He will NEVER shut up in his local pub and never tell the same story twice either lol

Z_G, if you haven't read this sobering response by Chris Hedges yet, it's worth seeing what the American people are up against, and the effects this may have on Australia. (I apologise that I only have this in email form so I've copied it here):

Thoughts on the Midterm Elections - Chris Hedges - Nov 4

The Democrats may have taken control of the House and the Senate, they may have humiliated Donald Trump and the Republican Party, but the real fight is only beginning. It is not simply a battle to hold the corrupt Trump regime to account, something that can only be done if the Democrats are willing overcome their reluctance to carry out impeachment proceedings against the president. It is as well a battle to sweep away the corporate-indentured hierarchy of the Democratic Party, including Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries.

The Democratic Party since the presidency of Bill Clinton, who gave us NAFTA, the greatest betrayal of the working class since the 1947 Taft-Harley Act, and gutted programs such as Welfare, is a more polished version of corporate and oligarchic rule, abjectly subservient to the war machine, the Israel lobby and their funders in the billionaire class.

The country is broken. Corruption, in both parties, is endemic. Federal agencies have been gutted and destroyed. The courts, including the Supreme Court, have been handed over to right-wing ideologues. The working class is crippled with debt peonage and substandard wages. Constitutional norms and protections have been erased. Billionaires, including Trump, pay little to no income tax. The 2010 Citizens United supreme court ruling, which allows big business to fund their hand-picked candidates, sustains a system of legalized bribery.

The public may clamor for a raise in the minimum wage, Medicare for All, regulation of the big banks and private equity firms, an end to arms shipments to Israel and campaign finance reform, but no one in the leadership of the Democratic Party listens or cares. They serve their paymasters.

Will cutthroat capitalism, sold to us under the sanitized name of neoliberalism, be allowed to continue to impoverish the citizenry and funnel wealth upwards into the hands of the 1 percent? Will corporations be regulated and policed? Will corporate criminals be brought to trial? Will our democracy be restored? Or will the grotesque sight of a trillionaire, Elon Musk, gutting federal agencies and pouring hundreds of millions into elections to try and control the outcome be normalized?

The handful of politicians who attempt to confront the corruption and the devastation visited on the American working class through deindustrialization and deregulation such as Bernie Sanders, see their campaigns sabotaged by the Democratic Party leadership, including Barack Obama.

We must demand that progressive candidates, including Michigan senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed and possibly Maine’s Troy Jackson, build coalitions to oust the Democratic Party leadership, raise the minimum wage, enact universal health care, prosecute corporate crime and impeach Trump. It will be up to us.

The Democratic Party hierarchy will see the results not as a repudiation of Trump, but an endorsement of the flaccid and ineffectual position of a party that stands for little and fights for less. This would be yet another betrayal by the Democrats of voters. It would keep alive the very real prospect of another fascist, one better organized and more intelligent, taking the White House in two years.

Of course, this fight will mean not only jettisoning a corrupt Democratic Party leadership, but turning on the mega-donors, lobbyists and corporations that fund and control the Democratic Party.

The effort to wrest the party back from the hands of corporations and oligarchs will be vicious and difficult. It will require us to rely on the power of mass movements to sever these bonds. Nothing else will work.

If we fail, our anemic democracy will not be saved by these midterm elections but doomed.

Perhaps the miracle is 'we, the people'. If they push and let the Dems know that if they don't serve the needs of everyday people, 'we, the people' will vote for more socialist democrats in a couple of years' time they might get off their cushy backsides. As someone's said, there is a lot more of 'we, the people' than there is of all self-interested politicians and obscenely rich narcissists, so, time to really see this and play your card. This election has been a first step.

EDIT: you might enjoy this Owen Jones video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldMotDmeXH4

and this great conversation with Ana Kasparian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r93hVXTJQi4

Now we need Schumacher and co. gone

If somehow a miracle happens and the billionaire-friendly right wing of the Democratic party (which is the majority of the party) suddenly dies and people like AOC and Bernie can take over, then I think we'd see at least some change.

I share your pessimism re the Dems, but you never know, they might surprise us.

I just hope they stop the Israel/US siamese twin connection and can stop the killing in the Middle East and the threatened war with Iran. That's going to be the major test I'll look out for.

EDIT: I also hope the Dems start moving on taxing the ultra-wealthy as they should. They may set an example for us in Oz.

Now they can do what they do best: fuck all.

Don't get me wrong, it's amazing that despite their best efforts the fascist fucks lost. This is a big win. But at this point I have zero faith in the Democratic party to do what needs to be done.

I have been told before what you are telling me now.

I considered all that you state about the article but because it mentioned an Australian event i could not access I had to put up the post so others could access the info or provide any details they might know. The link was within the article so the post was necessary in order for others to use the link.

I'm not taking any moderation action right now, but I would point out that the rules of the !worldnews@aussie.zone community are that it be about news from overseas with a specific focus on Australia. Generally speaking, if it's from an Australian news outlet, we let that qualify automatically, for now. If it's not from an Australian source, a significant focus of the article should be on Australia or Australians. This article is written by a former British Prime Minister, for the British edition of the Guardian, and makes only a very fleeting mention of Australia.

I don't want you to do anything different right now, but if you're submitting to the Overseas News community, consider finding articles that come from Australian sources like the ABC or SBS, or finding an article that talks more directly about Australia in particular, or that approaches it through an angle that concerns Australian geopolitical concerns more specifically than the concerns an American or European-focused article would.

Really sad. If he is telling the truth, I'm sorry we couldn't have been there to give him some solidarity.

Thank you mmm, that's really encouraging. I'd like to encourage everyone else as well.

EDIT: I don't just want to be entertainment for folks.

The mods and admins would let you know if there was an issue. I think 99.99% of aussie zoners appreciate your enthusiasm and gusto.

I do what I can given my age and my living circumstances. In my private life I am very much involved in my own conservation project, every single day. Our environmental problems are caused by our social/political/economic system as are the major challenges facing the young which is my other big concern, because like Nature, the young, especially the children, have little power against capital. I do what I can there more indirectly.

Have you given up?

Thank you z_g. Not aimed at you personally, just really concerned about what I see coming and thinking, as I seem to be the only one (mostly) putting up petitions and posts about actions, that maybe I am mistaken in doing so here.

Was this intendsd as a reply to my comment? Because I'm all in favour of it, and it's why I spent the time finding the group's details. I mentioned the Green Left listings not as a 'go do this over there', but just as a tool for finding details like the ones you were looking for, and because I went looking for details there and thought it was odd I didn't find any.

I expect these protests to be sizeable. The last round of them were. The group is a Socialist Alternative initiative, along the lines of CARF, Students for Palestine etc. I'm not sure if it's broader than that and if The Socialists or any other groups are also building these protests.

I wouldn't have thought to compare them to what's happening in Europe.

Oh look another dying person wanting to see massive violence before their death and is upset it isn't happening.

Oh look, another agitator who runs their mouth on the internet but doesn't do shit IRL.

dude, i plan on being deceased within 2 to 5 years. I hate it as much as anyone, but I'm tired bro. If people really want change they're gonna have to do more than shout peacefully.

(and I'm not suicidal, goddamnit. lucky for me, I have a terminal illness.)

Am I mistaken in thinking we should inform people about actions they can be involved in? Seriously, if this is the wrong platform to be doing that, I'll stop.

Perhaps that's the case here in Oz where there are heavy doses of apathy, cynicism and lack of solidarity.

The western world is in economic distress, appears to be heading into a wide-ranging war and effing AI is taking over future jobs. All of these affect younger generations. You want to be on the side lines and be nihilistic?

Why don't we support these movements and spread the information instead?

The article mentions a large student demonstration in Australia on 12 November. If anyone knows about it please post any details as I can’t get through the paywall for The Advertiser in the link.

Here's a de-paywalled archive link of the Advertiser article: https://archive.is/OaNBl

The organising group is called 'High School Anti-Capitalists'. They look to have a website and Instagram accounts for Melbourne and Sydney groups.

Usually you'd find this sort of thing on the Green Left event listings, but there's nothing there for it. I noticed, though, that's there's a bunch of listings around the country for 'students say no to AI' protests on the 10th.

This whole article is nothing but an ad.