Students say climate jobs, not coal
Climate activists gathered outside the office of Peter Batchelor in late March. Batchelor is Victoria’s Minister for Energy and Resources and was due to attend the Victorian Coal and Energy...
Electricity price rises: the cost of making ordinary people pay
Huge electricity price rises in NSW show that Rudd’s CPRS will have more impact on power costs for working people than the government has admitted. From July 1 costs for...
Carbon tax: a distraction from real solutions
This year's national Climate Summit voted to demand a carbon tax during the federal election campaign. Many viewed it as an alternative to Rudd’s useless CPRS carbon trading scheme.
But there...
Stop Abbott’s fear mongering, close Christmas Island
Anti-refugee hysteria reached new heights in early April as Christmas Island reached capacity. After the arrival of the 100th refugee boat since Rudd’s election, newspaper headlines boosted comments from opposition...
Labor keeps refugee rights excised
Despite a pre-election promise to return excised territory to the Migration Act, the Rudd government has kept Christmas Island and Ashmore Reef excised. Asylum seekers processed offshore have fewer rights...
Where are the real jobs, Macklin?
In 2008, millionaire mining mogul Andrew Forrest launched a government-supported scheme to employ 50,000 Aboriginal people in mainstream jobs in two years. The Australian Employment Covenant (AEC) was built around...
Abbott to support the new Intervention laws
The man Jenny Macklin said had a “dark ages” view of women, the man who refuses to acknowledge Aboriginal custodianship at public events, has indicated his support for Labor’s...
Rudd’s health reforms avoid the real problem
Kevin Rudd says he has a “positive” plan to fix health care. Many people have welcomed his plan for a takeover of public hospitals by the federal government, desperate...
Another black death in custody: no justice in the justice system
The death in custody of 18-year-old Aboriginal man Sheldon Currie has exposed the criminal neglect of Aboriginal prisoners in Australia. Currie’s death was the fourth in six weeks in Queensland’s...
Queensland: not for sale!
Deep opposition within the Queensland labour movement to the government’s privatisation program continues to dog the Bligh government. As Solidarity goes to press unions are launching another round of TV...
How women and men united to fight for equal pay
This year unions have launched a new equal pay campaign, “Pay Up”, in recognition of the persistent inequality in wage levels. Women make up half of the Australian workforce...
Greek workers escalate their resistance
In late March European Union leaders announced a joint rescue package with the IMF to stop Greece defaulting on its debts.
They have promised Greece €22 billion in case...
Thailand: hundreds of thousands demand democracy
Hundreds of thousands of Thai Redshirt pro-Democracy demonstrators have taken to the streets of Bangkok and other cities repeatedly since the middle of March. This is a show of...
Israel is still the US’s watchdog
Israel’s determination to build settlements on occupied Palestinian territory is worrying the US government. John Rose answers questions on the US-Israel relationshipWhat is the historic relationship between the US...
The rise and fall of the women’s movement
British socialist Judith Orr looks at the radical women’s liberation movement of the 1960s, and why it declinedIt is hard to imagine just how different the world was for women...
Socialists and the united front
As the Rudd government backs big business rather than taking action on climate change, entrenches the NT Intervention, and maintains much of the Howard agenda the need to build...
Lessons from the fight against Apartheid in South Africa
Understanding the history of the fight against Apartheid can help explain why black poverty still persists today, argues Paddy GibsonTwenty years on from Nelson Mandela’s historic release from Apartheid’s...
Tahmoor miners fight Xstrata to maintain conditions
Three hundred coalminers at the Xstrata-owned Tahmoor coal mine in NSW have been fighting for their rights and conditions since late 2008. After ten months of seemingly constructive negotiations...
Round two of industrial action begins at Woodside
In the aftermath of wild cat strikes in January and February over motelling, construction unions in the Pilbara have begun an industrial campaign targeting one contractor at a time...
Refugee policy is the real crime
Review: Border Crimes
By Michael Grewcock, The Federation Press, $49.95With the defeat of the Howard Government in 2007 many assumed the dark days of the mandatory detention of asylum seekers...
Glorifying life as a US solider in occupied Iraq
Review: The Hurt Locker
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow, In cinemas nowThe Hurt Locker is a violent, politically shallow and confusing film. The film makers claim to be apolitical but in...
Defending Stalin does socialism no favours
Review: The Idea of Communism
By Tariq Ali, University of Chicago Press, $22.95More like a long pamphlet than a book, The Idea of Communism, the first of a series edited by...
Aboriginal people are working for rations
Unions are teaming up with anti-Intervention campaigners in the NT to demand proper jobs for Aboriginal people.
Activists from the Intervention Rollback Action Group, based in Alice Springs, will tour remote...
