Perth Indymedia

Last week NDIS minister Bill Shorten annouced sex work would be removed from the NDIS. The decision has been widely protested by sex worker rights groups and disability activists. Indymedia's Joni Boyd chatted to Lua; a disabled sex worker from DeCrim WA and Smut Club film festival about the ramifications.

Alex Whisson discusses all the potentially seismic political ramifications of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump in rural Pennsylvania.

Professor Salim Vally, the National Research Foundation Chair in Community, Worker and Adult Education at the University of Johannesburg, joined Alex Whisson to discuss the recent South African elections, in which the African National Congress for the first time lost its absolute majority in parliament.

We speak to local film maker Jane Hammond about her latest film in development: Browned Off. A documentary on the developing ecological crisis facing our south-west forests, with over 1000 Km of forest and woodland already dying off as a result of the changing climate. To support the film head to: https://documentaryaustralia.com.au/project/browned-off/

Executive Director of the Australian Centre for International Justice, Rawana Arraf, joined Alex Whisson to discuss the jailing of military whistleblower David McBride, and the prospects for justice being served in the war crimes he brought to light.

For this edition of Fieldnotes on the road to global war, Alex Whisson explores the advances in military technology on the battlefields of recent and current wars, with a particular focus on the revolutionary use of weaponised drones in Nagorno-Karabakh and Ukraine.

In a historically unprecedented development, Tehran launched hundreds of drones and missiles against Israeli targets, in response to the assassination of senior Iranian military officers in Damascus. Alex Whisson discussed the dangers and temptations of viewing this attack as an act of solidarity with anti-imperialist forces.

Nathalie Farah is a writer and advocate from Naarm/Melbourne. She joined Alex Whisson and Joni Boyd to discuss the various mobilisations taking place in response to the call for escalatory, economically disruptive action in solidarity with the people of Palestine.

Lockdowns, travel bans, two-week mandatory quarantines. These draconian measures became all too familiar to Australians during the years of the COVID-19 pandemic. And yet, none of these 'policy levers' were part of the country's long term pandemic response planning. Addressing a collective trauma from which almost none of us have even begun to properly recover, political scientists Tom Chodor and Shahar Hameiri set out to discover just why Australia's response to COVID-19 was so badly bungled at every step, and why the rise and rise of a neoliberal regulatory state came back to haunt us amid the worst public health crisis in a hundred years.

Ahead of Julian Assange's final attempt to appeal his extradition to the United States on 17 charges of espionage and one charge of computer misuse, Alex Whisson spoke to his father John Shipton.

Jarrod McKenna is a Christian pastor, educator, and peace activist currently involved in organising the Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimage, a project which has expanded to include an astonishing 109 cities in 17 nations. Alex Whisson spoke to Jarrod to discuss the motivations behind the project, and why it is an opportunity to both map the geography of horror unfolding in Gaza, as well as create space for emotional catharsis and spiritual rejuvenation.

One of three Disrupt Burrup Hub campaigners issued a summons to appear in the Supreme Court, in relation to an action last June which led to the evacuation of Woodside's corporate headquarters, Emil Davey joined Alex Whisson to discuss this latest episode of 'lawfare' by the fossil fuel giant hellbent on destroying both ancient Aboriginal rock art and the natural habitat of the Burrup Peninsula.

Alex Whisson: Fieldnotes on the road to global war by Perth Indymedia Collective

Prior to the last election, the Albenese government made a promise for Australia to end live animal exports, divesting itself economically and moving to more humane ways transporting meat internationally, after the industry was found to be was not only declining economically, but as a salient and shameful example of animal cruelty. Brad Pettit, MLC, unpacks why activists are demanding an end now!

Protesters gathered in central Perth yet again on Sunday 28th January to cry out in anguish and anger at the suffering of the Palestinian people. The event was also an opportunity to express solidarity with indigenous people in Australia who themselves continue to battle oppression in a colonial-settler state. Meanwhile, governments throughout the Western world have ignored the International Court of Justice's interim orders relating to Israel's genocidal assault, and instead chosen to cut off funding to the United Nations Relief & Works Agency, one of the few lifelines for a population in Gaza now facing mass starvation.

Argentinian-Australian political commentator, author and analyst, Federico Fuentes, joined Alex Whisson to discuss the recent election of Javier Milei as President of Argentina. Is he a populist? A libertarian? An anarcho-capitalist? Or an out-and-out fascist? And what are the political implications of his election, not only for Argentina, but the Latin Amerian region as a whole?

Joni reports on the 7th January rally for Gaza in the Perth CBD - the 10th march in a row since the IDF's current bombardment of Gaza began.

Indymedia's Joni Boyd chats to newly elected City of Bayswater Councillor Nat Latter about the power of local government, adapting to climate change on a local level and a whole range of other topics like homelessness, accessibility and transparency. Broadcast on 8th Jan 2024 on RTRFM92.1

For the final episode of the year, Alex Whisson surveys the state of the world.

Disrupt Burrup Hub's Gerard Mazza joined Alex Whisson to discuss why an activist with the group, Marek 'Maz' Misiewizc, chose to lock himself on to a barrel in the boot of a 4WD, parked right outside the office of the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority.