Issue 80:  3 March to 9 March

# Russia-Ukraine War and the regionAs emotions run high, Western media shuts down dissent and debate on the how and why of Ukraine war
Guy Rundle | Crikey
The reasons behind the Russian invasion of Ukraine are complex and messy, but the West sticks stubbornly to the NATO storyline.

Ukraine: A conflict soaked in contradictions and new patterns in war and media 
Vijay Prashad | Green Left

IWD:Russia’s feminists are in the streets protesting Putin’s war 
Green Left
The following text is a manifesto by Russian feminists who have united against the occupation and war in Ukraine. Feminism is one of the few opposition movements in contemporary Russia that has not been destroyed by the waves of persecution launched by Vladimir Putin’s government.

Searching for peace in Ukraine
Stuart Rees | Pearls and Irritations
Instead of searching for peace in Ukraine, western leaders and western news media have promoted US/European solidarity in opposition to Russian violence, a trend nurtured by enthusiasm for ways to arm Ukraine and punish Putin.

Putin’s War on the peoples of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine
Albert Langer (‘Arthur Dent’) | C21St Left
Ukraine’s war, and its people’s resistance, offers the conditions to topple the new ‘Tsar of all the Russias’. Genuine leftists should back NATO assistance and involvement

West’s ‘solidarity’ with Ukraine displays breathtaking hypocrisy
Nick Everett | Red Flag

Australia’s failed resource grab in Afghanistan
Anthony Loewenstein | Declassified AUS
Mystery surrounds how an Australian mining company sought to access Afghanistan’s $3-trillion treasure house of untapped mineral

As millions flee Ukraine we must help refugees navigate Australia’s labyrinthine health system
Ranjana Srivastava | The Guardian
Governments play an important role in creating policies that not only welcome refugees to a country but also help them integrate with society through sensitive and pragmatic services.

# Women’s Day

International Women’s Day is blind to the greatest threat to women – Australia’s welfare system 
Kristin O’Connell | The Guardian
Corporate feminism must realise the movement for women’s safety must include and be led by Blak, disabled, trans and people who rely on the welfare system to live.

On International Working Women’s Day we salute our unsung heroes
Alice M. | Vanguard

Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins are supremely admirable, and the acceptable white faces of Australian feminism
Sisonke Msimang | The Guardian

Tame, Higgins, Holgate launch gender equity campaign ahead of election. Will it work?
Amber Schulz | Crikey

‘Insulting’: Working mums missing out on thousands in super
Sezen Bakan | The New Daily

# Political Economy

A decent and fair Australia? The solution may lie in the old fashioned notion of community
Melissa Lucashenko | The Guardian
Why are Australians so nervous of other peoples and of justice? Why are our politicians so unambitious? How can we change a nation where forgetting is essential?

It will take more than Josh Frydenberg’s bluster to keep the economy growing
Ross Gittins | SMHTheAge
A key issue of whether the economy can continue to grow strongly will come down to wages growth.

The Manchurian Candidate in Australian Politics
Binoy Kampmark | Arena
The original Manchurian Candidate, a 1959 pulp novel whose plot centred on the infiltration of the United States by brainwashed sleepers and assassins under the direction of Moscow and Peking, is hard going.

To Rebuild a Universal Welfare State, We Need to Scrap Means-Testing
Danny Wardle | Jacobin
When welfare and public services are means-tested, it makes them less efficient and less accessible. Worst of all, by limiting access to the “deserving poor,” means tests undermine the idea that social welfare is a right.

# Climate and Misc

What the river didn’t forget 
Kristina Olsson | The Saturday Paper
The flooding in south-east Queensland is the result of climate change, two La Niña summers and a slow-moving low-pressure system. More than that, it is the result of a failure of collective memory and of governments to act.

Australia riding on its freeloading carbon industries
Michael Pascoe | The New Daily

Why the listless reaction from governments, the hush on climate change? 
Robyn Fitzgerald | Michael West Media

Fears raised over plans to film youth on Kalgoorlie streets
Giovanni Torre | National Indigenous Times

Community rallies forMelbourne’s  Preston Markets
Robert Hart | Green Left