Rachel Evans

Rally for free speech condemns AFP raids

About 100 people protested against Australian Federal Police (AFP) raids on News Corp and ABC journalists, outside the Commonwealth Parliamentary Offices on June 15.

The rally, called by NSW Greens MLC David Shoebridge, heard from former ABC and SBS journalist and multiple Walkley Award winner Mark Davis, Stop the War Coalition founding member Pip Hinman, National Union of Students Ethno-Cultural Officer Hersha Kadkol, investigative journalist Michael West and independent journalist Paul Gregoire.

Extinction Rebellion: ‘Our movement must be global or it will fail’

Rachel Evans and Jonathan Lockhart spoke to Extinction Rebellion Sydney spokesperson Caz Chattin to find out more about this growing international movement.

The fight against the racist Ramsay Centre continues

The campaign against the Ramsay Centre’s proposed Western Civilisation degree continues.

Anti-strip search campaign gains momentum in NSW

A new campaign aimed at stopping unnecessary strip searches, providing fairness and dignity for young people and ensuring safe music and cultural festivals for young people has been launched.

Boycott Brunei movement to continue despite Sultan’s retreat

The Boycott Brunei in Australia group have said the campaign against Brunei’s death-by-stoning penalty for “crimes” such as homosexuality, adultery, blasphemy and apostasy will continue despite Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah’s May 6 statement that he had reconsidered the April 3 order.

The activists welcomed the Sultan’s comments, but noted that the Syrariah Penal Code Order (SPCO) was only suspended, not cancelled, saying life for those who breached government diktats remained grim.

Greens candidate: ‘The system is stacked to work for the two major parties’

Former NSW Fire Brigades Employees Union (FBEU) state secretary Jim Casey is standing as the Greens candidate for the seat of Grayndler in inner west Sydney. He spoke to Green Left Weekly’s Rachel Evans about his campaign.

Rivers in crisis demand real water solutions now

A key federal election issue, which the carefully stage-managed leaders’ debates are ignoring, is one on which all our lives depend: access to clean drinking water.

Student migrant faces deportation

Students, unionists and community members protested outside the immigration department on April 11 against the threatened deportation of Kinley Wangchuck, an 18-year-old hearing-impaired student who lives in Queanbeyan, NSW. 

Wiradyuri community fights desecration of sacred land

Wahluu/Mount Panorama in Bathurst is sacred Aboriginal land, with areas still used for initiation, healing and community organising. But Bathurst Council wants to build a huge go-kart race track and a second circuit to accompany the Bathurst 1000 motor racing track.

Homelessness spikes as NSW government attacks public housing

Ben, a friend of ours, lives in public housing in Glebe. His house has been flooded three times in the past two years. His roof needs repairs and he has been told by a bureaucrat that the $27,000 cost to fix the problem is “too much”.

Despite two rounds of mediation in the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) — which resulted in the tribunal issuing a notice of order by consent of both parties and an instruction to the government to conduct major repairs — his house remains in the same sorry state. 

As strip searches rise so does anger at police abuse

Last year, shortly after we participated in a protest against the Australian government’s cruel refugee policy, we were snatched off the street by police and taken to Newtown Police Station. Once inside we were separated and strip searched. We were not charged with any offence. What happened to us happens to marginalised people all the time and it needs to stop.

NSW government to blame for Walgett water crisis

The New South Wales government is robbing communities of precious water by siphoning it off for cotton farms and coal and gas mines. It is doing so as the climate gets warmer and drought becomes more frequent.