Australia

As part of Green Left's coverage of the unfolding situation in Sudan we are sharing (with permission) this discussion between three Sudanese-Australian women about the situation on the ground, the background to the conflict and what the Australian government can do right now to support the people of Sudan.

Green Left News podcast Ep 7

Episode 7: Green Left journalists Ben Radford and Isaac Nellist take you through the latest news from Australia and around the world.

Green Left News podcast Ep 6

Ben Radford and Isaac Nellist take you through the latest news from Australia and around the world.

Green Left News podcast Ep 5

Isaac Nellist and Ben Radford take you through the latest news from Australia and around the world.

Ned Kelly, Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner

Michael Adams new book, Hanging Ned Kelly: Elijah Upjohn, the hangmen and the underbelly of colonial Australia, exposes how executioners were forced to do the colonial ruling classes' dirty work. Alex Salmon reviews.

A new defence cooperation agreement between Papua New Guinea and Indonesia is causing concern to West Papuans and raising question that need answers, writes Yamin Kagoya.

Data privacy

The wholesale, indiscriminate retention of telecommunications data continues to excite legislators and law enforcement in Europe and elsewhere, despite legal challenges, reports Binoy Kampmark.

PM Scott Morrison has announced a new security ménage à trois with the United States and Britain. Binoy Kampmark reports on the latest developments in Australia's war alliance.

New Zealand solidarity activist Maire Leadbeater’s new book, See No Evil: New Zealand’s betrayal of the people of West Papua, features a theme also relevant for Australia. Both countries were involved in the tragic betrayal of West Papua.

Captain Cook has loomed large in the federal government’s 2018 budget. The government has allocated $48.7 million over four years to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Cook’s voyage to the South Pacific in 1770. The funding has been widely debated on social media as another fray in Australia’s culture wars, particularly in the context of $84 million in cuts to the ABC.

One hundred years ago this month, workers, peasants and soldiers in Russia overthrew the corrupt government that had led the country into a disastrous war and established the Soviet Socialist Republic. 

It seemed that, for once, the people had won. Socialism had gone from theoretical possibility to practical reality.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s enthusiastic embrace of Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is reprehensible, the Tamil Refugee Council said on November 2.

During the early hours of August 25, some 20 to 30 police posts were attacked in Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung townships in the north of Rakhine State in Myanmar (also known as Burma). Twelve police were killed along with 16 attackers.

Responsibility for these attacks was later claimed by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA).

In the two weeks since, the Myanmar military’s response has been brutal, widespread and indiscriminate. While accurate figures are not available, between 400 (military’s estimate), and “around a thousand” (United Nations estimate) Rohingya have been killed by the army.

As violent anti-government protests continue in Venezuela, supporters of the right-wing opposition have begun targeting Venezuelan government officials and their families in Australia. The actions are part of a string of recent attacks abroad on government representatives by Venezuelan opponents of President Nicolas Maduro.

Newtown firefighters have once again set a fine example of international people-to-people solidarity by posting "Peace be with them" in Farsi on their noticeboard.

They are showing solidarity with 20 or more firefighters in Tehran, Iran, who sacrificed their lives fighting a fire in the 17-story Plasco building on January 20. The high rise was built in the early 1960s and was the tallest building at the time of its construction.

I came across members of the Iranian community who had come to thank Newtown firefighters for their solidarity.

Refugee Action Coalition NSW media release A year ago, then prime Minister Kevin Rudd called Indonesian President Yudhoyono requesting that the Indonesian navy intercept a boat carrying 254 Tamil asylum seekers to Australia. The boat was the subject of international attention after the asylum seekers refused to disembark at Merak in Indonesia. In April 2010, the asylum seekers were forcibly removed to Tanjung Pinang detention centre. Except for two families shifted to detention in Medan, all the Tamils remain in appalling conditions in Tanjung Pinang.
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