Issue 51 : 1 – 7 July 2021

Empire of the Dead: The Fossil Fuel Order and the clean-energy rebellion
David Ritter | Arena Quarterly
Australia is a signatory to the 2015 UNFCCC Paris climate deal and, in order to be consistent with our obligations under the agreement, needs to achieve zero net emissions by 2035 or sooner. The technical and policy solutions already exist to enable Australia to achieve this great goal and, if done properly, could also enable a host of social and environmental co-benefits.

Western Canada burns, deaths mount after world’s most extreme heat wave in modern history
Bob Henson, Jeff Masters | Green Left

Snakes in the garden: bureaucracy ripping out a community’s roots
Guy Rundle | Crikey
Red tape is threatening to choke the life out of a Melbourne community garden with decades of history, meaning and cultural significance to the people who tend it.

Supermarkets under pressure to stamp out modern slavery
Isabelle Lane | The New Daily
Last year, Woolworths revealed it had found 332 Australian fruit and vegetable suppliers within its supply chain where workers were at risk of slave-like conditions, while Coles admitted that some farms supplying it with fresh produce were not covered by its ethical sourcing program.

Green dreams: Managing the transition from rust to renewables
Kurt Johnson | Renew Economy
Port Augusta and Whyalla are in the middle of a renewable energy construction boom. But what does it mean for locals? Some workers are starting to lose faith.

Australia’s export credit agency gave 80 times more to fossil fuel projects than renewables
Lisa Cox | The Guardian

Climate change threatens the lives of people with disabilities
Elizabeth Beidatsch | Independent Australia

Adani launches dangerous plan to give coal a ‘second life’
Margaret Gleeson | Green Left

Secret embassy cables cast the Bob Hawke legend in a different light
Jeff Sparrow | The Guardian
We all knew this, plus it didn’t happen, also it was good.

The secret life of Bob Hawke: US informant
A L Jones | Independent Australia
Hawke worked hard at protecting American interests in Australia. By the time he left office in 1991, scholars agreed that Hawke’s Government ‘had virtually outdone previous conservative governments in proclaiming its support for Washington’.

Campaigners for Pinochet’s victims win two legal battles in Australian courts
Federico Fuentes | Green Left

Australia Is Making a Bid for Power in the Pacific
David Brophy | Jacobin

Conspiracy theories and religion invade political mainstream
Bilal Cleland | Independent Australia

Cybernetic Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics
Timothy Erik Ström | Arena Quarterly
China’s Social Credit System is one of the most ambitious systems of contemporary surveillance, a vast system in which every citizen could be given a numerical score that indicates their trustworthiness.

Imperial Mode Of Living: How Capitalism Affirms Its Hegemony Even In Times Of Crisis
Ulrich Brand, Markus Wissen | Progress in Political Economy
Economic imperialism works because its violent character is largely rendered invisible in the everyday practices of imperialist societies. We propose the term “imperial mode of living” in order to better understand this constellation.

Business resorts to same old productivity bulldust
Ross Gittins | Nine Newspapers
It’s encouraging to see the scepticism with which this week’s intergenerational report from Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has been greeted. But it’s discouraging to see the way the usual suspects have seized on the report’s most glaring weakness to do no more than push their vested interests in the name of “reform”.

Changes to mutual obligation rules penalise job seekers
Suzanne James | Green Left

The real reason the budget is projected to stay in deficit for the next 40 years
Ross Gittins | Nine Newspapers
It’s not excessive spending. It’s excessive tax cutting.

Morrison ignored chief health officers’ advice
Rick Morton | The Saturday Paper
Chief health officers urged Scott Morrison to drop the AstraZeneca vaccine entirely. Instead, he broadened its usage

What really happened in the tower lockdowns
Santilla Chingaipe | The Saturday Paper
One year ago, nine public housing towers in Melbourne were locked down as a second wave of Covid-19 loomed. An investigation by the Victorian ombudsman has found the government’s directive went against advice from public health officials.

The government has spent just $32,000 combating vaccine hesitancy
Cam Wilson | Crikey

Pandemic activists have saved more lives than Government
Tom Tanuki | Independent Australia

Diabetic Noongar-Wongutha man escorted from Perth hospital for asking for a sandwich
Aaron Bloch | National Indigenous Times

NSW Health apologises after students at elite school given COVID shots
AAP | The New Daily

Class action cap could hurt NT stolen wages case
Rachael Knowles | National Indigenous Times