Perth Indymedia

We speak to long-term activist, journalist and commentator Federico Fuentes about the Novak Djokovic case and what it says about the Australian government's response to the Covid19 pandemic.

We speak to Palestinian activist Fahad Ali from Palestinian Justice Movement Sydney about the boycott of the Sydney Arts Festival 2022 over a sponsorship deal with the Israeli embassy.

Knee jerk border closures without an examination of the evidence, the spreading of fear & panic, and abject indifference, at best, to the suffering of poorly vaccinated populations in the global South. Familiar aspects of the Australian government’s COVID-19 political playbook that we’ve grown used to almost two years into the pandemic, this time in response to the emergence of the Omicron variant. Alex Whisson spoke to social justice activist, academic and commentator Paddy Gibson to discuss the politics of Omicron, the left’s response, and the continuing rise of the far right on the back of the anti-vaccination movement.

We speak to Clancey from Blockade Australia about the ongoing direct action in and around Newcastle to shut down the word's largest coal port and confront our government's inaction on the climate crisis.

We speak to Liz Downes from Rain-forest Action Group about community opposition to gold and copper mining in the north Ecuadorian town of Buenas Aires. The community have been peacefully resisting Gina Rinehart's company Hanrine mining the area despite brutal crackdowns from military police.

Indymedia's Jessie Noakes speaks to Noongar man Brendan Jones about his experience of sleeping rough on the streets of Perth throughout the pandemic.

Street protests in Colombia began some two months ago on the basis of widespread opposition to regressive tax changes proposed by the government of Ivan Duque. Duque was forced to withdraw those proposals within a matter of days, but the protests continued. To discuss the question of why those protests morphed into a more generalised anti-government movement, Alex Whisson spoke to Colombian political activist Christian.

We speak to researcher and author Iain McIntyre about his book Environmental Blockades: Obstructive Direct Action and the History of The Environmental Movement. A new book that chronicles early environmental blockades in Australia, the USA and Canada. You can read and listen to some of the interviews that contributed to the book at www.commonslibrary.org Photo by David Kemp.

We speak to Curtin NTEU branch vice president and state-secretary candidate, Dr Thor Kerr, about how the covid-19 pandemic, federal budget cuts and neoliberal management is impacting on the university sector, as well as the need for a fightback from students and staff.

We speak to Margaret Pestori,us a Brisbane based activist who is helping to organise a festival of resistance that is hoping to disrupt the 2021 Land Forces convention, a convention of the military industrial complex.

Voices of Palestinian-Australians, and their supporters, from the Palestine solidarity demonstration, Perth, Western Australia, Sunday 23rd May.

Yet again the world reels in horror at another Israeli assault on the people of Gaza, yet again the governments of the world, including the Australian government, give their imprimatur to the slaughter. Dr Ramzy Baroud is a Palestinian-American author, journalist, and editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He spoke to Alex Whisson from his home in Seattle.

The 1946 Pilbara strike of Aboriginal pastoral workers is one of the most significant episodes in both the history of the Australian labour movement, as well as the history of the Aboriginal self-determination movement. On the 75th anniversary, Alex Whisson spoke to Paul Roberts, writer and producer of How the West Was Lost, the 1987 documentary which recorded the history of this great and important strike.

Following the tragic death of a 15-year-old Aboriginal boy we speak to the national coordinator of the National Suicide Prevention and Trauma Recovery Project to discuss the continuing crisis of youth suicide.

Chris Breen is a long time activist with the Refugee Action Collective in Melbourne. Organising a protest last April in solidarity with refugees detained at the Mantra Hotel, he found himself subject to arrest for incitement, a rarely used charge with a potentially chilling effect on the right to protest.

As Brazilians continue to suffer under the authoritarian rule of Jair Bolsonara, and one of the worst COVID-19 death tolls anywhere in the world, a glimmer of hope has emerged, with the Supreme Court quashing the conviction on bribery charges of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Alex Whisson spoke to São Paulo-based political commentator and journalist, Brian Mier.

We speak to local Burmese democracy activist Khin Myo Myint about the ongoing anti-coup protests in Burma and the horrific repression facing activists.

Economist and author Michael Roberts spoke to Alex Whisson about the economic impact of COVID-19, and the prospects for a post-pandemic recovery.

Kristin O'Connell, spokesperson for the Australian Unemployed Workers Union, talks to Alex Whisson about the Morrison government's phasing out of the coronavirus supplement to the JobSeeker payment, and the need for a substantial increase to the allowance.

In light of Facebook's ban on news media in Australia we speak to author, editor and academic Timothy Erik Strom about the implications of Platform/Surveillance capitalism on our political and social economies. You can read some of Timothy's work via Arena, which he also edits: www.arena.org.au