Current Issue of The Guardian

November 23, 2016 - click here for index of articles.

Anti-union agenda – More attacks promised

The Turnbull government looks set to bring the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) and the Registered Organisations bills before the Senate this week. The ABCC bill and an accompanying Building Code are central to the government’s plans to destroy the Construction Division of the CFMEU and rid the industry of militant trade unions. more ...

Editorial – The best-laid nuclear plans

South Australians have been living with the prospect that their state will be host to a nuclear waste dump for over a decade. Strong opposition forced the Howard government to abandon plans for a “national repository” in SA in 2004. Subsequent efforts to force a dump on the traditional owners of Muckaty Station in the Northern Territory were also defeated by united action in the community. But like its counterparts in other sectors of our capitalist economy, the nuclear industry doesn’t rest in pursuit of maximum profit, no matter the environmental and social cost. more ...

A city’s history under the hammer

NSW Premier Mike Baird’s rise to power was facilitated by use of a squeaky clean “Mr Nice Guy” image, with slick PR that fully exploited the scandals involving Eddie Obeid and other now-discredited members of the former Labor government. But Baird is now being exposed as a social and environmental vandal. more ...

Use Your Power rally – Fighting privatisation in WA

On a hot November lunchtime (Thursday 15) the Australian Services Union (ASU) and the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) held a Use Your Power rally outside the state Parliament in Perth. The rally was well organised by the two unions to demonstrate to the Liberal government of Colin Barnett their strong opposition to the proposed sale of the state electricity utility Western Power. more ...

Taking Issue – The Fascist in the White House

In the words of shocked American writer and broadcaster John Knefel, writing in the progressive journal Truthout, “The unimaginable has happened. The Nightmare Scenario, that thing that seemed impossible, has come to pass. The United States has played Russian roulette with itself and lost. It is difficult to find the words to capture just how profoundly awful this outcome is. Trump ran on a promise of deporting 15 million people and banning Muslims from entering the country more ...

Climate change’s costs are still escalating

Scientific reports released for a recent conference on disaster risk reduction warn that people are already dying and economies being hit by climate change – and that the dangers are growing. more ...

Bangladesh – Where next for the left?

Bangladesh is a country of growing international significance. Its population of 171 million is now the world’s seventh biggest, its current growth rate is the world’s second highest, and it stands strategically between India and China. more ...

Nim Ajpu: Indigenous lawyers changing the face of Guatemala

Nim Ajpu is a name that’s known to all Quiche Maya peoples. A nahual or spirit that accompanies and protects us in the Maya cosmovision, Nim Ajpu was the twin brother of Ixb’alamkej who together defeated the death gods and who went on numerous adventures that forever changed the face of existence. The story of these hero twins is told at length in the Popol Wuj, the famous text that accounts for the cosmologies, origins and spiritual histories of the Maya Quiche. more ...

Culture & Life – Islamophobia animates Trump picks

President-elect Donald Trump’s words may be telling his supporters not to attack Muslims, but as he hires leaders of various white nationalist hate groups and Islamophobic war hawks to the White House staff, his actions appear to be saying otherwise. more ...

Quote of the Week

The circumstances of the workmen do not in the least depend on the prosperity or profits of the masters, but on the power of the workmen to command nay, to extort a high price for their labours.