Perth Indymedia

"The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right." That’s the wording of the eighth amendment to the Irish constitution, enshrined in law after a referendum in 1983. There’s now another referendum scheduled for May 25th to repeal that amendment. Shauna Stanley is a campaigner with the Melbourne Irish Abortion Rights campaign. She began by explaining what the amendment has meant for Irish women’s ability to choose to have an abortion.

The world was stunned early last week to hear Dr Mahathir Mohamad, long term former autocratic ruler of Malaysia, had won the right to form government. The opposition coalition he led received a 12% swing and gained some 54 seats in the national parliament. Alex Whisson spoke to Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj, who it’s confirmed has lost the seat he held for the Malaysian Socialist Party since 2008. Dr Kumar began by giving his assessment of the political factors behind Mahathir’s return to power.

The Change the Rules campaign is an initiative of the Australian Council of Trade Unions. Its goal is to, as the name suggests, change the laws and regulations governing industrial relations in this country. From unpaid penalty rates to record low wage growth, to the fact one third of big businesses in Australia don’t pay any tax at all, the hope is this campaign will focus public attention on the lack of economic justice and basic fairness in this country. It’s already breathed new life in to a labour movement long struggling for relevancy and indeed its very survival. Yesterday the architect of that campaign, newly elected Secretary of the ACTU Sally McManus, was in Fremantle to address the annual May Day festival.

The current protests in Gaza have involved tens of thousands of people. It’s the largest sustained mobilisation of Palestinians in many years. Despite the largely peaceful nature of the protests, at least 48 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli Army, and many hundreds wounded. Dubbed the Great Return March, this new movement has given birth to a flowering of creative, non-violent resistance to the Zionist occupation. Palestinian scholar and author Dr Ramzy Baroud has written for many years on the history and politics of the Palestinian struggle. Alex Whisson interviewed Dr Baroud ahead of his Australian speaking tour, beginning with the question of why the Palestinian struggle for justice and nationhood has for so long been grossly mischaracterised as terrorism and nothing but terrorism.

Independent journalist and commentator Michael Brull recently wrote a three-part special report for New Matilda on conflict within the NSW Greens. The piece focuses on a dispute, which eventually made its way to the NSW Supreme Court, over the validity of Cate Faehrmann standing for preselection in the upper house of state parliament. Faehrmann, who won the court case and is now expected to take up the Legislative Council seat vacated by Mehreen Faruqi, is a person of some standing within the party structure, having served as Richard Di Natale’s chief-of-staff from 2015 until March of this year. It’s fair to say the prospect of her nomination was not welcomed by all party members. Indeed, some media commentators, as well as people inside the Greens, have characterised this dispute as one shaped by an ongoing, increasingly bitter civil war between the hard left and so-called moderate factions of the state party branch. Alex Whisson caught up with Michael Brull and began by asking him to outline what the d

Last week we spoke to Mark Goudkamp from the Sydney Stop the War coalition to get his perspective on the Syrian war. Today we turn to Leila Al-Shami, co-author with Robin Yassin-Kassab of Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War, published by Pluto Press. Alex Whisson began by asking Leila to start at the beginning, to go back to what happened in the early months of 2011, when massive street protests broke out against the Assad regime.

Many observers, including many people on the left, accept the Assad regime carried out a chemical weapons attack in the town of Douma on April 7th, killing some 60 people and injuring dozens of others. And many people, with a gut instinct against war, support the idea of the so-called international community responding to such attacks with limited, targeted airstrikes. Others take the view the strikes are part of a Western imperialist agenda and that, in the long run, they will only serve to increase the suffering of the Syrian people. Alex Whisson spoke to Mark Goudkamp of the Sydney Stop the War Coalition to address these vitally important questions. He began by asking exactly why the British, French and American bombing of Syrian government targets ought to be opposed.

Though there will be May Day events around the country this weekend, there are few people who would seriously argue they’re not a pale shadow of the past. With only around 15% of workers members of a trade union, and only one in ten in the private sector, the truth is the labour movement in Australia is at a historical ebb. Alex Whisson spoke to Liz Humphrys, political economist at the University of Technology Sydney, and author of the upcoming book, How Labour Built Neoliberalism, to get a better understanding of this sorry state of affairs. Liz began by explaining the historical importance of Bob Hawke’s signature achievement in government, the Prices and Incomes Accord, in the decline and degeneration of the Australian trade union movement.

Karun Cowper talks to independent journalist and filmmaker Cathy Vogan about the latest developments in the Cambridge Analytica debacle.

West Australians for Racial Equality's Suresh Rajan responds to the weekend's march for South African farmers in Perth.

Karun Cowper speaks with anti-nuclear activists Jessica Lawson and Jemila Rushton about the generations of anti-nuclear activists, military whistleblowers, founders of ICAN Australia, the Medical Association for the Prevention of War, and staunch traditional owners whom are all presently participating in the Radioactive Exposure Tour in South Australia.

Karun Cowper speaks with academic and commoner Elsie L’Hullier about power and value in the commons.

Tomorrow is Keep Your Children at Home Day, an initiative organised by the United Voice Union as part of their Big Steps campaign. It aims to highlight the low wages of early childhood educators, who at $21 an hour are paid only around half the average national wage. Alex Whisson caught up this morning with the assistant secretary of United Voice’s WA branch, Karma Lord, and began by asking what life is like on such a low wage for the people doing surely what is one of the most important jobs in the country.

The Tamil Refugee Council has condemned an early morning raid in which a refugee family was given just ten minutes to gather belongings before being flown to Melbourne and detained at the Broadmeadows detention centre (MITA – Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation). Priya, her husband Nadesalingam and their daughters – 9-month-old Dharuniga and 2-year-old Kopiga, born in Australia – were woken at their home in Biloela, central Queensland, by scores of police, Border Force officers and Serco guards. To find out more about the situation Indymedia's Raymond Grenfell spoke to Ben Hillier from the Tamil Refugee Council.

Venezuela is not a country one often sees in the news. When stories do appear, they tend to present a very one dimensional, often lurid picture. Footage of violent anti-government protests, empty supermarket shelves, hyper-inflation, and a President, Nicolas Madura, apparently intent on claiming absolute power over the state. Rarely do we hear the voices of ordinary Venezuelans. Pacha Guzman is an activist with the Ezequiel Zamora National Campesino Front, currently visiting Australia on a speaking tour. Alex Whisson spoke to her via a translator and began by asking what kind of work her organisation is involved in.

Karun Cowper speaks to CEO of Modest Fashion Project Aisha Novakovich about the booming modest fashion market in a time of Islamophobia. The growing demand for modest clothing is not just limited to people of Islamic faith and is estimated to be worth US $368 billion by 2019. Meanwhile former prime minister of Australia Tony Abbott claims support for the industry by the Department of Foreign ­Affairs and Trade for a modest fashion exhibition ignores ‘mainstream Australian values'.

Bugs placed in foreign government offices, withdrawals from international legal obligations, the suppression of witness statements. Sound like the actions of a rogue state? North Korea perhaps? Iran? In fact it describes just part of Australia’s conduct in its efforts to secure an unjust share of revenue from the Greater Sunrise oil and gas field, much of which sits in East Timorese territorial waters. After a long and twisted tale stretching back many years, the two nations are on the verge of announcing a new maritime border agreement, which might finally deliver some justice to the people of East Timor. Alex Whisson spoke to Tom Clarke from the Timor Sea Justice campaign. He started by asking what a fair share of the Greater Sunrise revenue might mean for the future of East Timor.

Karun Cowper speaks with Amanda Cahill, director and founder of the Centre for Social Change about post-capitalism in the here and now. Amanda has spent nearly two decades working on community development projects in countries as diverse as Brazil, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, India, Timor-Leste and Indigenous Australia.

Australian songwriter and accomplished storyteller Carus Thompson live in studio playing his song "Reza Barati" in commemoration of his tragic murder in detention 4 years ago on Manus Island.

Karun Cowper speaks with farmer and community organiser Frank Ashman of the Oakey Coal Action Alliance Inc (OCAA) on "Dining not Mining" opposing coal mine expansion at the Inner Downs in QLD.