Issue 1052

News

  • Aboriginal diplomat threatened with body search by Australian customs

    The Aboriginal Provisional Government (APG) made the following on May 12, 2015. * * * APG diplomat Pekeri Ruska (Goenpul/Yuggera) was harassed and threatened by customs officials at Brisbane international airport this afternoon after presenting only her Aboriginal passport which had been stamped on entry and exit from Honiara, Solomon Islands.

  • UWA cancels contract for Consensus Centre

    The University of Western Australia (UWA) cancelled the contract for Bjorn Lomborg鈥檚 Consensus Centre on May 8 after a "passionate emotional reaction" to the plan. In a statement, said the creation of the centre had attracted "mixed reactions" from staff, students and the general public. "The scale of the strong and passionate emotional reaction was one that the university did not predict," he said.

  • In Brief

    Anti-WestConnex protesters 鈥榝ine鈥 Roads Australia Anti-WestConnex activists protested at the annual Roads Australia dinner, with attendees being handed a $15 billion penalty notice for the folly they are about to inflict on Sydney. Members of WestConnex Action Group set up a toll booth at the entrance, next to the red carpet. Guests, including the father of WestConnex, Nick Greiner, were made to run the anti-WestConnex gauntlet on their way into Sydney Town Hall.

  • Good news (for a change)

    The Land and Environment Court has upheld Wendy Bowman鈥檚 right to refuse a coal company access to her land; Legislation passed on May 5 bans cattle from grazing in Victorian Alpine and River Red Gum national parks and; A Fast Track High Court in Accra, Ghana has ordered the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to halt all the production and sale of genetically modified (GM) products in the country.

  • Carmichael coalmine a 'stranded asset' in the making

    Financial evidence in the Queensland Land and Environment Court hearing on the proposed Carmichael coalmine in the Galilee Basin points to a venture that would operate at a loss and not result in projected increases in public revenue. Evidence was presented by Rajesh Gupta, Adani鈥檚 local financial controller and Tim Buckley, financial analyst called by Land Services of Coast and Country (LSCC), the environmental group seeking to block the mine. Gupta agreed under cross-examination the company would look to minimise its tax obligations within the law.

  • Koalas put pause to Watermark coalmine

    A north-west NSW food bowl is under threat from a proposed open-cut coalmine that was approved by the state government. But a legal challenge by the Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) is using the local koala population to put a stop to it. The proposed of NSW would produce up to 10 million tonnes of coal a year for 30 years, the project鈥檚 owner Shenhua Australia Holdings said.

  • Ways to get active this week

    ADELAIDE Come to the National Sorry Day: Stolen Generations track home on Tuesday May 26 at 10.30am 鈥 2.30pm. Join the Stolen Generations calling for reparations with speakers, music, bbq and drinks. Victoria Square/Tarntanyangga. Ph John Browne 0431 234 561. BRISBANE Join the Rally for the future: Lock the gate on Thursday May 21 at 10am. Speakers鈥 Corner, outside Parliament House, George St. BENDIGO Come to a rally to stop the community closures on Friday May 15 at 4.30pm. Rosalind Park. MELBOURNE

  • Occupying Brisbane City Hall

    On May 2, following the rally in King George Square to oppose the forced closures of Indigenous Communities in WA, activists spontaneously marched into the Auditorium of City Hall and occupied it. The Aboriginal flag was strung over the podium and we engaged in a peaceful but uncompromising sit颅-in demanding the media's presence to cover our resistance to what is happening in W.A.

  • Sydney cleaners rally for 'Clean Start'

    A group of about 30 cleaners rallied outside the Brookfield offices on May 5 to demand a fair deal and an end to super-exploitation. The rally was organised by the Clean Start campaign, supported by the United Voice union. The cleaners chanted, "What do we want? Clean Start! When do we want it? Now." The building owners, Brookfield, had recently appointed TFM as a new cleaning contractor. TFM advertised cleaning jobs in the building for $15 an hour 鈥 less than the minimum wage 鈥 and demanded a $500 payment to get the job.

  • CPSU to launch industrial action throughout public service

    "We are in the fight of our lives," Nadine Flood, national secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU), told a central meeting of workplace delegates in Sydney on May 1. "The [federal] government has launched the deepest public service cuts in a generation, cutting 11,000 jobs in one year. "They have gutted the CSIRO, with 21% of the workforce gone 鈥 they have given up researching Alzheimer鈥檚. They have gutted the Tax Office, with 4000 jobs gone, and that means that wealthy people and big business will pay even less tax.

  • NSW power unions warn of hit to jobs, service

    Unions have warned that electricity consumers will be hit by worse services, reduced maintenance and slower emergency response times, after a decision by the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) in late April. The AER decision, which takes effect from July 1, sets revenues that the publicly owned NSW network companies Ausgrid, Endeavour Energy, TransGrid and Essential Energy can charge private power retailers.

  • The last march with Ray Jackson

    More than 300 people packed the Redfern Community Centre on May 1 to pay their respects to Wiradjuri warrior Ray Jackson, who passed away on April 23. Jackson was the president of the Indigenous Social Justice Association (ISJA) and spent decades campaigning against black deaths in custody. Jackson鈥檚 family gave moving messages of thanks to a loving, intelligent father. His granddaughter, Oki, moved the crowd when she said, crying: 鈥淚 know that if I want to be like you I have to be confident.鈥

Analysis

  • Macquarie Uni student association under attack

    Macquarie University has suffered a setback in its courtroom battle against seven students associated with the Macquarie University Postgraduate Research Association (MUPRA). On May 7, the Supreme Court recommended mediation, which was agreed to by both parties. The university also agreed to release MUPRA funds for legal representation in a future mediation hearing. The mediation hearing is set by May 28, and the verdict will be released in a month, if a result is not reached through the mediation process beforehand.

  • When people get together and organise

    I鈥檝e never been much of a morning person but some mornings it can be a struggle to get out of bed. Crippling depression aside, peeking at what passes for news in the mainstream media to find out what is going on in the world can be enough to send me running for the covers. Just last week there was the announcement that after his latest pay rise, the Macquarie Bank CEO Nicholas Moore 鈥渆arned鈥 $1586 every 12 minutes. That鈥檚 roughly the same amount the average Australian worker takes home in a week.

  • The tax debate we need to have

    Prime Minister Tony Abbott's harsh regime of cutbacks and user-pays charges has been rejected by the Australian people in poll after poll. But this has not stopped the pro-business media from trying to wear people down and pressure Labor and the Greens to accept some of the government's demands. Typical of this drumbeat was the widely reported Deloitte Access Economics report, which likened the growing budget deficit to a novel by horror writer Stephen King. In an effort to massage a consensus for cutbacks it demands, "For our budget to be sustainable, our politics has to be sustainable".

  • Australian students join world in fight for higher education

    Rallies have been called in response to the federal government鈥檚 attack on education funding in the upcoming budget, and a big one is planned for Sydney on budget day, May 12. Although Christopher Pyne鈥檚 education policies have been repeatedly defeated in the Senate, he is determined to continue to try to 鈥渇ix鈥 the education system by reducing governmental funding and pushing for fee deregulation. The next chance he will have to do this is with mass education spending cutbacks in the budget.

  • Government lies in fact sheet for refugees about Cambodia while planning transfers 'very shortly'

    During his visit to Sri Lanka, Australian immigration minister Peter Dutton said the transfer of refugees to Cambodia would 鈥渉appen very shortly鈥. Dutton said he wanted to send 鈥渁 small group鈥 to the south-east Asian country to 鈥渟end a clear message to the remaining people on Nauru that Cambodia is an appropriate option to consider to start a new life鈥. The Australian government has been trying to persuade refugees held on Nauru to volunteer to settle in Cambodia, which signed a deal with Australia to take refugees in exchange for aid.

  • Melbourne councils oppose forced closure of Aboriginal communities

    The Moreland council in Melbourne became the first council in Australia to pass a motion last month condemning plans for forced closures of Aboriginal communities, and to send a letter of solidarity to those communities. The motion was moved by me as a Socialist Alliance councillor on Moreland council. The motion passed unanimously, with even the Liberal party councillor voting for it. On April 28, a second Melbourne council, the Moonee Valley council, passed the same motion. The motion was moved by Jim Cusack, a Labor councillor.

  • Socialist councillor Sue Bolton: 'People can run society themselves鈥

    Socialist Alliance councillor Sue Bolton spoke to Dave Holmes about her work as an elected socialist local councillor in Moreland, a municipality in Melbourne. * * * You were elected to the Moreland City Council for Socialist Alliance in October 2012. Many of the themes and issues raised in your campaign struck a chord with a wide range of people. There was also a fair bit of accident and luck: you headed up a ballot with 24 names on it and the ALP ticket was split.

  • Redfern tent embassy under attack

    Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy (RATE) has come under increasing attack at the same time as DeiCorp developers are advertising their proposed development with the tag line 鈥"The Aboriginals have already moved out, now Redfern is the last virgin suburb close to city". RATE was established by Redfern residents as a protest against the proposed development on what is legally Aboriginal land of a block of commercial shops and student housing, by the Aboriginal Housing Company and developer DeiCorp.

  • Aboriginal voices resist closures

    Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett government is slowly backing away from his controversial announcement that up to 150 remote Aboriginal communities are facing closure. In what he described as 鈥渁 more nuanced approach鈥, Barnett is now proposing a 鈥渉ub and orbit鈥 strategy that will leave some communities bigger and better resourced, others reduced in services and the smallest ones abandoned.

  • Australia falls behind in global renewable energy

    Australia has fallen behind similar economies around the world in the generation of renewable energy, a new report has found. The Climate Council鈥檚 new report, , says that despite having enough renewable energy resources to power the country 500 times over, jobs and investment in the renewables sector have fallen sharply since the Coalition government came to power.

  • Direct Action Safeguard Mechanism provides no safeguard at all

    Environment Victoria released this statement on May 5. * * * Analysis by Environment Victoria has revealed that Australia鈥檚 greenhouse gas emissions could rise by up to 20% without breaching the proposed Safeguard Mechanism in the Abbott government鈥檚 Emissions Reduction Fund because of the government鈥檚 proposed 鈥渟pecial treatment鈥 of coal generators in the electricity sector.

World

  • Five facts behind Baltimore's protests

    Protests have rocked the streets of Baltimore, Maryland, after African-American man Freddie Gray died in police custody. Gray was stopped by police while chatting with a friend in broad daylight. After being arrested Gray's spinal cord was broken, and after being in a coma he later died. Baltimore City's Police Department admitted responsibility, saying they mishandled Gray's injury and should have called paramedics earlier.

  • Germany: Rail strike brings country to a halt

    Thousands of German train drivers and railway workers began a week-long strike on May 5, the longest in the country鈥檚 post-war history. About two thirds of Germany鈥檚 long distance trains and a third of regional trains have been cancelled, with trains in the eastern region around Halle, Leipzig, and Dresden reduced to about 15% of services. Some subway systems were also affected, including in Hamburg and Berlin. Deutsche Bahn (DB) carries a fifth of Germany's freight transport 鈥 about 1 million tonnes per day 鈥 as well as moving 5.5 million passengers daily.

  • Letter from the US: Ferguson a 'turning point', says Black Lives Matter activist

    Khury Petersen-Smith is a 32-year-old African American activist based in Boston, who is actively involved in the growing 鈥淏lack Lives matter鈥 struggle sweeping the US. I was able to speak with Petersen-Smith, a member of the International Socialist Organization, at the Marxism 2015 conference organised by Socialist Alternative in Melbourne over Easter, at which he was a featured guest.

  • 'Shoot anyone you see': Israel's kill policy exposed

    Two new global developments emphasised the growing momentum of the global boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign targetting Israel. The campaign was launched in 2005 by more than 100 Palestinian civil society groups in a bid to isolate Israel over its polices of occupation and apartheid against Palestinians.

  • United States: Baltimore protesters hold 'victory celebration'

    Demonstrators gathered outside Baltimore City Hall on May 3 to celebrate the restoration of their right to protest without harsh controls in an all-too-rare case of a step towards justice in struggles against police brutality, said the next day.

  • Nepal: Natural disaster brings unnatural suffering

    A 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal on April 25. By May 1, 120 aftershocks had occurred. The death toll had passed 7800 by May 8 and will almost certainly reach 10,000 or more, as information trickles in from the rural areas. More than 16,000 people are injured and this number will also rise.

  • Venezuela: Huge May Day march amid new struggles, wage rises

    President Nicolas Maduro at International Workers' Day celebrations in Caracas, May 1. Braving the heat, more than 100,000 Venezuelans flooded the streets of Caracas on May 1 to commemorate the International Workers' Day and gains for working people under the Bolivarian Revolution.

  • Syria:鈥 鈥珹mid bloodshed,鈥 鈥琑ojava offers way forward

    War planes from the US and its allies bombed the village of Birmehli in northern Syria on the night of April鈥 鈥30.鈥 鈥琔S Central Command spokesperson Major Curtis Kellogg claimed that at least鈥 鈥50鈥 鈥琭ighters from the self-styled Islamic State鈥 (鈥琁S鈥) 鈥琯roup were killed and there was鈥 鈥溾琻o indication that any civilians were killed鈥濃. However,鈥 鈥琱uman rights groups,鈥 鈥琲ncluding the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights鈥 (鈥琒OHR鈥)鈥,鈥 鈥琱ave reported that all the casualties were civilians:鈥 鈥64鈥 鈥琾eople,鈥 鈥琲ncluding鈥 鈥31鈥 鈥琧hildren.鈥

  • Left Unity on Tory win: 'We have a long battle ahead'

    This statement was released by the executive committee of Left Unity, a left-wing party in Britain formed after a call by film-maker Ken Loach for a new party to the left of Labour in 2013, in response to the May 7 general election won by Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party.

  • Ecuador: Pro- and anti-Correa marches mark May Day

    President Rafael Correa led some 55,000 workers into Santo Domingo plaza. Photo: TeleSUR. May Day celebrations in Quito took on a divided political nature with two marches happening simultaneously, .

  • Sri Lanka: Small concessions, but Tamils still facing oppression

    The Global Tamil Forum issued a statement on May 1 evaluating the first months of in office of Sri Lanka's new president Maithripala Sirisena. In presidential elections in January, Sirisena defeated the incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa, who had presided over a genocidal war against the Tamil people and then kept them under military occupation. The GTF praised Sirisena for amending the Sri Lankan constitution to cut the power of the president and increase the power of parliament.

  • One million march in Cuba

    An estimated 1 million people marched on May 1 in Havana, Cuba, to celebrate International Workers麓 Day, said.

  • Bolivia marks May Day with wage rise

    Evo Morales. Photo: ABI 鈥 Agencia Boliviana de Informaci贸n. Bolivia's left-wing president Evo Morales announced various salary rises on May 1 in honour of International Workers鈥 Day, . The national minimum wage will increase by 15% from US$208 to $239 a month and the general salary by 8.5%.

  • Spain: Can Citizens save the right?

    For three months, from November to February, the Spanish economic and political establishment was in a state of barely suppressed panic. In national opinion polls, support for the 鈥渞eds鈥 - in the form of radical new force Podemos - had overtaken that for the establishment parties, the ruling People鈥檚 Party (PP) and the opposition Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE).

  • Britain: Tories win, but Scotland turns left

    Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party won a clear victory in Britain's May 7 general elections. In Scotland, however, the Scottish National Party dramatically rose from six seats to 56 out of 59, in a clear sign of opposition to the brutal austerity backed by the major parties in Westminster.

  • El Salvadorans celebrate May Day

    Photo: CISPES.org. Hundreds of thousands of people filled the streets of San Salvador on May 1 to celebrate May Day and the victories of the working class. Marchers raised demands for justice, equality and self-determination, .

Culture

  • 'The game done changed': Dave Zirin on rethinking The Wire

    I fanatically loved the critically acclaimed Baltimore-based television drama The Wire, which ran for five seasons from 2002-08. It is difficult to even imagine my pop-cultural brain without the presence of Omar Little, Stringer Bell, Bunk and 鈥淢cNutty鈥. When I started doing my sports radio show eight years ago, I scheduled interviews with as many of the actors as I could for no other reason than I wanted to breathe their air. Talking to Michael K Williams about the method of Omar's 鈥渓ong game鈥 while he aggressively chewed on a sandwich will forever remain a career highlight.

  • French racism and super-exploitation tackled in Samba

    Samba Co-written & directed by Olivier Nakache & Eric Toledano In cinemas now Nobody could say that French film makers Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano 鈥 and their actor of choice, Omar Sy 鈥 shy away from heavy subjects. In their 2012 international hit The Intouchables, they dived straight into questions of disability, racism and class. Now in Samba they have tackled the question of illegal migrants struggling to survive without papers in contemporary France.

  • Guantanamo horrors shift military men's views

    In The Company Of Cowards: Bush, Howard & Injustice at Guantanamo Michael Mori Viking, 2014 292 pages, $29.99 (pb) Murder At Camp Delta: A Staff Sergeant鈥檚 Pursuit Of The Truth About Guantanamo Bay Joseph Hickman Simon & Schuster, 2015 245 pages, $29.99 (pb) Major Michael Mori was a Republican-leaning, US military lawyer who 鈥渆mbraced the values I had been taught in scouts, sports, high school, college, law school and the Marines鈥 鈥 above all the ideal of fair play.