Copenhagen: rich countries push dirty deal
Many have touted December’s United Nations’ sponsored climate talks in Copenhagen as a “make or break” chance to halt dangerous climate change. But the richest nations are on a warpath to make sure this “last chance” becomes a “no chance” event.
Tamils flee genocide — refugees should be welcomed!
On October 15, almost 260 Tamil refugees were stranded at an Indonesian port in west Java. They were refusing to disembark from the boat that had carried them from Malaysia and pleaded for the Australian government to hear their case. That evening they declared a hunger strike.
NT intervention: ‘a land grab’
The Ampilawatja walk-off national speaking tour is spreading the word about life under the Northern Territory intervention and the Aboriginal elders who have walked off their community in opposition.
Socialist wins Freo council seat
Socialist Alliance WA co-convenor Sam Wainwright was elected from the Hilton Ward to the Fremantle Council in the October 17 poll.
Open letter to Foreign Minister Stephen Smith on Honduras — please add your name
Please ciruclate and add your name to this letter by emailing weekly.greenleft@gmail.com
Michael Moore slays capitalism
Capitalism: A Love StoryWritten, directed & produced by Michael MooreIn cinemas November 5
Honduras: Talks stall, British unions demand action
An October 16 deadline set by Honduran President Manual Zelaya for the regime that ousted him in a military coup to agree to his reinstatement has passed without a settlement. Zelaya had warned that if his reinstatement was not agreed to by that time, Honduras would become “ungovernable”.
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Hugo Blanco: Indigenous ‘struggle for nature’
“The world needs to understand the importance of the struggle in defence of nature”, Hugo Blanco, legendary Peruvian peasant leader active in the indigenous peoples’ struggle against corporate exploitation in the Amazon, told Green Left Weekly in late September.
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NSW Climate Camp speaks louder than words
The NSW town of Helensburgh, an hour south of Sydney, is now gripped by a discussion about coal and green jobs after the NSW Climate Camp held over October 9-11.
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United States:: Right-wing attack as liberals retreat
The heat is on the administration of US President Barack Obama.
Target 350: climate protests go global
What do a Jewish congregation in the Alaskan town of Fairbanks, the Browniz coffee shop in the port city of Salalah, Oman and a Shanghai primary school have in common?
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Time for a surge in peace
The eighth anniversary of the war in Afghanistan has come and gone. As Prime Minister Kevin Rudd considers yet another troop surge, for most Australians this milestone represents just another statistic, another number to skip over in the morning papers.
Henry review to cut taxes — for the rich
In May last year, federal Treasurer Wayne Swan announced the formation of the Australia’s Future Tax System Review, to be run by Treasury secretary Ken Henry. When the Henry review reports to government in December, its recommendations are likely to leave the wealthy smiling and the rest of us grinding our teeth.
Afghanistan: ‘a war of fear, death, corruption, and poverty’
High school student Malalai Noori gave the below speech to an October 10 rally against Australia’s involvement in the war in Afghanistan.
United States: Struggle for same-sex rights grows
About 200,000 marched in Washington D.C. on October 11 to demand full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people, US Socialist Worker said the next day.
Green Left Weekly Fighting Fund: Our internationalism is highly valued around the world
Green Left Weekly is highly valued by its many international readers. Every week, Farooq Tariq and his comrades in the Labour Party Pakistan “eagerly await” the arrival of this particular newspaper from far-off Australia. Pakistan is now a “hot-spot” in the US-led war against Afghanistan.
Abortion, corruption and cops
“When uncertainty in the law exists, it opens the way to police corruption”, Marg Kirkby from the NSW Women’s Abortion Action Campaign told a Pro-Choice Action Collective (PCAC) forum on October 12.
Australia’s racism exposed
Wake up Australia. Do not trivialise the racist attitudes coming from various sectors of our society.
Circumstantial evidence convicts ‘terrorists’
In one of the longest and most expensive criminal trials in Australian history, five Muslim men were convicted in Parramatta Court on October 16 of “conspiring to do an act in preparation for a terrorist act”.
Cuba brigade promises insight, inspiration
The program for the 27th Southern Cross work/study tour to Cuba is packed with visits, meetings and other activities that will give participants a wide-ranging insight into the cultural, political and social conditions in revolutionary Cuba
Ethical elitism on climate change?
I am part of Critical Climate, an Adelaide activist group advocating a “sustained mass civil disobedience” response to the climate emergency.
France: Voters reject postal privatisation
French people have sent a strong message to the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy with 90% of voters in a referendum organised by anti-privatisation campaigners rejecting plans to partially privatise the national postal service, La Poste.
Greece: The right wing falls
The results of the October 4 elections in Greece were a political earthquake that have created a new situation.
Is 350 the right carbon target?
Mary Travers: the music will endure
Mary Travers, one-third of the hugely popular and influential 1960s folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary, died on September 16 after treatment for leukaemia. She was 72.
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Mexican gov't moves to smash power union
On October 10, Mexican Federal Police seized the plants of the Central Light and Power Company of Mexico (LyF), which provides electricity to Mexico City and several states in central Mexico.
On the box
Palestine: UN war crimes report centre of new battle
The report of the United Nations’ fact-finding mission to Gaza, led by former South African jurist Richard Goldstone, was released in September. It detailed atrocious human rights abuses by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) during Israel’s December-January war on the Palestinian territory.
Population is not to blame for climate change
An open letter to the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) and Labor MP Kelvin Thomson
Puurto Rico: General strike called against lay-offs
Puerto Rico, a “self-governing” colony of the United States, was rocked by a general strike on October 15. Organisers estimated that between 150,000-200,000 people took part in a massive demonstration in the capital, San Juan,. In the article below, reprinted from www.globalvoiceonline.org, Firuzeh Shokooh Valle provides the background. Shokooh Valle is a Puerto Rican journalist specialised in human rights issues
Queensland locked in abortion stalemate
In early September, most abortions performed in Queensland health facilities came to a halt. The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists had passed on a legal opinion to their members that said doctors were still at risk of prosecution while abortion remained in the criminal code.
Racism begets violence in Alice Springs
Five Alice Springs men have been charged for the July 25 bashing of Aboriginal man Kwementyaye Ryder. The killing is part of a spate of racist violence that has plagued Alice Springs over recent months.
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