This article was first published in The Oriental Despot

Image: Australia, torn between foreign interference and independent interests. The ‘green & gold’ Eureka is my contribution to the Australian Republican ‘flag debate’.

by Jay Tharappel

This was written in the immediate aftermath of the Friday 26 June ASIO raids conducted against the homes of NSW parliamentarian Shaoquett Moselmane and his staffer John Zhang, which are the first to be carried out under the ‘foreign interference’ laws introduced in June 2018, ostensibly intended to prevent foreign governments from influencing our political affairs in ways detrimental to Australia’s national interest.

The 2018 ‘foreign interference’ legislation

The new legislation includes the Espionage and Foreign Interference Act (EFI), and the subsequent Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme. The EFI introduces forty-five new offences related to treason, sabotage and dealing with information that harms ‘national security’, the definition of which was modified to include, “the country’s political, military or economic relations with another country or other countries”.

Read more: Yes, Australians Should Worry About Foreign Interference

by Don Longo

Edvard Munch, 'The Scream', undated, Kunstmuseum, Bergen, Germany

The origin, development and impact of Covid-19 will take years to play out. Here are some reflections on the current situation with respect to the pandemic. I present them in the form of questions to highlight the prevailing uncertainty surrounding the virus. Neither the section headings nor the items under them are in any particular order.

Ideologies, Systems

— What have been the relative merits of people’s democracies (specifically, China) and liberal parliamentary democracies (specifically, Australia, Europe, USA) in terms of effectiveness in dealing with the pandemic? Are centralised systems of authority better at responding to health crises than devolved, parliamentary and federated systems?

Read more: Interrogating The Plague Year: Questions On The Political And Moral Economy Of COVID-19

This National Campaign is building a groundswell movement of all organisations, groups and individuals who are working for economic and social justice for the unemployed, others dependent on Social security, the underemployed and low-income workers.

LIFE is a national network of organisations and individuals campaigning for a living income for everyone. The emphasis working at the grass roots, to encourage many to join a broad movement to bring about change which will ensure that everyone has adequate home food and the other necessities an adequate standard of living.

Australia is about to explode with mass unemployment and increased poverty

Until recently the Unemployment Benefits and Youth Allowance have not been raised for twenty six years leaving people in grinding poverty and struggling for dignity and health.

Read more: Living Incomes for Everyone National Campaign Launch

Spirit of Eureka, 1 July 2020

Spirit of Eureka strongly condemns the plans of Israel, its Zionist colonial government and its US imperialist backers, to annex the settlements illegally occupying Palestinian land in the West Bank on July 1.

 This latest action is a continuation of the policies of the Zionist state project which since its inception in 1948 has systematically and ruthlessly attempted to impose its racist colonial regime on the Palestinian people and their homeland. It has done this through the illegal occupation of Palestinian land, turning it into an apartheid state that denies the sovereign and human rights of the Palestinian people, and enforces this regime through systematic terror, destruction of homes, and the use of violence with impunity.

 In the UN, Australia slavishly toes the line set by US imperialism. Australia was one of only two countries, along with the Marshall Islands, both reliable lackeys of the US, to vote against a recent resolution condemning the planned annexations in the West Bank. We demand that the Australian government end its support for the crimes and human rights violations committed by the Zionist government of Israel, and to stand with Palestine and the Palestinian people.

We express our solidarity with the Palestinian people in their struggle for national liberation, and call on the Australian people to support their just cause.

Stop the annexations and end the occupation!
End Australian government support for Israel!
Victory to the Palestinian people! Free Palestine!