Hazara killings show deportation will cost lives
Scores of Hazara refugee applications are being rejected because of Australian government claims that one or other part of Afghanistan is safe. One Hazara asylum seeker was recently deported...
War crimes evidence shows Tamils not safe in Sri Lanka
Evidence of Sri Lankan government war crimes during the civil war in 2009 continues to grow. An initial UN report in April held that there were credible reports that...
Political challenges for the Occupy movement
For the past two months, the Occupy movement has electrified US politics and inspired movements in its image around the world. The occupations themselves have been relatively small, but...
Punitive school attendance plan centrepiece of second Intervention
The federal government has moved to extend most major NT Intervention powers for 10 years beyond their July 2012 expiry, with new laws introduced into parliament in November. The...
They all admit it: the carbon tax means gas
The carbon tax is law. This is Gillard Labor’s “historic reform”. Their “dollar float”. According to Treasurer Wayne Swan it is “Labor to the bootstraps”. As soon as the...
Funding a clean energy future?
Labor's carbon price legislation includes the establishment of a Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC). The government claims this means $10 billion in funding for renewables, but a quick look...
Baiada workers win victory over bullying bosses
Baiada Poultry workers in Melbourne have won a major victory for fair pay and job security after 13 days on strike. These 300 mostly migrant workers stuck together in...
NSW teachers willing to fight, but strike called off
On November 19, the State Council of the NSW Teachers Federation carried a branch executive resolution to “defer” a planned strike for November 29—a strike that had been endorsed...
Bus drivers’ trade-offs set bad precedent
Not long ago, NSW unions were talking about breaking O’Farrell’s 2.5 per cent pay cap. Then the PSA settled for 2.5 per cent. Disgracefully RBTU officials are crowing about their...
Lively protest at Sensis for a union agreement
Over fifty Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) members held a lunchtime protest to stop Sensis undermining their union agreement (the Advertising and Design Agreement), by rolling it into a...
Joyce declares war on Qantas workers, but Victoria’s defiant nurses show the way
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce got what he always wanted when he grounded the Qantas fleet on October 29. After being sent back to work for 21 days of negotiations...
Nurses defy FairWork to fight for jobs
Victorian nurses have shown how to stand up to Fair Work Australia and a nasty Liberal state government. Thousands at a packed mass meeting on 21 November voted to defy...
Euro crisis tipping the world back into recession
Political and economic turmoil is engulfing Europe. In the space of a few days in November the governments of Greece and Italy fell after the financial markets judged them...
Mixed feelings as Tunisia goes to the polls
Unprecedented numbers of voters queued in Tunisian streets in October for the first democratic elections of the Arab Spring.The world watched, hailing Tunisia an “example” to the region...
Textile workers strike for jobs and wages in Tunisia
In Solidarity Issue 35, we interviewed textile workers in Soliman, 40 kilometers south west of Tunis, about their terrible conditions at work. Here, the workers explain how they have...
Three month strike hits Freeport’s West Papua mine
Over 8000 workers have been on strike for three months at the giant Freeport mine in West Papua. Five strikers have been shot and killed by Indonesian police, who...
Where do profits come from?
Jean Parker continues our series on economics by looking at labour and surplus valueProfit is the motor of capitalist production, the sole reason why any commodity is produced. Without...
Four years of Labor: what went wrong?
The smell of death is hanging over Labor. Mark Gillespie looks at how they got themselves into such a messFederally Labor’s popularity has slumped to record lows. At the...
Marxism and anarchism
Anarchist and autonomist ideas have influenced many recent movements, including Occupy. Lachlan Marshall takes a look at a new booklet that weighs up their merits.
Review: Anarchism: A Marxist Criticism,...
Dissecting Murdoch’s hold on the news
Review: Quarterly Essay 43 “Bad News”, by Robert Manne, Black Inc, $19.95Academic Robert Manne believes that Rupert Murdoch’s Australian media empire should be broken up, with the mogul’s control of...
