In late December聽91自拍论坛 Weekly聽spoke to聽Younis Hamad Birama听补苍诲听Khalid Hassan聽from the Democratic Consciousness Forum, a Perth-based democratic and secular organisation founded by Sudanese refugees, about the wave of protests sweeping Sudan following the dramatic increase in the price of bread.
Sam Wainwright
Street protests have broken out in at least seven cities across Sudan, beginning on December 19, in response to the price of bread increasing nearly threefold. They are rocking the repressive regime of Omar al-Bashir and echoing the protests against austerity and price rises that swept the country in January that were brutally repressed.
As young people threw themselves into the Student Strike 4 Climate Action and made an impassioned plea to preserve life on Earth, one of Australia鈥檚 most polluting industries was working behind the scenes to have the federal government hide the truth of its carbon emissions.
"I don't want to lie to myself anymore. I don't want to create the illusion that my presence in the government means we're up to the challenges, and so I've decided to quit the government." With those words, France's environment minister Nicolas Hulot announced during a live radio interview that, after 15聽months in the role, he was parting聽company with President Emmanuel Macron.
What a month it's been for public expressions of racism. To cap it off, the day after Fraser Anning's hate speech, Labor and the Coalition combined to retrospectively excise Ashmore and Cartier Islands from Australia鈥檚 migration zone.
Whenever the Coalition and Labor stop bickering and agree in serious tones that something must be done in the 鈥渘ational interest鈥 you can be sure they鈥檙e up to no good.
'Class consciousness is knowing which side of the fence you鈥檙e on. Class analysis is figuring out who is there with you.' 鈥 Slogan from a 1970s poster, author unknown.
The newly formed "Industrial Left" faction of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) in Victoria combined with the right at the party's state conference on May 28 to block discussion about imposing a 90 day time limit on offshore detention.
It is bad enough that Australia is not on track to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 26鈥28% on 2005 levels by 2030, as it is notionally committed to doing, but according to the government's own figures, it is only set to reduce them by 5%. What makes it worse is that even the 26鈥28% target is very conservative and unlikely to be sufficient.
In truth, wealthy industrialised countries like ours should be seeking to become net zero emission economies and societies, both because we can and because it is simply not worth gambling with the continued existence of life as we know it.
Strikes, protests and occupations are breaking out everywhere. Sam Wainwright writes that resistance to French president Emmanuel Macron鈥檚 austerity plans is gathering pace and its development will determine the future of the country.
Macron and his big business patrons complain that France has failed to 鈥渕odernise鈥 like Britain did during Margaret Thatcher鈥檚 reign. A key turning point that explains why the French working class has been able to slow this process was the huge social movement and strike wave of 1995, in which millions of people took to the streets.聽
Mireille Knoll was brutally murdered in her Paris apartment on March 23. She was 85 years old with a disability and a Holocaust survivor. Police suspect anti-Semitism聽may have motivated the attack upon her; all prompting an emotional outpouring.
The recent decision by China to stop accepting low value and contaminated materials for recycling has caused the world price for them to crash. It threatens a crisis for local governments across Australia, which may be forced to send to landfill the stuff that people have sorted and put in their recycling bins.
Anyone who is a public figure can expect a bit of hate mail. Recently I received about half a dozen colourful phone messages after WA One Nation parliamentarian Charles Smith published a Facebook meme attacking the City of Fremantle for having "the most Un-Australian [sic] council in the Nation". Included were my contact details and those of the Mayor, with outraged right-wingers encouraged to communicate their rage at us for "destroying Australia Day".
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