Current Issue of The Guardian

June 28, 2017 - click here for index of articles.

Privatisation a safety hazard

Three years ago a fire broke out in Melbourne’s Docklands area, in the Lacrosse apartment block, where inflammable cladding panels had been installed. The fire spread from the 6th floor to the 21st in eleven minutes, and fire fighters said they’d never seen anything like it. CSIRO testing of material taken later from the panels was stopped because of danger to laboratory equipment. more ...

Editorial – Repression and “national security”

Suspected “extremists” from 14 years up will be detained and questioned for up to two weeks without charge. Post-sentence detention facilities to be built to hold suspected terrorists, without charge. more ...

Condemnation of anti-union push – CFMEU – Perth

On Tuesday June 20, a National Day of Action was called by the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union against the Australian Building and Construction Commission and the introduction of the 2016 Code for the Construction industry that will further erode wages and conditions. Speakers at the rallies called for the protection of workers’ wages and conditions including the right to take industrial action to protect those rights. more ...

Simple Simon met a Gonski …

The Coalition’s so-called Gonski 2.0 was rushed through the Senate in the early hours of Friday morning (June 23) with the support of the Coalition and 10 cross-benchers. Gonski 2.0, despite all the claims of Education Minister Simon Birmingham, is not a needs-based model. Quite the opposite. more ...

Come and see

I was privileged enough to participate in the XII International May Day Brigade, from April 24 to May 8, 2017. It was an exciting brigade to join, because it was the first time American delegates were allowed to attend this “May Day” Brigade after travel restrictions were eased and US based airlines began offering service to Cuba. The 50 Americans joined the 290 delegates/brigadistas from 26 other countries. I was the only one who represented Australia. more ...

Taking Issue – Genie out of the bottle

Do you give much thought to bio-security? Or how to safely manage the outputs of industrial innovation? Well, perhaps you should. As Jonathan R Latham, PhD, co-founder and executive director of the US Bioscience Resource Project, has noted, “novel products incorporating nanotechnology, biotechnology, rare metals, microwaves, novel chemicals, and more, enter the market on a daily basis. Yet none of these products come with an adequate data set of scientific information.” more ...

Housing as a financial commodity

Housing, long accepted as a basic need and a human right, has now been transformed into a financial commodity with its value dependent on the vagaries of the market. In highlighting how the process of financialisation has become an impediment to the realisation of this right, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing has in her recent report suggested some remedial measures. more ...

Corbyn proven right by history

LONDON: Despite the force of the Tory mantra, it appears the electorate has rumbled that a government led by Theresa May would be neither strong nor stable, but instead would bring five more years of attacks on the poor and sick, an increase in zero-hours jobs, the privatisation of the National Health Service and further struggle for the working class outside the EU while ensuring the wealth of the rich and privileged continues to grow. more ...

Culture & Life – Fascism rides again

The form of government that capitalism finds most congenial is bourgeois democracy, the system we have here in Australia (and indeed in most developed capitalist countries). By staging elections every few years, the people are given the erroneous impression that they and not the owners of the big corporations decide the government and run the country. more ...

Quote of the Week

It is we who ploughed the prairie;
Built the cities where they trade;
Dug the mines and built the workshops;
Endless miles of railroad laid;
Now we stand outcast and starving;
‘Mid the wonders we have made;
But the Union makes us strong.

Solidarity Forever – Ralph Chaplin, 1908

This web page was last updated: Wednesday, June 28, 2017