Analysis

Earlier this year, South African track athlete Caster Semenya was vilified in the international media for allegedly having both male and female biological characteristics. People with such characteristics are known as “intersex”. Green Left Weekly’s Farida Iqbal spoke to Gina Wilson from the Organisation Intersex International (OII) about Semenya and intersex politics.
The story of the 255 Sri Lankan boat people in the Indonesian port of Merak is a saga worthy of a novel by J. K. Rowling, with greed, betrayal and magic, all in a long voyage to find nirvana.
The Northern Territory Emergency Response, a “tough love” government intervention into remote NT Aboriginal communities, has been renamed by the federal ALP government. Its official name is now "Closing the Gap NT".
Well known author and environmentalist Clive Hamilton recently announced he will stand for the Australian Greens in the December 5 by-election for the seat of Higgins in Melbourne.
On November 6, the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) and the mining division of the Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union (CFMEU) announced they would jointly donate $10,000 to the 78 asylum seekers aboard the Oceanic Viking.
Australia’s racist refugee policy continues to create greater horror stories. Over recent weeks, in a replay of the years of former prime minister John Howard, the prospect of masses of refugee boats landing on Australian shores have sent politicians and the corporate media into a frenzy of right-wing rhetoric.
Newcastle-based climate activist and Socialist Alliance member Laura Ealing is an organiser of the Just Transition Tour, a bus trip through NSW coal communities from November 20 to 26. She spoke to Green Left Weekly about the aims of the tour.

A recent national speaking tour generated growing support for the Ampilatwatja community walk-off — an ongoing protest camp against the Northern Territory intervention.

Three hundred and fifty kilometres north-east of Alice Springs a group of elders from the Alyawarr language group are sitting down in a rough, makeshift camp. Three kilometres away is their community of Ampilatwatja.
The Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) released by the federal Treasury on November 2 is upbeat. Revising the May budget’s projections for the Australian economy, it predicted unemployment will peak lower, growth will be higher and inflation will be under control.
NSW Premier Nathan Rees launched a government “education program” about climate change in May. The “what you can do in your world” program urged householders to cut carbon pollution by using less energy and switching to energy-efficient light bulbs and electrical appliances.
The following statement by Socialist Alliance Indigenous rights activists was released on November 4.