PP No 100007556 number 1159 |Oct them all them Get rid of rid Get — g N p a o pride in pridein o e o ge 12 b nocide er 31 2017 $3 |$5 $3 s er 31 2017 ge 15 — a crisis: crisis: a hin Who’s to blame? R o l p idarity price o a g y | 2 | O ctober 31, 2017 greenleft.org.au AUSTRALIAATRUS ALIA this week: Alternative news without the alternative facts In these days of growing media concentration, Green Left Weekly is a proudly independent voice committed to human and civil rights, global peace and environmental sustainability, democracy and equality.

• ‘Don’t Mess with the West’ rally — p. 4 • Anger at gas permit in WA — p. 4 • Euthanasia laws pass Vic lower house — p. 11 Dutton’s bid to analysis ban mobile phones • Stop the union witch hunts — p. 5 • Turnbull driver of NBN Niko Leka to hold “reasonable” suspicions that punishes and their ‘trainwreck’ — p. 11 about them. There are people visitors with impunity. After the defeat in the indefinitely detained in the dark Hunter • Australia’s Frontier Federal Court of his bid to web of immigration detention Advocacy asked the newly ban mobile phones in offshore who have not committed a formed Australian Wars — p. 12 immigration detention centres, crime. Action Network for help Minister for Immigration It is extraordinary that in getting a picture of and Border Protection (DIBP) the content of many of these immigration detention centres is trying another submissions — especially those around Australia. Those strategy to subvert the court’s from visitors to detention interested can look at it and world August 1 ruling. centres but also including some the other submissions on the Mobile phones are already by well-known institutions parliamentary website by prohibited in onshore and agencies — moves from searching for the Migration • Africa: The US war you immigration detention centres arguments against the bill to Amendment (Prohibiting Items didn’t hear about — p. 13 and on Christmas Island for detailed evidence of the brutal In Immigration Detention refugees who came to Australia practices currently in use by Facilities) Bill 2017. It is • Rohingya refugee crisis: by boat. DIBP via the Australian Border submission 47. who’s to blame? — p. 15 Dutton is seeking to amend Force. These submissions raise two the Migration Act to ban mobile They argue that a blanket matters. It is clear that DIBP • Catalonia declares phones for everyone in detention ban on mobile phones would is violating the requirement of and anything else he thinks fit perpetuate the injurious effect on the Work Health and Safety independence — p. 17 to ban. He also wants the power the health of asylum seekers and Act to exercise a duty of care to to use strip searches and dogs refugees. They add that allowing those in their workplaces. That to find and take those things. the minister to decide on the includes the people imprisoned The amendment would allow basis of suspicion — not evidence there, as well as their visitors. culture him to ban something just by — what is to be banned is far too The second matter is a making a legislative instrument much power. They point out that question. The handful of people or ministerial regulation saying strip searches and the use of dogs who present a high risk to • ‘Planet Jackson’ misses it is banned. In effect, he could would add to the trauma of an others is part of a dwindling greater corruption — p. 21 directly write the law. already traumatised population. population. There are only There have been 80 But many submissions then a few hundred people in the • Rebel filmmakers submissions in response to this point out that these bans and prison system who, after serving honour CLR James — p. 22 bill. The only one in favour of intrusions are already occurring their sentence, would be eligible the ban, was lodged by Dutton’s and the bill would, in effect, for visa cancellations and thus own department. It claims these legalise the brutality of existing would end up in a detention measures are necessary because practices. centre prior to deportation. there is now a significant They point out that DIBP Why then does Dutton criminal element in immigration does not separate the handful seek such expansive powers? detention. That is a reference to of individuals among those Remember, he is to be in people whose visas have been detained under section 501 who charge of the “super ministry”, cancelled under section 501 of may present a risk, from others responsible for border security, the Migration Act — known as who do not present a risk. These federal police and domestic Green Left Weekly is produced on “501s”. submissions say DIBP already intelligence. Aboriginal land. Sovereignty was never Green Left Weekly welcomes, but The minister has the power seizes phones, conducts sudden [Niko Leka is the convenor ceded. cannot pay for, original contributions to cancel a visa under section searches and has used dogs. of Hunter Asylum Seeker to its pages. Copyright remains with 501 even if the person has not They are an account of a the creator. Articles represent the Advocacy and a member of the views of their authors, not necessarily committed a crime. He only has frighteningly barbaric system Socialist Alliance.] n the views of Green Left Weekly or the organisations to which they belong.

Green Left Weekly content may be republished for non-commercial Subscribe today 1800 634 206 Follow us purposes, provided an attribution is included. Intro 6 issues $10 /greenleftweekly Contact us Green Left Weekly is published by the 3 Months 11 issues $30 E ditorial 02 8070 9330 Green Left Association. Printed by Spotpress Pty Ltd, Marrickville NSW 6 Months 22 issues $55 @greenleftweekly [email protected] 2204, (02) 9549 1111.ISSN 1036-126X. [email protected] 1 Year 44 issues $95 Mail PO Box 394, Broadway Closing news date was Saturday, 2 Years 88 issues $170 GreenLeftTV

Responsibility for electoral comment in this issue is taken by V Miley, 22-36 Mountain St, Ultimo, NSW 2007. NSW 2007 October 28, 2017. Covers: Mia Sanders. AuStralia Oct ober 31, 2017 greenleft.org.au | 3 |

Adani-sponsored Vales Point tourism award rejected Power Station profits

Winners of the 2017 Whitsundays When, in November 2015, the Tourism awards, held last month at NSW government sold the old, coal- Hamilton Island, have rejected the prize fired Vales Point Power Station for S and threatened to quit the organisation $1 million, then-NSW treasurer Gladys because it was sponsored by the mining Berejiklian said it was to save the giant Adani. taxpayer from “ongoing losses” and

BRIEF Lindsay Simpson, who won the tour and “significant liabilities. transport operators’ prize, said in a letter Two years later, as wholesale formally rejecting the award: “We cannot, electricity prices soar, the plant has ent in all fairness, accept an award sponsored been revalued at $730 million and by Adani, a company whose modus the two owners have pocketed nearly N m operandi is completely counter-productive $40 million in profit.O ne of the O to all that we stand for as tourism owners, Trevor St Baker, also controls IR operators on the Great Barrier Reef.” ERM Power Limited, which purchases V Tourism Whitsundays has subsequently power from Vales Point and supplies

EN ruled out future involvement with Adani. the NSW government with electricity. Mortgage-stressed households about to get even more stressed

Bo b Maine proportion of five-year interest- for the good of their customers and fix the housing crisis only loans — turbocharged and the economy. Really? through the expansion of It seems that every by an out-of-control negative- In reality, they’ve only done public housing. other month we have another gearing regime — looks what was needed to ensure the Green Left Weekly is our parliamentary inquiry into the spookily similar.” continued flow of mortgage instrument for getting this banks. With so many regular Currently 820,000 revenue into their coffers. After message out each week. This is appearances you’d think it households, or 1 in 4, are in all, it wouldn’t profit a parasite where you can play a role. would start to get boring. to about $1 trillion worth of mortgage stress. The banks if it were to kill its host. In the inquiry held this month home loans where people are have increased rates on We can continue to drag Green Left Weekly needs there were no juicy money not making any dent in their interest-only loans, arguing these bank CEOs to as many financial assistance from supporters. If you are able laundering scandals to report, mortgages. If the average that this will help borrowers parliamentary inquiries as we to help, please make a but Westpac CEO Brian Hartzer mortgage is about half a million pay down their loans faster. want. We can even throw in a contribution to our fighting revealed a startling statistic: dollars, that’s a huge amount But this change has a greater much needed royal commission. fund. of Westpac’s $400 billion loan of debt not being paid off by impact on households in But ultimately none of it will You can contribute to the book, half of the loans are individual households. mortgage stress. They will be solve the root cause of the Green Left Weekly 2017 interest-only. The other Big It will be interesting to see at greater risk of defaulting problem, which is the profit- Fighting Fund at greenleft Four banks each have 40% of what happens when these on their loans, which could driven system we are living .org.au. Direct deposits their loan books with interest- interest-only loans flip over to snowball into a full-blown under. can also be made to Green only loans. principal and interest loans, crisis. Capitalism is what drives the Left, Bendigo Bank, BSB: An interest-only loan is one as normally happens after five 633-000 Account number: What do bank CEOs banks to fuel an overpriced 160058699. Otherwise, where for a period of time the years. currently being grilled by housing market by selling you can send a cheque or borrower only pays the interest This has ominous similarities parliament have to say for mortgages that enslave money order to PO Box 394, on the loan balance, with the to the situation that led to the themselves? Surprisingly little. workers’ to debts they may Broadway NSW 2007 or loan balance not being reduced. Global Financial Crisis of 2008. They say they have raised never repay. Surely it’s time donate on the toll-free line If we add up all the Big Four As UNSW Professor Richard interest rates for interest-only to nationalise the banks, put at 1800 634 206 (within banks’ loan books, it comes Holden noted: “Australia’s large loans not to boost profits, but them under workers’ control Australia). Cellist and refugee activists block Melbourne street Reg fu ee advocates occupied Melbourne’s Spring St on October 25 in solidarity with the asylum seekers on , who have been abandoned by the . The action was organised by Whistleblowers, Activists and Citizens Alliance (WACA), Disrupt 2017 and the Refugee Action Collective (). A cellist played a Kurdish poem put to music by Kurdish- Iranian journalist , who has been detained for four years on Manus Island. Supporters stood in a large circle holding red ribbons connected to the cellist as other refugee activists stood on the Victorian Parliament steps R efugee activists occupy Spring Street, Melbourne, on October 25. Photo: WACA holding a banner that read: “We Rise With the Men on Manus”. same acutely vulnerable people With the Manus Island Simpson said: “We must all years that have been stolen from WACA spokesperson whose lives they’ve destroyed. detention centre officially start to acknowledge that we the people on Manus. We see it Sumarlinah Raden Winoto “We cannot fathom the closing on October 31, essential are all complicit in the torture as our only option left to get our said: “There is a looming damage that has already been services have been cut off. The of refugees. Our tax money is government to listen. humanitarian emergency as done and fear for their mental men in the detention centre are going into the funding of the “Like other national crimes, the government begins to health as they continue to live being denied protection and are private corporations running the Australia’s treatment of people close Manus and abandons all in a state of uncertainty. This being encouraged to either move camps. seeking asylum will not be responsibility. The government horror needs to end now by to the transit centre or “Any minor inconvenience easily lived down — and we has created the present crisis and resettling the men of Manus return from where they fled. people face this morning should will fight for them to be held now they turn their backs on the into safety.” WACA spokesperson Callum be felt in comparison to the accountable.” n | 4 | Oct ober 31, 2017 greenleft.org.au AuStralia

Hobart Council joins push to change the date to run services on

The Hobart City Council has The federal government has awarded a officially joined the campaign to lucrative contract running refugee facilities on change the date of Australia Day. Nauru to a -based engineering firm, It will also provide support for despite the company having no experience in the annual Invasion Day march, providing refugee services. organised by the Indigenous Canstruct International Pty Ltd won the community, and back councillors $8 million contract to run “garrison and welfare who take part. services” from November 1.

S On October 23, the council passed The move has been slammed by human a four-point motion seven votes rights groups. accused to two. It also called on other local Canstruct of taking up a “toxic contract” that governments to lobby the federal profits from the abuse of asylum seekers. Keren BRIEF government to move Australia Day Adams from the said: from January 26. But it will not stop “It is particularly appalling that the contract has W holding its citizenship ceremonies been awarded to an engineering company with

NE andS celebrations on Australia Day. zero experience dealing with vulnerable people.”

Anger at granting of gas permit in WA Kerry Smith

Con mmu ities in south- west are angry the state government has granted Bunbury Energy a new gas exploration permit, covering the shires of Capel, Dardanup and Donnybrook-Balingup, and parts of Bunbury and Busselton. Co-convenor of the Gasfield Free South West Alliance, Boyanup landholder Kathy Thomson said the permit was a kick in the guts to the people of the south west. “The government promised us a fracking ban before the state election. We understood the promise meant we would be protected from encroachment by the invasive onshore gas industry. A rally against a proposed incinerator, a new 24-hour airport and WestConnex, in Penrith on October 20. “Instead, the government has granted a new gas exploration permit covering our area. “Communities in the permit area such as Stratham, North Boyanup and Stirling have already declared themselves ‘Don’t mess with the west’ gasfield free. These communities will not accept being forced to Jimr McIl oy the community he is supposed linked in that they are part of project, which is contrary to the live in a gasfield. to represent and stop this [opposing] the same agenda of public interest.” “The government is ignoring Penrith incinerator now. There is no putting profit before people ... In addition, as the state our right to protect our land, way he will keep his seat in the they [politicians] always want to government prepares to sell water, health and agriculture Hundreds of people next election if he avoids the divide and conquer, but we will WestConnex to the private into the future. We are gathered for the Don’t Mess real issues.” not be divided.” sector, an important issue has disappointed and angry that our With the West rally outside the Spokesperson for Concerned Meanwhile, property emerged with the proposed concerns have been ignored and Joan Sutherland Performing Citizens of Western developer Desane has used a associated privatisation of our rights railroaded. Arts Centre in Penrith on Maya said: “As residents we report it commissioned from E-Toll, the state-owned and run “We still don’t have any right October 20, before marching reject an incinerator, and we planning consultant Urbis to issuer of electronic tollway tags to say no to gas companies to the electoral office of local will fight arm in arm with all slam WestConnex. It said the and account billing. coming on our land to drill member and Minister for the other community groups to compulsory acquisition of The October 23 Australian for gas. The promised fracking Western Sydney Stuart Ayres, stop this going ahead.” its residential site in Rozelle Financial Review reported bans to protect the south west chanting “Community health, Greens MP Mehreen Faruqi was part of a scheme by the the government has asked are still not legislated by the not incinerator wealth” and and Blacktown Mayor Stephen government to “ram this project prospective bidders for Parliament. Instead we have a “Don’t mess with the west”. Bali stressed the dangers and the environmental impact WestConnex to express interest ministerial promise that can be They were protesting against posed by the threat of a highly statement (EIS) through the in acquiring the existing state- reversed at any time.” the controversial WestConnex polluting waste incinerator in normal planning process, owned E-Toll business as part of Thomson said the road project and associated Sydney’s west. to clear the pathway for the the wider tollway sale. government’s promise the gas tolls on the M4 Motorway and Andrew Chuter, spokesperson sale of the Sydney Motorway E-Toll is one of two e-tag would be extracted without elsewhere; the highly polluting for No WestConnex: Public Corporation (SMC) to the issuers in NSW. The other is fracking was not enough to waste disposal incinerator Transport, said he was pleased private sector”. The SMC is the Transurban’s Linkt, which also protect land and water from proposed for Eastern Creek; to see different groups uniting private company set up to deliver operates under the Roam brand. an invasive and unnecessary and the planned new airport at to ensure the voices of local and finance WestConnex. Both issue tags, collect road industry. Badgerys Creek. people were heard. “It’s the first Urbis, through its review tolls and handle billing and “The department claims Protesters were angry Ayers time we’ve combined all the of Westconnex’s EIS, found accounts information involving this permit is for conventional had ignored all invitations to groups. People were really quite deficiencies in the design and Sydney tollway users. gas only. Yet we are aware speak at the rally, and instead into it and really vocal,” he said. implementation of the project. Transurban, which already that unconventional gas is chose to spend the day in Penrith Chuter said the rallies would Desane chairperson Professor owns the majority of Sydney’s the primary gas found in this campaigning for his re-election. continue in a bid to ensure John Sheehan said: “The sale of toll roads, is the favorite to region. The company with this Spokesperson for No politicians are paying attention SMC, we believe, will remove take over WestConnex as permit originally called itself Incinerator for Western Sydney to the concerns of residents. “A from public accountability well. It would not necessarily Unconventional Resources Pty Melinda Wilson said: “If Stuart lot of these issues are related to any responsibility, oversight need to buy E-Toll to operate Ltd but changed its name after Ayers is really concerned about transport, but also to air,” he and control of the final design, WestConnex, but any other the outcry at their plans to drill keeping his seat in the next said. cost and implementation of buyer would probably need to in the Bunbury area.” n election, he should listen to “These campaigns are this $7.8 billion M4-M5 Link do so. n AuStralia Oct ober 31, 2017 greenleft.org.au | 5 | Stop the union witch hunts

Pi p Hinman [sic] in power we campaigned heavily against them,” Oosting The Australian Federal said. Police (AFP) raids on the He added: “We are willing to Melbourne and Sydney offices take on any party, any politician of the Australian Workers’ and do so unashamedly and Union (AWU) on October 24 with full independence.” show the state is becoming more AEC commissioner Tom authoritarian at a time when Rogers told a Senate estimates more people are disengaging hearing that the “review” of from politics as usual. GetUp!’s status was being The AFP raids came after a conducted in response to Senate inquiry into associated a request from a previous entities — organisations that parliamentary committee. He are closely associated with denied the commission had political parties — which are been directed to undertake an required to lodge annual returns investigation. with the Australian Electoral If GetUp! is to be classed as Commission (AEC). an “associated entity” of Labor The AEC lists the types of or the Greens, then what can be organisations that are associated said of Murdoch’s News entities: think tanks, registered .com? Murdoch uses his media clubs, service companies, trade stable to campaign for the unions and corporate party political parties that will most members. advantage him and his board. That the is trying If Ryan was really worried to clamp down on GetUp! and Australian Federal Police raid the offices of the Australian Workers’ Union in Sydney on October 24. about Australia’s slide into the unions by pushing tighter “the downside of Americanised restrictions on their ability to corruption, which outraged the are the time to focus people’s democracy” he would not be campaign goes to the heart Coalition government (and a attention on parties’ positions. trying to make it harder for of the battle over freedom of section of the NSW Greens). It is only now that it has people to find out about parties’ political expression. The systemic corruption and grown from a network to an policy positions other than from In , this scandals over political donations organisation that can mobilise News.com. battle has been waged by the to the major parties in NSW are activists to tip the balance in ACTU secretary Sally state Coalition government and well known and longstanding. marginal seats that the state is McManus summed up the was finally resolved by the High the system — and nor should And it is arguable that the small seeking to impose limits on its political witch hunt of the AWU Court in 2013 when it ruled unions, third party interest reforms to the electoral laws in ability to campaign. to the ABC’s 7.30, asking on that union donations to political groups and corporations.” any state have done little to rein Special Minister of State October 24: “What is wrong parties did not contravene But the High Court said in corporate donors, given the Scott Ryan said on October 24 with workers deciding they electoral funding laws. the Coalition government’s entire electoral system is tilted that GetUp! was adopting the want to donate money to a Former Liberal Premier changes to electoral funding towards corporations and their “downsides of Americanised political campaign because Barry O’Farrell had argued: laws in 2012 contravened the parties. They will always find democracy”. GetUp! national they think it is in their interest? “The only way you can ensure implied freedom of political a way to exert their influence director Paul Oosting told What is wrong with that? That that the public is going to have communication contained in the — as Prime Minister Malcolm Sky News the same day that is called democracy.” confidence about our electoral Constitution. It ruled that the Turnbull did, adding a cool the movement of more than There are very strict laws system is to limit [donations] to laws banning corporations and $1.75 million to the Liberals’ 1 million was being governing electoral donations, the individuals who are on the “associations” from donating campaign last year. smeared by senior figures in the as everyone knows. This is electoral roll. to political parties in state and The move to clamp down on Coalition government, including something else. This is yet “It must be limited to those local government elections were campaigning organisations, arch-conservative Eric Abetz. another attempt to clamp down Australian citizens who are invalid and making a political such as GetUp!, is about shifting “We judge all parties, on political expression. This enrolled, not overseas citizens donation is a form of protected public scrutiny away from this politicians and for that matter is a political witch hunt on a and non-residents, because of political communication. serial corruption. corporations based on their select number of member-based course those people do not get The court rejected the state GetUp! has every right to positions on the policies that organisations which many trust the vote. They do not have a government’s claim that the campaign on the social and our members care most about. more than elected officials from stake in the system and they new provisions were necessary environmental issues it deems We have a Coalition government the corrupt and disintegrating should not be able to influence to guard against political important. Obviously, elections right now. When Labor were two-party system. n Cash’s latest union attack backfires Pi p Hinman donation the union made to resources have been used to raid GetUp! in 2006, when federal union offices.” As we go to press, federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten They should be. employment minister Michaelia was its national secretary. Cash According to the Sydney Cash is being hounded — is impugning that the union Morning Herald’s Mark Kenny, rightly — for yet another gross misspent its members’ money the subject of the raids involves breach of her parliamentary by doing this, and has likened documents that were made office. it to the corruption case in the available to Abbott’s royal While Cash continues to Health Services Union. commission into the unions as deny she has done anything Australian Council of well as the Australian Electoral wrong, one of her staffers has Trade Unions secretary Sally Commission at the time. resigned for allegedly tipping McManus hit back, describing The documents that were off the corporate media on the raids as a politically-driven seized from the AWU’s offices October 24 that the Australian witch hunt. She told ABC’s 7.30 may or may not be handed over Federal Police (AFP) were about on October 24: “If they had to the ROC, depending on a to raid the Melbourne and of just asked the AWU for that court case on October 27. Sydney offices of the Australian evidence they would have got it, The federal government and Workers’ Union (AWU). but they didn’t, did they?” its anti-union allies, such as She said she asked the She said the AWU had said One Nation’s Pauline Hanson, Registered Organisations Employment minister Michaelia Cash is under fire because her office tipped off the that everything was above board desperately need the ROC Commission (ROC), which is media about AFP raids on union offices on October 24. and asked why the government to be a lot more successful running the witch hunt into the was not asking the AFP to than the ABCC and the royal AWU, to consider referring the (FWC), it is another of the But compared to the FWC, investigate the Commonwealth commission into the unions has leak to the AFP. federal Coalition government’s the ROC has enhanced Bank’s money laundering, been. And so the circle turns. attack dogs aimed squarely at investigation and information- support for drug traffickers and After spending more than Officially, the ROC is an weakening the union movement. gathering powers, including the more. $100 million and more than “independent watchdog”. It was first mooted by former ability to seize documents with “I am entirely confident two years investigating, the Actually, like the Australian prime minister Tony Abbott a warrant. that everything is fine and the royal commission’s findings Building and Construction and, after having been rejected The AFP raids on the AWU Australian people will find led to just one conviction — Commission (ABCC) and twice by the Senate, was finally offices were ostensibly about out this and everyone should Kathy Jackson, a former HSU the Fair Work Commission authorised last year. “uncovering” a $100,000 be angry about the fact that official. n | 6 | Octb o er 31, 2017 greenleft.org.au AuStralia Not much to celebrate in High Court ruling

Alexn Bai bridge

There was a celebratory mood on social media when the High Court ruled on October 27 that Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce was ineligible to sit in parliament. The government has lost its one seat majority and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s over-confident prediction that government politicians would be safe has been shown to be partisan bluster. Right-wing buffoon Malcolm Roberts has been kicked out of the Senate along with National Party Deputy Leader Fiona Nash. The Greens have rightly pointed out that their senators behaved with honesty and integrity. This stands in stark contrast to the self-interest (and often hypocrisy) displayed by politicians from the Nationals, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation and the Nick Xenophon Team. Malcolm Roberts, Scott Ludlum, Larissa Waters, Barnaby Joyce, Fiona Nash, Matt Canavan and Nick Xenophon all faced the High Court on October 27. Unfortunately, that is where the good news ends. Joyce will face a byelection, citizens are not allowed to The more important interpretation of the prohibition All the senators who were but he won by a formidable be members of parliament is principle is for the voters to on dual citizens. deemed ineligible will be 17% at the previous election. profoundly undemocratic and be able to freely choose their This reinforced the idea that replaced by members of their His most prominent rival, Tony ought to be removed from the preferred candidate and to banning dual citizens is a fair own party or in the case of Windsor, has announced he will constitution. Even better would have institutional mechanisms prohibition, which it is not. Fiona Nash another member of not run this time (although a be the formulation of an entirely of accountability so elected When considering some of the Coalition. Thus it will be a petition calling on Windsor to new and genuinely democratic politicians can be recalled the biggest controversies in personal disappointment to the run has been circulated). constitution with a bill of if they disappoint their Australian politics in recent individuals involved, but will Byelections can sometimes rights and other democratic constituents. times — WorkChoices, a carbon not really change the dynamics produce unexpected results improvements. Even the Greens’ submission price, NBN, ABCC, marriage in the Senate. Roberts for because they give voters a equality and others — national instance will be replaced by a chance to punish sitting govern- “allegiance” really makes no different One Nation extremist. ments and this government is on Prohibiting dual citizens from difference. The real division is He and Nick Xenophon have the nose. The High Court has over support for or opposition announced they will jump into certainly given the government a becoming members of parliament to big corporate interests or state politics. This demonstrates jolt. It is not out of the question is profoundly undemocratic. ordinary people. yet again that career politicians that the voters of New England We need democratic reform generally look for opportunities could give them a bloody nose that makes it easier for ordinary to put their snouts in the trough, and vote Joyce out. Much of the public commen- to the High Court ended up working people to achieve changing trough when necessary. The biggest problem with the tary — both popular and elite effectively supporting the progressive change in our own Xenophon — along with Matt process and resulting discussion — has assumed it is a bad thing ban on dual citizenship for interests. The ban on dual Canavan — was found to have is that it is framed around for elected representatives to federal parliament. In making citizen MPs is not the biggest been validly elected, so did not nationality, whereas the most have “allegiance” to a “foreign the fair argument that the obstacle to winning a genuinely need to jump ship. Presumably important division in Australian power”. However, most people constitution should apply democratic Australia. However, he thought the risk he would not society is around class. do not think of citizenship in equally to everyone, they ended it is an undemocratic measure make it was too high. The stipulation that dual these terms. up opposing a more flexible that should be removed. n Citizenship bill lapses, win for migrants Ze bedee Parkes permanent residency, leaving the English test, including some government’s plan to implement many people living with the fear who have completed university a lifetime ban on asylum seekers I ammIGr tion minister of deportation. Dutton already degrees and found jobs in their being allowed to come to Peter Dutton’s citizenship bill has growing powers and can field. Australia, including on tourist amendments lapsed on October make numerous decisions such The Lakemba forum was or business visas, if they came 18. It is not the first time Dutton as on visa applications with no hosted by Labor’s former immi- via boat. has failed to pass new laws right of appeal. Combined with gration minister Tony Burke. In The bill came under significant relating to immigration, visas skills, such as in the lead anti-union laws, this creates a 2013, while he was immigration public pressure from the refugee and citizenship and is another up to the previous federal whole layer of workers who may minister, Burke was one of the campaign with phone calls, illustration of the growing election where, amid the usual be fearful of taking industrial architects of offshore resettle- emails, tweets and protests discontent with some of the accusation of lazy migrants action or participating in any ment that has led directly to in opposition overwhelming government’s far-reaching, taking jobs, he said “they form of protest. the current inhumane crisis on politician’s offices. Trump-like, proposals about won’t be numerate or literate in Creating multiple layers of Manus Island and Nauru. It is an interesting immigration law. their own language, let alone people with different rights is Burke has spoken out strongly contradiction in Labor Party It was opposed in the Senate English”. a tactic often used to divide against the proposed changes policy to, on one side, be hand- by Labor, the Greens and the It would be questionable how workers and drive down condi- to the citizenship laws. He in-hand with the Coalition on Nick Xenophon Team. They many Australian citizens could tions. Workers on 457 visas are also hosted a vibrant Walk for refugee policy, yet oppose some also combined to deny Dutton pass the English test, or speak a a classic example of this, leading Respect rally in Lakemba last of its immigration policies. an extension to October 20. few words in the language of the to unions holding rallies with year against proposed changes It shows a desire by Labor In the end, with the numbers Aboriginal nation they live in, nationalist overtones and racist to the Racial Discrimination to hang onto large blocks of against it, the bill never even for that matter. attacks on migrant workers. Act and has spoken alongside migrant voters, particularly made it to the floor. If the bill had passed it would Migrant communities other prominent Labor MPs at in electorates such as Tony The proposed amendments have expanded and entrenched have protested against these Welcome to Australia events. Burke’s, and the power migrant would have required people an already growing “underclass attacks, including at a forum While continuing its support communities can wield when to live for four years on a citizen class” in Australia where in Lakemba in July last year for offshore detention, Labor they organise in numbers. permanent residency visa and a layer of people have fewer when more than 100 people has opposed various bills put Even if Labor opposed the pass a harder, university-level rights, less access to social spoke out against the proposed forward by the government on citizenship changes for the most English test to qualify as a services and cannot vote in changes. An estimated 10,000 immigration and visas. Along cynical of reasons — votes — citizen. elections. people attended forums across with the Greens and the Nick it is a positive for the refugee Dutton has often attacked The immigration minister the country. Many people feared Xenophon Team, in November campaign and shows Dutton’s immigrants over their English already has the power to revoke they would not be able to pass last year it opposed the agenda is not unstoppable. n Subscribe to Green Left Weekly, Australia’s leading progressive media, Subscribe and and receive a free gift to wear with pride. wear your All subscriptions include a free gift! $10 for 6 issues (introductory offer)

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Traditional Owners Rally against plan to campaign privatise public housing to rename Juli an Coppens are being dispersed from the inner city because of the Peel region More than 200 people cost of housing. That means attended the first rally organised the destruction of their Kerry Smith by the Public Housing Defence communities. Network in Debney Park, “This campaign is not B indjareb Traditional Flemington on October 15. so much about protecting Owners have begun a campaign The network was established buildings as about protecting to rename the Peel region in to fight the Daniel Andrews communities. If the government Western Australia, named after Labor government’s plan to gets away with expelling 2500 Thomas Peel, a settler who was privatise 11 public housing people or more from these instrumental in the Pinjarra estates across Melbourne. The public housing estates, what massacre in which dozens of government wants to sell the impact will that have on these Aboriginal people were killed current walk-up blocks of flats communities? People won’t have on October 28, 1834. to private developers who will anyone to look after their kids Traditional Owner Karrie- replace them with some social for them; give them lifts to the Anne Kearing said: “It’s time housing and high rise private doctor; look after things when to acknowledge the traditional developments. they’re away; or the multitude owners of the land and for Greens MP for Melbourne of things people do to help each people to see who Peel really Adam Bandt told the rally: other out. was … I find it insulting to see “This is the state government “The government uses the it everywhere I look, a man looking at public land in the term social stigma and social who continually called for inner city and only seeing dollar problems to present the idea the annihilation of Bindjareb signs and thinking how much there’s nothing worth saving, Noongars even after the of it can we sell off to private not real communities that look massacre. developers to build 15-storey after each other.” “It’s time for change so dog boxes on to flog off to the Gronn Place West Brunswick everyone, including all the highest bidder. public housing resident Noongar fellas, will be proud to “This is not about making Maymun said: “We don’t call say their name and to tell people public housing residents’ lives where we live commission where they’re from with pride.” better, this is about the state housing; we don’t call it public Local MP Robyn Clarke is government making as much housing; we call it community; backing the move, saying she money as it possibly can. That A public housing rally in Melbourne on October 15. Photo: Julian Andrewartha we call it family. would like to have the region this has something to do with “I’ve been living there for 30 named Bindjareb. “The original the 40,000-odd waiting list [for These will be built on what bedroom houses in the suburbs, years. I don’t want to move. region was called the Bindjareb public housing] is a complete are now communal spaces — far away from their local I lost some of my family in region where the Bindjareb farce.” basketball courts, playgrounds, school? They’ll have to take me Somalia before I fled. I don’t people lived and I believe that The state government’s barbecues, parking — for by force.” want to lose people again here. that name should be restored. plans for the Flemington estate the remaining public housing Socialist Alliance Moreland I rebuilt my life again. I have It would heal a lot of hurt … demonstrate the political tenants living in the high rise councillor Sue Bolton told the family; I have friends; I have a and it would give the Bindjareb priorities of the government. blocks. rally: “The state government community; wonderful people, people their identity to know Once the 200 flats have been Resident consultation has has sold this as public housing from different countries from all that this is their land.” She demolished, they will be been symbolic at best. One renewal, which would be great over the world. I don’t call them added that it was up to the replaced by 220 smaller units resident from the North if it were genuine. But this is a community; I call them family. Indigenous community to decide that will be handed over to a Melbourne estate said: “Our developer land grab. They’ve Don’t lose hope. We will fight on a name. private social or community requests to keep the barbecue exempted the developers back and we will win.” Kearing agreed, saying, housing organisations, meaning and communal garden were from local planning schemes, [The next rally will be at “It would be up to the wider tenants will not enjoy the same thrown out the window. The overriding local councils. 1pm on November 11 at the community [to decide]. Let’s rights as public housing tenants. new social housing will be one- “This issue is very important Walker Street Estate, Northcote. have a poll or whatever, but as In addition, 825 new or two-bedroom apartments. for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Contact Sue Bolton on 0413 long as the person is someone apartments will be built in What was their plan for Islander communities as well, 377 978I if you would like to who has done no wrong.” n several high rise buildings. families? Move to three- because their communities get involved.] n

Marriage equality rallies draw thousands As the deadline draws closer for the marriage equality postal vote result, thousands rallied around the country in a final push for a Yes vote. In Sydney (left), up to 15,000 Yes campaigners gathered in Belmore Park before marching to Victoria Park. The rally dwarfed a No rally of 150 people outside St Mary’s Cathedral. In Melbourne, thousands marched through the rain before attending a free concert featuring Spiderbait. Rallies in Canberra (right) and attracted about 1000 people to each, and 2000 turned out in Adelaide. With the November 7 final deadline for all forms to be returned, the Australian Bureau of Statistics announced that almost three-quarters of eligible voters — more than 11.9 million people — have already returned their ballots. AuStralia Oct ober 31, 2017 greenleft.org.au | 9 | Farmers and graziers beef up opposition to Adani and Acland mines

Margaret Gleeson

From the time of Adani’s initial application for a mining license for the Carmichael Mine project in October 2010, local farmers and graziers have had concerns about the project’s impact on ground water and the Great Artesian Basin. This was translated into legal challenges to the Carmichael, Kevin’s Corner and Alpha mines in the Galilee Basin. The controversial Adani project, while still financially dubious, has one legal barrier to overcome. The High Court is set to bring down a decision in March on the appeal by the Traditional Owners, the Wangan and Jagalingou people. In the Darling Downs, the Oakey Coal Action Alliance (OCAA), a community group of more than 60 farmers and residents, mounted one of the largest environmental cases in Sheep farmer Charlie Prell speaks at a protest against Adani, in front of Parliament House, Canberra, on August 10. Australian history to prevent stage 3 of the New Acland Queensland state election could The Longreach event, held at the rail link from the Galilee said: “The Queensland Coal (NAC) mine going ahead. be called at any time up until the iconic Stockman’s Hall of Basin to Abbot Point. The move government has broken farmers’ In an unprecedented and May. Fame, was attended by more was announced as farmers trust. They promised us historic decision, the Land Farmers in central and than 70 locals, including more were meeting in Emerald. “It’s Adani’s infrastructure would Court recommended outright western Queensland and the than 30 graziers. Many of them shocking that the Queensland be privately funded and not rejection of the mine’s proposed Darling Downs have intensified are in the grip of drought. government thinks it’s fair to subsidised by taxpayers. Now expansion. their campaigns to stop the they’ve handed yet another free However, in June the mine’s expansion of coal. gift to an international, multi- owner New Hope Coal filed OCAA has held protests in ‘Our industry’s interests are being billion dollar company.” for judicial review of the Land Brisbane and local areas calling Jericho Grazier Bruce Currie Court’s decision. The Supreme on the minister to immediately sacrificed for a project that will harm has been fighting the inevitable Court will perform the review reject the NAC expansion. On the future of our region.’ destruction of his livelihood in March. While there are October 24 Oakey farmers posed by the Adani and GVK no legal impediments to the and Inala locals demonstrated Hancock coalmines and was Minister for Natural Resources outside Premier Annastacia Third-generation Longreach compulsorily acquire 3568 part of a delegation that travelled and Mines Anthony Lyneham Palaszczuk’s electorate office, grazier Alex Graham said: hectares of land from farmers to India (at the same time as refusing the mining application, delivering a petition and letters “Out here, water is life. We to stitch up a special deal for Palaszczuk) to witness the impact as recommended by the court, asking for the Queensland are well into our fifth year of Adani’s private rail line,” said of the Adani Corporation there, it appears that he will delay a government to reject the Stage 3 consecutive drought and know fifth-generation grazier William has announced that he will stand decision pending the outcome of expansion. many graziers around here who Graham. as an independent for the seat of the judical review. Farmers for Climate Action rely on groundwater to keep “Our industry’s interests are Gregory in the state election. Two events set the political held packed public meetings livestock alive. We’re extremely being sacrificed for a project He said there were “25 mil- context in the lead up to in Emerald and Longreach in concerned about Adani’s that will harm the future of our lion environmental activists” the critical crunch time of October where farmers and unlimited 60-year groundwater region. We knew Adani were in Australia who cared for the March: the Northern Australia graziers voiced concerns about licence.” taking water from agriculture environment like he did. Currie Infrastructure Facility Board is the impact of the Queensland Coinciding with these with their free unlimited said he was not only fighting due to reach a decision on the government’s decision to meetings, the Queensland groundwater licence; now court battles but also rhetoric $1 billion loan application by grant Adani free unlimited government announced the they’re taking our land as well.” that accuses those who chal- Adani for the rail link to Abott access to water on the region’s compulsory acquisition of 3568 Farmers for Climate Action lenge mega-mines of being Point in December; and the agricultural industry hectares of agricultural land for CEO Verity Morgan-Schmidt “extremists”. n Students call for university to support marriage equality This speech was given people of the Eora nation and and to get a marriage equality trend. A range of universities in assets. The training of staff by Rachel Evans at an this land was never ceded. Let’s bill put and passed. signed the pledge — Deakin, and making toilets gender neutral action organised by the recognise the seminal battle by Last year we launched the Monash, UTS, Curtin and the are not hard with all this money. Queer Undergraduate Action Aboriginal activists for the right Rainbow Campus campaign to University of Western Australia They choose not to spend it. In- Collective (QUAC) calling on to marry whom they chose — a demand university management — but not Sydney University. stead they try to placate us with University of Sydney Vice- battle not won until 1959. The sign the marriage equality A month after the Orlando superficial baubles — flags and Chancellor Michael Spence to ripples of their victory resonate pledge, provide gender neutral shootings we hosted the largest Ally Awards — but refuse to sign support the Yes campaign for today, in our campaign to lift our bathrooms, change trans indoor same-sex wedding at a marriage equality pledge. marriage equality. rainbow community out of the student names and provide Sydney University and invited It is actions like these which infantilised place the Liberal and comprehensive LGBTI staff Spence and management to come will force Spence’s hand. With H H H Labor parties have kept us in. training. along. They did not. In fact, they this energy, we will throw I want to also applaud the Management fly the rainbow asked us to clean up the glitter bigoted corporates like Spence My name is Rachel Evans and courageous undergraduate flags at Mardi Gras time, but we had left outside their offices. into the dustbin of history. I helped kickstart the marriage queer activists who’ve called they looked a bunch of young Spence is part of the No People’s power gets the goods. equality campaign in 2004. this action and the action a few queers in the eyes and flatly campaign, let us be entirely clear. The rainbow community needs Last year, I was the queer office weeks ago that took aim at the refused our simple request. He is a conservative Anglican, to remain vigilant and continue bearer with Sydney University No campaigners. Your actions Management said the real from the same vein as the church to rally and protest. Postgraduate Representative have emboldened less organised sticking point in our Rainbow reactionaries that just gave the [Rachel Evans is SUPRA Association (SUPRA). queer youth and your tenacity Campus log of claims was No campaign $1 million. Education Officer and an I want to acknowledge we are and persistence is exactly what the marriage equality pledge. The university has $250 mil- organiser with the Socialist here on the land of the Gadigal we need to win this postal vote Sydney University bucked the lion in surplus and $1.8 billion Alliance in Sydney.] n | 10 | October 31, 2017 greenleft.org.au AuStralia

Union slams new Sydney University students government vote for left-wing president threat to James Wilson

ABC, SBS Progressive students Jim McIlroy have staged a remarkable come-from-behind victory in The Community and Public Sydney University’s Student Sector Union (CPSU) has called on Representative Council (SRC) federal MPs and senators to reject elections, with Imogen Grant new legislation tabled by federal elected SRC president. communications minister Mitch Grant headed a ticket Fifield, which is aimed at further of Greens, socialists and undermining the independence independents, called and integrity of the national Switch. She edged out broadcasters ABC and SBS. Liberal candidate Brendan Fifield’s legislation would make Ma, following a string of entirely unnecessary amendments controversial decisions made to the ABC Charter about regional during the course of the media coverage and “fair and campaign. balanced” news reporting. He has Grant’s victory came on the also continued to demand that the back of another defeat of the ABC and SBS disclose the salaries federal Coalition government’s of senior staff and has reaffirmed attempt to further impoverish plans for his department to conduct students with its changes to an inquiry into the ABC and SBS’s higher education. “competitive neutrality”. Early counting appeared to CPSU ABC section secretary show that Sydney University Sinddy Ealy said on October 19: was about to elect the first “These pieces of legislation are a openly Liberal SRC President fresh reminder that Minister Mitch in the modern era. The Fifield and the Turnbull government primary vote count put Ma Progressive student ticket Switch. are not to be trusted with Australia’s ahead by 312 votes; however public broadcasting system. The the strong flow of preferences concurred with the initial be the new editors of University wins from previous years. changes being pushed here are from the eliminated Labor decision taken by Graham. of Sydney student newspaper Former Socialist Alternative designed to undermine the ABC and candidate saw Grant elected by These circumstances did not Honi Soit. The opposing team and now Labor Right member SBS, because that’s what [Pauline 83 votes. deter Grant, who said: “As a Mint, an independent group Peter Zacharatos said while Hanson’s] One Nation and the Grant told Green Left result of the ruling from the that was backed by Labor the win is impressive, Unity commercial media outlets want. Weekly her win was a battle RO and the ELA, I was forced and Liberal students, received will not seek to dominate the “Independent inquiry after against the odds — and the to run under Switch.” 37% of the final vote despite union. independent inquiry has established system — because of problems Switch’s campaign focused announcing their withdrawal “If we don’t give anything that ABC reporting is impartial and affecting their campaign before on issues that affect not from the election during the away (to the other factions), unbiased. Yet a tiny group of self- it even began. just university students, but campaigning, after one of nobody will turn up, and NUS interested people continue to peddle “I was the Grassroots the whole community, with their candidates endorsed will dissolve. We will give the notion that they are somehow presidential candidate and policies in favour of marriage commentary that said queer NLS (Labor Left) president, not being given enough air time on intended to run on that equality, support for university people were mentally ill. and SAlt (Socialist Alternative) the ABC. The real purpose of this branding. However, there was staff and National Tertiary Vanguard campaigner Sukith education officer for the good legislation is to give these people a disaster with the Grassroots Education Union in their Fernando, who had endorsed of the union.” another stick to beat the ABC over nominations and the tickets pay dispute with university Ma for the presidency told Despite the progressive the head with. were excluded from running in management, for Indigenous students he did not know if the presidential victory, talk “The CPSU welcomes the the race, including the 70 rad recognition, environmental Holocaust actually happened has now turned to the support that’s already been shown lefties on those tickets.” sustainability and against rape and, according to student Representative Select meeting in parliament, with Labor and Returning Officer (RO) culture on campus. publication Pulp, said: “I am a on November 2, where office crossbenchers Jacqui Lambie, Derry Paulene Graham dismissed 17 Grant was this year’s holocaust denier”. bearer positions such as Hinch, Lucy Gichuhi and the Nick Grassroots-affiliated tickets Women’s Officer. She used In the Sydney University education, women’s, secretary Xenophon Team supporting an from the election following the office to campaign against National Union of Students and vice-president will be Australian Greens motion in support their ticket’s failure to hand sexual assault on campus, (NUS) elections, five of the elected by the incoming SRC. of the ABC and SBS, and making their nomination forms in on including a response to the seven positions were won by Some quarters suggest Grant’s it clear they would not support the time, having handed them in introduction of the Australian conservatives. Labor Right victory could be a pyrrhic one Turnbull government’s proposed less than one minute after the Human Rights Commission (Unity) is on track nationally with the Liberals poised for changes. close of nominations. report into sexual assault to dominate December’s NUS minority control of the SRC. “This legislation is by no means Grassroots appealed the in education communities, National Conference and Switch activists have been the Turnbull government’s first decision to disallow the against rape culture at Sydney election of office bearers, with organising feminist, LGBTI attack on our national broadcasters. tickets to run, citing previous University colleges and against just over 50% of all voting rights and environmental Harsh cuts have slashed hundreds decisions by the RO that the inequality of women, delegates belonging to Unity. actions on and off campus. of jobs in recent years, but allowed tickets to enter the queers and Indigenous people. Traditionally Unity are the Campaigners are hoping for hardworking staff at the ABC and election despite being handed In a further victory for biggest faction at the NUS a resounding victory at the SBS are continuing their critical in late. the left, Heat for Honi, an National Conference, but this Representative Select meeting, work providing quality news However this argument was independent ticket that was year they won in elections they in order to have a better chance and other programming for all struck down by the Electoral largely supported by members had never won before, while of fighting off anti-student and Australians.” n Legal Arbitrator (ELA) who of Switch and Grassroots, will further consolidating their anti-worker attacks. n

people-powered media greenleft.org.au | 1800 634 206 AuStralia Oct ober 31, 2017 greenleft.org.au | 11 | Voluntary Turnbull is the driver euthanasia of the NBN ‘trainwreck’ laws pass

Jimr McIl oy in Vic lower If the National Broadband Network (NBN) is house becoming a “calamitous train wreck”, as Prime Minister M ia Sanders Malcolm Turnbull claimed on October 23, then the fault lies Au vol ntary euthanasia with him. law has been passed in He was the minister for Victoria’s Legislative Assembly communications in the Tony after a four-day sitting. The bill Abbott Coalition government was passed by 47 votes to 37. that, in 2013, oversaw The proposed law will now the disastrous decision to head to the Legislative Council. fundamentally change the If it passes there, the bill will NBN from Labor’s fibre-to-the- allow terminally ill Victorians premises (FTTP) model to a with less than 12 months to technologically obsolete fibre- live and who are suffering to-the-node (FTTN) system. unbearable pain to access lethal At the time Abbott apparently medication to end their lives. wanted to “kill the NBN” It is yet to be decided which entirely. drugs would be made available, FTTP means a fibre as traditional euthanasia drugs broadband connection direct such as Nembutal are banned to the home or business, while for human use by the federal FTTN means connection to government. the nearest street box or pillar, Victoria’s bill does not seek with the final section relying to legalise the use of Nembutal, on an existing old-fashioned the drug considered to induce copper wire attachment. FTTN the best death for suffering was meant to be cheaper, but patients. will inevitably be slow and When the European Union unreliable. banned the export of Nembutal Now Turnbull is prime to the United States because minister, leading a government of the drug’s use in capital that is implementing a third-rate punishment, a mixture of national internet broadband morphine and an epilepsy system, inferior to most drug was developed as a countries in our region and replacement. the world. As the ABC’s Four The Coalition and Labor agree that the NBN should be privatised when the project is completed. The state government has Corners revealed on October asked Monash University’s 23, New Zealand is rolling out allegedly cheaper than a final Broadband Network should Singapore, Hong Kong, South pharmacy department to an FTTP broadband system, fibre connection from the not obscure two simple facts: Korea and Japan, as well research what type of legal which is significantly superior to street to the individual house. Australia is still way behind as Scandinavia and most of drug mixtures could be the NBN in Australia. Whether that is a better overall where it should be, and Eastern Europe. developed if the legislation Telecommunications solution in the long run is that’s due to the interests of The main long-term problem passes. consultant Paul Budde debatable. corporations and politicians is that both the Coalition An “implementation panel”, highlighted the issue in a In any case, the key issue is being put ahead of everyday government and the Labor which would operate for 18 commentary piece in the the need for quality high-speed Aussies. opposition agree that the months, will be tasked with Sydney Morning Herald. He internet to be made available “The main business NBN should be sold to private exploring the question of drugs, emphasised that Turnbull as to all Australian households at beneficiaries have been investors when the project is if the laws pass the Legislative then-communications minister a reasonable cost and for the shareholders in companies completed. In other words, Council. led the change of NBN policy NBN system to remain in public for whom fast, ubiquitous once the public sector has The bill is a step towards from FTTP to FTTN. hands. broadband represented overseen the construction of enshrining the right to choose “Obviously, he didn’t [then] this massive institution of basic to die with dignity for people see his change in policy as a communications infrastructure, who want to make a free and train wreck in the making, as Australia is still way behind the prize will be stolen from informed choice to end their he indicated he could build ordinary taxpayers by big life. the NBN for $25 billion and where it should be, and that’s business once again. But further steps are needed it would be finished by 2016. due to the interests of The good news may be to eliminate the question The price tag is now up to that the NBN, as currently in of coercion and ensure that $50 billion, to be finished in corporations and politicians. formation, may not be a profit- preventable and treatable 2020–21 and we are saddled making venture and therefore illnesses and disabilities do not with a second-rate network. So far, the signs are not unwanted disruption and not saleable to the corporate continue to shorten the lifespans “If we want to go even good. The Telecommunications competition.” sector. The bad news is that of those who want to live long further, it was under [former Industry Ombudsman’s recent Former Prime Minister Kevin our neoliberal government will lives. Coalition Prime Minister] John annual report showed a 160% Rudd told Four Corners the find a way to gild the lilly — The right to die with dignity Howard’s watch that Telstra rise in complaints about the main beneficiary was News Ltd by imposing further fees or is inseparable from the right to was privatised without any NBN. (since rebranded to News Corp), surcharges on consumers to live with dignity. Euthanasia conditions attached to regional Four Corners revealed that via its 50% stake in the Foxtel access the NBN system. laws are a welcome advance, broadband or to an upgrade some towns that were in the cable TV network. The labour movement and but they must be paired with of the network from copper to process of receiving NBN roll- Rudd said: “It’s a matter the community need to draw a massive increases in funding fibre.” out when the change of policy of historical record that … line in the sand now before it to healthcare and welfare to Budde called on the current occurred are now experiencing News Ltd did not want fibre is too late. There should be no improve the quality of life for government to “stop the roll-out a so-called “digital divide”. optic to the premises. And the sale of the NBN to the private all. of the FTTN and replace it with Dubbo, for example, has a street reason they didn’t want that sector under any circumstances. The Legislative Council is set (fibre to the curb (FTTC). More with FTTP on one side, and the is that it would provide direct We must keep this crucial piece to deliberate on the bill very money spent on FTTN will only lower-quality FTTN system on competition to the Foxtel cable of national communications soon and the numbers look make the NBN less valuable and the other. television network.” infrastructure in public hands. tight. There are 19 Yes votes continue the waste of taxpayers’ Apparently, this has even Telstra, owner of the other Moreover, we need to start locked in — two short of the money. affected the property market, half of Foxtel, also had an a campaign to nationalise 21 needed in the 40-person “If the price of this is a delay with buyers wanting to know interest in seeing the NBN (or re-nationalise in the chamber — including the of another one or two years, so whether a house for sale has rolled out slowly and has played case of Telstra) the entire Reason Party’s Fiona Patten, be it. Better to do it right in the FTTP or FTTN connection, hard-ball since the NBN was corporate telecommunications five Greens, two Liberals and 11 first place.” with a noticeable drop in price first announced in 2009. industry, under workers’ and Labor. FTTC is a compromise for FTTN Australia is now a shameful community control. This is Opposing the bill are three between FTTN and FTTP, Rob Burgess explained in the 50th on the global broadband the only way we can defend Labor MPs, Rachel Carling- which takes the fibre connection October 25 New Daily: “The performance rankings. the interests of working people Jenkins of the Australian much closer to the premises complexities of this week’s Countries that are way ahead and consumers in the critical Conservatives, one National and than fibre to the node, and is debate over the National of Australia on the list include telecommunications sector. n at least eight Liberals. n | 12 | October 31, 2017 greenleft.org.au AuStralia Facts are the only way to deal with history

encampments outside towns. Here, they were largely excluded from the workforce, except for the odd job as a contract livestock musterer. There is even a lack of acknowledgement of Australia’s own Pacific slave trade, where people were kidnapped from island nations like Vanuatu and brought to work as indentured labourers in the sugarcane fields. The acknowledgement of Sue Bolton genocide is political. The ruling class allows us to recognise some I don’t know if an opinion genocides but not others. For poll has ever been done, but a example, they support the fight sizeable portion of people in to acknowledge the genocide Australia, perhaps a majority, against the Armenians by Turkey recognise that Aboriginal and a century ago. But they refuse to Torres Strait Islander people had recognise the genocide against their land invaded by the British Tamils in Sri Lanka and the and experienced a systematic genocide against the Rohingya genocide. in Myanmar that is taking place The fact that this is widely with Australian support right recognised is reflected in the huge now. protests in response to threats Yabun Festival in Sydney on January 26. One positive thing that to close remote Aboriginal has happened recently is the communities and the response campaign for recognition to Warriors of Aboriginal of Aboriginal and Torres Resistance’s call-out for protests. Strait Islander freedom Even back in 1988, there were Don’t celebrate January 26 fighters Tunnerminerwait and 100,000 people protesting the Maulboyheener in Melbourne. It so-called Bicentenary in Sydney. Joac b Andrewartha Wurundjeri clans survived the genocide. Of is scandalous that the memorial But at official levels, politicians the more than 300 clans across Victoria, only to them is the only memorial to pander to the racist version of Mel bourne about 100 survived the genocide. Only seven First People’s freedom fighters in the history of Australia. There out of 38 Aboriginal languages in Victoria have any major Australian capital city. have been huge battles to win the “Aur st alia Day has never been celebrated survived. protocol of official government by my family or clans. Australia Day is divisive. Gunnai Gunditjimara woman and Greens Australia Day? functions having a Welcome to You don’t see us out there celebrating,” Uncle candidate for the seat of Northcote Lidia Country or Acknowledgement Gary Murray, grandson of Pastor Doug Nicholls, Thorpe said when she was asked why Greens I have been asked what date of Country. But that’s where it told a public meeting in Coburg on October 21. councillors in Darebin opposed celebrating Australia Day should be. Frankly, stops. Murray was speaking at a “No Pride in Australia Day on January 26 she said that I cannot think of a suitable Last year on Q&A, an Genocide — don’t celebrate January 26” Aboriginal people want a day that everyone can alternative date. But I do know Indigenous man asked Labor meeting which was organised by Green Left celebrate, not a day when First Nations peoples that January 26 should be leader Bill Shorten if he thought Weekly in response to the public debate about suffer. officially recognised as a Day of Australia had been invaded by whether January 26 should be celebrated Thorpe also explained that the Treaty Mourning. the British. Shorten replied: “If I as Australia Day. So far, four local councils discussions in Victoria had been a There are dates that deserve was an Aboriginal or Indigenous — Fremantle, Yarra, Darebin and Moreland — disappointment because a big accountancy more celebration, such as the person, yes, I would.’’ have decided not to recognise January 26 as firm organised the community consultation. Eureka Stockade, the winning The invasion is historical fact, Australia Day. She advocated a clan-based approach to Treaty of the 8-hour day and the but Shorten only thinks it was an Murray explained that only one of the seven negotiations. victorious anti-conscription invasion if you are Aboriginal or referendums. But I don’t think Indigenous. Shorten was attacked you could celebrate Australia by Prime Minister Malcolm also shows them the film Rabbit- the Australian state and most of So I said celebrating 26 Day on any day other than the Turnbull for even this small Proof Fence. This is dissociation society barely acknowledges the January as Australia Day day of a genuine Treaty being concession. again. fact. The Coniston Massacre of would be like celebrating the signed. There is some 1928 in the beginning of the holocaust as On one level the Australia Dissociation acknowledgement but no true is within living memory. It is Germany Day. The next day the Day debate is just symbolic. reckoning with history. significant for being the last Australian asked me if I stood Dropping the date, renaming W hen you look at the corporate It’s like a guilty secret. It was officially sanctioned massacre. by those comments. I did stand roads and removing the most media each year around not until the early 1980s that Mounted police killed between by my comments because that is obnoxious statues by themselves Invasion Day (January 26), academic texts about the Frontier 60 and 110 people and all were exactly what it was like. It was will not overcome the it’s like the psychological term Wars started appearing. Even in acquitted of wrongdoing. those comments that the racists Indigenous disadvantage that is “dissociation”. They can’t get our popular film culture, there Massacre sites around the and Turnbull tried to scandalise. rooted in the history of violent away from recognition of some is little reflection on the Frontier country are not marked, but There is also a lack of dispossession. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Wars. We don’t even have an there is a celebration of white recognition of intergenerational But we can use the campaign Islander events, but the main Australian equivalent of the US “explorers”. First People’s sacred trauma. I wouldn’t say that I have to change the date of Australia focus is the official version of westerns, despite their racist sites are not protected even to the a full understanding because this Day as a jumping-off point to Australia Day. There’s no genuine limitations. same degree as cemeteries. is an issue that is repressed in fight for historical truth and the recognition of it as a Day of My grandparents’ generation Australia. genuine recognition of the scale Mourning for the First Nations. Frontier Wars had first-hand knowledge of of dispossession and genocide Among working-class people, these Frontier Wars. That Why deny history? and the impact on current opinion is divided. There is T here is no excuse for this explains why racism towards generations. a layer, especially the older denial. There are more and Aboriginal and Torres Strait W hy is the ruling class so An honest look at our generation, who are in denial. more recordings of the oral Islander people is more explicit opposed to recognition of our history points towards the It reminds me of when someone history of First Nations people, and crude in the areas where the history? The right are fighting transformations of Australian with an addiction is in denial. combined with important work wars between Blacks and whites to preserve the myths and deny society’s relationship to its They even recognise that some by historians. occurred more recently. Racism is history. Indigenous people that are bad things were done, but are not After former Prime Minister more explicit there because it was They know the wealth of necessary and just, including willing to acknowledge the scale John Howard’s history wars, necessary to force white people to Australian corporations resulted recognition of sovereignty of what took place. where he trotted out right-wing do terrible things to First Nations from the dispossession of through a Treaty (or Treaties), Working-class people take historian Keith Windshuttle people. Aboriginal people from their real land rights that go beyond their cue from the education to dispute the genocide, the When Moreland Council land. This is why they are so the limits of Native Title, system, the media and historians he criticised went passed its motion to not opposed to land rights that could reparations for stolen wages and politicians. My school education back through their notes and recognise January 26 as Australia impinge on the ability of mining the stolen generations, funding about the history of Australia found even more evidence of the Day, I tried to dramatise the companies to plunder the wealth for bilingual education and so was totally Anglo-centric. I genocide and devastation of the scale of what had happened in of the land. It is ill-gotten gains. much more. thought education must be a Frontier Wars. historical terms. In Australia, The pastoral industry was [Sue Bolton is a Socialist lot better now, but recently I The massacres and other there is broad recognition of the built on slave labour. When Alliance councillor on Moreland was told of a primary school in atrocities of Australia’s Frontier genocide in Germany against the pastoralists were forced City Council. She gave this Melbourne that teaches children Wars are not ancient history, Jewish people, although not the to pay some, but not equal, speech at a Green Left Weekly the traditional story of Captain especially not if you are a same recognition of the genocide wages, Aboriginal people were No Pride in Genocide forum in Cook discovering Australia, but descendant of the victims and against the Roma people. driven off the stations and into Melbourne on October 21.] n internationalinternational October 31, 2017 greenleft.org.au | 13 |

Africa The US war you didn’t hear about ... until now

Lee Wengraf taken a military form for the Chinese government, which The military intervention announced in late 2015 that it that the United States political would establish its first overseas and Pentagon establishment military outpost, a naval base in never talked about is suddenly Djibouti. in the news after a joint patrol The aftermath of the attack in comprising 12 US troops and 30 Niger points to the prospect of Nigerien soldiers was attacked increased US intervention there. by a small group thought to be an ISIS affiliate known as ISIS Increased intervention in the Greater Sahara (ISIS-GS). The attack, which took place A similar possibility is likely outside the village of Tongo in Somalia as well, following Tongo, near the border with the al-Shabaab bombing in Mali, left four US Army Green the capital, Mogadishu, that Berets and five Nigerien soldiers left more than 300 dead — dead and many more wounded, an attack thought to be in along with numerous ISIS-GS retaliation for a US Special forces. Forces raid on a Somali village The incident itself was little two months before that left 10 mentioned until US President civilians dead. Donald Trump — after two Following the Mogadishu weeks of silence on the matter bombing, Trump signed a — offended the family of A US Special Forces soldier trains soldiers in Diffa, Niger. directive classifying parts of soldier La David Johnson in a Somalia as areas of “active characteristically insensitive However, the US military’s operations, with Agadez is an expression of imperial hostilities”. This means the condolence call to his widow strategic focus is not on the serving as the premier outpost tensions between the major Pentagon now has more power Myeshia Johnson. humanitarian crisis, though for launching intelligence, world powers. to carry out air strikes and Beyond Trump’s predictably this rhetoric is used to justify surveillance, and reconnaissance Across Africa, the US ground raids in the region poor communication skills, intervention. The real focus missions against a plethora of government has sought alliances — and, effectively, greater the attack on the patrol has is on counterterrorism and terror groups.” and favourable conditions permission to kill bystanders generated controversy over containing the risks posed by for conducting business in a without accountability. a host of tactical questions this regional instability, with the Scramble for Africa host of nations. The period of Defence Secretary James and generated a debate over potential for further insurgency greater military involvement Mattis announced on October the immediate next steps for and wider wars. The growing conflicts in West has coincided with a surging 20 that counter-terror efforts in military operations in Niger and Counterterrorism initiatives Africa are the logical outgrowth economic boom, sometimes Africa will now be expanded. Africa as a whole. in the region date back to of a wider US presence across described as the “new scramble “The war is morphing,” But almost entirely missing 2002, on the heels of 9/11, and the continent. The launch of for Africa” — a drive for oil Republican Senator Lindsey from the media coverage or the continue to unfold with the AFRICOM in 2008 has evolved, and other natural resources Graham told reporters last mainstream political discussion widening US involvement in almost a decade later, into a and investment opportunities week. “You’re going to see are the broader questions that West Africa. vastly expanded militarisation, that relies on friendly African more actions in Africa, not arise in the wake of the Niger As Alan Maass wrote in with a shift towards greater regimes amenable to looking out less; you’re going to see more attack: What is the role of the 2014: “In the US and Europe, permanence. for US interests. aggression by the United States US military in Niger in the first politicians are exploiting the The scale of intervention The US, however, is not the toward our enemies, not less; place? And why has there been international outcry against made a decisive jump on only major power with its sights you’re going to have decisions a dramatic escalation of US Boko Haram to recycle anti- Obama’s watch, with a 200% set on Africa. being made not in the White military presence in Africa as a Islam rhetoric from the ‘war on increase in military missions. House but out in the field.” whole? terror’ — and to justify, behind Today, there are about 6000 Foreign powers The prospects for intensified a facade of humanitarian US troops across the African imperial intervention pose sharp Niger’s strategic role concern, the expansion of continent. More than half are France, the former colonial questions for how an opposition military operations in Africa concentrated at the main US power in the region, has sought to this militarism can be built. According to the US Africa that are designed to promote base at Camp Lemonnier in the to establish power broker status Certainly, the “problem” of the Command (AFRICOM) there is imperialist interests, not the small Horn of Africa nation of in West Africa, including in region will not be resolved by no active US military presence well-being of Nigerians or Djibouti, with others scattered Mali and Niger. great attention on the part of in Niger at all, but rather 800 anyone else on the continent.” across the continent. France also has economic Trump, who has faced recent US troops providing “only” This same rhetoric has been Several factors have helped interests of its own — it relies criticism for his supposed training and logistics for deployed to obscure the real create what is essentially a US on uranium for nuclear power inattention to Africa policy. soldiers of the Niger army, as roots of the spiralling regional war in Africa. plants that generate about three- Yet people on the left must well as support for 4000 French crisis, which lie in the Western For one, concerns about quarters of its electricity, much also reject calls to inject troops in West Africa. intervention in Mali and Libya. stability and security speak of it originating in Niger, the resources into “local” forces But these claims obscure the Journalist Nick Turse, author to the continent’s geostrategic fourth-largest uranium producer such as the African Union strategic regional role played by of Tomorrow’s Battlefield: value for US interests more in the world. France’s economic (AU). US funding for military Niger for the world’s imperial U.S. Proxy Wars and Secret broadly. The US military presence has only intensified the operations via local proxy forces powers. Ops in Africa, has documented presence in Africa can be conflict created by its military or regional operations such In Mali, which lies to Niger’s the expanding presence of US understood in part as playing an presence — the Somair uranium as the AU merely provide an west, al Qaeda-linked forces military sites across Africa, important supporting role for mine in Arlit, for example, has alternative vehicle for extending have been waging a civil war including airfields, bases and US intervention in the ongoing been the target of attacks by al- US interests on the continent. against the French-supported outposts, which now number wars in the Middle East. Qaeda-linked groups. This is a dead end for the left. government. To Niger’s south, 46. The “war on terror” against China is likewise a major Rather, anti-war forces in the a civil war in northern Nigeria Most strikingly, as Turse has key targets in Africa — such as economic competitor to the US US and beyond must demand between Boko Haram and the described for the Intercept, the al-Shabaab in Somalia, near the in Africa, and its presence in an end to military deployment government has spilled over US is building a large drone Red Sea, with proximity to the Niger is a case in point. and use on the continent in all into neighbouring Chad and base in Agadez in Niger. Middle East; Boko Haram; and China has made strides in forms. We must show how the Cameroon, as well as Niger, in Authorised by the previous Islamic militants in Libya and developing its important nuclear corporate scramble for African the broader Lake Chad region, Barack Obama administration, the Mali/Niger border region — industry, and it has launched resources is linked to the accounting for tens of thousands Agadez is, as Turse writes, are closely tied to these wider Somina, a joint venture between intensified militarisation, and of deaths. “considered the most important aims. Niger and the China National challenge both. These conflicts have been US military construction effort Arguably, however, efforts Nuclear Corporation. As with Imperialism in Africa will highly destabilising, generating in Africa ... [T]he only country to eliminate terror by military the Somair mine, local anger at lead inevitably to heightened scorched earth responses from in the region willing to allow a means have only intensified the conditions surrounding mines conflict, poverty and war, the Nigerian and Nigerien US base for MQ-9 Reapers — a violence. Suicide bombings by has been building for years, whether US lives are lost or governments and creating a newer, larger, and potentially Boko Haram, for example, are including among Tuareg herders not. Resistance to the new wars huge refugee crisis. About more lethal model than the already twice the number that facing depletion of their water in Africa could not be more 2 million people have been Predator drone — Niger has took place in 2016. sources near the mine. urgent. displaced and famine looms positioned itself to be the key At the same time, the The competition between [Abridged from US Socialist across four nations. regional hub for US military expanded US military presence imperial powers has likewise Worker.] n | 14 | Octbe o r 31, 2017 greenleft.org.au INTERNATIONAL US and Iandi India discuss Chinese influence in Asia United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss China’s growing influence in Asia on October 25. Tillerson recently gave a speech regarding the US’s desire to “dramatically deepen” ties with India to combat what he described as a negative Chinese influence in the region. Last year, the two countries reported bilateral trade of Wealth inequality has grown markedly $115 billion. They are seeking under the Narendra Modi regime. to expand this to $500 billion by 2022, though the US maintains a multi-billion dollar trade deficit with the Asian country. India and the US are quickly expanding defence ties as US The unravelling of the defence contractors Lockheed Martin and Boeing vie for multi-billion dollar contracts. The US does not, however, disastrous Modi regime have a military base in India at present. These deepening ties are Dipankar is that after a marginal world slavery report, put out class) fell from 43% to 30%; part of a strategy to compete Bhattacharya improvement from 2011 to by the International Labour and the share of the bottom in the region, and globally, 2015, when India’s ranking Organisation in collaboration 50% fell from 24% to 15%. with China, which is an As the crucial Gujarat went up from 108 among 122 with the Walk Free Foundation, The Hindu nationalist Sangh- important policy of the current elections approach, the chinks countries in 2011 to 93 among puts India in first place with BJP establishment knows of US administration headed by in the propaganda armour of 117 countries in 2015, India’s 1.4% of the population, or only one way to tackle this President Donald Trump. Indian Prime Minister Narendra ranking has slipped over the more than 18 million people, growing economic disaster Tillerson has said in the past Modi’s Gujarat model of past two years, down to 97 estimated to be trapped in — by sharpening communal that the rise of India and China development continue to get among 118 countries in 2016 various forms of slavery. polarisation in the country. No differ in that China has no brutally exposed. and 100 in 2017. India’s 2017 Add to this acute malnutrition wonder the BJP has even begun respect for international law. Indeed, the popular narrative Global Hunger Index (GHI) of and hunger, the growing targeting the Taj Mahal as being He accused Beijing of using on development that has 31.4 places it at the “higher end burden of unemployment and “alien” and non-Indian, and bad financial tactics to bury emerged from within Gujarat — of the serious category”. under-employment, the soaring projecting Yogi Adityanath, smaller countries in debt. where Modi was chief minister The report exposes the prices of essential goods and who has emerged as an epitome Conversely, the secretary prior to becoming PM — and disturbing state of affairs services and the lack of state of communal vitriol and failed has praised India as a pillar of that has taken social media behind the government’s lofty expenditure and investment in governance in Uttar Pradesh, stability. by storm is that “vikas gando rhetoric and tall claims of public welfare, and we get an as a star BJP campaigner from China is quickly expanding thayo chhe” — “development “Digital India” and “Make in alarming picture of the living Kerala to Gujarat. in Asia, and further abroad, has gone crazy”. India”. However shocking and conditions facing the common It is desperately trying to through its huge infrastructure This is not just about Gujarat, shameful, the report is hardly people. politicise the mutual clashes campaign called “One Belt, this can be said about the surprising for those who are Governments have been trying between the right-wing One Road,” that is promising dominant discourse and model aware of the reality in India. hard to keep this grim reality Hindu nationalist Rashtriya $1 trillion in infrastructure of development in the rest of The phenomenon of hidden behind the misleading Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) development and is winning India. And it is not a recent child deaths in government statistics of GDP growth, and Communist Party of contracts throughout the phenomenon, occurring only in hospitals is a bitter reality in but now even GDP figures no India (Marxist) in Kerala’s world. the wake of Modi’s 2014 victory several states. From Simdega longer paint a rosy picture. Kannur district as a “Marx One of China’s major when the “Gujarat model” in Jharkhand has come the The growing concentration of against Hindus” bogey and has contracts in Asia is a 260- was sought to be replicated stunning news of a young girl wealth in the hands of an ever spearheaded a violent anti- mile long tunnel that will run nationally. dying of starvation after being smaller minority leaves the rest Communist campaign across through Laos and eventually Crazy development is a denied food for not having an of society reeling precariously the country. connect eight countries in Asia. characteristic outcome of Aadhaar ID ration card. under the burden of economic But if the byelection results China has also invested crony capitalism, when the Chronic deprivation — lack inequality. of Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat $46 billion to build up resources and focus of the or Vengara assembly seat in Pakistan’s energy sector state are increasingly dedicated Kerala, or for that matter by building power plants. to the interests of a handful Between 1980 and 2014, the share the results of the Allahabad Pakistan and India have long- of corporations and well- University Students’ Union standing hostilities. connected cronies. in income of the top 1% of India’s elections, are anything to go by, “The Chinese investments in As economic observers, population rose from 6% to 22%. the BJP is finding it increasingly the region are peaking and its including former finance difficult to hide its failure every strategic move is crafted ministers from within the ruling and betrayal in economic or to realise its agenda to become Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), of access to food, drinking Renowned economists administrative governance an economic superpower,” express concern over the six water, sanitation and housing — Thomas Piketty and Lucas behind communal aggression the Indo-American Chamber quarters of consecutive decline combined with cruel exclusion Chancel of the Paris School and jingoistic rhetoric. of Commerce said in a press in the GDP growth rate, and in the name of non-possession of Economics have detected The rise of the disastrous statement. reports of job losses in virtually of an Aadhaar ID card has an alarming rise in economic Modi model began in Gujarat; “India offers a pathway for every industry and employment rendered large sections of inequality in India. Between let the sign of its downfall the US to make its economic sector continue coming in, the our population permanently 1980 and 2014, the share in also emanate from the coming presence in the region felt and latest International Food Policy vulnerable to acute malnutrition income of the top 1% of India’s Gujarat elections. to meet the developmental Research Institute report on the and hunger. population rose from 6% to [Dipankar Bhattacharya is imperatives of the nations in state of global hunger tells us The GHI is not, however, 22%. During the same period, the general secretary of the the region.” that India is ranked 100 in a list the only global index that the share of the top 10% rose Communist Party of India [Reprinted from TeleSUR of 117 countries. reveals India’s disturbing from 30% to 50%; the share (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation. English.] n What is even more worrying comparative position. The of the middle 40% (the middle Reprinted from Liberation.] n international October 31, 2017 greenleft.org.au | 15 |

Myanr ma Rohingya refugee crisis: who’s to blame?

Jenny Francis the army or vigilantes that burned it down, I feel as if it is Yangon you — Aung San Suu Kyi — that is to blame … You are the one More than 600,000 who is responsible for setting my Rohingya have fled Myanmar hopes and dreams on fire.” (also known as Burma) to Responding to the fact Bangladesh since August 25. that the military controls key With about 300,000 ministries, Zarni said: “She Rohingya refugees already in controls four other ministries Bangladesh, tens of thousands that are directly involved in hiding in northern parts in dismissing, denying and of Rakhine State and about legitimating the persecution of 100,000 detained in Internal the Rohingyas: the Information Displacement Camps, United Ministry; Religious Affairs Nations Secretary General Ministry; Immigration Antonio Guterres has described Ministry; and Foreign Affairs this mass exodus as “the world Ministry. fastest-developing refugee “In a word, she will be emergency and a humanitarian remembered as a genocide and human rights nightmare.” denier. She is not simply Myanmar used to be home standing by when thousands to about 1.3 million Rohingya, of people are driven out of a Muslim ethnic minority the country. She is actually who for centuries have lived culpable. She is aiding and in the majority Buddhist abetting, wittingly, out of her Myanmar, mostly in Rakhine anti-Muslim racism.” State. When Myanmar’s 1982 Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi (centre) sits with members of the Tatmadaw during a Union Day commemoration in Bangladeshi economist and citizenship law classified all Panglong on February 12. fellow Nobel Peace laureate, Rohingya as immigrants from Muhammad Yunus, is equally Bangladesh, regardless of where Myanmar’s de-facto leader, the criticism is probably see the ultimate responsibility clear: “I’ll put 100% of the they were born or how long Aung San Suu Kyi, blames misdirected more to her than for this crisis resting with Suu blame on her because she is the their families had lived in the ARSA for the crisis. She the military.” Kyi. leader.” Speaking to Al Jazeera, country, Myanmar’s Rohingya also blames international Former Australian Prime he pointed out that Suu Kyi is population became the world’s organisations that “participated Minister Kevin Rudd weighed Aung San Suu Kyi going out of her way to support largest group of stateless people. while extremist terrorists in along the same lines: “Ms. the Tatmadaw and its actions. About 75% of the Rohingya besieged” a village, and who Aung San Suu Kyi’s challenge A s a woman who stood up “Not only that, verbally she’s population of Myanmar have she says created a “huge iceberg has been to avoid providing to a military dictatorship for defending it … She says, ‘I now been brutally persecuted of misinformation” to promote the military with sufficient more than 20 years, becoming don’t know why these people and chased from their country “the interests of terrorists”. cause to justify a coup against a global icon of democracy are going. No, we don’t have of birth. Hundreds of survivors However, ARSA states that her democratically elected and justice, and who led the atrocities’ … She gets all the describe indiscriminate killing, “we do not associate with government while also working National League for Democracy blame and she’s responsible for widespread rape, including any terrorist group across the toward long-term solutions for (NLD) to a landslide electoral it, and she has to fix it.” of children, and the complete world”, and clearly focuses the Rohingya.” victory in November 2015, destruction of villages by the on Rohingya persecution and This view — that it would be these critics say that if she had Australia’s role Myanmarese military, known repression. Maung Zarni, political suicide for her to speak the political will, Suu Kyi could as the Tatmadaw. Human a Myanmarese activist and up for the Rohingya and against resolve the crisis. With the huge In a yet-to-be-released report, Rights Watch reported tens adviser to the European Centre the Tatmadaw and nationalist following she still has, she could the International Commission of of thousands of homes and at for the Study of Extremism, Buddhists — is widely held in readily change public opinion Jurists note: “Even recognising least 228 Rohingya villages told Al Jazeera that ARSA’s Myanmar, and regularly used to on this issue. the legal and practical were destroyed by burning in a actions were the result of explain Suu Kyi’s lack of action In an “Open letter from a limitations on the exercise of month. “systematic abuses of genocidal or concern. Rohingya to Aung San Suu civilian authority over security Addressing the Human Rights proportions” by the Tatmadaw This is not surprising. Suu Kyi”, Ro Mayyu Ali, speaking operations, the NLD-led Council on September 11, the Kyi is not president, but state to Al Jazeera said: “I was civilian government remains UN High Commissioner for Tatmadaw counsellor and minister of born in the same year you bound to do everything in its Human Rights called this crisis foreign affairs. The military- were awarded your coveted power to protect human rights “a textbook example of ethnic Many, if not most, foreign and written constitution bars her Nobel Peace Prize. It was one during security operations in cleansing.” national commentators lay the from the Presidency, because of the greatest honours to be Myanmar.” Who is responsible for this blame with the omnipotent her two sons are British. The bestowed upon someone from As key steps in resolving this humanitarian crisis? Tatmadaw. Such arguments president, Htin Kyaw, a long- our country … For the first time crisis, the report recommends: also include a justification of term friend of Suu Kyi’s, is since independence, we — the “A review and modification of Arakan Rohingya why Suu Kyi has defended largely seen as a figurehead, Rohingya — felt as though we the 1982 Citizenship Law and Salvation Army the Tatmadaw’s actions and playing a minor political role. were a part of this country. We its application is required so that remained silent on the plight of Moreover, with 25% of the were proud to call ourselves it offers rights to all residents T he August 25 attack on about the Rohingya. seats in parliament allocated Myanmarese. of Myanmar in line with the 30 police posts in northern For example, former East to the military and three key “On September 1, my parents principle of non-discrimination” Rakhine State by the Arakan Timorese President Jose Ramos ministries — Border Affairs, and I were forced to leave our and, “Other States in the Rohingya Salvation Army Horta said: “For her to survive Defence and Home Affairs home. After three days and two region, including Thailand and (ARSA) was the trigger for this in this context, she has to try — under the military’s direct nights, we reached Bangladesh Malaysia and Indonesia, as well current wave of repression. to work with the military. control, it is understandable after crossing the Naf River on as Australia, must also ensure The government immediately She cannot antagonise them. why many see the Tatmadaw as a small rowing boat. We later that Rohingya refugees (as declared ARSA a “terrorist She cannot antagonise the the most powerful institution in found shelter at the Kutupalong all other refugees and asylum group” and has consistently hardliners and the nationalist the country. refugee camp. I just received seekers) under their jurisdiction defended the actions of the Buddhist monks and others. So Nevertheless, a growing information that my home was are offered full protection under Tatmadaw as “counter- it’s an extraordinarily difficult number of critics, including burned to the ground. international human rights and terrorism” operations. situation for her … sometimes many of her former supporters, “While many will say it was refugee law.” n | 16 | October 31, 2017 greenleft.org.au INTERNATIONAL

France Unions debate how to fight Macron’s anti-worker reforms

Lisbeth Latham — that was only achieved on October 9. One of France’s largest In a statement following their union confederations, the leadership’s October 17 meeting General Confederation of with the government to discuss Workers (CGT), held a strike the ordinances, Solidaires called on October 19 as part of for the rejection of the current the campaign against the ordinances, the repeal of last anti-worker and anti-union year’s anti-worker El Khomri ordinances adopted by the Law brought in by the previous Emmanuel Macron government. Socialist Party government and The mobilisations were far rejection of the government’s smaller than the previous three prioritisation of “flexibility” days of protests and have further over security for workers. fuelled discussion within the Solidaires is working to win movement over how to overcome agreement for a mid-November divisions and weaknesses convergence of the struggles and mobilise the widespread of workers, unemployed latent public opposition to the and retirees. It presented government’s attacks. proposals for how to achieve The October 19 strikes and this convergence to the inter- mobilisations by the CGT union meeting on October were announced on October 24. Solidaires stated that “the 9 — a day prior to a public constitution of a strong and sector workers’ strike — with determined social movement is the aim of driving forward the urgently needed”. movement. However, the result An agreement was reached was about 100,000 workers at the October 24 meeting participating in the October Students take part in a general strike, in Paris on October 10. between the CGT, Solidaires 19 mobilisations — roughly and the FO for a joint half the size of the September Le Monde on October 23 of have undermined the capacity However, this engagement mobilisation on November 21 mobilisations and about statements made by CFDT to mobilise these militant and has not been limited to the 16. Although opposed by the a quarter of the size of the secretary general Laurent Berger strategically-located workers more conservative unions. CDFT, the call has also been September 12 protests, the at the confederation’s October in support of the broader CGT leaders have also endorsed by UNEF, France’s largest mobilisation of the 18–19 National Council movement. engaged in dialogue and main university student campaign to date. meeting. Berger described are seeking to participate in union, and two high school The call for the strike came the joint mobilisations as a the next round, which will student unions. These student after the first inter-union “demonstration of weakness” The government focus on the government’s organisations played a critical meeting involving all the union and the CGT as “the Titanic, proposed attacks on vocational role in the early stages of the confederations was held on who wants to ride on the fears union training, apprenticeships and protests against the El Khomri October 9, the first of its kind Titanic?”. threats of unemployment insurance. Law. during the current campaign. However, the left unions Pelletier argues that this Another organisation pushing It was widely known that the have also displayed an mobilisation. engagement undermines for a united mobilisation has CGT would call the strike and inability to engage and draw the extent to which the been the Social Front (FS), that the militant trade union in more militant members of New Anti-Capitalist Party government fears union threats which was established in late Solidaires would support it, conservative unions. (NPA) militant Robert of mobilisation. He argues April by activists frustrated but there was no effort made While this objective is easier Pelletier, writing in the NPA’s that the focus should instead by the collapse of last year’s at that meeting to draw the said than done, the CGT l’Anticapitaliste, argues that be on building upon the movement. other confederations into the has been heavily focused on a major problem undermining existing resistance by workers FS has been building up mobilisations. individual sections of its own mobilisations has been the — particularly through the its support with more than confederation rather than trying determination of the leaders calling of indefinite strikes 130 union, social justice and Conservative unions to find ways to broaden the of the major confederations to — while moving away from political organisations from movement. This has at times participate in “dialogue” with union-by-union and sector-by- across France affiliating to the The failure to seek to draw other achieved some gains — such the government. sector strikes towards a united organisation. unions into the mobilisation as truck drivers and wharf The worst perpetrators have movement. It also successfully built a reflects deep problems in the workers securing concessions been the leaders of Workers series of united mobilisations current campaign. that would limit the extent to Force (FO) and the CFDT, who United convergence against Macron following the This includes the refusal by which enterprise agreements can despite anger from their rank- first round of the presidential conservative unions, particularly undermine sectoral agreements and-file and lower-level leaders, S olidaires has continued to elections in April. FS has called the French Confederation of — but the isolated strikes have have accepted the attacks and push for united mobilisations for a joint protest on November Democratic Workers (CFDT), to had a tendency to leave the argued that engagement with supported by all union 18 against Macron’s policies. join the movement. more militant sections of the the government has served to confederations. It had been Activists from FS addressed the The potential of drawing movement on their own. limit the damage and helped seeking to bring union leaders October 24 inter-union meeting them in seems even bleaker Where they have won to make progress in building together for a discussion on seeking to win support for the following the publication in concessions, those victories “social dialogue”. a united response since May mobilisation. n ADVERTISEMENT internationalinternational October 31, 2017 greenleft.org.au | 17 | Catalonia declares independence

Dick Nichols square outside the government building began to fill with Barcelona angry protesters. They were led by the university students Just after 3pm on October who had gone on strike that 27, the Catalan parliament day in support of the Catalan voted to ratify the results of the Republic. country’s October 1 referendum The students were halfway on self-determination, through their march when the proclaiming Catalonia “an news started to spread that independent state in the form of Puigdemont wanted to call a republic”. early elections. The chants of In the 135-seat Catalan the demonstrations changed parliament the vote was 70 effortlessly to “Not a step in favour — the MPs of the backwards!”, “Those who are pro-independence coalition in prison don’t want elections!” Together for the Yes (JxSi) and [a reference to imprisoned the anti-capitalist People’s Unity ANC and Omnium Cultural List (CUP) — to 10 against — leaders Jordi Sanchez and Jordi the MPs of the left coalition Cuixart], “Betrayal” and Catalonia Yes We Can (CSQEP) “No independence without — and two informal votes. disobedience”. The other 53 MPs from the In the hours after unionist parties Citizens, the Puigdemont’s announcement People’s Party (PP) and the the noise of revolt continued to Party of Socialists of Catalonia Catalans celebrate the declaration of independence outside parliament on October 27. grow, but it was accompanied (PSC), walked out of the by total silence from a Rajoy chamber in protest at a vote October 1 referendum but This discussion spreads to the an interest in preventing a 155 government that was supposed they said violated the Spanish suspended its application to call JxSi parliamentary group. intervention, namely various to commit to suspending 155. constitution. for negotiations with the PP • October 25, 4pm. The JxSi Catalan businesspeople, former When PP spokespeople Outside parliament the vote government. parliamentarians adopt by a Catalan PSC premier Jose were finally heard from, it was greeted with cheers from When Rajoy ignored this large majority the position of Montilla and current PSC leader was to say that “we have to the tens of thousands of people call and pressed ahead with “declaring the Republic and Miquel Iceta. Their contact re-establish statutory and who had gathered for this his war on Catalan self-rule, resisting with the people” and person in the PP is Congress constitutional legality with historic moment. Puigdemont said the Catalan speakers’ notes are prepared speaker Ana Pastor. decisions of the Senate” (Javier Almost immediately, Spanish parliament would consider outlining the arguments for These mediators convince Arenas, in charge of regional Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, lifting the suspension. After use at 100 meetings called by Puigdemont that they have government policy) and whose government is about to the PP government’s draconian the Catalan National Assembly enough commitment from the “stopping the application of launch a takeover of Catalan plans for intervention were (ANC) and Catalan culture and PP for him to call early elections article 155 doesn’t depend on government and institutions detailed on October 21, the language association Omnium and dissolve parliament. the calling of early elections under section 155 of the Spanish declaration of independence Cultural. • October 26, 10am. in Catalonia but on a clear constitution, tweeted: “I ask all seemed a certainty. However, during the meeting, Puigdemont informs his renunciation from the Catalan Spaniards for calm: the rule of However, that conclusion voices are raised against this ministers, JxSi MPs and government of independence law will soon restore legality in underestimated the huge “suicidal” course, provoking representatives of the two main aspirations.”(Galician premier Catalonia.” pressure that the Catalan, an all-in debate, the content parties in JxSi — the Catalan Alberto Nunez Feijoo). The Spanish Senate voted 214 Spanish and European political of which is communicated to European Democratic Party By 4pm, six hours after to 47 (with one informal vote) and economic establishments Puigdemont. (PDECat) and the Republican Puigdemont had dropped his to give the Rajoy government all would bring to bear on the • October 25, 5pm. The Left of Catalonia (ERC) — bombshell, the media were the powers it needs to sack the Catalan government. The 72 position of a minority of JxSi that he has decided to call still waiting for him to make Catalan government of Carles hours between October 23 and MPs — to shift to an election early elections and dissolve a public statement that had Puigdemont, control the Catalan October 26 saw a near-panic scenario to preserve Catalonia’s parliament. All he is waiting for originally been scheduled for parliament and launch an assault mobilisation of these powers- institutions (a position also is confirmation that the Rajoy midday. on Catalonia’s institutions. that-be. held by Catalonia Yes We government will call off its 155 Finally, it was clear the PP Nonetheless, their offensive Can) — gets further repeated intervention and thus avoid was not interested in giving any The berserk road failed for two reasons: the in the editorials of all the major “extreme violence”. undertaking to Puigdemont and to independence resistance of the Catalan Catalan dailies, as well as in that, in fact, they were gunning independence movement and statements by the economic Revolt for him. October 27 was therefore a the refusal of the PP to drop establishment. historic day. But the most what it sees as a precious Business minister Santi P uigdemont’s announcement left War amazing, convulsive, day in chance to liquidate Catalan Vila, who has been publicly the independence camp aghast. modern Catalan political self-rule as part of its long-held reluctant about an independence First to comment was CUP A t 5pm, Puigdemont announced history took place the day recentralisation agenda for the declaration, puts out feelers MP Carles Riera: “Up until that because he had not received before. Spanish state. to contacts in the Spanish now the Catalan independence any guarantees, the offer of In the space of eight hours on The mounting pressure on government about the possibility movement has had one enemy, going to early elections was off October 26, Puigdemont shifted the Catalan administration, of a negotiated settlement. the Spanish state. Now it the table and the decision on his stance from supporting which included an ongoing • October 25, 7pm. At a has a second, the Catalan whether to respond to the threat a declaration of Catalan campaign to scare companies summit of the independence government.” of article 155 intervention with independence to supporting to register themselves outside movement — the government, Next to react were three an independence declaration early elections and dropping Catalonia and stern statements mass organisations, parties PDECat MPs, who along with was to be taken by parliament. independence and, finally, to from European Union and municipal bodies — the JxSi independent MP Germa The main effect of dropping early elections and spokespeople, severely shook up majority view remains that of Bel, tore up their party cards. Puigdemont’s offer was to having the Catalan parliament the Puigdemont ministry and declaring independence and The ERC, while “respecting” further expose the political decide on independence. the ruling JxSi parliamentary “resisting with the people”. Puigdemont’s decision, said motivation of the PP: just as Puigdemont’s disorienting fraction. However, Puigdemont notes it disagreed with it and, after the Rajoy government was shifts came after three days a strong minority current an emergency meeting of its not interested in Puigdemont’s of negotiation and debate The conflict unfolds arguing for early elections as a national council, advised that previous clarification that no within the mass organisations way of stopping an article 155 if Puigdemont went ahead with declaration of independence and parties of the Catalan Here is how the week unfolded: onslaught. He, too, is concerned his plan it would leave the had taken place on October 10, independence movement had • October 23, 6pm. There is about the capacity of the government. Both the ERC and it had no interest in accepting finally produced a decision in no indication of the drama to movement to resist, especially if the smaller force, Democrats, a truce that would have come favour of declaring Catalonia come, as both the government it is divided. called on Puigdemont to reverse at great political cost to independent. and JxSi parliamentarians The Catalan crisis is his decision. Puigdemont had it actually gone The establishment Barcelona agree that the Catalan Republic particularly worrying for The ANC and Omnium ahead. daily La Vanguardia certainly should be declared on October Basque Premier Inigo Urkullu Cultural reaffirmed their The determination of the thought so: on October 26 its 27. (Basque Nationalist Party), who commitment to respecting Rajoy government to “get” gloomy front page headline • October 24, 10am. As the fears that a successful attack the October 1 result. Sumate, Catalonia saved the unity of the read: “Radical milieu pushing details of the extent of the on Catalan autonomy will the organisation of Spanish- Catalan independence forces. Puigdemont towards UDI article 155 intervention start encourage the most centralising speaking supporters of Now, having voted for [Unilateral Declaration of to sink in, discussion opens up forces in the PP and Citizens to independence, tweeted: “We independence, those forces must Independence]”. in the Catalan cabinet as to target Basque institutions next. don’t accept Catalan elections, prepare for war. The independence declaration whether it is even possible to Urkullu offers to mediate you have a mandate from the [Dick Nichols is Green had been on hold since October defend the country’s institutions between the Spanish and Catalan people and you must Left Weekly’s European 10, when the Puigdemont and whether going to early Catalan governments: he is fulfil it.“ correspondent, based in recognised the result of the elections might not be wiser. supported by other figures with At the same time, the Barcelona.] n | 18 | October 31, 2017 greenleft.org.au INTERNATIONAL Rural strike erupts across Colombia

Atticus Ballesteros illicit crops. And we’re saying no to [forced] eradication, Outraged by government which is sowing death in our failures to honour a peace communities.” deal with the Revolutionary The Pan-American Highway Armed Forces of Colombia protest has caused members of (FARC), rural communities the business sector and truckers across Colombia have initiated union, worried about their a “national strike” demanding trade routes, to further pressure widespread solutions to poverty, President Santos. violence and drug trafficking. Many of the protests stretch The strike is the most far- beyond the extent of the peace reaching since 2013, when agreement with the FARC. farmers took to the streets In Cauca, members of decrying abject poverty and the indigenous community negative economic effects of a demanded the fulfilment of free trade agreement with the promises made in the 1990s United States. regarding the organisation of Protests began on October national resources. 23 in at least eight Colombian In Narino and parts of departments, with more Antioquia, protesters have expected to join by the end of called for increased security the month, claiming the national Striking farmers blockade the Pan-American Highway in Cauca on October 24. guarantees for social leaders, government has failed to carry especially for communities out an array of promised rural interested in illicit crop reforms and investment projects. substitution. Individual protests have also In all of the protests, issued unique demands to the Another indigenous leader assassinated organisers have called on administration of President Juan the government to honour Manuel Santos. Colombian indigenous leader Aulio Organization (ONIC) also publicly condemned agreements made at the Protest organisers include Isamara Forastero was assassinated on the murder, saying the assassination local and national level for Afro-Colombian and indigenous October 24, close to the Catru Dubaza demonstrates that indigenous people in increased investment in rural ethnic leaders, agrarian Ancoso shelter, shortly after armed assassins Colombia are being “exterminated”. infrastructure. organisations and groups of reportedly forced him out of his home. President Juan Manuel Santos said the Some of those agreements coca and marijuana farmers. Forastero, from the Pacific province of systematic murder of Colombian social leaders were reached after a similar As part of a peace deal Choco, is among more than 150 activists has risen by 6.25% so far this year, compared national protest in 2013, during with the FARC — which killed in Colombia since the beginning of the with 2016. which parts of the country were has transformed itself into year. At least 17 of the victims are believed to The murders are a heavy-handed attempt to shut off by tens of thousands of a new political party, the have been involved in programs linked to the limit the participation of social leaders in protesters. Revolutionary Alternative substitution of illicit crops. politics, impeding the processes of truth- In Popayan, the capital of Forces of the Commons — the The Office of the United Nations High building, land restitution and environmental Cauca, the president admitted government agreed to invest in Commissioner for Human Rights in Colombia protection. In addition to the killings of on October 20 that the situation rural territories. formally condemned the killing on Twitter, social leaders, former Revolutionary Armed facing Colombia’s rural Coca and marijuana farmers stating that it will closely follow the official Forces of Colombia members have also been territories is worse than he would also be given the investigation into Forastero’s death. targeted. expected. opportunity to substitute their The Colombian Indigenous National [Abridged from Telesur English.] However, he warned crops in exchange for technical protesters that blocking major and financial support. roadways could lead to a However, the national protest, Marijuana and Poppy Farmers between communities and El Pais reported COCCAM response by state police. which protest leaders claim (COCCAM) have blocked security forces. representative Diego Rodriguez During the 2013 uprising, will be “indefinite”, reflects sections of the Pan-American Instead, they want the saying: “If we’re protesting in more than a dozen protesters widespread discontent with the Highway, disrupting trade with government to comply with the streets it’s because we want were killed while hundreds were government’s implementation of neighbouring Ecuador. the promised crop substitution the peace accord fulfilled. injured or jailed. The police the peace agreement. The farmers demand an program, giving coca growers “In the case of coca farmers, reported more than 80 injured In the Cauca province, coca end to forced coca eradication more time to switch to legal we’re fighting to materialise officers. farmers organised by the operations, which have resulted crops before engaging in forced what was agreed in regards to [Reprinted from Colombia National Coordination of Coca, in a number of deadly clashes eradication. the substitution of so-called Reports.] n Honduran communities resist mining project Warwick Fry for information, leading The company also bought community leaders to believe off a few members of the I was in Honduras last the investigation will simply be community to try to weaken the October visiting Azacualpa, a another cover-up exercise. position of the majority of the municipality under threat from The cyanide spill has not nearly 100 families. Canadian corporate mining deterred Aura Minerals The company negotiated giant Aura Minerals and its from going ahead with the the relocation in 2012 with San Andres mine in La Union, exhumation of the cemetery, promises of glossy-brochure Copan. which is perceived as the first cottages that failed to At the time, residents from step to relocating the entire materialise. The few that were the rural municipality were township. built have been described as successfully holding off the Community leaders resisting “dog kennels” — mass produced combined forces of the mine the threat to their township glorified sheds in an isolated management, its security have been criminalised for their urban wasteland with virtually forces, the regional police, the efforts. They have been under non-existent agricultural local mayor, the provincial virtual house arrest for the opportunities. governor, the regional military past five years and are forced As is often the case when commander and the Minister to make the two-hour journey communities fight back, the for Homeland Security (who Communities protest the Aura Minerals mine in Copan. to Santa Rosa every two weeks same corporate tactics are arrived in the community to present themselves before a at play: the suborning of a by helicopter with his own a cemetery that has served of a cyanide spill from the San magistrate as part of an ongoing government with questionable entourage of state security Azacualpa and neighbouring Andres mine. legal battle. ethics or vision; the division bodyguards). villages for more than 200 Honduran authorities The legal case bagan in 2012, and conquest of local A year on, Aura Minerals, years. responded to the cyanide spill when community members communities; and the use of with the collusion of the post- In June, thousands of fish with a team of “investigators” attempted to blockade the enhanced legal powers for coup Honduran regime, is were found dead on the banks made up of representatives mine. The company bussed in security provisions to protect moving to break the stalemate. of the Lara River, which feeds from the police, military and scores of paid employees from corporate interests. There are plans to expand the into the main water supply for private security, along with neighbouring communities to Meanwhile, community existing open-cut gold mine, the capital of Azacualpa, Santa a few token geologists. They try to legitimise their claims on interests get flushed down the which will involve removing Rosa. The deaths were the result have not responded to requests the expansion of the mine. drain. n internationalinternational October 31, 2017 greenleft.org.au | 19 |

Argentina Right wins, but radical left makes gains

Argentina went to entire political and economic the polls on October 22, in objectives. what many saw as a crucial The triumph of its program mid-term test for President will only be possible if it is able Mauricio Macri and the right- to convert its electoral victory wing coalition behind him, (which is an important element) Cambiemos (Let’s Change). into a qualitative change in the In the end, Cambiemos came balance of forces on the terrain out strengthened, with a strong of real life struggle. This will showing in the vote to elect determine if Cambiemos is roughly half of the Chamber of able to impose its mark (and Deputies (127 deputies), a third hegemony) over the next few of the Senate (24 senators), and years or preside over the decline representatives to provincial of the nation and its traditional legislatures. parties. On the other hand, the main In the context of this advance opposition force, Peronism, by the right, it is worth noting which went to the elections the results obtained by the FIT, divided into various factions, with a surprising vote (18%) in suffered important defeats, Jujuy for the worker candidate while the Left and Workers Alejandro Vilca, an important Front (FIT) — an alliance showing in Mendoza — almost of revolutionary parties — 12% of the vote, thereby continued to build on its consolidating the space that the previous electoral successes, FIT has won in this province — winning 1.2 million votes. and strong results in Neuquen Below, Fernando Rosso, and other districts. an activist with the Socialist The FIT was also able to Workers’ Party (PTS) within overcome the polarisation in the FIT, breaks down the Buenos Aires province and factors behind the result and the obtain two national deputies, debates and challenges facing and had a strong result in the the Argentine left. A rally demanding answers on then-missing Indigenous rights activist Santiago Maldonado, in August. City of Buenos Aires, where It has been translated and it won two seats in the local abridged from La Izquierda events that led to the death of of Workers (CGT) even represented something akin to legislature. Diario, of which Rosso is the young indigenous rights activist began negotiating sector-by- a “Macrist Peronism”. Many of This represents a new step director, by Federico Fuentes. Santiago Maldonado. sector agreements within the their voters decided to vote for forward for the FIT from which framework of the government’s the original rather than a poor to fight against Macri’s plan. H H H Santiago Maldonado objective of further deregulating imitation. After the elections, Kirchner the labour force. Kirchnerism, for its part, said in her speech that “the firm The legislative elections The Friday prior to the elections Second, despite the with Cristina as its candidate in and clear oppositions have made saw a nationwide victory saw the final opening up of a government having pushed the main electoral district, did gains throughout the country”. for Cambiemos and an grave and delicate political crisis forward with austerity, it was “better” in resisting the advance In the abstract, this is true, improvement in its vote of unforeseeable consequences, forced to moderate the pace of of Cambiemos, as did its allies although Kirchnerism falls short compared to the primaries held when the family verified his implementation and practice a in other provinces, although it of being a “firm and clear” in August. The coalition’s vote body had been found in the certain amount of “gradualism”. was unable to avoid defeat in opposition beyond its electoral rose by five percentage points, Chubut River. All the lies This, together with promoting Buenos Aires province. discourse. winning more than 40% of the propagated by the government government spending on public In opposition, it adopted a Moving forward, it will be vote across the country. and its media allies during the works and loans, led to a certain “tougher” and anti-austerity necessary to discuss how best It won in the strategic 80 days that he was disappeared stabilisation of the economy. discourse. It was the least to confront Macri’s austerity province of Buenos Aires, came tumbling down. This is a typical manoeuvre by affected by the collapse in and his attack on democratic defeating the Senate ticket The intervention by Judge governments in election years, support for Peronism. rights. In this fight, we will find headed by former Argentine Gustavo Lleral proved to which Cambiemos financed by However, Kirchnerism did ourselves shoulder to shoulder, president Cristina Fernandez de be a crucial lifeline for the aggressively pushing the country not achieve enough to put it in a in first place, with all those Kirchner 41.38% to 37.25%. government, and came at into debt, even at the expense of position of being able to lead the who supported the FIT, but Moreover, it overturned a decisive moment. Lleral putting it and future generations battered Peronist movement as also with many who support the narrow defeat it suffered announced his partial findings up for sale, because, according a whole. Kirchnerism and genuinely and during the primaries in Santa following an initial autopsy to them, “the change is here, the It also provokes a strong honestly aspire to confront an Fe (the third-largest electoral (“there are no injuries to the change is now”. level of rejection among voters, emboldened right in power. district) to easily win 37.78% to body”) to what was essentially Third, the government which imposes a low ceiling We will find ourselves 25.84%. a nationally broadcast media benefited from the advantage of on its level of support. This together in the fight for justice It also reversed the result in conference, and added to the holding state power (nationally rejection is due to the acts of for Santiago Maldonaldo and Salta, where the opposition generalised confusion despite his and at the provincial level), a corruption that occurred during to confront labour reforms, as Peronist coalition, backed claims that he wanted to clarify situation that more reflects the its time in government and well as the government’s overall by the local governor Juan the situation. crisis of the traditional political because many social sectors austerity plan. Manuel Urtubey, had won the The crisis opened up by parties than a measure of its view it as just another face of But we will also be obliged primaries by more than 10 the death of Maldonado, strength. austerity, particularly because of to have a frank debate over the percentage points. On October which occurred following the policies enacted during its final kind of political force we need 22, Cambiemos won 30.94% to repression by the Argentine Peronist debacle years in power. to build and what methods will 23.98%. Border Force of an indigenous Peronist blogger and analyst be required to defeat the right. The governing coalition rights protest, remains open. Lastly, this victory cannot be Abel Fernandez highlighted this Will it be through won in 13 of the 24 electoral For now, however, Lleral’s understood without considering element on election day, writing: “majorities” built from above districts, including in the City of intervention has been critical to the deep crisis wracking “The main factor motivating and exclusively within the Buenos Aires, as well as Chaco containing the discontent and Peronism, where two key a large majority of votes being state, in alliance with supposed and La Rioja, where it had lost anger that was growing against phenomena combine. cast today is the will to say no national capitalists and political in the primaries. the government and had begun The biggest losers within the to something: to the current and trade union leaders who Different strands of the to express itself on the streets. movement were the Peronists government and its policies, to inevitably end up being the basis Peronist party won in eight Cambiemos’ triumph can mostly closely associated with Cristina’s return. These negative of governance and a support electoral districts and provincial instead be explained by other Macri: from Juan Schiaretti, motives are very different, base for the right? coalitions won in another medium-term structural and who lost again and by an even and contradict each other, but Or through the political two (Chubut and Santiago del political factors. bigger margin in Cordoba; outweigh any of the positive independence of workers, the Estero). First, the stability conceded to to Urtubey in Salta; to Sergio motives.” struggle to recover control of Cambiemos won in the the government by the bulk of Massa who, in Buenos unions in the hands of union five main electoral districts, Peronism and the bureaucratic Aires province, lost the four elections and struggle bureaucracies, and by putting surpassed 10 million votes trade union leadership. percentage points that allowed the students and youth into and added 19 deputies and The former passed the Cambiemos to turn its defeat in All these factors are part of motion to genuinely confront 9 senators to its existing majority of the key laws the primaries into a victory over the scenario in which the the right in parliament and the parliamentary bench of 90 presented by Macri and the Kirchner, and even managed to government achieved a solid streets? deputies and 17 senators. latter avoided any fight against lose in his stronghold, Tigre. electoral backing, but one that These debates and struggles The elections were held within proposed austerity measures. For the better part of the does not represent a blank will mark the next period and the context of the emotive The General Confederation past two years, all of them cheque for it to implement its define the future.n | 20 | Oco t ber 31, 2017 greenleft.org.au INTERNATIONAL

Russian Revolution The February Revolution and the rise of dual power

To mark the centenary of from Kerensky and the older the Russian Revolution, socialist leaders associated with him. activist and historian Paul Le Various anarchist groups also Blanc has written a detailed came to advocate a socialist overview of this world historic revolution. event, from its background to As the people embraced more its aftermath. radical political ideas, growing Green Left Weekly is running numbers of young workers, it over four parts, with the distrustful of the upper classes second part below looking at and the armed forces under the February 1917 Revolution the Provisional Government, — the prelude to the October began arming themselves. They Bolshevik Revolution — and its organised workers’ militia aftermath. groups known as the Red The full piece can read at Guards. Links International Journal of Militant workers were also Socialist Renewal. forming factory committees to assert their authority in a H H H growing number of workplaces. As growing numbers of soldiers Socialists organised mass and sailors became more protest rallies in Petrograd (as radical, traditional discipline St Petersburg was renamed after An International Women’s Day march demands bread, peace and liberty, in St Petersburg, in 1917. and authority structures within the outbreak of World War I in the military disintegrated. 1914) in February 1917. These leaders who had organised the which would decide the future full civil and political rights; However, all this ferment protests took place on March 8 progressive bloc in the Duma in structure and policies of and saluting of officers was was by no means the work of (February 23 according to the 1915, as well as some moderate Russia’s government. abolished. Subsequent efforts Lenin and his followers. The Russian calendar used at the socialists. At the same time, the new by the soviet to limit and popularity of Bolshevik slogans time), International Women’s regime dodged the questions nullify its own Order No. 1 and proposals was growing Day, rallying women workers Provisional of land reform, relieving the were unavailing, and that order dramatically, but many workers to demand bread, peace, and Government workers’ economic distress and continued in force. still voted for the better-known liberty. But, as a contemporary ending Russia’s involvement in moderate socialists in elections police report stated, the women The prime minister, Prince World War I. Growing radicalisation to the soviets. workers “got out of hand.” Georgy Lvov, was a wealthy In Petrograd, the network On June 3, elected delegates They attracted the support of landowner and a member of of soviets quickly reorganised The lifting of tsarist repression from the soviets throughout large numbers of male workers the Cadets, who favoured itself as a single soviet, a led to the release of thousands Russia gathered in Petrograd as well. The police proved an immediate constitutional representative body of deputies of experienced revolutionaries for the first time. At this first unable to contain the growing monarchy and ultimately a elected by the workers and from prison or from exile in Congress of Soviets, only 137 and increasingly volatile republic. Lvov was largely a soldiers of the city. The Siberia or abroad. Many of of the 1,090 delegates were protests. Soon 385,000 workers figurehead; the outstanding Petrograd Soviet immediately them went to Petrograd or Bolsheviks. were on strike and many personality in the Provisional appointed a commission to Moscow, where they spread engaged in confrontations with Government until early May cope with the problem of their radical message among the Declining confidence the police in the streets. was Pavel Milyukov, minister of ensuring a food supply for the masses. They found a receptive Troops were brought in, but foreign affairs and the strongest capital, placed detachments of audience in thousands of Throughout Russia’s vast they proved unable to quell the leader of the Cadets since its revolutionary soldiers in the insurgent workers and soldiers. rural areas, soviets were also disturbances that engulfed the founding in 1905. He played government offices and ordered Of special significance was being organised in peasant city over the next five days. In the principal role in formulating the release of thousands of the return of Vladimir Lenin to villages. Here, too, people fact, the bulk of the soldiers, policy. political prisoners. Petrograd in April 1917. Lenin became disillusioned with the who were largely peasants in The most prominent of had lived abroad, mainly in Provisional Government, which uniform, joined the insurgency. the moderate socialists was Switzerland, from 1900 to 1905 had refused to initiate land Consequently, a demand for Aleksandr Kerensky, the Militant workers and again from 1907 to 1917. reform. land reform — to break up minister of justice, who was He had become convinced Many peasants were taking the large estates of the nobles associated with the Socialist formed factory that consistent struggles for matters into their own hands, and distribute the land among Revolutionaries and had been committees radical democracy in Russia seizing the great estates from landless peasants — also the leader of the Trudovik would encourage workers the landlords and dividing the became a major revolutionary (labourite) faction in the Duma. to assert their and peasants to struggle for land among themselves. demand. At this time the now powerful socialism. Lenin also believed The government also began The workers and soldiers soviets of the working-class authority. that the devastation of World losing support among oppressed organised a growing network districts were under the control War I would inspire working nationalities seeking autonomy of soviets to coordinate their of Mensheviks and Socialist The soviet ordered the people throughout the world to from Russian authority. Finally, efforts and to establish control Revolutionaries, and they arrest of Nicholas’s ministers fight for socialism. the government’s patriotic throughout the city. mobilised popular support for on February 28 and began He rallied the swelling ranks appeals for a continuation of On February 28, the last the new coalition regime. publishing an official organ, of Bolsheviks around slogans the war effort could no longer of the troops loyal to Tsar The collapse of the tsarist Izvestia (Russian for ‘the facts’). such as “Bread, Peace, Land” sustain popular support, Nicholas II surrendered, regime left in its wake two On March 1 it issued its famous and “Down with the Provisional particularly as military revolutionary soldiers arrested centres of political authority: Order No. 1. By the terms of Government — All Power to the offensives resulted in additional the tsar’s ministers and the the traditional politicians of this order, the soldiers of the Soviets!” defeats. tsar abdicated on behalf of the Provisional Government, army and the sailors of the fleet His party became increasingly As confidence in the himself and his son. Nicholas who had little control over the were to submit to the authority attractive to large numbers of Provisional Government II wanted his brother, Grand people; and the democratically- of the soviet and its committees bitter and disillusioned young declined, frequent resignations, Duke Michael, to assume the elected soviets, which exercised in all political matters. workers, soldiers and sailors. dismissals and reshuffling throne. Fearing the implications more political power owing to They were to obey only those At the end of May 1917, within the cabinet plagued the of the revolutionary upheaval, support from the great majority orders that did not conflict with maverick revolutionary Leon regime. moderate politicians of the of workers and soldiers. the directives of the soviet and Trotsky returned to Petrograd Kerensky rose to higher Duma urged Michael to do so. This system of dual power they were to elect committees from a ten-year exile abroad. positions in the government, However, the grand duke proved to be unstable. The that would exercise exclusive He found that the program of thanks to his personal recognised the popular hostility instability grew as the moderate control over all weapons. Also, the Bolsheviks had essentially popularity and revolutionary to the monarchy and declined. politicians proved increasingly they were to observe strict come to include his ideas about connections. He began as At this point the Duma unable to meet the rising military discipline on duty, “permanent revolution,” and he minister of justice, then was moderates, hoping to thwart the expectations of the labouring but harsh and contemptuous soon joined their ranks. appointed minister of war, and coming to power of what one masses. treatment by the officers was Much of the rank-and-file finally, in July 1917, became of them called “the scoundrels The Provisional Government forbidden. membership of the Mensheviks premier. in the factories,” established a declared an end to tsarist Disputes between soldiers’ also went over to the Bolsheviks Before he could secure government that became known repression and established full committees and officers were at this time. Among the this position, however, the as the Provisional Government. civil liberties. It also promised to be referred to the soviet for Socialist Revolutionaries, the Provisional Government faced The Provisional Government early democratic elections disposition; off-duty soldiers rank and file and some of the the sharpest challenge yet to its was made up of the same liberal for a Constituent Assembly, and sailors were to enjoy younger leaders turned away authority. n international July 3, 2013 greenleft.org.au | 7 |

‘Planet Jackson’ misses greater corruption of ALP-union links

Review by Phil Shannon buffet were fashion, medical nut and filthy bolt of the HSU services, hi-fi gear, groceries, leaders’ corruption, but only Former top dog at the liquor, camping equipment, occasionally lifts his eyes to Health Services Union (HSU) shopping trips to Hong Kong examine a greater corruption Michael Williamson used to and divorce settlement payments than that of a few light-fingered joke that “nothing’s too good to her ex-husband. union officials, namely the for the workers — and their During the 2004 Boxing Day industrially and politically representatives”, as he brazenly sales, Jackson ran up $7000 in corrupting intersection of the defrauded the union to the tune a single day on her union credit ALP and its affiliated unions. of $5 million. cards. Williamson, Thomson Just one lavish, boozy lunch Jackson was the most cynical and Jackson bartered their with his cronies would burn of the three, blowing the whistle union bloc votes for factional through the annual dues ($600) on Williamson, but only as part influence and potential plush of one of his low-paid union of an internal power struggle parliamentary careers, while members — hospital cleaners, — even that act of honesty was Labor politicians needed their orderlies, clerks, porters, self-serving. Noble whistleblower factional union allies, even the etc — writes journalist, Brad was the “perfect cover” for her crooked ones. Norington, in Planet Jackson. own corruption, says Norington. Prime ministers Kevin Williamson’s thieving was The HSU thieves were all Rudd and Julia Gillard, accomplished through misuse of addicted to greed. Even when opportunistically motivated by his union credit card, handing Thomson faced ignominious retaining office, publicly covered out business supply contracts defeat in the 2013 elections, he for Thomson while the party at grossly inflated prices to decided to stand again as an paid his enormous legal bills to companies fully or partially independent just so he could keep him from going bankrupt, owned by himself or his family, Former Health Services Union national secretary Kathy Jackson, along with other milk taxpayers by claiming losing his seat and bringing and nepotism and cronyism (he union officials, stole millions of dollars in union funds. a “resettlement allowance” down the minority Gillard put eight family members on the of $97,000 for defeated government. union payroll while his mistress Planet Jackson: federal election campaign, incumbents. The HSU Three, even while received $155,000 a year for Power, Greed & Unions and embezzled $24,000 to Jackson, when publicly they were shamelessly diddling two days ‘work’ a week). Brad Norington spend on prostitutes, sporting disgraced, tried to mine a new their union members, saw the For a creative flourish, Melbourne University Press, memorabilia and firewood income stream by getting her ALP, the self-proclaimed “party 2016, 328 pages Williamson claimed — just some of the dishes on hooks into a retired, dementia- for the workers”, as a suitable reimbursement for false claims offer from the smorgasbord of suffering QC for a share of his political home for themselves. of muggings and burglaries of Other senior HSU officials personal goodies supplied on $30 million estate, while having That tells us something union money. aped his example. other people’s dimes. herself appointed as executor, unwholesome about where the Obviously, the poor chap Craig Thomson, a protege Kathy Jackson was a which gave her access to his ALP’s loyalties really lie — with must have been struggling to of Williamson, pocketed $1.4 million financial embezzler bank accounts. the labour elite, at the expense get by on his annual salary of $250,000 to fund his successful in her mentor’s mould. Her Norington examines in of the workers they claim to $700,000. 2007 Australian Labor Party favourites from the corruption minute detail every sordid represent. n Four new political albums to check out Green Left Weekly’s Mat flows through our veins,” he Rohingya in Myanmar this resurrect the “war on drugs” album of dub reggae-backed Ward takes a looks at four sings. “We poison her rivers month, causing hundreds of under the long-discredited Plan political poetry at the start of new politically-charged music and bring her great pain. I thousands to flee as refugees. Colombia. October, which opens with the releases that are well worth pray that our love will soon be As Rohingya rallies were held Railing against such environmentally-themed “Earth looking out for. unlocked, tribes have assembled from Sri Lanka to Australia, dishonesty is Burnt Liberation Sound”. You can read his list of top at Standing Rock.” Haitian-US rapper Wyclef Jean Institutions, the heavy new “Gather all the children, 10 new albums for October at It came after a Facebook post released his new album The album from brutal Bogota band stand your ground,” he sings. greenleft.org.au. that he wrote with the same Fall And Rise Of A Refugee, Savage. “If we stand together then we title struck a chord with fans in calling for unity and warning The album, sung in Spanish nah fall, we tell yah this your H H H slamming the privatisation of that people were living on and English, expresses “the Earth liberation sound.” his country’s water. “borrowed time”. political corruption and The same day, New Delhi- Luka Bloom its relation with violence, based producer Ravana also Refuge Wyclef Jean Savage stigmatisation and social released an album of political Carnival III: The Fall Burnt Institutions inequality in the country and dub reggae, United States Irish folk singer Luka Bloom And Rise Of A Refugee the world”. Of Dub, addressing India’s has released his new album, As left-wing Colombian “British-administered provinces opened by the song “Water Is Twenty-first century genocide guerrillas continued to lay down Benjamin Zephaniah and nominally autonomous Life”, which reaches out to the reared its ugly head as Nobel their arms to take up politics, Revolutionary Minds princely states”, which were indigenous water protectors at Peace Prize winner Aung Sang the US administration sought abolished in favour of new Standing Rock, Dakota. Suu Kyi stayed silent while to block the transition to peace British Jamaican Benjamin states based on language and “The blood of our mother her government slaughtered on September 12 by trying to Zephaniah unleashed his latest ethnicity. n ADVERTISEMENT | 22 | October 31, 2017 greenleft.org.au culturalcultural dissent Rebel filmmakers honour CLR James

Review by Barry Healy to New York through the Kwame Nkrumah, the leader worst Jim Crow segregationist of the Ghanaian independence Cyril Lionel Robert states of the US South. In this struggle and the country’s first James, best known as CLR documentary, it is said that the prime minister. Nkrumah had James, was a Trinidadian-born, experience scarred him so much been politically schooled by the Black socialist whose work that he could not bring himself International African Service spanned many of the great to even speak with white Bureau while studying in struggles of the 20th century comrades for a month. England. and across many continents. James remained in the From this visit James wrote A life-long anti-Stalinist, he US without a visa using the Nkrumah and the Ghana died in 1989 just as the Soviet pseudonym “J R Johnson” until Revolution, a stirring account Union was beginning to break he was deported in 1953. of the African anti-colonialist up — something that brought In the factional battle led by struggle. him joy. Trotsky within the US SWP at James returned to Trinidad in Now his remarkable life the beginning of World War II, 1958 and played a leading role has been captured in a new James sided with the minority in the independence movement. documentary, Every Cook Can Max Shachtman grouping His radicalism soon brought Govern. that preached a “bureaucratic on a conflict with the People’s Born in the colonial-era collectivist” analysis of the National Movement leadership West Indies, he possessed a Soviet Union, against the and he was squeezed out. penetrating intellect that allowed “degenerated workers state” him to write superb literary view advocated by Trotsky and efore leaving Trinidad, criticism while never losing the majority of the party. he gave a series of well- touch with his origins and the Following their split Battended public lectures experience of Black oppression. from the US SWP, James on the history of revolutionary formed a factional group politics that were later collected chooled in one of the most with Raya Dunayevskaya into the book Modern Politics. prestigious British West (Party pseudonym “Freddie Ultimately, James settled SIndies establishments, Forest”) and Lee Boggs within in Brixton, London, living James could have chosen class Shachtman’s Workers Party quietly above the offices of collaboration and a comfortable (WP), and developed a state the Race Today magazine. career. Instead, he became capitalist analysis of the Soviet James influenced many Brixton one of the most outspoken Union. The Johnson/Forest radicals with his particular opponents of imperialism and Tendency ultimately broke from revolutionary theory of self- lived a life of poverty. the WP and rejoined the SWP, organisation. Moving to England in but not for long. Clocking in at two hours 1932, James became the James and Dunayevskaya in length, this biographical cricket correspondent for began to deepen their documentary is best viewed in the Manchester Guardian, a understanding of Marxism by short grabs. reflection of his life-long love for CLR James speaks about Ethiopia at Trafalgar Square, London, in 1935. delving into its Hegelian roots, Missing from this film is the the game. Beyond a Boundary, arriving at a kind of libertarian influence that CLR James had his history of cricket, is said Every Cook Can Govern: San Domingo Revolution. ideology to which he remained in the US after his departure, to be one of the greatest books Documenting the Life, All this brought him to the true for the rest of his life. especially in Detroit. Some of ever written about any sport. Impact & Works of CLR James attention of exiled Russian Within the SWP, the Johnson/ his co-thinkers, for example, James was an early adherent Made by WORLDbytes revolutionary Leon Trotsky, Forest Tendency was criticised were involved in the Grass Available from worldbytes.org to Trotskyism, a minority trend who suggested that James travel for excessive intellectualism Roots Leadership Conference within the socialist movement in to the United States to assist and for forming a pseudo at which Malcolm X gave his staunch opposition to the much about the Haitian revolutionary the anti-racism work of the US personality cult around James. brilliant “Message to the Grass larger Stalinist current. His Toussaint L’Ouverture, which Socialist Workers Party (US In this documentary, which is Roots”. work in defence of the Ethiopian was performed in London’s SWP). totally uncritical, it is said that The WORLDbytes philosophy people against the Italian fascist West End starring Paul James was simply updating is to empower volunteer- invasion brought together Robeson. oon after arriving, James Trotskyism, because the learners, and the heartfelt the group that formed the In 1937, he wrote a critical travelled to Mexico, staying movement had lost touch with amateurism shows. But International African Service history of the Communist Sfor a month talking politics reality. whatever this film’s weaknesses Bureau. The Bureau trained International called World with Trotsky. Transcripts of Strangely, there is no mention and political differences the many of the leaders of the post- Revolution. The following year those discussions have enduring of his Hegelianism, which was viewer may have with CLR World War II pan-Africanist James wrote perhaps his greatest value in clarifying Marxist anti- one of his enduring passions. James, it is important that liberation movements. work, The Black Jacobins: racist strategy and tactics. In 1957, James was invited to he has been honoured and In 1934, James wrote a play Toussaint L’Ouverture and the James travelled by bus back newly-independent Ghana by remembered in this way. n Six new books for green-lefts and left-greens Climate & Capitalism and Paul Burkett to argue that that climate change poses for new findings in psychology, ongoing debates in science. editor and author of A Redder Karl Marx actually saw the human health. neuroscience and evolutionary In doing so he offers insights Shade of Green: Intersections environmental crisis embedded biology cast human nature into natural selection and of Science and Socialism, Ian in capitalism. We Can Do Better: Ideas in a radically different light: evolutionary change that have Angus, takes a look at six new “It is not possible to for Changing Society as the supreme altruists and far-reaching applications for books on Marx’s ecosocialist comprehend the full scope of By David Camfield cooperators. protecting ecosystems, securing views, climate change and [Marx’s] critique of political Fernwood Publishing, 2017 He shows how we can build our food supply, and fighting off health, theory and action, economy,” Saito writes, “if on these findings to create harmful viruses and bacteria. inevitability versus contingency one ignores its ecological David Camfield proposes what he calls a “politics of in evolution, new politics and dimension.” a reconstructed historical belonging” that would enable Marx, Capital and the the meaning of Marx’s Capital. materialism that fuses critical us to take back control and Madness of Economic Enviromedics: The Marxism with insights from overthrow the forces that have Reason H H H Impact of Climate anti-racist queer feminism, and thwarted our ambitions for a By David Harvey Change on Human Health treats capitalism and class as better society. Profile Books, 2017 Karl Marx’s Ecosocialism: By Jay Lemery & inextricably interwoven with Capital, Nature, and Paul Auerbach gender, race and sexuality. Improbable Destinies: Karl Marx’s Capital is one of the Unfinished Critique Rowman & Littlefield, 2017 Arguing that the key to Fate, Chance, and the most important texts of the of Political Economy achieving change for the better the Future of Evolution modern era. David Harvey lays By Kohei Saito The impact climate change is social struggle, he offers By Jonathan B Losos out its key arguments, placing Monthly Review Press, 2017 will have on human health is ideas about moving from social Riverhead/Penguin Random his observations in the context tremendous and we are only just theory to social action. House, 2017 of capitalism in the second half Delving into Karl Marx’s now discovering what the long- of the 19th century. central works, as well as his term outcomes may be. Out of the Wreckage: A New Are today’s plants and animals He considers the degree to natural scientific notebooks Weighing in from a Politics for an Age of Crisis inevitabilities or evolutionary which technological, economic — published only recently and physician’s perspective, Lemery By George Monbiot flukes? Jonathan Losos reveals and industrial change during the still being translated — Saito and Auerbach clarify the Verso, 2017 what the latest breakthroughs past 150 years means Marx’s builds on the works of scholars science, dispel the myths and in evolutionary biology can tell analysis and its application may such as John Bellamy Foster explain the tremendous threats George Monbiot argues that us about one of the greatest need to be modified. n Protest against gendered and sexual toria University, City Flinders Campus. ers and leaders Alicia Garza, Patrisse For more events and details visit violence. 7pm. 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CAIS RN Exhibition Centre, Convention Centre PER TH & FREMANTLE ‘ All power to Place, South Wharf. Buy GLW. Community Foods, 74 the Soviets’: T hu nov 2 Sdneyy West Shields St; Neil’s Organics, cnr McLeod and James sts. Commemorating the thu nov 2 Film screening: Chasing Coral. Featur- Rally: NTEU protest at Victoria ing breathtaking underwater footage, Russian Revolution fd un raISEr DAWN R I University National Council. Victoria the film puts into perspective the threat GLW stalls. Sat 11am-noon, WD E nov 8, 6pm University has unleashed a round of to The Great Barrier Reef. Organised a rgentinian asado Parap Markets. Sun 10am-noon, Discuss the meaning of the forced redundancies, which includes by Stop Adani Perth. 6.15pm. Citiplace + music Nightcliff Markets. Ph 0488 the NTEU branch president, secretary, Community Centre, Perth CBD. Russian Revolution. Hosted by 208 235. vice-president and a fourth member of sun dec 3, 12.30pm Socialist Alliance. the branch committee. This is not a SAT NOV 18 The Latin America Social Fr emantle Albion Peace Centre, 102 coincidence, it is a vicious attack on our Rally: Make Yes law. The Yes side is Forum & Socialist Alliance GLW stalls. Thu 4.30–5.45pm, McDonald Rd, Windsor. union. 12pm. Victoria University City on track to smash the vote, our next invite you to celebrate and Fremantle Station. Every 2nd Campus, 300 Flinders St, city. task is to make the politicians legislate reflect on a momentous year & 4th Sun 8am–12pm, South for it.. 1pm. Forrest Chase, Perth CBD. of making trouble for the 1%. Fremantle Farmers Market. Regular meetings Thu Nov 2 – Sun Nov 5 Refugee Action Collective (RAC) Palestinian Film Festival. Cinema SYDNEY Musical acts TBA. Tickets $20 GEELONG meeting. Meets every second Wed. Qld Nova, 380 Lygon St, Carlton. Tickets / $15 concession, and must be GLW stalls. Fri 3.30-5pm, Council of Unions, 2nd fl, 16 Peel St, at palestinianfilmfestival.com.au. THU NOV 2 purchased beforehand. Ph Paula Geelong CBD. Sat 10-11.30am, South Brisbane. Ph Paul 3392 3843. Sydney Peace Prize Lecture. The Black 0402 709 028. Proceeds to cnr Pakington & Weller sts, Sat Nov 4 Lives Matter Global Network has won Cuba Hurricane Relief and Green West Geelong. Ph 5222 6900. Seminar: Northern Syria’s Feminist the 2017 Sydney Peace Prize for coura- GEELONG & Regional VIC Left Weekly. 12.30pm. Hobart Revolution. In the liberated zones of geously reigniting a global conversation Parramatta Activist Centre, f ri nov 3 northern Syria, women are leading a on racism, and inspiring a bold and pow- address below. GLW stalls. Sat 10.30am- Ballarat Reclaim the Night 2017. new kind of society. 9.30am–5pm. Vic- erful movement. The Network’s found- 12.30pm, Salamanca Markets. Ph 0407 550 805. Melbourne GLW stalls. Fri 4-6pm, Flinders Street Station. Sat 10am-12pm, Coburg Mall. NEWCASTLE GLW stalls. Sat 9am-12pm, outside Hamilton Post Office, Result night Yes events cnr Lindsay and Beaumont sts. 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number 1159 | October 31 2017 $3 | $5 solidarity price • Documentary honours CLR James — p. 22

Let Hannah play The law is failing trans people

L isbeth Latham supposedly based on an analysis of transphobic slurs by fans and officials. that it had failed to prove that women “transgender strength, stamina, and The most infamous transphobic with naturally high levels of testosterone The decision by the Australian physique”, it is premised on erroneous comments were from Russian tennis had a competitive edge. Football League (AFL) to refuse to assumptions about how men and official Shamil Tarpischev. While the AFL’s decision to allow transgender woman Hannah women differ in general in these While the concern over size in the exclude Mouncey from the draft is Mouncey to nominate for the Australian characteristics with a primary focus on ALFW has been premised on concern discriminatory, it is arguably consistent Football League Women’s (AFLW) Mouncey’s height and weight — she is over player safety, as Richard Hinds with the exemptions within the draft has drawn widespread criticism 190 centimetres tall and weighs 100 pointed out on the ABC, no such Victorian Human Rights and Equal as a reflection of the AFL’s lack of real kilograms. concern is expressed over the size Opportunity Act, which the AFL relied commitment to inclusion. In asserting that Mouncey would disparities in the AFL between 211cm on in reaching its decision. The law While it is important that the AFL’s have an advantage over other players, tall Aaron Sandilands and 173cm tall allows lawful discrimination against a decision is criticised and we should they ignore the diversity of physiques Lewis Taylor, or that Mouncey has been person on the basis of their sex or gender highlight the troubling logic of policing within humanity and assume that and will continue to play in a lower level identity if strength, stamina or physique “womanhood”, it is also important that Mouncey’s size falls outside the realms women’s competition. is relevant. While this does not mean we look critically at the role played by of what a woman athlete could be. Some commentators have raised sporting organisations must discriminate anti-discrimination legislation in the This is clearly not true, as, if Mouncey concerns that the AFL has failed against trans athletes, it means that they AFL’s decision and how it highlights the had been drafted, she would have been to apply the International Olympic can, although the basis for doing so can broader weaknesses of this legislation taller than the vast majority of players, Committee’s rules regarding the be contested legally. when it comes to protecting the rights of but she would not have been the tallest participation of trans women in This reflects the reality that the law, trans and non-binary people, particularly player in the AFLW. That honor goes to women’s sport. Under this rule, which which is supposed to provide protection trans women. 194cm tall Erin Hoare who is also a goal Mouncey meets, a trans woman from discrimination, enables transphobia The AFL’s position had been “in shooter with the New South Wales Swifts must undergo hormone therapy and in sport and other aspects of social development” since June when Mouncey in the Super competition. demonstrate that the total level of life. Avoidance of discrimination is was first approached by AFLW clubs to As Mouncey’s coach Chris Rourke testosterone in the blood has been below based on organisations going beyond consider nominating for the draft. On pointed out, the arguments against 10 nanomols per litre for at least a year the requirements of the law rather than October 17 the AFL made its position her being eligible to play are based on before competing. complying with it. This reality is not clear: Mouncey could not nominate on assumptions that Mouncey is a physical However, while the IOC rule is clearly limited to the Victorian law, but is a the basis “of analysis of transgender threat to other players. This ignores the better for trans women athletes than feature of aspects of anti-discrimination strength, stamina and physique, as fact that women, such as 2016 Olympic the approach adopted by the AFL, legislation in other Australian well as the AFLW being in its infancy”. shot put gold medalist Michelle Carter, there are real problems with this rule. jurisdictions. Based on this, the subcommittee who is 175 cm tall and weighs 118 kg, Limits on the level of testosterone for While we must call on the AFL believed Mouncey would have had “an can be physically larger than Mouncey. a woman to be able to compete are to reverse its transphobic approach unreasonable physical advantage over her The AFL’s exclusion of Mouncey is arbitrary and have been used to exclude in excluding trans women from the opponents”. an effort to police the boundaries of women athletes such as South African AFLW, we should also call for state The timing of the announcement, the womanhood. It is not just bad for trans middle distance runner Caster Semenya and federal governments to provide evening prior to the draft, has been seen women, but for any woman who is and Indian sprinter Dutee Chand. This greater protection from transphobic as deeply cynical as it prevented any substantially taller or more muscular exclusion was overturned when the discrimination in anti-discrimination action to challenge the legality of the than the “average”. Champion tennis Court of Arbitration in Sport suspended legislation. decision. players Serena and Venus Williams the International Association of [Lisbeth Latham is a trans woman and While the AFL’s decision was are regularly subjected to racist and Athletics Federation’s rule on the basis a member of the Socialist Alliance.] n