Episode 8: Green Left journalists Ben Radford and Isaac Nellist take you through the latest news from Australia and around the world.
Issue 1381
News
Hands off Glebe organised a snap action calling on the New South Wales Labor government to halt plans to demolish public housing. Jim McIlroy reports
Campaigners, members of parliament and councillors gathered on the steps of Parliament House to urge the Victorian government to improve public transport in the western suburbs. Gabriel Di Falco reports.
Protesters gathered on the steps of the Japanese consulate to call on the Japanese government to stop funding fossil fuels. Gabriel Di Falco reports.
A forum on the vast sums being spent on AUKUS and the war on China also discussed how to build the anti-war campaign. Jim McIlroy reports.
The High Court is hearing an appeal by Qantas that it did not unfairly sack baggage handlers, under the Fair Work, and outsource their jobs during the pandemic. Jim McIlroy reports.
Protesters converged on Minister for the Environment and Water Tanya Plibersek’s electorate office after she approved a new coal mine in Central Queensland’s Bowen Basin. David Killingly reports.
Tamils rallied to commemorate the massacre of tens of thousands of Tamils by the Sri Lankan armed forces in Mullivaikkal in the north of the island of Sri Lanka in May 2009. Chris Slee reports.
A protest is being planned when United States President Joe Biden arrives for the Quad summit on May 24. Karri Bramble reports.
One of the most significant battles in recent working-class history was remembered at the annual May Day dinner to support Green Left at Geelong Trades Hall. Sue Bull reports.
Thousands came out across Australia to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Al Nakba (the catastrophe) in 1948 and call for justice.
Hundreds rallied and marched in Sydney, Gadigal land, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Al Nakba. Video by Peter Boyle.
Between 6000-7000 people protested in front of Parliament House to say “no” to a new football stadium — costing $715 million — in the heart of the waterfront. Robynne Murphy reports.
Unionists at Ballarat Trades Hall Council (BTHC) marked 75 years since the Nakba. Ron Guy reports.
Knitting Nannas and supporters were at the NSW Supreme Court to support Dominique Jacobs and Helen Kvelde challenge to the undemocratic anti-protest laws. Rachel Evans reports.
First Nations people, farmers and communities across the Northern Territory have condemned NT Labor’s decision to approve exploration permits for shale gas fracking in the Beetaloo Basin. Pip Hinman reports.
About 500 members of the Australian Nursing & Midwifery Federation (ANMF) attended the union’s 10th Health & Environmental Sustainability Conference. Jackie Kriz reports.
Gender bias in the health system was discussed at a forum hosted by Geelong Women Unionist Network (GWUN) and the Geelong Regional Library. Jackie Kriz reports.
The South Coast Labour Council organised the first big union protest against Labor's AUKUS nuclear submarines in Port Kembla. Jim McIlroy reports.
Thousands marched through Port Kembla to reject nuclear base plan, report Peter Boyle and Pip Hinman.
Analysis
Richard Marles has stated that the Defence Strategic Review recommended a “seamless” defence industrial base between Australia, the United States and Britain. Michelle Fahy reports.
It was notable that Treasurer Jim Chalmers didn’t mouth the words “climate action” while spruiking the budget. Alex Bainbridge argues that’s because it didn’t contain a plan for the climate transition we need.
Forget the working stadia already in place and that Tasmania already plays AFL. No stadium, no team, the AFL said. Tasmanians disagree, as Binoy Kampmark reports.
Tributes to Stewart West were powerfully worded, but hearing Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton honour him for the kinds of things they mostly do not do made me angry. Emily McGrath looks at the legacy of her late grandfather.
The big lie at the heart of every budget it that it is a plan to manage the economy for the collective good of the nation, write Peter Boyle and Paul Oboohov.
NTEU members struck and rallied at James Cook Universities’ two larger campuses in Townsville and Cairns, joining the union’s nationwide campaign. Jonathan Strauss reports.
Labor’s threat to slash-and-burn NDIS funding gives the lie to Jim Chalmers’ claim that the budget would offer “more help for some of the most vulnerable in our community”, argues Graham Matthews.
Isaac Nellist writes that Labor’s budget is a huge disappointment for many, but especially young people struggling with the cost-of-living crisis, surging rents and expensive education.
Labor's budget betrays renters, job seekers and people doing it tough. It leaves millions stuck in poverty while billionaires get tax cuts, argues Sue Bull.
The monarchy seems like an enormous Ponzi scheme and now is the right time to talk about a republic, argues Tony Smith.
PricewaterhouseCoopers is looking forward to the federal budget with dollar signs in its eyes, argues Liam Cross.
World
The Turkish general election on May 14 had mixed results, reports Peter Boyle. A run off for the presidential poll will take place on May 28, amid of electoral irregularities, while the far-right AKP failed to win a majority in the Assembly.
The people of Western Sahara — known as Africa's last colony — marked the 50th anniversary of the founding of their liberation organisation, the Polisario Front, on May 10, 1973, writes Ron Guy.
John Tamihere from Te Pāti Māori (Maori Party) talks about the AUKUS military pact.
Rasti Delizo, an international affairs analyst, longtime socialist activist in the Philippines and former vice president of the Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP, Solidarity of Filipino Workers) discusses rising militarism in the Asia-Indo-Pacific region.
South Korea unions are fighting back against the right-wing Yoon Suk-yeol government, reports Clive Tillman. Strikes are planned for July on the back of record-breaking May Day mobilisations.
Marxist economist Michael A Lebowitz passed away at home on April 19. With his death, the international left has lost one of its most insightful and original thinkers, writes Federico Fuentes.
The situation in Pakistan is highly unstable and volatile, writes Farooq Tariq. The 'palace-intrigues' between the country’s political elite and military establishment has worsened already fragile economic conditions.
South Korea’s far-right President Yoon Suk Yeol is rushing South Korea headlong into the middle of the new Cold War that the United States is waging against China, argue Dae-Han Song and Alice S Kim.
Title 42 ends today at midnight, but the United States-led war on refugees will continue, as the policies that are replacing Title 42 are in many ways, much worse, writes Tamara Pearson.
This year’s May Day celebration in Cuba was interrupted by severe storms that knocked out electricity in much of the country, but this didn't dampen the spirits of more than 150 activists from the United States visiting on a solidarity delegation, reports Walter Smolarek.
Mohammad Sadeghpour examines the balance of power between the people and Iran's theocratic regime and the tactics being used to attempt to divert the historic people's uprising.
Newly released South Korean government documents reveal that the sexual exploitation of Korean women continued long after Japan’s colonial rule ended in 1945, reports Barry Sheppard.
Culture
Why will the generations born since the mid 1980s most likely be financially poorer than previous generations? Mick Bull looks at this and other questions posed by Alison Pennington in her new book Gen F’d?
The Circle of Silence is a work of witness, remembrance and hope, writes Leo Earle.
Simon Butler reviews Ian Angus’s new book, The War Against the Commons, which vividly retells the story of how land that had been shared for centuries was privatised by force and deception in England, Wales and Scotland.
As we prepare to join the global Palestinian diaspora in remembering the ethnic cleansing of 1948, Folke Bernadotte's personal story illuminates Zionism in action, writes Ken Blackman.
Film and TV writers began their strike on May 1 in Hollywood and New York, to demand a living wage and job security amid an explosion in profits in the streaming era, reports Malik Miah.