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...
