Issue 930
News
A popular uprising against the brutal tyranny of the Omar al-Bashir regime is sweeping Sudan. It began with protest led by women students at Khartoum University but has spread throughout the country.
Anti-uranium protesters' peaceful message of "uranium is just not cricket" was clearly too frightening for South Australian police who mobilised on horses and attacked the protest. Thirteen activists were arrested in the music festival at Roxby Downs Olympic Dam mine.
Malaysians calling on Aussies to Stop Lynas.
Lizards Revenge takes anti-nuke protest to BHP's gates. Photo by Zeb Parkes.
Protesters at the Lizard's Revenge anti-nuclear protest camp near Roxby Downs, South Australia, marched to what they dubbed the "gates of hell" — the entrance to BHP’s giant Olympic Dam mine — on July 15.
The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) in NSW has fined a coal seam gas (CSG) company $3000 after it twice polluted a creek in the Pilliga forest near Narrabri in NSW by discharging contaminated water.
Around 50 shopping centre cleaners and their supporters rallied on July 13, outside the Westfield Head Office in Market Street here to demand a better deal on pay and conditions.
Susan Price, trade unionist and Socialist Alliance national co-convener, speaking at a solidarity protest with striking Toll Holdings workers at the Coles warehouse in Somerset, Victoria. The action outside Coles in Sydney CBD on July 13 was initiated by Socialist Alternative.
The Australian Labor government remains committed to big military spending - currently over $80 million per day. Australia's military spending will continue to be the highest regionally and, per capita, second only to the USA, the world's biggest military spender.
The indefinite strike by Coles warehouse workers in Somerton, Melbourne, began with a few hundred people on the picket lines from 6am on July 10. At the time of writing, no trucks have been allowed in or out of the site. Coles outsources the operation of the warehouse to Toll Logistics. Coles and Toll had expected industrial action, but they hadn’t expected that the workers would vote for an indefinite strike.
The Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) forced the ABC to retract a story about a recently changed “individual allowance program” for detained refugees to buy canteen items and phone cards to call home.
The second Green Left Report, filmed in front of a live audience, features Mike Karadjis (political economist at Sydney University and member of We Are All Greeks), Antony Loewenstein (independent journalist and author of Left Turn), comic Carlo Sands, plus footage of the Christmas Carol Crims, WikiLeaks and more.
This video shows the reasons for and some of the actions in Perth's largely successful campaign for free speech. See more videos by Green Left TV.
Analysis
I have mixed feelings each time I see a “Close the Gap” bumper sticker. The number of Australians supporting the health equity campaign, expressing outrage on the appalling gap in life expectancy between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians — and demanding government action — is certainly heartening. The fact that the government appears committed to the same goals, through its similarly named "Closing the Gap" initiative feels like it should be cause for celebration.
About 130 people helped officially launch Green Left TV at parties held in Sydney and Hobart on July 7. Together, the events raised close to $3000 for the new media project.
World
Over the weekend of July 14-15, communities in 30 locations around Malaysia participated in a National Day of Stop Lynas action against a rare earth refinery project being built in Malaysia by the Australian company Lynas.
The June 22 coup carried out against Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo was an important blow to progressive movements across Latin America.
Whether Paraguay's infamously right-wing local oligarchy and its parties that seized an opportunity to bring left-leaning President Fernando Lugo down by itself, or whether the push came from the United States government, is yet to be confirmed.
Since the outbreak of a new protest wave on June 16 that has spread across Sudan, the National Congress Party (NCP) regime has conducted mass arrests of thousands of activists in a desperate attempt to quell the revolt.
It has not even begun, but a world record has already been set for the London 2012 Olympic games. The games, which begin on July 27, are the most corporatised, militarised and draconian Olympics of all time.
Culture
Reading this former Reuters reporter's analysis of the news industry is like watching an episode of detective series Columbo unfold. Like the seemingly innocent inspector Columbo, Patrick Chalmers at first comes across as disconcertingly naive.