A central pillar of the Spanish economic and political establishment came crashing down on Paril 16.
Rodrigo Rato, former deputy prime minister in the 1996-2004 People鈥檚 Party (PP) government of Jose Maria Aznar and head of the International Monetary Fund from 2004 to 2007, was detained on suspicion of tax evasion, concealment of assets and fraud.
1050
Australia has again declared war on its Indigenous people, reminiscent of the brutality that brought universal condemnation on apartheid South Africa. Aboriginal people are to be driven from homelands where their communities have lived for thousands of years. In Western Australia, where mining companies make billion dollar profits exploiting Aboriginal land, the state government says it can no longer afford to "support" the homelands.
Results for Sudan鈥檚 parliamentary and presidential elections, held between April 13 and 15 and extended for a further day after low voter turnout, will be announced on April 27. Yet no one doubts the return to government of President Omer al-Bashir and his National Congress Party.
We live in a time of growing inequality between the rich and poor, when the environment is being destroyed to the point of threatening our very existence, because of a system that prioritises profit. Here are 10 reasons why socialism is the way forward to solve society鈥檚 problems.
1. THE DESTRUCTION OF CLASS DIVISION
Under capitalism, people are divided on the basis of class. There are the 1%, who own the wealth and the means to produce wealth, and the rest of us, the 99%, who sell their labour to produce profit for the 1%.
More than 200 heavily armed police raided five homes in south-east Melbourne on April 18 to arrest five teenagers for allegedly plotting a terrorist attack on Anzac Day.
Two were held in custody and charged under 鈥渁nti-terror鈥 laws, one was charged on summons for weapons offences and two were released without charge. Family and neighbours of those arrested said that the raids were carried out with unnecessary violence.
About 800 refugees were drowned in the Mediterranean on April 18 when a boat carrying them from Libya, and trying to reach the south of Italy, capsized. Just three days earlier, more than 400 people drowned when another boat on the same route sank. Refugee deaths in the Mediterranean are rising sharply. 鈥淎ccording to the UN and the International Organisation for Migration, 1,776 people are dead or missing so far this year, compared with 56 for the same period last year,鈥 the April 24 Guardian reported.
The fight against the WA government鈥檚 widely unpopular decision to close a number of remote Aboriginal communities and force Aboriginal people off their land received a further boost this week with news that activists are set to converge on the state.
The Grandmothers Against Removals, a group established to respond to the continued Stolen Generation enforced by the current and previous federal governments, will converge on Perth on May 26 to lend a hand in the fight against the closures.
鈥淭oo many people have already lost their lives in the Mediterranean sea, more than a thousand this week, which is a major crime against humanity,鈥 The (EL) said in a April 20 statement. 鈥淲e need to stop it immediately!鈥
The EL, a group made up of left-wing parties from across Europe, said: 鈥淲e reject any attempt to solve the so-called 'migration problem' by an increased militarisation.鈥
The State Bank of India had reneged on a $1 billion financing agreement for Adani鈥檚 Galilee Basin coalmine.
The loan was agreed to five months ago to help finance mining giant Adani鈥檚 plan to develop the Carmichael mega coalmine in Queensland鈥檚 Galilee Basin. This is the 12th global investment bank to publicly walk away from the proposal in recent months.
Maria Voukelatos, a passionate socialist and animal liberation activist, died suddenly and unexpectedly on March 26. Nothing suggests she took her own life. While the cause is still unknown, her death at home in Sydney was likely quick and painless. She was 37.
Politicians, both Labor and Liberal, have spent years defending this county鈥檚 pitiful efforts on tackling climate change with the excuse that Australia 鈥渃an鈥檛 go it alone鈥 鈥 it has to wait for other countries to commit to action on climate change. The same excuse was often echoed in the media.
In particular, the lack of action by the US and China were cited as the reasons why Australia should commit to doing little or nothing.
Gas company Metgasco has won its case against the state government to reinstate its drilling licence at Bentley after it was suspended last year.
However, Justice Richard Button said that while the suspension process undertaken by the government was not lawful, the judgement did not reflect the merits or otherwise of the suspension itself.
Metgasco鈥檚 licence was suspended in May last year after a large community campaign against its plans to drill for unconventional gas at Rosella, about 15 kilometres from Lismore.
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