Issue 63 : 23 to 29 September 2021
CIA officials under Trump discussed assassinating Julian Assange – report
Julian Borger | The Guardian
Mike Pompeo and officials requested ‘options’ for killing Assange following WikiLeaks’ publication of CIA hacking tools, report says
Net zero is not the real issue: we need to focus on our carbon budget
Greg Jericho | The Guardian
Too many people in politics and the media have bought into the idea that achieving net zero emissions by 2050 is all that is needed to avoid a climate crisis.
Carbon credits: Australia’s system is wasting taxpayer money on ‘hot air’
Richard Denniss | The New Daily
There is no debate about the fact that land clearing is a significant source of carbon emissions. The trouble with the government’s plan is it is hard to estimate how much clearing landholders were planning to do.
Subs is the word: will the United States be here for us when needed?
Guy Rundle | Crikey
The Quad alliance and the AUKUS pact leave Australia little choice but to surrender our most basic autonomy to the Americans.
China’s Evergrande is not a ‘Minsky moment’ or the next Lehman Brothers
Jessica Irvine | Age/SMH
I’m a construction worker. The protesters don’t speak for me
Ryan Stanton | Red Flag
There are around 7,000 active COVID-19 cases in Victoria right now. And the numbers have been rising relentlessly. What do the protesters have to say in response to this crisis? “Fuck you.”
Healthcare workers suffering exhaustion and burnout
Karen Willis, Natasha Smallwood | The Saturday Paper
Australia’s healthcare workers are reporting that they are exhausted and burnt out after the pandemic wrought profound change to their work practices. As the health crisis continues, how can the quality of care be sustained?
Unions need to crush the anti-vax movement
Louise O’Shea | Red Flag
Far-right throws up new challenges for unions
Sue Bolton | Green Left
The mainstream commentary about the almost daily anti-vaccination rallies this week, after the attack on the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) offices on September 20, has avoided analysing the complex motivations of the demonstrators, or suggesting sensible ways of responding.
Covid, the Left and radical democracy
Jeff Sparrow | Overland
Campaigning against the lockdown would have entailed embracing mass infections and mass deaths—a criminally irresponsible course. Yet the acceptance of necessity doesn’t invalidate general positions. It just means recognising that, in certain circumstances, the balance of forces sometimes limits the options available.
Constructing a narrative: the CFMEU protest and the far right
Andy Fleming | Overland
Some CFMEU members and other unionists have been active in the protests and have been joined by a much larger contingent of construction and other non-unionised workers, supplemented by partisans of the anti-vaccination movement.
Betting on both sides
Adam Triggs | Inside Story
Largely hidden from view, cross-ownership of competing companies is damaging the economy and fuelling inequality
Angela Merkel Was Bad for Europe and the World
Yanis Varoufakis | Jacobin
Stop thinking our kids will be lumbered with massive government debts; they won’t be
Ross Gittins | Nine Newspapers
If you’re one of the many who worry about how we’ll pay off the massive debt the Morrison government has incurred during the pandemic, the Parliamentary Budget Office has reassuring news.
Nuclear power’s long decline in shadow of wind and solar
Jim Green | Renew Economy
Inside the Parklea prison Covid-19 outbreak
Denham Sadler | The Saturday Paper
The siege of Sandy Creek: SA Far-Right Group emerges
Contributor | Vanguard
Eswatini: Pro-democracy protests continue despite police intimidation
Maxime Bowen | Green Left
Miner killed in roof collapse at Australian underground coal mine
Terry Cook | World Socialist Website