Perth Indymedia

Jack Mundey. Leader of the NSW branch of the Builders Labourers' Federation. Member of the Communist Party of Australia. On first blush, hearing that bio, one might take him to be an obscure figure, a man of little consequence. Yet he played a monumental role in post-war Australian history, and his impact on modern environmental politics is arguably without parallel. Mundey passed away earlier this month. Indymedia's Raymond Grenfell had the opportunity earlier this morning to speak to Professor Verity Burgmann, Adjunct Professor of Politics in the School of Social Sciences at Monash University, and co-author of Green Bans, Red Union: Environmental Activism and the New South Wales Builders Labourers' Federation.

In the early 1990s the internet was largely considered a tool for global democratization. Particularly in the western world it was largely thought that new digital media would bring about a radical transformation in how civil society both engaged with the state and organised itself.

In 1999, on the back of the huge anti-capitalist and alterglobalisation movements, the Indymedia network was born. One of the first open-source projects that radically transformed how people, especially activists engaged with new digital media technologies.

Indymedia's Raymond Grenfell speaks to three founders of Indymedia, Allan Boyd and Shayne O'neil from Perth Indymedia and Stacy Lightfoot from Sydney Indymedia to discuss the history of the network and our new online platform capitalist reality.

The COVID19 pandemic has meant an increased level of policing the world over, as states move to ensure social distancing and lockdown measures are maintained. But this increased police presence along with additional police powers has raised concern about a shift towards heavy handed policing in Australia, as well as a lack of accountability and transparency. Indymedia's Raymond Grenfell spoke to Associate Professor in Criminology at Deakin University, Darren Palmer about the changing nature of policing in Australia.

Megan Krakouer, director of the National Suicide Prevention and Trauma Recovery Project, joined Alex Whisson to discuss the WA State government's response to Coroner Ros Fogliani's inquest in to Aboriginal youth suicides in the Kimberley region.

Jill Brown, coordinator of the Gas Field Free - Moore River Region group, spoke to Alex Whisson about the recent community survey conducted on the question of fracking.

Michael Roberts is an economist and author of The Long Depression: Marxism and the Global Crisis of Capitalism.

He joined Alex Whisson to discuss the possibility we may be on the precipice of a global recession.

Jeff Sparrow is the former editor of the Overland literary journal, a regular columnist for the Guardian, and the author of many books, including Killing: Misadventures in Violence, Money Shot: A Journey into Porn and Censorship, and No Way But This: In Search of Paul Robeson. His latest work, published by Scribe, is Fascists Among Us: Online Hate and the Christchurch Massacre.

29-year-old Yamatji woman Joyce Clarke was killed by a police officer in Geraldton on September 17th last year. She had only just been released from Royal Perth Hospital and was in desperate need of mental heath care. The officer responsible for her death, whose name has not been released, was charged last Thursday with her murder. Jesse Noakes spoke to Joyce's older sister Bernadatte.

Doug Henwood is an author, commentator, broadcaster, and contributing editor of the Nation.  He joined Alex Whisson to discuss the 2020 US Presidential primaries.

We speak to local activist Sam Wainwright about a newly formed coalition for climate justice and an upcoming Australian national day of action on February 22nd.