Hazelwood protest needs fight for jobs at its centre
Climate change campaigners are organising to protest at Hazelwood power station in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley to highlight the need to transition from coal to renewable energy. As the Australia Institute...
NT goes to the brink of new election
Instability and opportunism have dominated the last few months in NT politics, with a merry-go-round of Ministers causing headache for Chief Minister Paul Henderson.
Personal agendas foster the volatility, but...
Unions back anti-Intervention lobby of ALP conference
The Stop the Intervention Collective in Sydney organised a strong lobby of the national ALP conference on Thursday July 30. About 150 people turned out to the lunchtime rally.
George...
Cracks in the Intervention as opposition mounts
The cracks in the NT Intervention project can be clearly seen in the pages of the Intervention’s urger—The Australian newspaper. The Weekend Australian August 15-16 devoted seven pages to...
Walk-off protest still strong
The month old protest camp at Ampilatwatja is still going strong.
Around 150 residents of the remote Central Australian community have vowed not to return to their homes until...
Union anger over ABCC at Labor conference
A march by hundreds of workers to a union fringe event on the Labor conference’s second day was one of the few brights spots where there was some challenge...
Pressure piled on Rudd to back gay marriage
The ALP national conference was expected to be a tight ship. But one issue that showed possibility of provoking some real debate was gay marriage rights.Five years since Howard...
Activists win victory over riot charges in G20 trials
Almost three years after the protests against the Melbourne meeting of the Group of 20 nations, Sunil Menon, Timothy Davis-Frank and Sina Brown-Davis have had some major victories against...
Corruption crisis takes toll on Queensland Labor government
The popularity of Queensland’s Bligh Labor government remains at rock bottom. Not only has Bligh alienated working class voters with her decision to privatise $15 billion worth of public...
Campaign against Queensland privatisation continues
Unions and community groups are continuing to resist Bligh’s plan to privatise $15 billion worth of public assets. More than 200 unionists including many from the nearby railway workshops...
Divisions deepen in Iran despite vicious state crackdown
Despite heavy state repression Iran’s democracy movement remains defiant. Following President Ahmadinejad’s confirmation ceremony in early August thousands took to the streets again and clashed with security forces.
The split...
South African workers strike against ANC neo-liberal policie
South African workers have staged mass protests and strikes over the past two months in a challenge to the new African National Congress (ANC) government.
Burning tyres and building barricades are...
Casualties mount in unwinnable Afghan war
At the end of July Private Benjamin Ranaudo became the eleventh Australian soldier to die in Afghanistan. Both Prime Minister Rudd and Opposition leader Turnbull described his death as...
Why Peter Garrett lost his way
Peter Garrett's collapse into conservatism has been not just quick, but abject. The Environment Minister’s credibility is not in tatters—it has evaporated completely. David Glanz looks at what happenedJust two...
The hot autumn: How workers’ revolt shook Italy
The years after 1969 in Italy showed the potential for mass radicalisation of the working class within western capitalism, argues Judy McVeyThe French ten million strong general strike and...
Ruddism at large
James Goodman, of the School of Social Inquiry at UTS, situates Rudd’s philosophy historically, arguing that his pricincipal goal is marketisation and that he fails to answer the problems...
Labor, neo-liberalism and the welfare state
Ben Spies-Butcher, lecturer in economic and political sociology at Macquarie Uni, examines what Rudd’s supposed end of neo-liberalism means for the government’s commitment to the welfare stateThe financial crisis...
Saving capitalism: Rudd, Labor and social democracy
Solidarity's Ian Rintoul explains how Rudd’s new essay shows that he accepts the ‘Third way’ model of accomodating to capitalismPrior to the federal election in 2007, Kevin Rudd proclaimed...
Queensland teachers dispute in arbitration limbo
As Queensland teachers geared up for a state-wide strike, Queensland’s Labor Government has used the state’s industrial laws to drive the wage dispute into the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission. ...
Staff protest plan to shed 220 jobs at Melbourne Uni
Melbourne University NTEU members are in a battle with the University of Melbourne to stop a proposed 220 job attrition.
A massive big-brother reorganisation, called the “Responsible Division Management” is...
A frock-coated communist: rediscovering Friedrich Engels
Review: The frock-coated communist By Tristram Hunt
Allen Lane $59.95As establishment economists struggle to explain capitalism’s crisis, the ideas of Karl Marx are enjoying a renewed legitimacy.
The sight of French...
Guide for climate campaigners reflects movement’s weak points
Review:Climate action By Mark Diesendorf
UNSW Press, $34.95Mark Diesendorf will be well know to many climate activists from his regular speeches for local activist groups and his long-time advocacy for...
Letters
Open letter to SolidaritySocialist Alternative recently received a letter initiated by students in Solidarity. While claiming to be for a broad left ticket in the upcoming SRC elections...
Racism is behind abuse of students
As racist attacks on Indian students continue, a scandal has erupted over the wider discrimination faced by international students in securing a decent education and accessing rights given to...
