Issue 85: 7 April to 13 April

# ELECTION

I can’t eat childcare or lower taxes. Australians in poverty have been thrown to the wolves by both parties
Melissa Fisher | The Guardian

Low wage growth in Australia didn’t happen by accident – it’s the system working as intended 
Richard Denniss | The Guardian
Guess what, on the whole Australian employers have decided to boost their profits rather than boost their workers’ wages.

Shorten ally compares Albo to Jeremy Corbyn, to ‘help’ Labor
Guy Rundle | Crikey

Going ahead with stage 3 tax cuts would be irresponsible
Ross Gittins | SMHAge
Whichever side wins the election will inherit a serious budget problem

Sold Out: The United Australia Party’s Nihilistic Patrician Populism
Scott Robinson | Arena 
The reality recognised by the UAP, its candidates, and any genuine supporters seems to be that in an intensely competitive world, we would do well to align ourselves under the protection of a patrician.

Children overboard
Lyndsay Connors | Pearls and Irritations
Since the 1970s, the net effect of the Commonwealth’s schools funding policies has been to move our national school system from one broadly grounded in the provision of schooling as a common good to one increasingly driven by a view of schooling as primarily a private and a positional good.

Why would anyone care about this election?
Editorial | Red Flag
Fortunately, the federal election will provide an opportunity for people to choose a totally different future—to elect a government that will address the key challenges of our time. Just kidding. It’s the Coalition versus the ALP.

Federal election: Get LNP Government out – have no illusions about Labor
Central Committee CPA (M-L) | Vanguard
As US author and humourist Mark Twain observed: “Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason.”

“Horror story” from fantasy land: Albo’s howler a gift for marketing maestro Morrison
Michael West | Michael West Media

# UKRAINE

What Lies Beneath: The Russia–Ukraine War
John Hinkson | Arena
A case could be made that Vladimir Putin has come to represent a transitional category: the warlord who retains the remnants of a state in decline, mining a past he can’t truly represent in order to legitimise his campaigns. 

Negotiation by other means over Ukraine
Damien Kingsbury | Pearls and Irritations
With Russia unable to effect regime change in Kyiv but appearing to dig in for the long haul, that this war will end through negotiations now appears a given.

Ukrainian socialist: ‘The future of demilitarisation lies in stopping Russia’s war machine now’
Federico Fuentes | Green Left

# ENVIRONMENT

Students claim moral win on climate harm
Tracey Ferrier | The New Daily
Eight students who initially won, but then lost, a legal bid to force the federal government to protect them from climate change say it’s a disgrace they ever had to go to court.

Australia’s climate failures could double spiralling debt costs, government modelling shows 
Michael Mazengarb | Renew Economy

New IPCC report repeats call to stop funding, using fossil fuels
Markela Panegryes | Green Left

Pacific climate activist: ‘We are collateral damage of the greed of distant colonising powers’
Peter Boyle | Green Left

# MISC

Australian PM Kevin Rudd Was Toppled by Labor Notables Who Snitched for the US
Lukas Matovinovic | Jacobin
Bob Hawke wasn’t the last senior Australian Labor Party figure to act as an informant for the US. In 2010, when Kevin Rudd lost the leadership to Julia Gillard, the US embassy knew everything.

Reconciliation action plans let settlers take up more space, not relinquish it
Ben Abbatangelo | The Guardian
History is alive, and for the best part of the last two decades, Australia’s reconciliation process has been cleverly wielded to thwart the threat of a Black-led uprising from bursting out of the empire’s belly.

‘Eviction by dereliction’: the decay of public housing
Claire Connelly | The Saturday Paper
Housing initiatives purporting to create a ‘social mix’ are a convenient way for governments to avoid building new social housing or to neglect existing stock while shifting public land into private ownership.

Sydney bus drivers strike over pay, conditions
Jim McIlroy | Green Left

Resist NSW anti-protest laws
Jack Mansell | Red Flag

Sri Lankans demonstrate in Australia to demand President Rajapakse resigns
WSWS reporters | World Socialist Web Site

Australians should consider abolishing the police
Sylvia Aramchek | Independent Australia

The Catalan Social And Solidarity Economy
Emma Lees | Progress in Political Economy
The solidarity economy proposal represents the will to rethink socialism in search of greater efficiency and, above all, greater democracy.