Issue 1051

News

  • Good news (for a change)

    LONELY PLANET REMOVES WICKED CAMPERS FROM TRAVEL GUIDE Wicked Campers are known for their campervans emblazoned with sexist and demeaning slogans. Many complaints against Wicked Campers to the Advertising Standards Bureau (ASB) have been upheld, but Australia鈥檚 system of industry self-regulation means there is no enforcement of the ASB鈥檚 ruling, and Wicked Campers have no obligation to remove the advertising.

  • Make company directors personally liable for workplace deaths

    April 28 is International Workers鈥 Memorial Day, an international day of remembrance and action for workers killed, disabled, injured or made unwell by their work. It is an opportunity to highlight the preventable nature of most workplace incidents and ill health and to promote campaigns and union organisation in the fight for improvements in workplace safety. The slogan for the day is Remember the dead 鈥 Fight for the living.

  • Bentley CSG protesters: 鈥榃e will fight if we have to鈥

    Residents of Bentley, near Lismore in the NSW Northern Rivers district, have vowed to continue their fight against coal seam gas (CSG) mining following the Supreme Court鈥檚 鈥渢echnical鈥 decision to overturn the government鈥檚 suspension of Metgasco鈥檚 gas drilling licence.

  • Adani鈥檚 Carmichael mine faces scrutiny

    Proceedings in the Queensland Land and Environment Court concerning the objection by conservation group Land Services of Coast and Country (LSCC) to the Adani Carmichael coal mine in the Galilee Basin are drawing to a close. LSCC鈥檚 objection to the mine is based on the claim that it poses an unacceptable danger to climate change, groundwater, the Great Barrier Reef and the endangered black-throated finch.

  • Rallies demand end to Aboriginal community closures

    From Darwin to Hobart, Sydney to Perth and all points in between, thousands of people marched in rallies across Australia on May 1 to stop the Western Australian government closing 150 remote Aboriginal communities.

  • Ways to get active this week

    ADELAIDE Come to Voices of Dissent on Thursday May 14 at 7pm. A Fundraiser for 91自拍论坛 Weekly. Featuring The Tangled Bank; Kyle Landman, The Young Offenders; Steve O鈥橫alley; Where Was I?; Brendan de Paor. Entry $7. The Jade Monkey, 160 Flinders St, Adelaide. Ph Claudia 0435 108 439. BRISBANE

  • University of Sydney forum defends the right to protest

    Activists, students and academic staff met at the University of Sydney on April 29 to discuss the university鈥檚 recent attacks on those involved in a protest against a lecture given by an Israeli colonel on March 11.

Analysis

  • Defend and extend age pension system

    Australia's age pension system is under attack from the federal government and right-wing, neoliberal forces. The whole community, current and future retirees, needs to mobilise to defend and extend the age pension system and change the superannuation system to more adequately meet the needs of working people. The age pension in Australia dates back to 1909. It was established as a non-contributory scheme, largely as a result of the demands of unions and community pressure.

  • How the Anzac myth hides history

    An irony of the sacking of SBS sports journalist Scott McIntyre for a series of tweets he made on Anzac Day is that the hysterical reaction from politicians and the media, and the consequences he has faced, has only served to prove his initial point. Anzac Day is not about remembering history. To remember what actually happened at Gallipoli 100 years ago, and in Australia鈥檚 involvement in wars more generally, is not permissible. Whatever the Anzacs fought and died for, it was not free speech.

  • Leaning lower than the tax rate

    A Senate inquiry into corporate tax avoidance last week revealed that BHP Billiton was funnelling profits from Australian minerals through a marketing arm based in Singapore as a way of dodging tax in Australia. From 2006 to 2014, BHP was 鈥渟elling鈥 minerals mined in Australia to its Singaporean arm at well below market rates. The prices were then marked-up and sold on to third-party companies in Singapore, thereby attracting the infinitesimal Singaporean tax rate.

  • Aboriginal Servicemen who fought in World War I

    We have been assaulted by a massive celebration of 100 years since the landing at Gallipoli on April 25. This is partly due to the success of the protests at the 200th anniversary celebration of the January 26, 1788 First Fleet landing at Sydney Cove. There have been many protests on January 26 since then, undercutting and besmirching Australian nationalism.

  • AFL: Casual racism at the footy

    In the AFL鈥檚 nationalistic carnival, the Anzac Round, the Melbourne Demons and Richmond Tigers were lining up for their game on April 24. One of the Tigers players Bachar Houli, is one of the AFL鈥檚 鈥渕ulticultural ambassadors鈥. He is also the first practicing Muslim to play in the AFL. Elsewhere, Houli was being described quite differently. John Burns, radio broadcaster for Melbourne鈥檚 3AW was reported to have labelled him a 鈥渢errorist鈥. The comment was overheard at a Richmond Football Club function by a senior club staffer and subsequently reported.

  • Tasmania鈥檚 鈥榬eligious freedom鈥 law hurts LGBTI youth

    For most teenagers, starting high school triggers mixed emotions 鈥 nervousness, excitement, a sense of adventure. Adolescence is a critical period in everyone鈥檚 life. This is especially true for LGBTI youth. In the process of coming to terms with our sexuality and gender identity, we must also navigate the hardships that come with existing in a society that overwhelmingly neither accepts nor accommodates us.

  • Unions need to go back to basics

    Historically, the strength of unionism in Australia rested on the three tenets of what came to be called 鈥渓abourism鈥 鈥 white Australia, tariff protection and compulsory arbitration. As these policy settings were wound back, union membership fell into gradual and then steep decline. From the late-1980s, the union movement's chief response was to reduce the number of unions. This was advanced on the logic that a small number of large unions would have access to greater resources to direct towards retention and recruitment of members.

  • NT intervention 鈥榳ould have worked by now鈥

    Stop the Intervention Collective (STICS) held a forum last month to update participants on the NT Intervention. Dr Shelley Bielefeld, lecturer in law at UWS, visiting scholar at Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning at UTS and the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research at ANU, spoke at the forum. Afterwards she spoke to 91自拍论坛 Weekly. * * * How does the government justify the Intervention?

  • Tony Abbott funds 鈥榗limate contrarian鈥 Bjorn Lomborg at UWA

    In a period of so-called 鈥渂udget emergency鈥 when deep funding cuts are being imposed on universities and scientific research, the federal government has managed to find $4 million for a 鈥渃onsensus centre鈥 headed by advocate for climate inaction Bj酶rn Lomborg. The $13 million centre will form part of the University of Western Australia鈥檚 (UWA) business school, with the Commonwealth contributing $4 million over four years.

  • Lest we forget 鈥 the continued genocide of Aboriginal communities

    Hone Harawira, leader of the MANA Movement of Aotearoa (New Zealand), has called on all those who support justice to join in the Day of Action to Stop the Forced Closure of Aboriginal Communities on May 1, both in Australia and in New Zealand. He has released this statement. * * *

World

  • West Papuans also victims of Indonesian state-sanctioned murder

    The brutal determination of Indonesian President Joko Widodo to kill two Australian citizens comes as no surprise to West Papuan independence activists, who say they share Australia's pain. A West Papuan independence activist, who has been in exile for 12 years after escaping the Indonesian-controlled province, has called on the Australian government to look on 鈥渋n sympathy [and] in pain鈥 for his own people, who are being 鈥渒illed like animals鈥 after the execution of two Australians.

  • West Papua: Global actions demand Indonesia grant media, activists free access

    A global day of action on April 29 involved protests in several cities to call on the Indonesian government to allow free and open access into occupied West Papua for international journalists, humanitarian agencies and human rights groups. Melbourne rally co-organiser said Matt Gale said: 鈥淲est Papua is one of the world鈥檚 most isolated conflict spots. For decades, indigenous activists campaigning for their rights have been arrested, disappeared, tortured and killed.

  • Netherlands: Socialist Party now biggest group on the left

    Speaking to party activists after the left-wing Socialist Party (SP) once again recorded a positive result in the March 18 provincial elections, party leader Emile Roemer said: 鈥淭his is an historic evening. We have become the biggest left party in the Netherlands. 鈥淭he SP is a powerful factor in the Senate. An ideal starting point for the SP to be elected to government at the next general election.鈥

  • Bangladesh: Wal-Mart, other retailers, sued over factory collapse

    Two years after the 2013 factory collapse in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, that killed more than 1100 people, the victims' families filed a lawsuit in a US federal court on April 24. It targets Wal-Mart Stores Inc and other US-based companies that sourced their products from the Rana factory. The plaintiffs claim the retailers knew 鈥渢hat Bangladesh factories had an extremely poor record of workplace safety standards and industrial building standards, including garment factories鈥.

  • Five years on from worst oil spill in US history

    The fifth anniversary of BP's Macondo well explosion was marked on April 20. The explosion killed 11 rig workers and sent millions of barrels of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, making it the worst offshore oil spill in US history.

  • France ignores key renewables report

    The French government has joined the Australian government in ignoring its own reports that say a transition to 100% renewable energy is feasible and involves little extra cost. Mediapart obtained a report from the French government鈥檚 environment and energy agency body ADEME that showed shifting to 100% renewable energy by 2050 is materially and technologically feasible. The report found it would cost relatively little more than the existing electricity supply, which is 75% nuclear.

  • Letter from the US: Hillary鈥檚 real record far from progressive

    Democrat Hillary Clinton has finally announced she is running for United States president in next year's elections. In the goof-ball electoral farce that US elections have evolved into, the electoral campaign actually began shortly after the 2012 election. So it is not odd that the campaigns of both the Republicans and Democrats are now in earnest, nineteen months before the actual election 鈥 something not seen in any other 鈥渁dvanced鈥 country.

  • Scotland challenges Britain's two-party rule

    Britain's May 7 general election is set to be the closest in living memory. In the polls, the two leading parties, Labour and the Conservatives (Tories), are within points of each other. The polls have not shifted despite the best efforts of Tory Prime Minister David Cameron and Labour leader Ed Miliband to secure a breakthrough. Why are the polls so close?

  • Forty years on 鈥 10 facts about the US war on Vietnam

    The 40th anniversary of the end of Vietnam War, which claimed the lives of millions of Vietnamese as a result of the United States aggression against the country, was marked on April 30. The war lasted from 1955 to 1975.

  • Thai junta pushes new backward, undemocractic constitutional

    Thailand's military junta鈥檚 new draft constitution is a pathetic, backward, anti-democratic and infantile document. Just like the rantings of generalissimo Prayut Chan-ocha, the regime's prime minister, it is full of tub-thumping and shouting about the 鈥渄uties鈥 and 鈥渞esponsibilities鈥 of Thai people to grovel to 鈥淣ation, Religion and King鈥. It is infantile because it is written by conservatives who think that by bullying the population into conforming to elite beliefs, they can actually change peoples鈥 attitudes.

  • United States: Rage erupts against police brutality,鈥 鈥琻eglect

    Six Baltimore police officers will face criminal charges over the death of 25-year-old African American man Freddie Gray, who died in police custody, on May 1. Baltimore State Attorney Marilyn Mosby, who said the charges will include manslaughter and murder, added that Gray had committed no crime and was "illegally arrested".

  • El Salvador: Right blocks reform to make water and food human rights

    During the final session of El Salvador's outgoing parliament on April 29, right-wing parties blocked a vote to ratify a constitutional reform that would have enshrined water and food as human rights. In doing so, the bloc of Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA), National Conciliation (PCN), and Christian Democrat (PDC) parties demonstrated their support for elite business interests over the health and wellbeing of the Salvadoran people.

  • Greece: Referendum on cards if EU deal not reached

    In a three-hour appearance on private TV channel Star TV on April 27, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras spoke extensively about the challenges confronting the anti-austerity government led by the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA). The program began with a grilling of Tsipras by interviewer Niko Katsinikolao and ended with questions from a 50-strong audience. A lot of questions reflected growing concern that talks with the country鈥檚 creditors 鈥 mainly the 鈥淭roika鈥 of the European Union (EU), European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) 鈥 were stalled.

  • Venezuela calls for Third World alliance

    The Third World countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America should form an alliance in order to 鈥渆nd imperialist domination,鈥 Venezuelan vice-president Jorge Arreaza has said. Arreaza proposed a Third World alliance during a speech at the Asia-Africa Summit in Indonesia on April 25. Speaking as a special Latin American representative, Arreaza told the audience the alliance was needed to overthrow imperialism and end the unipolar system imposed on Southern nations.

  • Malaysia: May Day protesters hit with arrests -- send protest letters

    Malaysian police have arrested Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) secretary-general S. Arutchelvan, formal President of Malaysian Bar Council Ambiga Sreenevasan and member of parliament for Seremban Anthony Loke at a May Day demonstration on May 1. The arrests are part of the recent wave of crackdown on anti-GST (anti-poor goods and services tax) and aim to further curtail dissent in the country. Another 29 young people were arrested soon after the May Day rally. More people have been call to report themselves to the police otherwise will be subjected to arrest.

  • May Day: World protests target capitalist austerity

    People around the world took to the streets on May 1 to mark May Day, the international workers' day. The day started in the United States in the late 1800s, when unions first called for an eight hour work day, but countries throughout the world soon followed suit in demands for better working conditions.

  • Venezuela slashes military budget by 34%

    A new report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute found Venezuela cut its military budget by 34% last year, leading the region in arms spending cuts. In contrast, United States political allies Paraguay and Mexico led the region in upping military spending, raising military budgets by 13% and 11%, respectively.

  • Nepal: Appeal for aid as death toll feared to break 10,000

    A 7.9-magnitude earthquake claimed over 4100 lives and left close to 7000 injured in Nepal. Dozens of powerful aftershocks have rocked the country since Saturday. The quake is the worse in 80 years. Below we provide constant updates from a variety of sources. Prime Minister Sushil Koirala told Reuters the death toll could reach 10,000, as information of damage from far-flung villages and towns has yet to come in.

Culture