Issue 62 : 16 to 22 September 2021

Deciphering AUKUS: it’s not really about the submarines
Guy Rundle | Crikey
Submarines are intended as an auxiliary force to protect a navy proper and civilian shipping. Trouble is we have no navy proper. We have three destroyers and eight frigates, and after that it’s coastal craft. 

Oppose Morrison’s new anti-China alliance
Pip Hinman | Green Left
Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s surprise September 16 announcement that Australia was in a new security alliance with the United States, Britain and Australia — AUKUS — formalises its war drive against China.

From the submarine to the ridiculous
Hugh White | The Saturday Paper
The old plan was to build a conventionally powered version of a nuclear-powered French submarine. It was crazy. The new plan – to buy a nuclear-powered submarine instead – is worse.

Behind the attack on the CFMEU office
Sue Bolton | Green Left

Crocodile tears on mental health
Simone White | Red Flag
Australian politicians and business leaders have very suddenly become interested in mental health. It’s not the kind of interest we’re accustomed to— it comes with a clear action plan: “live with covid”

More than 60,000 Australians are touched by state control
Amber Schultz | Crikey

PwC gets a second big bite from the Morrison government’s COVID cake
Georgia Wilkins | Crikey

How nurse practitioners have been shut out of the vaccine rollout
Mary Chiarella | Pearls and Irritations

Norway turns left
Farooq Sulehria, Toni Usman | Green Left

Has PM put Australia on the hook to finance struggling UK, US submarine projects?
Michael Reubenstein | Michael West

US nuclear submarines: a dangerous nonsense
Stuart Rees | Pearls and Irritations

Beijing condemns military pact between the US, Britain and Australia
Peter Symonds | World Socialist Website

French left-wing leader: Let’s not follow the US Indo-Pacific adventure
Jean-Luc Mélenchon | Green Left

‘It’s almost like grooming’: how anti-vaxxers, conspiracy theorists, and the far-right came together over COVID
Josh Roose | The Conversation
These images may shock some but for researchers like me — who research far-right nationalist and conspiracy movements, and explore the online spaces where these people organise — these scenes came as no real surprise.

CFMMEU or neo-Nazis? Victoria’s anti-vaccine mandate protests had both
Cam Wilson | Crikey

An old ethical dilemma has become Australia’s grim reality – and this can’t be spun
Peter Lewis | The Guardian
Ultimately, opening up must be a collective decision we are all prepared to sign up to so we can support each other and ensure that every single effort is taken to protect the vulnerable among us.

Unemployment in Australia only 4.5%? Wait until I stop laughing | Greg Jericho
Greg Jericho | The Guardian
Right now the unemployment rate is to reality like a rather befuddled puppy is to a tennis ball that its owner pretended to throw but is actually still in their hand.

Call Center Workers in Australia Are Unionizing to Demand Better Pay and Conditions
Reece Gittins | Jacobin

Timing the economy to fit a pandemic election is a tricky business
Ross Gittins | Nine Newspapers
The modelling’s been done, the reopening targets set. But the coronavirus and its variants may not be compliant with Scott Morrison’s economic re-election masterplan.

Thousands more Australian truck drivers to strike as COVID-19 pandemic accelerates health and safety crisis
Patrick Davies | World Socialist Website

China delivers “killer blow” to coal as Morrison courts Joe Biden
Michael Mazengarb, Giles Parkinson | Renew Economy

Morrison Government re-election would be an environmental catastrophe
Sue Arnold | Independent Australia