In her previous books The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism (2007) and No Logo: No Space, No Choice, No Jobs (2000), Canadian author and activist Naomi Klein took on topics like neoliberal 鈥渟hock therapy,鈥 consumerism, globalisation and 鈥渄isaster capitalism鈥.
Klein extensively documented the forces behind the dramatic rise in economic inequality and environmental degradation over the past 50 years.
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On September 24, one day after the United Nations climate summit in New York once more failed to come up with any form of serious action to confront the climate crisis, Filipino socialist group Party of the Labouring Masses released the statement below.
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Philippines President Benigno Aquino concluded his United Nations speech in New York on September 23 by posing the question: What more can we do?
The question is rhetorical, even hypocritical, as the president well knows what needs to be done: to address the demands of the mass movements, which he has heard, but not heeded.
Staring down scandals related to revelations in a recently published book, Dirty Politics, and revelations of mass government surveillance, incumbent Prime Minister John Key led his right-wing National Party to become the first party with an outright majority in parliament since the current electoral system was set up in 1996.
The Labour opposition, however, slumped to about 24% of the vote 鈥 its worst result ever.
Sean Brocklehurst is running as a candidate for the in the November 29 Victorian election. This is a speech he gave at the election launch on September 20.
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We are here because we want to see change in Victoria. We want to see community need put before corporate greed. Victoria is going in the wrong direction. It is being run by and for the corporate elite and not in the interests of ordinary people.
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has made a deal with the Palmer United Party to reintroduce Temporary Protection Visa鈥檚 (TPVs) for asylum seekers. These will be known as the Safe Haven Enterprise visa.
The Refugee Action Coalition released this statement on September 25.
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The government鈥檚 bill introduced on September 25 will not just reestablish TPVs. In sweeping changes to definitions and processing arrangements, the minister is trying to use the legislation to undermine human rights and remove appeal rights for asylum seekers.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are being removed from their families and traditional country by the statutory child protection authority Family and Community Services (FACS) in unprecedented numbers.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reported a rise in the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children aged up to 17 in out of home care across all states and territories over the past decade.
Unspeakable Things: Sex, Lies & Revolution
Laurie Penny
Bloomsbury, 2014
English author Laurie Penny describes herself as a 鈥渏ournalist, activist, feminist, troublemaker, nerd and net denizen鈥. Her book, Unspeakable Things, is a collection of polemical essays in which Penny takes aim at mainstream (liberal) feminism, which she says 鈥渞emains tepid and cowardly鈥.
Treasurer Joe Hockey could not escape hearing the voice of the people when 100 staff, students and community activists rallied on the Smithfield campus of James Cook University in Cairns on September 18.
The rally highlighted the federal government's planned cuts to higher education and the rest of the budget.
The National Tertiary Education Union JCU branch called the rally because Hockey was speaking at a business conference at JCU before attending a G20 finance ministers meeting in Cairns.
Criminal lawyer Rob Stary has represented many people accused under Australian 鈥渃ounter-terror鈥 laws. 麻豆传媒 Weekly鈥檚 Karen Fletcher spoke to him about the police raids in Sydney and Brisbane on September 18.
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Last week you commented that the raids gave you a sense of 鈥渄eja-vu鈥. What is repeating here?
Several hundred people attended a rally and march to Prime Minister Tony Abbott's electoral office in Manly on September 20. The demands of the rally were: "No compromise 鈥 no GP co-payment; no cuts or privatisation; and free, public health care for all."
General secretary of the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association Brett Holmes said the GP co-payment would spell the end of equitable, universal health care under Medicare and it was time the federal government listened to the people it purported to represent.
If you鈥檙e an Australian citizen, you have a greater chance of being killed by the following causes than you do by a terrorist attack: slipping in the bathtub and hitting your head; contracting a lethal intestinal illness from the next dinner you eat at a restaurant; being struck by lightning.
In the post-9/11 era, there has been no terrorist attack carried out on Australian soil: not one. The attack that most affected Australians was the 2002 bombing of a nightclub in Bali which killed 88 of its citizens; that was 12 years ago.
Besieged since September 15, the northern Syrian Kurdish-majority city of Kobane (whose Arabic name is Ayn al-Arab) has mounted a heroic, all-out resistance to the murderous Islamic State gangs.
As of September 25, despite the superior heavy weaponry deployed by the IS, it appears that fierce resistance and determined counter-attacks have halted or slowed the assault. Nonetheless, the IS has pushed closer to the city centre than ever before and the situation remains perilous.
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