Green Left Weekly

Letter from the US

Boston horror used to further racism, attacks on rights

The horrific bombing of runners and onlookers at the Boston Marathon in Massachusetts was a criminal act. The victims were from many nationalities, since the historic race attracts people from all over the world.

Fighting fund

We don’t need another party for billionaires

Does Australia really need another party for the billionaires? Aren't the Liberal and Labor parties enough? Surely both have proved that they are loyal servants of the rich?

Education

Gonski funding: A wolf in sheep’s clothing

NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell signed onto Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s national education reform agreement on April 23. Many saw this as a windfall for public education, but little analysis regarding the detail has been made.

May Day

Join the ‘fightback’ on May Day

A range of socialist and activist groups will be marching together in joint contingents in this year’s May Day rallies across Australia behind banners saying, “It's time for a fightback”.

This week's Socialist Alliance 'Our Common Cause' column

Grocon wall collapse — lives sacrificed for profit

A strong gust of wind in Melbourne’s CBD caused a brick wall to collapse onto passing pedestrians, killing three people, on March 28.

THIS WEEK'S COLUMN BY RESISTANCE!, SOCIALIST YOUTH ORGANISATION

Education cuts will hurt poor

The federal Labor government has announced it intends to dramatically increase funding to primary and high school education as part of the Gonski reforms. But before you think that maybe, just maybe, the government might be making some policy that could be defended by progressives, there's a devil in the detail.

Australian News

Chomsky condemns Australia's refugee policy

Two world-renowned authors, American Noam Chomsky and Australian Thomas Keneally, have called on the Australian government to end indefinite detention of refugees after a 10-day hunger strike ended at the Broadmeadows detention centre in Melbourne.

Unions take up public housing campaign

Construction unions have announced they will make a submission to the Victorian Coalition government that will call for unused government-owned sites in inner-city Melbourne to be used for public housing.

Further Australian News

International News

Venezuela: US shows contempt for democracy

Most of the news on Venezuela in the week since the April 14 presidential election focused on the efforts of losing candidate Henrique Capriles to challenge the results. But another campaign, based in Washington, was quite revealing ― and the two were most definitely related.

Spain: Anti-eviction pickets drive gov't rage

The citizens of the Spanish state awoke on April 14 to shocking news ― acts of “pure Nazism” were spreading across the country.

Further International News

Comment and Analysis

Self-determination is the key to ending violence

An article by journalist Elizabeth Farrelly, published in the Sydney Morning Herald on April 11 titled “Protecting a cultural right to abuse”, starts by posing the question, “At what point does autonomy slide into apartheid?” It argues that a policy of self-determination for Aboriginal people will lead to violence in Aboriginal communities, based on the claim that violence was endemic to pre-contact Aboriginal culture.

Carlo's Corner: Hating something doesn't make it 'illegal'

It must be great to have the ability to simply declare people you don't like “illegal”.

Further Comment and Analysis

Cultural Dissent

Remote rapper looks on the bright side of strife

Bryte's new album, The Bryte Side Of Life, may urge his listeners to think positive, but it's not all sweetness and light. The Aboriginal rapper has lost none of the political bite that snarled from his award-winning first album, Full Stop, four years ago.

Climate change's unpredictable impact on geology detailed

It is easy to forget, says Professor Bill McGuire of University College London in Waking the Giant, that human civilisation has thrived only in the broadly benign climate of the past few thousand years following the end of the last post-glacial era.

Further Cultural Dissent

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