1152

Flying into Caracas, the plane was full of middle class Venezuelans travelling home from Miami. On board, no one spoke to the passenger next to them for fear of finding out they were on the opposite side of the political divide.

In highly polarised Venezuela, these things are best left unsaid.

There is a climate emergency. The massive forest fires in Canada, the Lucifer heatwave engulfing southern Europe and Australia experiencing its warmest July on record have all happened within the past fortnight. Yet, Australia’s carbon emissions continue to rise.

The growing movement to prevent the Adani Carmichael coalmine, as well as fossil fuel divestment campaigns, show we are making headway. But activism is not enough.

The unthinkable possibility of nuclear war is once again in the headlines after US officials reacted with shrill threats to the North Korean government claim to have tested its most powerful nuclear bomb yet.

This is the latest escalation in a game of nuclear chicken, with calculated provocations on all sides. But to judge from the mainstream media, it is only North Korea’s Kim Jung-un who is driving the world to the brink of a nightmare.

This is false.

Child care workers walked off the job at 3:20pm today to highlight the gender pay gap and to demand a fair pay rise. United Voice Queensland led the action involving workers from 20 child care centres in Queensland and 90 Australia wide.

Interview with Linda Revill (United Voice organiser). Also featured was Sharon Caddie (United Voice) reading a resolution calling on the federal government to fund a pay increase for child care workers.

Celeste Liddle is the National Indigenous Officer for NTEU. She is speaking at the Resistance: Young Socialist Alliance's Radical Ideas Conference.