Perth Indymedia

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

In June 2019, the eyes of the world turned to Hong Kong, as a mass protest movement erupted in defiance of Beijing. Initially catalysed by the introduction of an extradition bill into the Hong Kong Legislative Council, the movement soon came to embrace a set of much wider demands. Some on the left quickly dismissed it as a creature of Western interests, while others recognised the importance of solidarity with a pro-democracy movement. To get to the truth of what the Hong Kong protests were about, and what the situation is now, Alex Whisson spoke to writer and activist Au Loong Yu.

As protests erupt throughout Myanmar in response to the attempted military coup, we speak to local Burmese community member and activist Khin Myo Myint.

We speak to public housing advocate Jesse Noakes about the eviction of the tent city in Fremantle and the ongoing homelessness crisis in WA.

We speak to Jonny Windus, an organiser at the Fremantle Tent City that was dismantled by the state government over the weekend.

We speak to Jess Beckerling from the Western Australian Forest Alliance about a recent action at Simcoa by Nannas For Native Forests and the ongoing issue of native logging in WA.

We speak to writer and comedian Patrick Marlborough about their Fringe show On Fringe and about the complex relationship between the big polluters such as Woodside and the arts.

The struggle for self-determination and independence in West Papua has ramped up in recent weeks and months. With calls for a general strike by West Papuan activists, solidarity protests in Indonesia and actions here in Australia, all amid the heightened state repression of West Papuans by Indonesian authorities. We speak to Lewis Prai Wellip, a West Papuan activist based in Melbourne.

In the annals of working class history in this country, the Jobs for Women campaign has, quite rightly, gone down as the stuff of legend. Beginning in 1980, and centred around the right of women to work at the Port Kembla steelworks in Wollongong, owned and operated at the time by Australian Iron & Steel, a subsidiary of BHP, the bitter struggle would carry on throughout the entire decade of the 1980's, eventually ending in a crucial, historic victory for working class women, not only in the steel industry, but throughout the country. Robynne Murphy is an activist, filmmaker, and retired steelworker. She was central to organising the Jobs for Women campaign, and is the director of Women of Steel, a documentary film chronicling this important struggle, one from which younger activists can learn a great deal.

We speak to Petrina Harley from Rainbow Rebellion about the protest roots of pride and the need to continue the struggle for LGBTQi rights.

We speak to Anthony Collins from 350.org Perth about the groups recent report Captured State: The influence of the gas lobby on WA.

We speak to Alan Hayden from the Extinction Rebellion WA Grandparent's Group about the recent Festival for Love and Rage that took place in Perth.

In a two part series we explore the impacts platform capitalism (corporate social media) is having on art collectives and communities in Indonesia. Platforms such as Facebook, Whatsapp and Twitter, while being used by many collectives, activists and others around the world to organise, have serious implications for security, surveillance and control or ownership of content. More broadly the very way in which we socialise and organise has changed considerably. Our very concepts of space, community and relationships are being changed by these platforms. The first part of this series features Wimo, Akiq, and Dito, members of Mes56, an artist community and collective house in Jogjakarta, Indonesia. The members discuss their use of platforms, the effect this is having a well as the connections between the Covid-19 pandemic and platform capitalism. Interviews were conducted as a part of workshops held at Mes56 in June, 2020 by Rangga Purbaya, coordinated by Indymedia's Raymond Grenfell, for Curtin University an

Doug Henwood is a broadcaster, commentator, a contributing editor at The Nation and author, among other volumes, of My Turn: Hillary Clinton Targets the Presidency. He joined Alex Whisson to discuss the 2020 U.S. Presidential election, and what might happen in its aftermath.