As a dramatic and sometimes disturbing year comes to a close, 麻豆传媒 Weekly鈥檚 Mat Ward, who provides new lists of political music each month, offers his top 10 political albums of the year.
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1. A.B. Original - Reclaim Australia
Because the lyrics show how Aboriginal hip-hop still shits all over white Australian hip-hop.
Who Rules The World?
By Noam Chomsky
Hamish Hamilton, 2016
Noam Chomsky, who turns 88 this month, revolutionised the study of linguistics in the second half of the 20th century, starting with books like Syntactic Structures (1957) and Aspects of the Theory of Syntax (1965). He remains professor emeritus at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology.
To widespread dismay, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on November 29 his government鈥檚 of the expansion of Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline, which will transport tar sands oil from northern Alberta to the British Columbia coast.
Activist filmmaker Zebedee Parkes, a member of Socialist Alliance who produces content for 麻豆传媒 TV, won 鈥渂est short documentary鈥 at the 2016 Sydney Indie Film Festival for his refugee documentary For My Friend In Detention.
Italian Prime Minister聽Matteo Renzi looks set to resign after the December 4 referendum on constitutional changes he backed is projected to be defeated. Ahead of the vote, 麻豆传媒 Weekly's Dick Nichols looks at the issues behind the referendum and Yes and No campaigns.
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The Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) Socialism 2016 conference, held over November 25-27, featured solidarity with Maria Chin, chairperson of the Bersih anti-government movement who was being held in solitary confinement under the anti-democratic Security Operations Special Measures Act.
A special candle light vigil was held before the solidarity night which opened the conference. Chin was released on November 28 after 10 days in detention.
President-elect Donald Trump announced on November 30 that former Goldman Sachs partner Steven Mnuchin 鈥 a man聽聽as 鈥渢he anti-populist from Hell鈥 鈥 is his pick for treasury secretary.
The statement below was released by socialist groups from around the Asia-Pacific region聽on December 1 to coincide with protests across Indonesia and elsewhere in solidarity with West Papua鈥檚 struggle for freedom.
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We, the undersigned organisations, express our support to the struggle of the people of West Papua for self-determination.
December 1 marks the West Papua鈥檚 Independence Day for Papuans when the Morning Star flag was raised in 1961 before annexed by Indonesia. The flag symbolised the aspiration of many Papuans for a Free West Papua.
The government of Hugo Chavez, who was first elected in 1998, helped lead the Bolivarian revolutionary process that made impressive social gains by redistributing oil wealth and promoting participatory democracy.
Since Chavez鈥檚 death in 2013, the Bolivarian government led by President Nicolas Maduro has faced mounting problems. In recent times, a worsening economic crisis has undermined the revolution鈥檚 gains and, along with political gains by the counter-revolutionary opposition, has raised questions about the survival of the revolution.
Syria鈥檚 five-year-old war is reaching a turning point. In the north and west, ISIS is on the back foot. Its territory is declining, as it is in Iraq.
But as with Iraq, the defeat of ISIS is likely to create new conflict over what comes next.
The north-eastern Syrian city of Aleppo has since 2012 been divided between the city鈥檚 west, held by the regime of beleaguered dictator Bashar al-Assad, and its east, held by a fractious coalition of predominantly Islamist rebel groups.
Earlier this year, a poll found the British public were generally proud of their country鈥檚 role in colonialism and the British Empire. The YouGov poll from January found 44% were proud of Britain鈥檚 history of colonialism, while only 21% regretted it. The same poll also asked about whether the British Empire was a good thing or a bad thing: 43% said it was good, while only 19% said it was bad.聽
Cemil Bay谋k, the co-chair of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK, the umbrella organisation of the Kurdish liberation movement), spoke to about recent developments in Turkey.