2008

As Solidarity goes to print, the fate of up to 386 ABC Learning child care centres is in doubt. That represents one-tenth of the national child care resources. The...

New laws not the end of WorkChoices

The final piece of Labor’s new industrial relations regime has been unveiled by Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard. The new legislation was hailed by Gillard and most of the...

University staff resist job cuts in Victoria

The shocking announcement a few weeks ago of the largest ever mass sackings in Australia’s higher education sector at Victoria University (VU) prompted a well attended protest rally in a quiet time of the...

NSW government pushes privatisation and cutbacks

In the context of the global financial crisis, governments across the world have abandoned financial conservatism, proposing significant expenditure programs, often funded through debt. The Chinese government recently outlined...

NSW teachers vote for 48-hour strike

Twenty thousand teachers at meetings around NSW have voted to take 48 hours of industrial action at the start of the 2009 school year, in the event of the...

Nuke waste dump laws condemned

A strong community campaign involving Traditional Owners, health organisations, environment groups and the Central Land Council has called for immediate repeal of Howard-era legislation forcing a nuclear dump on...

New service fee will silence dissent on campus

In early November the Rudd government announced it would introduce a Student Service Fee of up to $250 per student which universities could choose to implement. This is to...

Labor axes CDEP and steps up the NT intervention

In early October, the Federal Labor Government announced major changes to the CDEP (Community Development Employment Programs). The changes have been met with outrage from affected Aboriginal communities. While a...

Modeling shows loopholes in emission reductions plan

The Australian government’s proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) is more about profit than planet. When the Treasury modeling on the CPRS was released on October 30, Treasurer Wayne Swan...

Movement must take position on carbon trading

The Walk Against Warming rallies this year were smaller that last. This is largely because they had no particular clear demands, and they did not take a position on...

Global summits solve little as world economy slumps

It forecasts its members to record an overall fall of 0.3 per cent in 2009, with the US economy set to decline 0.9 per cent, Japan 0.1 per cent...

Revival of the socialist left in Malaysia

Over the weekend of November 8 and 9, the Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) hosted “Socialism 2008” in Kajang, a rapidly growing working class town near Kuala Lumpur. The conference...

Foreign rivalry over resources fuels war in Congo

Renewed fighting in the Congo threatens to drag the country back into full-scale conflict, in a country where five million civilians died in war between 1998 and 2003. The largest...

Mood for change sweeps the US

There were two million people in and around Chicago’s famous Grant Park (the site of the infamous 1968 anti-war protests) at midnight on November 5 to hear Barack Obama’s...

Can US workers unite across the race divide? Yes they can!

Obama’s election has buried the myth that the US white working class is inherently racist, hopelessly tied to the white elite. Before the election we were told the so-called socially...

Socialist planning and alternatives to the market

The failure of free market policies evidenced by the collapse of major banks and big falls on the stockmarket raise whether there is an alternative to the market as...

Unions after the Rights at Work campaign

The union campaign against WorkChoices succeeded in getting Howard voted out, but has not put unions in a stronger position to organise and fight. Solidarity examines why.

Anti-union laws: How the penal powers were defeated

In 1969 over one million workers took part in a general stoppage and won the freedom of jailed union official Clarrie O’Shea and an end to the penal powers....

Putin’s Russia: back to the future?

Jarvis Ryan looks at the re-emergence of Russian power and explains its significance The brief but bloody war between Russia and its neighbour and former colony Georgia, a small but...

Series exposes colonialism’s brutal history, but paints it as all in the past

Review: The First Australians Directed by Rachel Perkins Available on DVD soonThe First Australians is a six part television documentary series which attempts to portray on a national scale the impacts...

Symbol of Northern Ireland’s civil rights struggle

Review: Hunger Directed by Steve McQueen In selected cinemas nowThe film Hunger depicts the 1981 hunger strike of Irish Republican prisoner Bobby Sands. It is a stark reminder of the last...

Labor goes missing in the Howard years

Review: The Howard years ABC1, November 17 to December 8 We survived the Howard years, and now you want us to watch it on Monday night prime time! That’s the sentiment...

Letters

Flannery a dubious ally Anne Picot and I must have read different copies of Tim Flannery’s Quarterly Essay, “Now or Never” about global warming. Flannery’s commitment to the market and carbon...

Things they say

“Banks are going to fail, so keep them individually small so that the failure of one can’t upset things.” Paul Volker (former Chairman of the Reserve bank and economic adviser...

Land rights not leases

A MAJOR investment program in Aboriginal housing in the NT is being used as a weapon to further break up community control, push people out of remote areas and...

1949 coal strike: How Chifley lost Labor’s supporters

For decades, only the Left has talked about the 1949 coal miners’ strike, using it as an example of how low a Labor government can stoop—to the point of using soldiers to scab. So it should have been welcome news that the ABC had put resources into an hour-long dramatisation, Infamous Victory: Ben Chifley’s Battle For Coal. Unfortunately, the ABC has given us little to cheer about.

Will Rudd’s spending package save Australia from economic disaster?

There have been three constant themes in the Rudd government's rhetoric about the global financial crisis. The first is that Australian banks are fundamentally sound, unlike those in America, because...

Rudd’s plan won’t shield us from this crisis

The struggle over who will pay for the growing economic crisis has begun. Across the world banks are collapsing and economies are heading into recession. The US economy shrunk in...

Review paves road for ongoing intervention

Aboriginal affairs minister Jenny Macklin announced her government will ignore two key recommendations of the review commissioned into the Northern Territory intervention. Macklin will continue blanket quarantining of welfare...

Rally against intervention on Human Rights Day

THE RECENT anti-intervention convergence on Alice Springs has galvanised the commitment of activists to step up the fight against the NT intervention. The Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney (STICS)...

Hundreds rally in support of Lex Wotton

Three hundred people rallied in Brisbane on November 1st to demand Lex Wotton be freed. The angry rally marched on parliament handing in petitions collected that week calling for...

Lex Wotton found guilty–Racism rules in Queensland courts

After a trial lasting almost three weeks, and two days of deliberation, an all-white jury found Lex Wotton, an Aboriginal plumber from Palm Island, guilty of rioting with destruction....

Telstra tries on second non-union agreement

Last issue Solidarity reported that Telstra workers in the Wholesale and Service Advantage area had voted down a non-union collective agreement. It was a serious blow to Telstra's divide...

Strike against non-union agreement at Rio Tinto

TRAIN DRIVERS in the Pilbara region of Western Australia have taken strike action as part of a struggle to establish a collective union agreement with mining giant Rio Tinto....

Sydney Uni uses economic crisis to justify cuts

In the midst of global panic last month, the University of Sydney's Vice-Chancellor announced shock budget cuts of up to 9 per cent because of a shortfall of $100...

NSW teachers to stopwork as fight for 5 per cent continues

NSW teachers will continue their campaign for salary and staffing justice with statewide stopwork meetings on November 19. They will hear details of a special claim for an immediate...

Pressure mounts to scrap anti-terror laws

Two of Australia's most high-profile anti-terrorism cases, those of Dr Mohamed Haneef and Jack Thomas (the first person to be charged under the federal anti-terrorism laws) are once again...

Abortion decriminalisation bill succeeds in Victoria

AFTER EXTENSIVE debate in the Victorian state parliament, opposition from the anti-abortion lobby and threats from the religious right, the Victorian Abortion Law Reform Bill was passed by the...

Iraqis oppose US plan for continuing occupation

Last month 50,000 Iraqis hit the streets in protest at a new Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) being pushed by the US which would enshrine the right of foreign...

Pakistan and the curse of US imperial power

Review of The Duel: Pakistan on the flight path of American power By Tariq Ali Simon & Schuster, $34.95 PAKISTAN IS a complex country. Popularly characterised by both political and religious extremism,...

Will Obama bring much-needed change?

As Solidarity goes to print, Democratic candidate Barack Obama is set to win the most passionate US presidential election campaign in generations. Reshaping the political landscape, Obama will win southern...

Italy rises up against economic crisis and cutbacks

Last month Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi told people how they could stave off financial disaster--buy shares in two national energy companies--yet by the end of that days trading...

World economy faces protracted downturn

As Solidarity goes to print, many mainstream economists are claiming the worst of the banking crisis is over. Governments worldwide have adopted a whatever it takes strategy aimed at...

US workers hit hard by housing crisis

Following the dot.com crash in 2000 and the 9/11 attack in 2001, US workers were told it was their patriotic duty to spend. This was Bush's strategy for avoiding...

The birth and life of neo-liberalism

The current economic crisis has shaken belief in the capacity of neo-liberal “free market” policies. Tom Orsag examines where neo-liberalism came from—and where it is going The re-emergence of worldwide...

Are we headed for another Great Depression?

The Great Depression of the 1930s strikes fear in the hearts of working class people around the world, with memories of skyrocketing unemployment, homelessness and hunger. Ernest Price looks at...

Struggling to hold on: the Unemployed Workers Movement

The economic devastation that gripped Australia during the 1930s dealt an almost fatal blow to the organised labour movement. In the face of mass sackings and wage cuts, there...

Unions and the fight for the environment

In the 1970s the Builders Labourers’ Federation led inspiring struggles in defence of the natural environment. Emma Torzillo looks at the history of an inspiring struggle when workers took...

Ideas for the global climate movement

Review: Stop Global Warming: Change The World By Jonathan Neale Bookmarks, $30.00 from Solidarity AS ONE of the most sun-drenched continents on the planet, Australia should be a leading solar industry...

Solutions to global warming but no way to get there

Review: “Now or never”, Quarterly Essay 31 By Tim Flannery Black Inc, $15.95 WHILE THE great financial melt-down has dominated the headlines for the past month, there is no good news...

How ordinary people paid for the boom

Review: The Land of Plenty By Mark Davis Melbourne University Publishing, $36.95 NOW THAT the Australian economy is slowing, ordinary Australians will be expected to take a hit in their living...

The politics of Rudd’s ‘family values’

Review: The Henson Case By David Marr Text Publishing, $24.95 WHEN, IN May this year, the right-wing forces of Miranda Devine and 2GB radio came together to declare offence taken to...

Things they say as the economic crisis deepens

Things they used to say… “I think the financial volatility has diminished and the credit crisis is coming to an end” Reserve Bank member Professor Warwick McGibbin in May this year ...

Workers to rally for end to anti-union ABCC

THOUSANDS OF building workers across the country are set to strike on December 2, when Noel Washington, senior vice president of the Victorian branch of the CFMEU, goes on...

Editorial: Capitalist greed threatens recession

Despite George W. Bush’s controversial bailout package (see page 5), we have by no means seen the back of the current economic crisis. Up to 1000 more banks are...

Bush finds billions for bankers

THE BUSH Administration finally gathered support for a US$700 billion plan to bail out US banks—no less than US$2000 for every person in the United States. After one false...

Brisbane construction sites stopwork to defend Noel Washington

OVER 3000 Brisbane construction workers walked off the job for a mass stopwork meeting in central Brisbane on September 12. The action was in solidarity with Noel Washington, a...

NSW teachers campaign to break Labor’s pay cap

NSW TEACHERS are still seeking a salary raise of 5 per cent or more and an end to restrictions on transfers. The October state council meeting of the New...

Queensland public sector workers fight pay offer

PUBLIC SECTOR workers rallied in Brisbane on September 30 to protest over the state government’s paltry 3.25 per cent wage offer. Over 3000 workers participated in the rally. It was...

Action can stop job cuts at Melbourne Uni

A COLD, wind-swept day did not stop over 120 Melbourne Uni staff and students joining a protest against university management’s plan to sack 20 academics in the arts faculty....

Does NSW really face a budget crisis?

ALMOST THE first words uttered by the new premier Nathan Rees were along the lines of “I’ve been briefed by Treasury. It’s worse than I thought. We could lose...

Alice Springs opposes uranium exploration

On October 5 a community protest gathering of over 300 people was held in Alice Springs to voice opposition and outrage at the Northern Territory government’s consent to uranium...

Blow to Telstra’s plans for non-union agreement

WORKERS AT Telstra have voted to reject the collective non-union agreement the company was trying to force on them. This is a major defeat for Telstra’s efforts to cut...

Drop the charges against Lex Wotton

ON OCTOBER 6 Palm Island man Lex Wotton faced the Supreme Court in Queensland. He is charged with “riot involving damage or destruction of property”. If convicted he faces...

Garnaut climate plan to suit big business

IN HIS final report to the government, Professor Ross Garnaut echoes the calls from industry to abolish the one measure the Rudd government has in place that will actually...

Melbourne terror trial fuels Islamophobia

As the banners telling us “History is coming!” went up all over Melbourne getting ready for the AFL grand final, the verdicts came down in the trial of the...

Barwon 12 trial: in the words of the defence consel

“We’ve seen an airbrushing, a re-write of history” “The crown has presented a selected and distorted picture” “The ‘war on terror’ has been used by politicians. The innocent (like...

Revolt of the rich escalates in Bolivia

A WAVE of violence by right-wing paramilitaries in Bolivia left at least 30 people dead and government buildings ransacked across the country’s eastern provinces. The violence is the result of...

Support for US war resisters grows in Canada

IRAQ WAR resisters in Canada received an important victory in late September. On September 22 Jeremy Hinzman and his family successfully appealed their deportation order. The family was scheduled...

Deal between Zimbabwe’s elites will not end the crisis

IN JULY reaffirmed our long-held position of the likelihood “of an elite political settlement between the ruling party and opposition around a western supported full neoliberal economic programme”....

‘Afghanistan is becoming like Iraq’

Academic and author Elaheh Rostami-Povey visited Sydney recently, speaking on her research in Afghanistan under the US-led occupation. Below we reprint part of a speech she gave I HAVE been...

Afghanistan death toll soaring

THIS IS shaping up to be the bloodiest year on record since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan began in 2001. The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan recorded a total of...

Changes to intervention won’t end paternalist approach

THE REVIEW into the intervention in the Northern Territory, released in mid-October, has called for an end to blanket welfare quarantining and suggested the reinstatement of the Racial Discrimination...

Selective quarantining tried in Queensland

WHILE THE restoration of the RDA would force some changes to the Northern Territory welfare quarantine legislation, it is likely that these would be modelled on the Queensland intervention...

Converging against intervention in Alice

OVER 200 people from around Australia travelled to join hundreds more from the NT in a protest convergence against the NT intervention in Mparntwe-Alice Springs from September 29 to...

Why is the world economy in meltdown?

With the US economy in tatters, questions are being raised about what caused the crisis and what it will mean for people around the world. Feiyi Zhang looks at...

Can China protect Australia from the economic crisis?

Kevin Rudd and many in the mainstream press once said that Australia’s economic relationship with China would provide a cushion in the current economic crisis. Tom Barnes examines the...

Before abortion rights were won

Review: The Racket By Gideon Haigh, Melbourne University Publishing, $34.95WHILE NEW legislation to decriminalise abortion is debated in the Victorian parliament, influential priests and some politicians continue their crusade to...

A graphic and haunting soldier’s tale

Review: Waltz With Bashir Directed by Ari Folman, Limited cinema release ARI FOLMAN was only 19 when he was conscripted as part of Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, which installed...

Things they say–economic crisis special

“If money isn’t loosened up, this sucker could go down” George W. Bush on the US financial system during the market crisis negotiations “It’s not based on any particular...

Fight needed to win real work rights

FURTHER DETAILS about Labor’s new IR laws confirm that the new government will retain the bulk of WorkChoices. Legislation will be introduced into parliament before the end of the...

A fresh look at America’s urban decay

Review: The WireWHEN US presidential candidate Barack Obama was asked his favourite TV show and character, his answers were The Wire and Omar Little (more on him later).Don’t be...

Rudd pushes Howard policies

For months now Solidarity has been reporting on the growing contradictions between the hopes that people had for a progressive Rudd government and the reality of the new government’s...

Response to Garnaut more urgent than ever

The Sydney Morning Herald headline said it all about Professor Ross Garnaut’s latest round of reports: “Sigh of relief from business”. When Garnaut released his interim report earlier this...

Victorian CFMEU misses chance to link ABCC to pay claim

A mass meeting of 6000 Victorian building workers, members of the CFMEU, in late August, voted to accept the latest EBA put to them by the union officials. With...

Victorian abortion legislation a step forward, but restrictions remain

The Victorian government’s decision to legalise abortion rights is a slap in the face for the anti-abortion lobby. After the religious right’s attempts to undermine abortion rights, it is...

Failure to spread benefits of boom hits WA Labor

Labor looks to have lost its monopoly on power at a state level in the WA election. Despite the extent of the boom in the WA economy, which has...

Prescribed communities in NT to target review

On September 29 a “Prescribed Area People’s Alliance” meeting will take place. This will be followed on September 30 by a major demonstration demanding the repeal of intervention laws,...

Solar power proposal shows renewables’ potential

A proposal to build a major new solar power station in the Pilbara region of Western Australia has been largely ignored by the mainstream press. The project follows years of...

Students occupy to demand housing

HOMELESS MELBOURNE students and their student union supporters took action last month to address a housing shortage and associated rent rises. They are occupying a disused university-owned building...

Rudd’s work visa scheme: open the borders to our pacific neighbours

KEVIN RUDD’S announcement at the Pacific Islands forum that he would grant 2500 temporary work visas over three years to Pacific Islanders to pick fruit and vegetables has sparked...

The Senate games begin

BATTLE LINES have been drawn in the Senate. The Rudd government is accusing the Liberals of holding their budget to ransom by blowing a funding hole in it. The Liberals...

Protest plans derail Adelaide arms fair

Activists from around the country are celebrating the cancellation of the first arms fair planned in Australia in 17 years. The Asia Pacific Defence and Security Exhibition was to have...

No end in sight to instability in Pakistan

The resignation of Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf was greeted with jubilant demonstrations across Pakistan. But it will not remove the tensions within Pakistani politics. His resignation was followed by...

China and the Olympics

Some of the China-bashing that accompanied the Beijing Olympics was nothing short of nauseating. George Bush took time out to chide China over its “detention of political dissidents, human...

Pillars of the US establishment

After a week dominated by Barack Obama’s consecration at the Democratic convention in Denver, his Republican rival has succeeded brilliantly in upstaging him by selecting Sarah Palin as his...

Reviewing the Northern Territory intervention

One year, 810 federal public servants, $900 million on—Jean Parker’s intervention report-card ON SEPTEMBER 30 the review commissioned by the Federal Government into the Northern Territory intervention will be released....

Caucasus conflict: bloody cost of the new world order

Paddy Gibson puts the recent flashes of violence between Russia and Georgia in context WESTERN POLITICAL leaders have been sickeningly hypocritical in their response to the recent crisis in Georgia....

Mapoon: the burning of a community

With the government threatening to close so-called “unviable communities” as part of the intervention in the NT, Mark Gillespie looks at the shameful history of Mapoon—an Aboriginal community declared...

The AAA credit rating and other Treasury myths

There is a desperate need to invest in public services infrastructure in NSW. Lack of spending has led to ongoing scandals in the hospital system and the deterioration of...

Explaining Iemma’s privatisation obsession

Why would a Labor government push ahead with a power privatisation plan opposed by 85 per cent of voters, rejected by a massive majority at its own party conference,...

Greer’s rage no answer to the NT intervention

Review: On Rage By Germaine Greer, Melbourne University Press, $19.95 RIGHT-WING SUPPORTERS of the NT intervention will find comfort in the pages of Germaine Greer’s recent short essay On Rage,...

Persepolis: Iran through a rebel’s eyes

Directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, Now showingWITH US-LED military threats against Iran showing no signs of abating, the release of Persepolis on the big screen couldn’t have...

Inside Kevin 07: Danger signs right from the start

By Christine Jackman, Melbourne University Press, $34.95THE BEST thing about this book is that we know how the story ends—Howard loses. However, a big question mark hangs over what...

The Dark Knight: Fighting terror with terror

Directed by Chris NolanTHE DARK KNIGHT, sequel to Batman Begins, is the latest recreation of the 70 year old modern myth that is The Batman. These two movies by...

A lifetime of struggle

Veteran Trotskyist Issy Wyner passed away in August, aged 92. Issy Wyner June 30 1916—August 13 2008 Wyner’s life was closely bound up with the development of the Trotskyist tradition in...

Things they say

“There’s never been an industrial dispute in this country that wasn’t solved by talking.” Deputy PM Julia Gillard on the Fairfax dispute“If these things are not to be undertaken ......

Bosses side-step ban on AWAs

Companies including Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton, Xstrata and Telstra have moved to exclude unions from wage negotiations in an effort to maintain AWA wages and conditions. In May Telstra...

Campaign against sell-off brings down Iemma

THE TOPPLING of NSW Premier Morris Iemma and Treasurer Michael Costa, and the defeat of their plans to privatise the power stations, is a real victory against Labor’s agenda...

Rudd’s plan for schools continues Howard’s legacy

Rudd's new schools plan has been widely condemned. Not only does it revive the former Liberal government’s attempt to implement a “league table” ranking schools, it mimics Howard's scapegoating...

Walden Bello: ‘US power its lowest for a quarter of a century”

Solidarity interviewed one of the key thinkers from the global justice movement, Walden Bello, of Focus on the Global South, during his visit to Sydney to talk about the...

Editorials: Rudd and the unions; debating climate solutions

THE BELIEF that the Rudd government will bring change is still strong. But many people wish the government was moving more quickly to undo Howard’s legacy. In reality, most of...

Unions start fight to scrap anti-worker laws

VICTORIAN BUILDING unions are set to hold a mass stopwork rally in defence of Noel Washington, the construction union official facing six months jail for defying Howard’s industrial laws....

It is not the end of mandatory detention

AT THE end of July, the Immigration Minister Chris Evans announced changes to the administration of immigration detention. He described the changes as fundamentally overturning the current model...

Return to ration days in NT

ANTI-INTERVENTION campaigners Barbara Shaw, Paddy Gibson and Nat Wasley recently traveled to Tennant Creek to find out about how the intervention is affecting people’s lives. They spoke to Margaret...

Protest can deal blow to NSW privatisation

WITH MORRIS Iemma’s position as NSW premier looking ever more fragile, a further demonstration against his proposed power sell-off will be held on September 20. There needs to be...

Unions join climate action at Newcastle camp

ON JULY 15, 150 people including Climate Camp participants, local Newcastle residents, and unionists, held a lively picket of NSW Treasurer and climate change denier Michael Costa, against electricity...

Involving members key to change in CPSU

IN THE wake of the federal election victory for Labor, the CPSU is holding a series of Agenda For Change discussions around the country. The first discussion was attended...

NSW public sector: ‘2.5 per cent is a joke’

HUNDREDS OF workers rallied across NSW on July 30 against the NSW government’s attempt to cap public sector pay rises at 2.5 per cent. Public sector workers from the...

NSW teachers prepare for action against pay cap

NSW TEACHERS are to take industrial action in August unless the NSW government commences negotiations on teacher provision and salaries. The action of stopwork meetings followed by rolling stoppages...

Victorian Labor backs new coal-fired power plant

COAL TECHNOLOGY company HRL (run by Channel Seven boss Kerry Stokes), the Chinese corporation Harbin Power and the Brumby Government have signed a formal contract to build a new...

ETS: bad for climate, bad for workers

AT THE heart of both Ross Garnaut’s interim report and the Rudd government’s Green Paper is the proposals for an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). The ETS is presented as...

Greenpeace Energy [r]evolution report

AUSTRALIA’S ENERGY evolution is a useful tool for the climate movement. Greenpeace researchers have drawn together the best science and technology to build a concrete and achievable vision of...

Italy’s Communists shift left after defeat

THE LARGEST party of the European radical left, Rifondazione Comunista of Italy, held its national congress in July and made a decisive shift to the left. This was a...

Global credit crisis continues to deepen

MANY ANALYSTS thought the worst of the credit crisis passed four months ago, when the US Federal Reserve orchestrated a bailout of investment bank Bear Stearns. But recent events...

G8 leaders refuse to commit to carbon cuts

YET AGAIN the presidents and prime ministers of the richest countries have put their “national interests” ahead of the need for urgent cuts in carbon emissions. In Japan last month...

Afghanistan–Obama’s ‘good’ war goes from bad to worse

ONLY A few months ago Democrats’ presidential nominee Barack Obama was a source of hope for those wanting to see an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan....

Olympics no force for democracy

OLYMPIC CHIEF Jacques Rogge said in 2005 that, “the staging of the Beijing games will do a lot for human rights.” In fact, staging the Olympics has already thrown...

Western hypocrisy over human rights in China

REMEMBER TIBET? Only six months ago, as Chinese authorities cracked down on Tibetan protesters, there was widespread talk of an Olympic boycott by major world leaders. But as the...

Nationalism and the Olympics

SHORT OF war, sport between nations is the best way to generate, express and manufacture “national pride”. How else can you “go for” your country? Millions of people enjoy sport....

The fight for same sex marriage rights under Labor

Amy Thomas looks at Howard's homophobic legislation and Rudd's continuation of his legacy-and what we can do to fight itJohn Howard won the 1996 election promising to govern for...

The whole world was watching: the 1968 Democratic convention

With Barack Obama set to accept the Democratic nomination for president in Denver on August 28, Mark Goudkamp looks back on the turbulent events surrounding the 1968 Democratic Party...

‘Socialism, yes, occupation, no!’ Czechoslovakia 1968

James Robertson details the history of 1968 in Czechoslovakia, when masses of workers and students challenged the Stalinist order, calling for "socialism with a human face".FROM BERKELEY, California to...

The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island

By Chloe Hooper, Hamish Hamilton, $32.95CHLOE HOOPER, a novelist whose first book won international praise, recently released The Tall Man, a book on the Palm Island inquest into the...

Inside the Al Sadr movement

Review: Muqtada Al-Sadr and the Fall of Iraq By Patrick Cockburn, Allen and Unwin $29.95BY A strange coincidence the place where the first US soldier was killed by a roadside...

Obituary: Colin Campbell

COLIN CAMPBELL passed away on July 17, a comrade and member of Solidarity/ISO for over three years. He worked in homeless men’s shelters for 10 years, not for the...

Letters

Letters on gay marriage rights, World Youth day, Cuba and NSW Labor's crisis Marriage a dubious right Contrary to the belief that same-sex marriage is a right I argue that it...

Walter Shaw from Mt Nancy town camp speaks out

THE RUDD government is set to hand down its “review” of the Northern Territory intervention at the end of September. All signs point to Rudd retaining the racist policies...

Editorial: Rudd, Garnaut and the climate challenge

Professor Ross Garnaut delivered his draft report examining the “impacts, challenges and opportunities” resulting from climate change to the federal and state governments on July 4. His recommendations will...

Rethink needed in power sell-off fight

THE LATEST humiliating back-flip by the NSW government over its planned power sell-off indicates two things. Firstly, NSW Labor is facing a serious crisis. According to the polls, the...

The myth of the carbon footprint

Individuals reducing their energy consumption will do nothing to tackle climate changeMyth #1: Using less electricity and gas at home through showering less, turning off appliances, replacing light-bulbs, and buying...

Labor overwhelmed by oil price crisis

A SEVEN per cent swing against it in the Gippsland by-election, a truckies’ blockade in NSW and news that the rising cost of living has wiped out the benefits...

Truckies: Jam your fuel price rises

IN SYDNEY and across the world truck drivers are leading protests demanding relief from rising fuel costs. In the first week of July, Operation Escargot saw truck drivers initiate a...

Things they say

“I would say it’s an endeavour that will last at least 10 years” Defence force chief Angus Houston on the Afghanistan deployment”President Hamid Karzai’s government is corrupt, incompetent, harbours vicious...

Retirees hit hard by subprime crisis

THE GLOBAL financial crisis is making its mark in Australia. Speculation in global markets by superannuation fund managers has hurt the retirement savings of many ordinary Australians The Australian...

It’s a bit rich

THERE ARE 650 people to every wealthy person in the world, according to the World Wealth Report just released by investment bank, Merrill Lynch and business consultancy, Capgemini. If “wealthy”...

Iraq oil contacts go to US, British multinationals

US AND British oil corporations have grabbed prime position in the jockeying to exploit Iraq’s oil resources. The US puppet government in Iraq is negotiating two-year “no bid” contracts with...

NSW public sector battles below inflation pay offers

NSW public sector unions including public servants, firefighters and train drivers are planning a united day of action on July 30 against the state government's 2.5 per cent pay...

WorkChoices: how much is Labor planning to change?

The Your Rights at Work campaign mobilised thousands of unionists to campaign against the Howard government and its vicious Workchoices laws. Yet over six months into the Rudd government’s...

Dean Mighell: “95 per cent of WorkChoices is intact”

Solidarity spoke to Dean Mighell, secretary of the Southern States branch of the Electrical Trades Union "THE LABOR Party’s promises have proven to be hot air. Labor was elected because...

Labor’s IR changes explained

Solidarity summarises how much of WorkChoices Labor has reversed so far, what else it plans to change, and how much of Howard's laws will be retained Labor’s changes so far The...

Construction walkout over Gold Coast deaths

On Saturday morning June 21 two construction workers were killed when their swing stage scaffolding fell from the side of a Gold Coast high-rise building site. The next day...

NTEU campaign: our universities matter

UNIVERSITY STAFF and university communities suffered badly under the Howard government. The HEWRRs legislation, a precursor to the WorkChoices legislation, tied government funding to the imposition of draconian employment...

War on terror shakes politics in Pakistan

WITH THE Pentagon finally admitting that the occupation of Afghanistan is in crisis, Pakistan has once again been thrown into the centre of the the “war on terror”. On June...

Changing faces: is Barack Obama really so different from Bush?

Despite the massive enthusiasm for his campaign and some of his rhetoric, Barack Obama's actual policies are disturbingly similar to those of the Bush administration THE AMERICAN magazine Newsweek published...

Mass protests sweep South Korea

SOUTH KOREA has been rocked by weeks of protests against the government’s decision to lift a ban on imports of US beef. They have been banned since the detection...

Macklin’s review―a whitewash in the making

The new government's review of the Northern Territory intervention is stacked with supporters of the policy, and looks set to whitewash the disastrous impact on Aboriginal people in the...

Last Drinks: Toohey’s racist diatribe

THE WIDESPREAD acclaim for The Australian journalist Paul Toohey’s Last Drinks: The Impact of the Northern Territory Intervention (Quarterly Essay 30, June 2008), demonstrates just how deeply racist attitudes...

Ferguson calls for nuclear waste dump

FEDERAL RESOURCES Minister Martin Ferguson has called for the “fast tracking” of a selection process to locate a radioactive waste dump, according to a report in Melbourne’s The...

New Sydney committee campaigns against the intervention

On June 23 a new group, Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney (STICS), was established to campaign against the Northern Territory Intervention. The new group, which includes many of the founding...

The long, hard struggle for justice on Palm Island

Veteran journalist Jeff Waters has authored a new book investigating events surrounding the death in custody of Aboriginal man Mulrunji on Palm Island in late 2004, and the subsequent...

Carbon trading and market solutions

The threat of dangerous climate change is now widely acknowledged. So why won't governments take serious action? Chris Breen examines the major proposed market solutions—and the alternatives.ALMOST IMMEDIATELY after...

Zimbabwe: the road from liberation to dictatorship

Zimbabwe is in the midst of an enormous social and political crisis. Jarvis Ryan details the history of a troubled country THERE ARE few parallels in history with Zimbabwe's spectacular...

Let them in, but never mind the neo-liberalism

Review of Let Them In: The Case for Open Borders Jason L. Riley, Penguin USA ON May 1, there were mass protests in cities across the United States for the...

Deported to danger

Review of A Well Founded Fear Directed by Bentley Dean and Anne Delaney Screened as part of the Sydney Film Festival, A Well Founded Fear investigates the fate of a number...

Shopping, sex and the city

Review of Sex and the City, directed by Michael Patrick King Coming to DVD SEX AND the City (SATC), the film based on the television series of the same name, has...

Yuendumu opposes intervention measures

THE WALPIRI people of Yuendumu, 300 kms north west of Alice Springs, have been at the forefront of the fightback against the NT intervention.Following Howard's announcement last June, the...

Victorian Labor should end all abortion restrictions

THE VICTORIAN Law Reform Commission has just delivered its report on reforming abortion law in the state. As is the case in all states and territories, abortion in Victoria...

Letters

Time for an end to 'wage restraint'Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard talk a lot about working families. But when Qantas workers, university workers or teachers ask for wage...

Howard legacy hangs over Villawood

AT THE end of May, Immigration minister Chris Evans announced a long awaited review of the cases of long term detainees. But the results fell far short of what...

Anti-Muslim racism at play in Camden

IN MANY ways, the gatherings in Camden, on Sydney's outskirts, opposing the construction of an Islamic school, resembled the Cronulla riots minus the booze.When, on May 27, the...

Rudd the ‘anti-terror’ laws and the Haneef inquiry

SINCE COMING to power late last year, the Rudd Government has been unabashed in continuing the Howard Government's "anti-terror" campaign. Not only has the Rudd government made it clear...

Climate Camp needs focus on domestic emitters

IN JULY hundreds of people will converge in Newcastle in a week long camp, with the aim of drawing attention to Australia's contribution to climate change and rejuvenating the...

China quake- ‘This is not a natural disaster’

The death toll from China's earthquake has risen to 65,000, with over 23,000 people still missing. Such a powerful quake might be expected to claim many lives. But a...

Hezbollah delivers blow to US

ON MAY 6, the US-backed "March 14 coalition", who controlled the Lebanese government, took a new initiative aimed at weakening the power of Hezbollah, which led the successful resistance...

Bolivia–big business declares war on government

ON MAY 4 the Department of Santa Cruz in Bolivia held an autonomy vote. Autonomy would give them more tax revenue powers and the right to create their own...

Lessons in New Labour’s failures

WORKERS IN Britain woke up with a big shock after council elections on 1 May, as the Tories pushed Labour into third position.The results reveal a Labour Party in...

Aboriginal delegation speaks out against NT intervention

A delegation from Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory who are campaigning against the intervention travelled to Sydney for the Aboriginal Rights Conference in late May. Below Solidarity reprints...

Review announced but conference charts course to fight the intervention

More than 100 people came from all corners of the country to Redfern, Sydney for the Aboriginal Rights Coalition "Black and White, Unite and Fight" conference on 23, 24,...

Climate change, poverty and capitalist development

Measures that could genuinely tackle rising carbon emissions are being held back by the desire of individual countries not to harm their economy's global competitiveness, writes Ernest Price.FROM...

NSW teachers take on Iemma

NSW TEACHERS will continue rolling industrial action unless the New South Wales government sits down and negotiates on proposed changes to the school staffing and transfer system.In late May...

Unions versus Labor- the 1948 rail strike

Mark Gillespie looks at the Queensland rail strike of 1948, when the Communist Party led workers in a vicious battle with a state Labor government determined to keep down...

Inflation rhetoric is scare tactic

CONTINUOUSLY SINCE its election, the Rudd government has tried to convince us of the urgent necessity of reducing inflation. Why is it so worried?The inflation rate, at 4.2 per...

Superhero fights for the US war machine

Iron ManDirected by Jon FavreauIn cinemas nowAndrea: "Unhappy is the land that breeds no hero."Galileo: "No, Andrea: unhappy is the land that needs a hero."-Life of Galileo by Bertolt...

Engineers battle below inflation scare tactic

IN MAY, around 1500 Qantas aircraft engineers took strike action in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne over a pay claim. They took this action despite rumours of 100 strike breakers...

Entertaining series fails to probe crime’s roots

UnderbellyProduced by Greg Haddrick and Brenda PamOut now on DVDUNDERBELLY, THE TV series that dramatised the long-running drug wars in Melbourne, has been a huge hit for Channel Nine.Despite...

Rudd repeats Howard ban on same sex unions

IN EARLY May, the Rudd government threatened to overturn the proposed civil unions bill for same-sex couples in the ACT, breaking a key election promise not to block the...

Globalisation nations and economics

Rogue EconomicsLoretta Napoleoni, Allen & Unwin, $29.95WHAT LINKS the growth in sex trade in Eastern Europe, fishing piracy in the North Sea and professional players of the online computer...

Rudd under the pump?

IS RUDD'S honeymoon coming to an end? Recent weeks have seen him blunder over fuel prices, his Howardesque moralism over Bill Henson and brewing battles with unions over pay...

Crunch time for anti-privatisation campaign

THE CAMPAIGN against electricity privatisation has reached a critical stage in NSW.Concerted campaigning within the ALP and amongst the public secured an overwhelming vote against privatisation at the ALP...

Rudd’s Iraq withdrawal and the new US plan

Robert Nicholas explains the realities of Rudd's "withdrawal" from the occupation of Iraq and the new US bid for ongoing control of the region.ON JUNE 28 Kevin Rudd will...

Henson photos controversy- artists revolt against Rudd’s moralism

"I FIND them absolutely revolting... Whatever the artistic view of the merits of that sort of stuff-frankly, I don't think there are any-just allow kids to be kids." This...

Welfare policy- blame the victims

The early months of the Rudd government have shown that it is just as committed to the neo-liberal "welfare reform" agenda as John Howard.When Rudd's government floated the idea...

When the US was defeated last time

JANUARY 2008 marked the 40th anniversary of the Vietnamese "Tet Offensive" against US and South Vietnamese armies. On the 31st of January 1968 the National Liberation Front (NLF) entered...

Centrelink- organise now to fight razor gang cuts

CENTRELINK WORKERS are well placed to fight the Rudd government's razor gang cuts to the public sector-but the union needs to organise a much more effective campaign if we...

US defeat offers new hope for Iraq

AS SOLIDARITY grows to print, radical Shia leader Moqtada Al Sadr had postponed plans for a million strong march in Baghdad calling for an end to the presence of...

Queensland privatisation disaster complete

AS PART of its privatisation plan, the NSW government wants to sell off the state's retail electricity arm. But, whatever their claims, the evidence from the recently completed retail...

The horrors of war on record

What was the purpose of the Winter Soldier testimonies?What Iraq Veterans Against the War were trying to do with Winter Soldier was present testimony from soldiers, sailors, airmen and...

Judge admits terror trials unfair

The "Barwon 13", thirteen Melbourne men arrested, charged and on trial under Australia's "anti-terror" laws, have won a change in their previous humiliating jail conditions.In March, judge for the...

Missed chance to map out agenda for change

Dear Mr RuddEdited by Robert ManneBlack Inc, $29.95With Howard finally gone, the time would seem right for a book that lays out how the new government can go about...

McClelland creates toothless inquiry to Haneef fiasco

John Clarke QC, the former NSW Supreme Court judge, is heading the inquiry into the arrest of Mohammed Haneef under the 'anti-terror' laws, which is expected to start in...

Hollywood’s faith shaking tale of war

In the Valley of ElahWritten and directed by Paul HaggisIn cinemas nowSpeaking of the reality of military service, Iraq War veteran Matt Howard last year said: "You will never...

Labor won’t wield the axe on military

ANYONE READING last month's papers would be forgiven for thinking that the Rudd government is about to slash the military budget. Media reports suggested that Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon...

Howard’s view of history a bore

History's Children: History wars in the classroomBy Anna ClarkUNSW Press, $29.95High school students are mostly bored with Australian history.That's the sad conclusion reached by Anna Clark after interviewing 182...

Five years on the demonstrations are all the more important

HUNDREDS RALLIED across the country to mark the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq on March 16. The demonstrations were smaller than previous anniversary rallies, with 350 in...

Letters

Remembering the first Mardi GrasCongratulations on the publication and on the article about the first Mardi Gras.The 31st parade, on 1st March, was led by 180 people from the...

Fundamental policy change needed to ditch Howard’s refugee legacy

ON 12 March, Labor's immigration minister Chris Evans announced he would personally review the cases of 61 detainees who've been incarcerated for two or more years: "Long-term detainees who...

NSW privatisation plans on the brink

NSW Premier Morris Iemma and Treasurer Michael Costa have displayed an unprecedented level of arrogance in their attempt to push through power privatisation.Privatisation is against NSW Labor party policy...

Election shakes Malaysian political system

A political shockwave hit Malaysia in March's general election, with opposition parties destroying the ruling coalition's two-thirds majority domination of parliament.Opposition parties won 82 out of the 222 seats,...

Revolt from below threatens Mugabe’s hold on Zimbabwe

It appears that Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe has lost both the parliamentary and presidential elections in the country by a landslide vote.Independent election monitors believe that Morgan Tsvangirai, leader...

Rudd plans to make us pay

KEVIN RUDD'S future summit, Australia 2020, will be held in Canberra on April 19 and 20. It could have been a chance for a real discussion about dismantling Howard's...

Tibet rises up against occupation

OVER THE past month, Chinese paramilitary police and soldiers have been using tear gas and live ammunition against protesters in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, in an attempt to put...

Bosses demand pay cut for low paid

When the Fair Pay Commission holds its annual National Minimum Wage Case hearing in mid-2008, the major employers will propose cuts to real wages. As food, petrol and housing...

Bush’s war drums influence Iranian election

IN ITS campaign for yet another war, members of George W Bush's decaying administration have been making almost daily condemnations of Iran over its uranium enrichment and its support...

Trading our way out of disaster

Massive ice loss in both the Arctic and Antarctic indicate that we are passing important climate tipping points. This mounting evidence of the need for serious solutions to climate...

Bear Stearns- capitalism on the brink

OVER A single weekend last month, the global financial system came close to total collapse. A desperate US Federal Reserve intervened to stop the collapse of investment bank Bear...

NT Aboriginal elder speaks out–intervention punitive and racist

LABOR'S Aboriginal Affairs minister, Jenny Macklin, consistently presents the Northern Territory intervention as a humanitarian effort aimed at supporting remote Aboriginal communities and stamping out child abuse.But Aboriginal people...

Ideas for undoing the Howard legacy

Larissa Behrendt, director of research at The Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, University of Technology SydneyHow would you characterise the policy shifts that happened during the last 12 years,...

Activists protest against NT intervention

On March 13, Protests against the NT intervention targeted Centrelink offices in 8 cities and towns around Australia, to draw attention to the racist policy of welfare quarantines for...

MUA here to stay—The 1998 waterfront dispute

This year marks 20 years since the 1998 waterfront dispute—John Howard’s first attempt to break union power. Mark Gillespie draws out the lessons.

ALP branch condemns intervention

On March 25, Vince Forrester addressed the Darlington branch of the ALP which passed the following motion:"Darlington Branch welcomes the apology to the stolen generation. However, we demand that...

Capitalism and class conflict in the new China

FOR MANY western commentators, China is the saviour of the ailing world economy. However the hellish pace of China's growth is being achieved at enormous human and environmental cost,...

Labor’s rates policy hurting workers

AGAIN AND again, Kevin Rudd talks of the need to help "working families". He insists that Labor's priority is to fight inflation and that to do this the Reserve...

Northern Rock–return to state intervention

BRITISH PM Gordon Brown has nationalised the Northern Rock bank after attempts to fend off its collapse failed. In a humiliating back flip, his New Labour government has used...

Inflation fight targeted at our living standards

Kevin Rudd's first few months have seen important symbolic breaks with Howard's legacy. The highpoint so far was his apology to the Stolen Generations, reversing Howard's attempt to hide...

Afghanistan–Rudd’s good war a catastrophe

Rudd's aggressive determination to support NATO in Afghanistan is almost the flip side to that of his position on Iraq, seeing it as the "good" war, with the occupation...

2020 delegates reflect a narrow vision

Kevin Rudd tells us that he is pulling together the "best and brightest" 1000 Australians for his 2020 summit in Canberra in April. Rudd has already been hammered for...

Democrats at War

by Jean ParkerIF WE needed any proof of the depth of anti-Bush sentiment in the US, from Iraq to health insurance, we need look no further than the Democratic...

VSU policy leaves political student unionism at risk

In February, the National Union of Students released their new policy alternative to the Howard-era Voluntary Student Unionism (VSU) legislation. The policy calls for the introduction of a compulsory,...

Cuba Socialism and Castro’s legacy

THE US tried for 49 years to assassinate Fidel Castro and bring down his regime, which made his voluntary retirement as Cuban leader last month yet another act of...

Israel launches murderous assault

Israel has unleashed a new murderous offensive against Palestinians in the Gaza strip.But in the same week Kevin Rudd plans to honour Israel with a special reception in...

Kosovo–independence at what cost

In late February the Balkan mini-nation of Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, sparking protests by Serbs in Kosovo, Serbia and Australia.The vast majority of Kosovo's population are ethnic Albanians,...

Need for an anti-war movement not going away

After five years, war in Iraq continues without pause. Turkey's invasion of northern Iraq is further evidence that the headaches for US imperialism in controlling the region continue to...

American terror–a history of the CIA

GEORGE W. Bush has vetoed the bill, proposed by the Democrats, that would have outlawed the use of torture by the CIA. He is not the first US President...

Shock G20 jail sentence- but protesters defy riot charges

Thirteen people arrested and charged with riot following the G20 protest in Melbourne in 2006 have resolved to fight the charges. Another four people facing riot charges in the...

Sexism and working women

ON 8 March 1908 15,000 women garment workers marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights. In 1911 socialist women chose to commemorate this...

Government expands punishment policy across Aboriginal communities

There is growing criticism of the welfare quarantining measures within the "intervention" into Northern Territory Aboriginal communities. But the federal government has signalled its intention to expand the scheme...

‘The torture word’

IN LATE February Alex Gibney's Taxi to the Dark Side won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.The film is about the torture and murder of Dilawar, a young...

Students organise to defend Aboriginal rights

Students returning from the Canberra Convergence against the NT intervention have begun organising on their campuses.In Brisbane, QUT's social justice collective has already organised a forum of 50 people,...

Debt expert–Rates crisis cutting living standards

Not long ago you wrote that, "An official interest rate of just 6.75 per cent would inflict as much pain as 17 per cent did back in 1990." We're...

Thousands march against NSW privatisation plans

THOUSANDS OF union members marched last month against the NSW government's plans to privatise electricity. Despite industry claims otherwise, two-thirds of the state is opposed to the policy.The rally...

NSW teachers to strike against deregulation

On Saturday March 8, 300 delegates at the NSW Teachers Federation (NSWTF) state council voted unanimously to strike in opposition to the Iemma government's plan to deregulate the supply...

Victorian teachers fight neo-liberal pay limit

Victorian teachers are fighting to break the Brumby Government's pay cap of 3.25 per cent (below the current inflation rate). Following the state-wide Australian Education Union (AEU) strike on...

Garnaut proposes 90 per cent cut

PROFESSOR ROSS Garnaut, establishment economist and China expert, dropped a bombshell in his interim report on climate change, jointly commissioned by state and federal governments.He bluntly warns that time...

Stars in their eyes–Earth Hour 2008

HOW DO we make governments act on the climate crisis? The organisers of Earth Hour believe "the simple action of turning off the lights for one hour"-at 8pm on...

Climate code red network grows

On March 1 more than 80 activists met to create "Climate Code Red Network" (CCRN). This came after more than 200 activists from across Victoria came together in February...

Struggle can reverse union membership decline

NEW FIGURES showing a dramatic drop in union membership in 2007 highlight the challenges facing the labour movement as it attempts to rebuild after the Howard years.ABS data shows...

Free market fails housing needs

The US subprime mortgage crisis has seen hundreds of thousands of Americans lose their homes. In Australia, between 1985 and 2004, incomes doubled-but house prices quadrupled.The result is that...

Victorian teachers show the way to win

After three state-wide strikes and five weeks of rolling stoppages, some Victorian teachers have won large pay increases of 10 and 15 per cent over the next year in...

The NT intervention and the new politics of assimilation

CURRENTLY THOUSANDS of Aboriginal people from outstations and remote communities in the Northern Territory are living in unstable conditions in the major urban centres of Alice Springs, Darwin, Katherine...

Boeing strike beats anti-union laws

WORKERS AT Boeing subsidiary Hawker de Havilland in Port Melbourne have successfully defied anti-strike laws to take action in defence of a sacked workmate.After three weeks on strike,...

Fear and fantasy in the ‘war on terror’

The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post-9/11 AmericaSusan FaludiScribe Publications, $35COULD SEPTEMBER 11 really be blamed on the women's movement? Why did the US respond to the...

Dave Kerin faces jail for supporting strikers

Six months after Labor's election, unionists are still fighting Howard's laws. Dave Kerin of Union Solidarity has been summonsed by the workplace ombudsman to "produce documents" over the Boeing...

Artists tackle anti-Muslim racism

Fear of a Brown PlanetAamer Rahman and Nazeem HussainTHIS BRILLIANT stand-up comedy show was part of both the Melbourne Comedy Festival and the Sydney Cracker Comedy Festival.In an extremely...

US union takes strike action against the war

MAY DAY in the US this year was marked by dockworkers along the West Coast taking industrial action against the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some 25,000 members...

1968–the year the world revolted

Of all the articles, features, memoirs and books devoted to 1968, "The Fire Last Time: 1968 and After", by Chris Harman, the editor of International Socialism journal, is still,...

Egypt–protests riock US-backed regime

RIOTS IN Egypt against a government crackdown have shaken the regime of US-backed dictator Hosni Mubarak.On April 6, Mubarak's security forces pre-empted a planned strike by textile workers...

Letters

Bring on boss freedom dayThose wacky right wing free marketers at the Centre For Independent Studies (CIS) came up with the idea of "Tax Freedom Day", which has received...

Cairo conference calls for unity

IN LATE March this year the sixth Cairo Conference was held. Hundreds of representatives from opposition parties and organisations including the Muslim Brotherhood attended as well as international...

Northern Territory intervention–Rolling out the racism

WITH THE ALP's promised review into the first year of the NT intervention due to begin in July, there are new crises cracking the facade of the policies. The...

Boycotts- nationalism and the Olympics

GEORGE ORWELL wrote sport "is war minus the shooting". The tension that exists between states gets expressed in and around sporting events and the Olympics are often a site...

Editorial–Push for the pay we lost under Howard

Wayne Swan and Kevin Rudd are rushing to claim the high ground in the "fight against inflation" after delivering their first budget.Swan says that his first budget "delivered everything...

The real roots of the food crisis

STRIKES, PROTESTS and riots over the cost and availability of food have swept across Burkina Faso, Somalia, Cameroon, South Africa, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Senegal, Egypt, Yemen, Indonesia, Morocco and...

Taxi drivers win victory for driver safety

On April 30 hundreds of taxi drivers blockaded one of Melbourne's busiest intersections, at Flinders and Swanston streets, for 22 hours. The Victorian government was forced to meet with...

Revolt against privatisation

Iemma and Costa have made clear their determination to push ahead with privatisation despite their crushing defeat at the ALP state conference. But there is no reason why they...

Mutijulu elder visits Sydney to speak out againt intervention

ONE HUNDRED and twenty people packed a meeting of the Aboriginal Rights Coalition in Redfern in April to hear first-hand the impact of the intervention on remote communities in...

ALP member–anger against privatisation in the party runs deep

Solidarity spoke to Robyn Fortescue, from the Darlington Labor party branchThe rank-and-file members within the party have always been opposed to privatisation and it's not just, as Iemma is...

ACTU joins Labor government’s ‘inflation fight’

ON MARCH 4, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) announced its support for a new proposal to transfer this year's planned $31 billion tax cuts directly into superannuation...

Why is Iemma obsessed with privatisation

THE NSW Labor party has been wracked by a bitter dispute over the government's attempt to privatise the power industry.Labor Premier Morris Iemma's plan has been opposed by...

Budget won’t undo Howard’s legacy

THE RUDD government's first budget is a mixture of small mercies and big crimes. There is a $10 tax cut for low-waged workers, an increase in the child-care rebate...

Climate camp–key step in wider campaign

The Climate Camp in Newcastle (10-15 July) will bring together climate activists from around Australia.It will be held at a pivotal time for the climate campaign. Ross Garnaut will...

2020–the summit vision in hindsight

Kevin Rudd talked about "opening a window on our democracy to let some fresh air in." But how fresh was the 2020 summit?If imitation is the sincerest form or...

Rudd’s addiction to ‘clean coal’ no way forward

Why is the Rudd government so keen on "clean coal" as a solution to the climate crisis?The coal industry's power as a section of the ruling class makes it...

Campaign to defend G20 arrestees continues

Almost 60 people attended a Melbourne public meeting in solidarity with those arrested following the protest against the G20 summit in 2006. The meeting was part of an ongoing...

Wide opposition to new Melbourne freeway

Wide opposition to new Melbourne freewayActivists can press for governments to act on climate change by opposing freeway construction and demanding improved public transport.In Melbourne, a widely-supported campaign is...

Union to defy Howard-era watchdog

Noel Washington, an official with Construction Division of the Victorian CFMEU, will be called before a court after refusing to be interrogated by the Australian Building and Construction Commission...

Marx’s theory–explaining the credit crisis

Neoliberalism has dominated economic and social policy for the best part of three decades. This ideology claims that the economy and society can be effectively run through the market...

Oil–an American obsession

ONE HUNDRED years ago the United States was the biggest oil producer in the world. California alone accounted for 22 per cent of global output.The development of the US...