Analysis

In early October, Green Left Weekly visited the Alyawarr people’s walk-off camp, three hours north-east of Alice Springs.

The following statement is from the Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union (LHMU) Queensland. * * *

On October 9, 100 people gathered at the Manning Clark Centre at the Australian National University, to hear about the Northern Territory intervention and the inspiring Alyawarra people’s walk-off at Ampilatwatja in the NT.

Average world temperatures will rise by a perilous 4° Celsius by mid-century, a team of 130 climate scientists said at a September 28-30 conference in Oxford sponsored by Britain’s Met Office (the national weather service).

The following letter is in response to a Sydney Morning Herald editorial. It was sent to that paper but not published. * * *

The rise of the religious right in Australia and New Zealand can be linked to the development of organisations in the United States that emerged in the 1970s.

A fearsome maelstrom of tsunamis, earthquakes and huge floods have suddenly ended or shattered the lives of many people in the Asia-Pacific region over the past two weeks.

The Norwegian government pension fund has been accused of unethical investment in fertiliser companies that buy phosphate rock exported from Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara.

Outspoken anti-war and democracy campaigner Malalai Joya was suspended from the Afghan parliament in 2007 for speaking out against corruption and the domination of the country by warlords. US current affairs weradio show Democracy Now has called her “the bravest woman in Afghanistan”. Below is an abridged statement from Joya to Australian anti-war campaigners. The statement was read out at the national protests against the Afghanistan war on October 7. *****

Traffic congestion and laissez-faire policy The Ken Henry review of Australia's taxation system is considering recommending the use of “Telematic readers” to deal with the growing problem of traffic congestion in our cities.

On October 6, the Reserve Bank of Australia lifted the official interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 3.25%. Explaining the bank’s decision, RBA governor Glenn Stevens said “the risk of serious economic contraction in Australia” had now “passed”.

One of the infamous “double-speak” slogans of the nightmare totalitarian regime in George Orwell’s 1984 was “war is peace”. The Nobel jury appears to have based itself on this principle of inverting reality with its decision to grant this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to US President Barack Obama.