Issue 81 - Aug

Deja vu on climate: Labor’s only promise on renewables is emissions trading

One of the big announcements at Labor’s National Conference was the plan for 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030. But the devil is in the detail—and the devil here is that there is no detail.

Labor votes to turn asylum seekers away

The Federal Labor Party lurched further to the right, after leader Bill Shorten won majority support for the turn-back of asylum boats at the Labor National Conference in July.

Queensland teachers oppose transfer of asylum seeker student

Outrage is growing in Queensland over the transfer of a re-detained Iranian asylum seeker from the Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation (BITA) to Wickham Point in Darwin.

Hutchison workers defy company, courts, Abbott to fight for jobs

Ninety-seven wharfies are fighting for their jobs after being callously sacked by text message and email from Hutchison’s port terminals in Sydney and Brisbane on 6 August. But the workers are fighting the sackings with pickets in Sydney and Brisbane, ongoing as we go to press.

Strike action hits airports as CPSU campaign continues

Workers in Border Force, Immigration and Agriculture took stop work action again on 3 August, with rolling four-hour stoppages across the country. There was significant disruption to international airport queues, with management forced to move into frontline positions to cover for striking workers.

Defend Johnny Lomax: in court for winning a pay rise for workers

Lomax is an organiser with the building union, the CFMEU. He is charged with blackmail. His crime? Lomax put pressure on an employer to sign an Enterprise Agreement and pay higher wages, up from $17 an hour to $26 an hour.

Reclaim Australia on the nose—time to unite against Islamophobia

Far right protest group Reclaim Australia has been humiliated, after their second round of anti-Muslim protests on 18 and 19 July flopped spectacularly.

Racist abuse of Goodes fanned from the top of society

The booing of Sydney Swans star Adam Goodes has exposed the faultline over racism in Australia. When the racist targeting drove Goodes to contemplate an early retirement, we saw a tidal wave of support for him from across the country.

Greek activist: Fight against Syriza’s austerity has already begun

Officials from the Troika have returned to Greece to resume the enforcement of austerity measures agreed as part of the new Memorandum agreed by the Syriza government.

‘Out of the closet and into the streets’: The Stonewall riot and LGBT liberation

It was the radical politics of the Gay Liberation movement that emerged from Stonewall that set in motion the shift in attitudes on LGBT rights, explains Amy Thomas

Greece’s royal coup—lessons of the July Days

The current battle against unelected institutions in Greece isn’t the first. Dave Sewell looks at the July Days in 1965—and how that movement could have won

Slavery and the origins of racism

Feiyi Zhang argues that racism is a modern phenomenon, a product of capitalism and the trans-Atlantic slave trade

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