Carbon price committee is a trap for The Greens
By establishing a carbon price committee in a post-election deal with Labor, The Greens have sparked hopes that climate action is a step closer. Greens MP Adam Bandt says...
Climate movement must stop new HRL coal plant
HRL HAS announced that a new coal power station in Victoria is going ahead, after signing a construction contract with a Chinese power company. It labels its planned 600...
Union climate conference—focus on political campaigning needed
Unions in NSW have deepened their engagement with climate issues by hosting a Climate Active conference in September, one of the first of its kind. But it was weakened...
Refugee policy: The fight to shift Labor
Labor supporters have been horrified by Julia Gillard’s efforts to drag the Labor Party further to the right. But the Labor leadership’s anti-refugee policies are meeting resistance in the...
Villawood explodes in protest as detention crisis grows
The suicide death of Fijian asylum seeker Josefa Raulini on September 20 triggered a wave of protest inside Villawood detention centre.It pushed the horrible consequences of mandatory detention and...
WA Liberals grab Aboriginal land for Woodside
While Liberal leader Tony Abbott postures as the champion of Aboriginal land rights (see Wild Rivers article), Western Australian Liberal Premier Colin Barnett has begun proceedings to compulsorily acquire...
Cuts to CDEP slash jobs in Aboriginal communities
The Labor government’s ongoing assault on Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) is devastating Aboriginal communities across Australia. But Aboriginal people are fighting back—uniting with unions and activists in a...
Only strike campaign can stop Queensland Rail sell-off now
Despite massive public opposition, the Queensland Labor government under Premier Anna Bligh is continuing to push forward with $15 billion worth of public asset sales. The sell-off of Queensland...
NSW unions relaunch campaign against privatisation for state election
Unions NSW Secretary Mark Lennon has announced plans to campaign against privatisation in the lead up to next year’s NSW state election in March. Lennon was hosting a “Better...
One million job cuts show crisis in Cuban model
Cuba’s announcement in September that one million jobs in the state sector are to be cut signals a speeding up of the shift away from a completely state run...
Roma the scapegoats for a French government in crisis
Over 1200 Roma have been expelled from France over the last two months, as the Sarkozy government pushes forward with plans to dismantle the 500 “illegal” Romani camps that...
Workers strike back in defiance against austerity in Spain
Spanish workers demonstrated what will be needed to stop austerity in Europe with their successful general strike on September 29. The “socialist” president of Spain, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, promised...
Nazi victory in Sweden is a warning for Europe
Sweden's September elections were historic for all the wrong reasons. For the first time ever, a Nazi party, the misnamed Swedish Democrats (SD), won seats in parliament. On the...
Mass strike wave paralyses South Africa
South African workers have put their government on notice that they will not bear the burden of the global economic crisis.In mid-August, 1.3 million public sector workers issued the...
Iraq: Is the war over?
Barack Obama’s announcement in mid-August that the “combat mission in Iraq has ended” gave the impression that he’d delivered on one of his key election promises—the end of the...
Abbott and Wild Rivers: It’s all about big business not Aboriginal rights
Tony Abbott’s efforts to pose as a defender of land rights through his attack on the Wild Rivers legislation is motivated by mining interests, writes Paddy GibsonAs Solidarity goes...
Racism in Australia: The working class is not to blame
There is no doubt that racism has deep roots in Australian society. But where does this racism come from and how can it be pushed back?
There is a widespread myth...
Polish Solidarity: Festival of the oppressed
Thirty years ago, the Polish working class rose up in struggle against the Stalinist regime and formed their own independent trade union, Solidarnosc. Solidarity looks at their experience and...
Dispelling the modern ‘Malthus myth’
Review: Peoplequake by Fred Pearce
Random House, $32.95The resurgence in overpopulation fears—the idea that excessive population is the cause of ecological destruction and that we must cut population levels to...
Working class heroes were made in Dagenham
Review: Made in Dagenham, directed by Nigel Cole
In cinemas October 28It's 1968 and 187 female machinists at the huge Ford Dagenham car plant in east London vote for a...
Louise Michel and the Paris Commune
Jasmine Ali begins a Solidarity series on the lives and struggle of revolutionary women
The Australian newspaper has welcomed the first female prime minister as the fulfilment of the “feminist...
New York: Ground Zero for racist backlash
Anti-Muslim has reached new heights in the United States, on the back of a frenzied right-wing campaign against plans for a new Islamic centre in New York.The far right...
