Issue 101 - Apr

Wharfies stop work as Patrick tries union busting again

On 9 April, wharfies and activists held a three-hour blockade of the Patrick terminal at Port Botany in Sydney, to protest the latest attempt at union busting on the waterfront. Then, in a significant escalation, on Thursday 20 April, workers refused to load a train and began an almost 24 hour sit-in.

Inside the system

Punchbowl Boys’ replacement principal ran prison school; Same-sex marriage reduces youth suicide; 48 people on over $1 million paid no tax; Xinjiang bans beards; Target charge $72 for water after Cyclone Debbie; UK cuts cause 30,000 deaths in a year; Twiggy Forrest launches tax crusade while paying no tax

Responding to RISE: Class power not identity politics needed to fight racism

The thousands willing to march in the pouring rain at Melbourne’s Palm Sunday rally was a sign of the solid commitment of the refugee campaign. But for a month in the run up, two organisations, RISE and Democracy in Colour, tried to sabotage the rally.

Navy shooting rampage fuels calls to close Manus Island

The Good Friday attack on the Manus detention centre has brought renewed calls for its closure. Both the Refugee Council and the Australian Churches Refugee Task Force issued statements;...

Fresh abuses show: it’s time to shut down youth prisons

More horrific abuses have been exposed through the Royal Commission examining juvenile detention and “child protection” in the Northern Territory.

Trump’s threats against North Korea a dangerous game

US President Trump has issued a series of military threats as he pursues gunboat diplomacy against North Korea.

US bombing no solution in Syria

Donald Trump’s strike on the Shayrat airbase in Syria demonstrated his willingness to flaunt the US’s military power. It will do nothing to end the brutal war in Syria. More US bombing can only feed the conflict and increase civilian deaths.

Civilian deaths soar as US coalition unleashes bombs on Mosul

There has been a surge in civilian casualties in Iraq, as US bombing intensifies in the city of Mosul.

Homophobic horror in Chechnya: a product of Putin’s power

Over 100 people in Chechnya have been tortured in secret detention centres many are calling concentration camps. This follows an anti-gay offensive pushed by Putin for the last several years.

Fossil fuelled capitalism pushing Earth system into unknown

Ian Angus’ new book Facing the Anthropocene will aid anyone who wants to fight governments that put profit before planet. It will serve as an introduction for many activists to the scientific concept of the Anthropocene—a new geological era that has no analogue in the Earth’s history.

The April Theses: Lenin rearms the Bolshevik Party

Lenin’s April Theses argued that a second, socialist revolution was possible in Russia and re-oriented the Bolshevik Party to the fight for workers’ power explains Michael Douglas

Nordic socialism: the alternative we need?

Bernie Sanders and others hold up Nordic welfare states as a model for winning change through reforming capitalism. But they too are under attack writes James Supple

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