Australian grab for regional domination behind Tuvalu climate treaty
Labor is framing its treaty with the tiny Pacific nation of Tuvalu as an act of climate change solidarity. But the primary motivation is to strengthen Australian influence in the South Pacific and block China’s search for allies.
Dan Andrews’ real legacy—privatisation and policing
Daniel Andrews should be remembered as a right-wing Labor premier who doubled the state’s prison population and made Victoria the most heavily policed state or territory bar the Northern Territory.
Vale Tom O’Lincoln
It was with great sadness that Solidarity comrades learned that Tom O’Lincoln had died after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.
Pezzullo scandal a glimpse behind ruling-class curtain
Our rulers scheme with each other (and occasionally against each other) but they always scheme against the working class. Just for once we’ve been given a glimpse.
Voice to Parliament another example of Albanese’s aversion to serious change
Support for the referendum on the Voice to Parliament is still plummeting.
Labor conference endorses Albanese’s conservative agenda and military build-up
Anthony Albanese and Defence Minister Richard Marles staked their credibility on defeating dissent over AUKUS. It was not much of a gamble.
Victorian Greens edge towards civil war
Tensions are once again growing within the Victorian Greens over the issue of trans rights and transphobia.
Albanese lets profits rip but won’t act on housing or cost of living
The cost of groceries, rents and home loans is still climbing—but Anthony Albanese and Labor do nothing while the Commonwealth Bank made a record $10.2 billion profit in the last year.
Labor avoids real solutions to out of control housing prices
The Albanese government has been enraged by The Greens’ refusal to fall in behind its housing fund legislation.
Albanese backs military spending surge but won’t act on cost of living
Anthony Albanese is still stalling on cost of living relief, even after announcing a further budget windfall. The budget surplus has swelled to $19 billion, well ahead of the $4.2 billion tipped in May.
Editorial: Rate rises and cost of living bite but Albanese does nothing
Millions of workers are being pushed into poverty by the surging cost of living, yet the Albanese government does nothing.
Dutton scapegoats migrants for housing crisis, but Labor has no answers
Liberal leader Peter Dutton used his budget reply speech to drum up racist scaremongering in a desperate bid to try and boost the Coalition’s plummeting support.
Australia cosies up to undemocratic Vietnam against China
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s recent visit to Vietnam highlights Australia’s continuing program of strengthening economic and military ties with countries that can be allies against China.
Editorial: Albanese avoids the change that’s needed through pandering to business and the rich
A year since his election, it’s clear Anthony Albanese wants to avoid serious change. Instead he is appeasing the rich and powerful to keep Labor in power for as long as possible.
PwC scandal: corruption is built into the system
The fraud scandal that has engulfed the Australian arm of PricewaterhouseCoopers, a global accounting and consulting company, stems from its own greed.
SA Labor rips up rights after Adelaide’s week of protest for planet
Activists in Adelaide staged fantastic actions against two planet-threatening confabs—on fossil fuels and war. But Labor responded with hasty legal changes to crack down on protest.
Albanese welcomes Modi, the butcher of Gujurat
Anthony Albanese welcomed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Sydney in late May, with 20,000 packing the Qudos Arena at Sydney Olympic Park to hear them speak.
Budget failure sees Labor put weapons and the rich ahead of action on cost of living
Labor’s budget fails workers and the poor so it can keep big companies, the military and the rich all on side.
Editorial: Labor finds billions for war but won’t fund JobSeeker and health—we need a fightback
Anthony Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers are hosing down hopes of any serious action on cost of living, health or aged care in the upcoming budget.
Victorian Labor prepares savage budget cuts
The Victorian Labor government, which claims to be the most progressive in Australia, is laying the ground for a horror state budget on 23 May.
Dutton marginalises the Liberals—but Labor refuses to bury him
Peter Dutton is leading the Liberals into disaster. His decision to campaign for a No vote against an Indigenous Voice to Parliament is a further sign he wants to keep the party well to the right.
Editorial: Nuclear subs spending shows scale of Labor’s commitment to running the system
Anthony Albanese’s decision to press ahead with buying nuclear submarines despite the astronomical $368 billion cost is a demonstration of his abject commitment to the system.
Queensland Labor set to throw more Indigenous kids in prison
Queensland’s Labor government has passed new right-wing law and order measures that will increase already disgraceful levels of Indigenous over-imprisonment.
Liberals smashed in NSW but little on offer from Labor
Labor has won government in NSW, with a thumping swing of almost 6 per cent ending 12 years of Liberal government.
Labor’s failure on climate and cost of living result of refusing to challenge the rich
Labor says it can't do any more on the cost of living and its climate policies are a gift to big polluting companies
Chalmers has no solution for the crises of capitalism
Labor Treasurer Jim Chalmers has followed in the footsteps of previous Labor ministers, including Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in 2009, by penning a theoretical article in the pages of the Monthly.
Neo-Nazi sentenced to jail for attack on home of anti-racist activist
Desmond Liddington, a neo-Nazi who pleaded guilty to his part in the attack on the home of Black Lives Matter activist Paddy Gibson, has been sentenced to two and a half years in jail.
Voice to parliament won’t stop racist injustice—grassroots movement needed to win change
It is already clear enough what the Voice would look like—a powerless advisory body that could be ignored the minute it raised any real demands for change.
Attitudes shifting to the left but struggle still yet to rise
The Australian Electoral Study has released a report after every election for the last 30 years. Its most recent on the 2022 election sheds light on Labor’s victory and current political attitudes.
Labor’s support for the system means only small change—fight for pay, climate action and refugees
Six months on from the election, Labor’s modest agenda and political timidity means we are yet to see the change many hoped for.
Frustration at Dan Andrews but voters won’t back the Liberals
Victoria’s election delivered humiliation for the Liberals and ended with Labor’s Daniel Andrews comfortably re-elected for the third time.
Crypto crisis exposes chaos of the system
The crypto bubble has burst, destroying billions of dollars of notional wealth. It’s not just the “crypto bros” who have lost out. Many ordinary people who got caught up in the hype have lost savings.
Don’t cop Labor’s excuses and delays—we have to fight to force real change
The cost of everything keeps going up—with no sign of stopping.
Dan Andrews—progressive sheen covering a law and order agenda
Victoria’s claim to be “the most progressive state in the nation” leaves out some inconvenient facts.
Reith dies: don’t mourn Howard’s anti-union thug
Peter Reith was a class warrior and fought for the most racist, sexist and anti-working class section of the Australian ruling class. Good riddance.
Timid budget sees Labor refuse to act on cost of living shock
Labor’s first budget is timid and conservative. It makes room for its modest election promises while delivering an approach any conservative would be proud of.
Reject the smears: stand with Lidia Thorpe
An unholy alliance of Labor and Coalition politicians, media, pro-Voice Aboriginal activists and Greens insiders is trying to drive Djab Wurrung, Gunnai and Gunditjmara woman, Senator Lidia Thorpe, out of the Greens and potentially out of parliament.
Albanese sticks with small target and tax cuts for the rich—fight back to force change
Anthony Albanese’s caution and conservatism has seen him rule out dropping the appalling “stage three” tax cuts for the rich in the government’s Budget on 25 October.
Weapons of death—Australia’s growing arms industry
Australia is pushing to develop a much bigger local military manufacturing and arms industry as part of its effort to confront China writes Feiyi Zhang.
Strikes needed to push up pay after Labor’s Jobs Summit ignores cost-of-living crisis
Anthony Albanese’s response to the Queen’s death brought out his caution and subservience to the establishment.
Jobs Summit trade-offs won’t deliver pay rises we need
Labor’s Jobs Summit has delivered a deal to trade off watering down the Better Off Overall Test for a highly restricted version of multi-employer bargaining.
Not our Queen: royals a symbol of rotten system
For workers, she was not our Queen and Charles is not our King. We have nothing to gain by revering a family that exists to celebrate inequality. Our motto should be, roll on the red republic.
Labor offers symbolism not real change—strike back for action on wages and the climate
Beyond symbolism, Labor is refusing to budge from the conservative, small target policies it took to the election or offer any substantial change.
Lifting the lid on wage theft and exploitation
Ben Schneiders is a Walkley award winning investigative journalist at The Age. He spoke to Solidarity about his new book Hard Labour: wage theft in the age of inequality, out in October.
We pay, they profit: Labor’s Jobs Summit farce
Labor's Jobs Summit is a consensus politics trap the unions need to avoid.
Labor criminalises forest protest despite union pushback
Under pressure from the timber workers’ union, Victorian Labor has passed a law targeting environmental activists. But other unions pushed back against this move, calling it an attack on the right to protest.
Labor’s small target approach not enough to deal with climate or cost of living crisis
New Prime Minister Anthony Albanese spent much of the last month overseas, reassuring the major imperialist powers that Labor is just as militaristic and aggressive towards China as Scott Morrison.
Turn inflation pain back on the bosses
Inflation is turning basic food items into luxuries, pushing up prices across the board and eating into workers’ living standards.
Labor falls short on cost of living and climate action—step up the fight for change
Anthony Albanese has spent his first month as Prime Minister emphasising change. But Labor is still offering far too little of it.
Behind the election win, Labor is in deep decline
The ALP’s victory could not disguise the fact that the party received its lowest first-preference vote since 1934, at just 32.58 per cent.
Greens gain seats but focus on parliament won’t bring change
The Greens celebrated their best ever result at the federal election, winning 12 per cent of the national vote and increasing their Senate seats to 12.
Labor’s Pacific charm offensive aims to shore up Australian and US domination
Labor’s Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, has spent her first weeks in government shoring up Australia’s sub-imperialism in the southwest Pacific across the arc of Australian strategic interests.
Fight for change needed to push beyond what Labor’s promised
Labor went to the election with only modest promises of change. But the scale of the defeat for Scott Morrison shows a clear desire for a break with the last nine years of Liberal rule.
Electoral shifts expose anger at both major parties
The election has revealed the underlying crisis facing both the Coalition and Labor, with more than 31 per cent of voters opting for Greens, teal independents or other minor parties
Red lines and imperialist rivalries—Australia is no friend of the Pacific
The Australian government’s record in the south Pacific shows it is a bully and a thief that wants to maintain its own domination of the region argues James Supple
Morrison and the Liberals humiliated but no enthusiasm for Labor’s small target
Scott Morrison and the Liberals have been humiliated in an election result that has left the party in disarray.
Take to the streets to drive out Morrison and start the fight for real change
With inflation over 5 per cent, we need to hit the streets to seize the chance to drive Morrison out and build the struggle that can win real change.
Balance of power politics is no way to win change
Independents and The Greens are pushing to hold the balance of power, saying that this will allow them to extract substantial reforms. But it’s no way to win change.
Billions wasted on weapons—stop the march to war on China
The Morrison government remains stuck behind in the polls and is relentlessly trying to take us into a khaki election.
Australia’s own imperialism behind hysteria over Solomons-China deal
China’s security treaty with the Solomon Islands, finally signed this week, has caused hysteria in Australian ruling class circles.
Right to protest under attack in NSW as new laws threaten two years’ jail
New laws in NSW rushed through on 1 April are an appalling attempt to criminalise activism and protest at a time when it is deeply needed.
Liberals hide behind COVID to force further cuts and marketisation of universities
It’s widely known that Australian higher education funding has been hit hard by COVID-19. Less well understood is that under the cover of the crisis the government has been decisively restructuring university funding.
Morrison’s election bribes can’t disguise his budget failure on wages, aged care and climate
Despite $8.6 billion for tax cuts and payments and tens of billions for the military, spending on climate change has dropped and there is nothing to fix aged care or hospitals.
South Australian vote shows Morrison’s on the ropes—strike back to knock him out and win real change
The big swing against the Liberals in the South Australian election is another blow to the Liberals. Scott Morrison will be even more panicked about his own re-election chances.
Labor’s small target strategy guaranteed not to deliver change
Lachlan Marshall explains how Labor’s small target strategy could backfire, and why we need more struggle to get anything from Labor and win change
As desperate Morrison falters—fight to finish him off
Scott Morrison is on the ropes. Opinion polls are running hard against the federal Liberals. The results in the NSW February by-elections also indicate that the anti-Liberal sentiment runs deep.
Harry van Moorst: a life of resistance
Phil Griffiths pays tribute to a veteran of the anti-Vietnam War movement who never stopped fighting for justice.
No war with China: Australia out of the Quad
The foreign ministers of Australia, the US, India and Japan will be greeted by anti-war protests as they arrive in Melbourne this week for a meeting of the Quad.
Australia’s ‘grotesque’ arms exports fuel barbarity and bloodshed
Australian manufacturers are profiting from selling military technology and deadly weapons to brutal regimes around the world, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE and up to 18 African countries.
‘This is the biggest BDS action held in this country’: Sydney festival boycott organiser
More than 100 artists and companies have withdrawn from the Sydney Festival in opposition to its “artwashing” of Israeli war crimes. Solidarity spoke to Fahad Ali, one of the organisers of the boycott campaign.
Poverty means millions can’t afford festive cheer
Millions will struggle to put food on the table this Christmas, let alone buy presents for loved ones.
Stop the march to war on China—join the protests against AUKUS
The Australian government is helping boost the chance of war through belligerent rhetoric against China, alongside its largest military build-up since the Second World War.
Right to protest under threat as Victoria Police deploy vicious weapons
Victoria Police have used anti-lockdown protests in Melbourne as an opportunity to normalise the deployment of riot police and the use of new weapons.
Editorial: Fight to fund hospitals, safety and jobs amid COVID reopening
Reopening must not mean a return to business as usual. As restrictions lift workers need to go on the offensive.
Climate change adding to workplace health and safety risks
Climate change is a growing workplace risk and can lead to accidents and even death. Unions need the clear right to bargain around climate change and its impacts on workers.
Adelaide ‘no nuclear subs’ campaign sets sail
A rally in Adelaide has kicked off the campaign against nuclear-powered subs and the AUKUS alliance for war.
John Elliott—vile corporate raider and racist bigot
John Elliott, who died ten days short of his 80th birthday, was a corporate raider of the 1970s and 1980s and loyal servant of the Melbourne establishment and the Liberal Party.
Will Clive Palmer’s millions buy another Liberal victory?
Millions around the country have been spammed in recent weeks by Craig Kelly, newly installed leader of the United Australia Party, the UAP.
Morrison’s US pact is a plan for war
The Coalition’s new military agreement with the US and Britain, known as AUKUS, brings war with China a big step closer.
Worried about health? It’s a matter of class
Working class people have poorer health than the rich—and things are only getting worse, according to a new report.
Labor ditches efforts at change in empty bid for power
Labor has dumped their opposition to tax cuts for the rich and their policies to limit tax handouts for wealthy property investors, as the party tries to narrow their differences with the Liberals for the next election.
Economic recovery for some, millions still struggling
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg boasts that “Australia is leading the global economic recovery” and that living standards have risen by a “remarkable” 5.8 per cent over the past year.
Labor’s small target strategy fails to dent NSW Coalition
NSW Labor is in crisis, with leader Jodi McKay resigning after last week’s Upper Hunter by-election loss. McKay took the small target strategy to the extreme, essentially disappearing from public view. It didn't pay off.
Budget spending can’t hide Liberals’ big business, fossil fuel agenda
The Liberals are preparing for the next election by spending money on issues that have hurt them in recent months—aged care and violence against women. But their budget offers no real solutions and is riddled with nasty measures that illustrate their real agenda.
Liberals returned in Tasmania but no joy for Morrison
The Tasmanian election has seen a Liberal government returned for a third consecutive term but overall the Liberals suffered a 1.5 per cent swing against them.
Vida Goldstein: pioneer in the fight against sexism and poverty
Vida Goldstein was a leading Australian suffragette and campaigner for women’s rights in the late 19th and early 20th century who courageously challenged the prevailing sexism in society.
Vere Gordon Childe: the Australian activist who explained what happened in history
Radical historian Terry Irving’s new biography of Vere Gordon Childe is an important contribution to understanding the Left in Australia. Irving uncovers Childe’s two careers, the first as a...
Bushfire crisis exposes out of touch Morrison—fight to force him out
The unprecedented bushfire crisis has exposed Scott Morrison as out of touch, and incapable of tackling either the immediate crisis or the climate emergency behind it.
Editorial: As polls keep falling, Dutton summons the ghost of white Australia
On 2 April, Malcolm Turnbull will equal Tony Abbott’s 30 negative Newspolls with the Coalition far behind Labor. In response the government is stepping up its racism in a desperate effort to find some support.
Greens’ loss in Batman shows Di Natale’s strategy a dead end
The Greens’ Alex Bhathal has lost a very close contest to Labor’s Ged Kearney in the Batman by-election. The vote holds important lessons for The Greens.
It’s right to fight, it’s right to strike
All over the country workers are being locked out, or facing drastic wage cuts and bosses’ threats to terminate agreements. The ACTU has begun talking about the right to strike. But the talk has to be turned into action.
Barnaby and Turnbull: Hypocrites on parade
The furore surrounding Barnaby Joyce has plunged the Turnbull government into yet another crisis. Turnbull’s “bonking ban” is symptomatic of a puritanical government in terminal decline.
Greens challenge Labor from the left in Batman
The Batman by-election in Melbourne on 17 March is a battle between The Greens’ Alex Bhathal and the ALP’s Ged Kearney.
Being black is not a crime, says Melbourne rally
“They are playing political games and it is not right”, the South Sudanese Community Association’s Richard Deng told a protest of 400 people in Melbourne in early February.
