1147

PAC savages proposal to mine Bylong Valley

Activists have called on the NSW government to cancel the exploration licence for the proposed KEPCO coalmine in the Bylong Valley after the Planning Assessment Commission (PAC) slammed the project for putting at risk prime agricultural land, precious water resources, heritage values and the community.

Joint call for judicial inquiry into Murray-Darling management

Five state and territory Conservation Councils are calling for a judicial inquiry into water management in the Murray-Darling Basin and the implementation of the Basin Plan in response to revelations by the ABC’s Four Corners on July 24.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has asked the Murray Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) to investigate allegations of maladministration and potential corruption raised in the report titled “Pumped — Who is benefitting from the millions spent on the Murray Darling?”.

Socialist Alliance nominates women for Geelong council

The Socialist Alliance is the first party to nominate women candidates for Geelong's upcoming local council elections.

Sue Bull, a health and safety teacher, committed trade unionist and previous candidate for Socialist Alliance has been pre-selected, along with Sarah Hathway, a Deakin University student and 2014 state election candidate.

Philippines: Protests, repression as Duterte pushes towards dictatorship

Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte’s annual State of the Nation (SONA) address on July 24 reflected his government’s increasing trajectory towards dictatorship. Outside, protest marches converged on the parliamentary complex at Batasan, reflecting the growing grassroots opposition to the worsening dictatorial trend.

Letter from the US: Bernie Sanders’ Democratic Party strategy is fatally flawed

In a New York Times op-ed in June titled “How Democrats Can Stop Losing”, Bernie Sanders slammed the Democratic Party.

“In 2016 the Democratic Party lost the presidency to possibly the least popular candidate in American history,” he wrote. “In recent years, Democrats have also lost the Senate and House to right-wing Republicans whose extremist agenda is far removed from where most Americans are politically.

Spain: Debate erupts in Podemos after first deal to join a PSOE government

On September 26 last year, Podemos’s Castilla-La Mancha secretary-general Jose Garcia Molina said that his party’s agreement keeping the regional Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) government in office in the autonomous community had “died of depression and shame”.

Morocco’s growing protest movement finds solidarity across Africa

Twenty civil society groups from across Africa have released the statement below in support of protests in Morocco and other North African countries against growing state repression, resource theft and imperialist expansion. They call for respect for people’s rights and just development. The statement is reported from .

***

View from the streets in 1917: The July Days a sign of things to come

One hundred years ago, between July 16-20 [3-7 in New Style] 1917, a protest movement of workers and soldiers in Petrograd was repelled by military and police attacks, with hundreds of casualties.

It was a key phase in the storm that swept Russia during 1917. It culminated in the October Revolution when, led by the Bolsheviks, the soviets (councils) of workers, soldiers and peasants took power, overthrowing the capitalist Provisional Government that was formed after the February Revolution deposed the Tsar.