Climate and Capitalism editor Ian Angus presents six new books on unequal epidemics, biotech in Africa, capitalist greed, climate history, fracking and corporate crime.

Palestine’s soccer team was no match for the Socceroos, but there was plenty of support for the team affectionately known as “The Warriors” (Al Fida’i). Alex Salmon reports.

book cover, background drawing of massacre by Native Police

Peter Boyle reviews David Marr's Killing for Country: A Family History, a chronicle of his forebears who were deployed from 1849 to the 1920s to carry out systematic massacres of First Nations peoples in the frontier wars in Queensland and the Northern Territory.