Analysis

This is an excerpt from a talk Green Left Weekly journalist Ewan Saunders gave at a Walkey Media Talk called "Trust me, I'm a journalist" on February 27 in Brisbane. *** In answer to the question have journalists lost the public trust, it depends on what media you’re talking about. I don’t think it’s the right question to be asking because the way the mainstream media develops and its trajectory is not changing.

We all know that the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) is busy at the moment. One or two troubling matters that go to planning applications in the coal mining industry. ICAC was set up in 1989 by former Liberal Premier, Nick Greiner. Ironically enough, Greiner was referred to ICAC in 1992 and found to have corruptly offered former Liberal turned Independent, Terry Metherell, a public service position, as a director of the Environmental Protection Authority.

This statement was released by Socialist Alliance on March 8. *** The demands of the first-ever International Women's Day rally in Australia, in 1928, were equal pay for equal work, an eight-hour day for shop assistants, the basic wage for the unemployed and annual holidays on full pay. A lot has been won through struggle since 1928, yet women in Australia today still have to struggle some of these issues:

All the stereotypes about western Sydney were covered last week when Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s visited dozens of electorates in the area to try to stop them switching their vote to the Liberals in September’s federal election. She spoke about being tough on foreign workers, promising “Aussie” jobs for “Aussie” workers, using rhetoric about “queue jumpers” borrowed from the asylum seeker debate. She also promised to build a new WestConnex motorway that would connect western Sydney to the CBD.

Reporting on Syria It is with deep concern that we the undersigned continue to read articles in the Green Left Weekly about the ongoing conflict in Syria that do not reflect the true situation. Most, if not all, of these articles are written by Tony Iltis who takes a position that is only marginally better than the outright lies being peddled by the corporate media: i.e. the “Free Syrian Army” are democratic rebels fighting for freedom.

This is an extract from Towards a socialist Australia, produced by the Socialist Alliance and its affiliate, Resistance. Read the first installment in last week's issue of Green Left, and the full text online on the Socialist Alliance website. ***

The statement below was released by the Socialist Alliance on March 2. *** Legal proceedings are under way against long-term trade union and community activist Bob Carnegie. The case has serious implications for trade union rights and broader civil liberties.

In the week that US citizen Bradley Manning admitted in court that he leaked military secrets to reveal to the public the “the true costs of war”, I attended the first screening in Sydney of the documentary On The Bridge. The screening was part of the inaugural Big Picture Festival, a social justice film festival.

Vincent Emanuele is from the Iraq Veterans Against the War in the United States. He recently visited Australia to promote the documentary film On The Bridge which follows seven returning service men and women. This is an edited version of a speech that he gave to a forum hosted by the Marrickville Peace Group, the Independent and Peaceful Australia network and Stop the War Coalition in Sydney on February 26. ***

Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr, US Ambassador to Australia Jeffrey Bleich, and writer and activist Eva Cox took part in the ABC’s Q&A on February 25. More than 15 minutes of the program was spent discussing WikiLeaks journalist Julian Assange.

The federal government said on February 23 it would introduce several changes to the 457 temporary visa program, to take effect from July. The proposals were applauded by the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and criticised by big business. The 457 visa system is a highly exploitative, insecure and discriminatory visa system, originally introduced under the former John Howard government. Once elected, the ALP kept the visa class in place as a favour to big business, tinkering with it rather than abolishing it in favour of strengthening permanent skilled migration.

Dear Darren, I’ve never understood rugby league, but have seen enough State of Origin matches to know there is something special about the way you play the game. They say you are a captain’s captain, a leader’s leader: the fast-as-lighting country boy who would be king. So I am distancing myself from my Queensland brothers and sisters in writing this letter. But I wouldn’t be writing it if you hadn’t already distanced yourself from your followers.