DP World strike action forces company to lift job cuts threat
DP World’s threat to cut 200 jobs was, “corporate bullying and intimidation using the livelihoods of wharfies in an attempt to intimidate the workforce into accepting anything the company wants,” according to Warren Smith, Maritime Union of Australia Assistant National Secretary.
Immigration dirty tricks open Bomana
In the early hours of 12 August, 52 asylum seekers were rounded up and taken to the new detention centre annexed to the Bomana Prison in Port Moresby.
‘Six years is too long without my family’: Refugees protest visa limbo
Frustrated and desperate after six years in Australia, refugees on temporary visas have gathered to protest the denial of rights due to the government’s removal of permanent protection visas.
NSW set to decriminalise abortion
A bill to decriminalise abortion in NSW passed the lower house of state parliament on 8 August, overturning an archaic law written 119 years ago.
UQ protests feed into xenophobia against China
Protests that began as a show of solidarity with Hong Kong have turned into a xenophobic campaign against “Chinese influence” at the University of Queensland.
Terf wars: protesting transphobia at Melbourne Uni
Over 100 students and staff at the University of Melbourne took part in a protest in early August against an event hosted by the so-called Victorian Women’s Guild (VWG), a new transphobic lobby group formed around opposition to the Andrews Government’s proposed gender recognition reforms.
Hong Kong rises up against repression
Hong Kong’s extraordinary protest movement has now lasted over ten weeks. Every weekend brings new demonstrations, and battles with police.
Support for Ihumatoa forces Ardern to halt development on Maori land
An extraordinary 500-strong occupation by local Maori at Ihumatoa has galvanised massive opposition to plans to build 500 high-cost dwellings on culturally significant land for tangata whenua (Indigenous people of the land).
Glorifying the butchery of the Vietnam War
There are a lot of books written about the Battle of Long Tan that try to portray the battle as a victory for the Australian military. Now there is a film, Danger Close.
Marxism and ecology
Karl Marx argued that capitalism was a system that distorts humanity’s relationship to the environment
Deregistration—union busting the BLF
Tom Orsag looks at how deregistration in 1986 virtually destroyed the Builders Labourers Federation, in a warning for unions facing the same thing today
Chernobyl—why nuclear power is not the answer
The new TV series Chernobyl has reawakened interest in the shocking nuclear disaster. Michael Douglas looks at the lessons and why nuclear is no solution to climate change
