Australia

Labor backs plans for more US warplanes in northern Australia

The high-level AUSMIN talks between Australia and the US in August underlined the Albanese government’s commitment to deepening its ties with the US empire.

Australia uses Indonesia and the US to choke China

In late August, the Albanese government and the President-elect of Indonesia, Prabowo Subianto, agreed to a new “defence” treaty that is wholly about China.

Payman’s stand shows pressure on Albanese over Gaza still growing

Senator Fatima Payman’s resignation shows that the pressure on the Labor government over Gaza is still growing.

Children the losers as the right fights its reading wars

As if relishing his power to demoralise teachers and take the crisis in schools to new lows, Victorian Education Minister Ben Carroll has joined the other state and federal education ministers throwing their weight behind the right wing of the reading wars.

Pressure gets to Albanese as anger at genocide complicity grows

The pressure from eight months of protests is getting to the government. Albanese has launched a wild series of attacks on Palestine protests and The Greens.

Reject Dutton’s racism—migrants aren’t to blame for housing crisis

Liberal opposition leader Peter Dutton is blaming migrants for the housing crisis gripping Australia but it is rich Australian investors and the government that are to blame.

Labor’s cost of living band-aids in budget leave real problems ignored

Labor’s budget is about making it look like the government is acting on the cost of living, in the hope of dampening the anger workers feel about it in time for an election in the next year.

Labor backs more money for weapons in $330 billion plan

In the run-up to the budget, Labor unveiled its new National Defence Strategy, announcing over $330 billion in spending on new weapons and military hardware over the next decade as it gears up for war on China.

AUKUS billions won’t deliver jobs bonanza for SA

The AUKUS subs will come at an outrageous cost, but will also do little to deliver jobs, the UK experience shows.

Despite Labor’s claims, cost of living still rising faster than wages

Workers are still feeling the cost of living crunch, with Anthony Albanese refusing to do anything that would make a real difference.

Labor’s naval build-up pours billions more into war

In late February, the war-hawk Minister for Defence, Richard Marles, announced Labor would spend an extra $11.1 billion to double the number of Navy surface ships, taking total naval spending in the next decade to an eye-wateringly obscene $54.2 billion.

After the Voice referendum: What can we do about racism in Australia?

Matilda Fay looks at where racism in Australia comes from and what we can do about it.

‘Labor has blood on their hands’: why I quit the ALP

Labor’s support for Israel’s horrific war on Gaza is creating tensions within the party. Solidarity spoke to one member about why she quit the ALP.

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.

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