2012

The Labor government have done everything they can to construct hell on earth on Nauru. But they did not count on the brave and determined resistance by asylum seekers...

Bowen raises the refugee deportation stakes

On October 31, a Tamil asylum seeker, Anjan, came very close to being deported from Melbourne to Sri Lanka. Despite a picket of refugee supporters at the entrance of...

And turns back boats from Sri Lanka

In early September, Immigration Minister Chris Bowen condemned the Opposition’s demands for asylum boat arrivals from Sri Lanka to be sent back. But two months later, that is exactly...

ACT elections show dangers of parliamentary approach

The recent ACT election ended badly for the Labor-Greens governing partnership, with a 4.9 per cent swing against The Greens and three seats lost. The result is an embarrassment...

Taser deaths show why killer cops must face justice

The inquiry into the death of Brazilian student Roberto Laudisio Curti has thrown an international spotlight on the brutal use of tasers by the NSW Police. Curti was threatening...

Australia joins the “thieves’ kitchen” at UN Security Council

Julia Gillard and Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr are basking in Australia’s victorious bid for a place on the United Nations Security Council. Carr said the win, “reflects Australia’s positive...

Coal plants closing, but no thanks to the carbon tax

The record-breaking “Frankenstorm” Hurricane Sandy, which wrecked a trail of destruction from Cuba and Haiti to New York, has shown again that climate change is a reality. Disasters and...

Support Bob Carnegie: Defend the right to protest and strike

Bob Carnegie, a community organiser in Brisbane, is being sued for hundreds of thousands of dollars by construction firm Abigroup following a strike at its Queensland Children’s Hospital site. Campbell...

Community protest says no to Campbell Newman’s cuts to aged care

New cuts and closures in aged care are the latest example of Queensland Liberal National Premier Campbell Newman’s vicious contempt for jobs and the community. Nearly 300 people joined a...

New round of protests at Sydney Uni over rent hikes and Koori Centre

In late October, around 100 students marched through Sydney University to demand affordable student housing. The protest was organised by students who live at Sydney University Village (SUV) alongside...

Victory for the left in NSW PSA elections

Progressive PSA candidates have beaten incumbent officials in the union elections in the Public Service Association (PSA) in NSW. The public sector has been in the firing line of...

West is withdrawing because Afghans hate the troops

By the end of next year, most Australian troops will be out of Afghanistan. All US and NATO combat troops plan to quit the country by the end of...

Golden Dawn: fascists feeding on Greece’s misery

The Greek economy is in a depression. The austerity measures demanded by the troika have made it worse. Nationally one in four Greeks are out of work. Those with...

Chavez wins election, but Venezuela’s revolution at a crossroads

Hugo Chavez won Venezuela’s presidential election in October, heading off a challenge from the right-wing candidate, Henrique Capriles. Progressives and leftists in Venezuela, Latin America and around the world...

Kennett vs the unions—a fight we should have won

As we face vicious state Liberal governments, David Glanz looks back at the fight against vicious neo-liberal Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett twenty years ago and the strike movement that...

On that speech: Julia Gillard, sexism and women in power

It was a speech that stunned the nation and went viral on social media. But what does Gillard’s anti-sexism represent, asks Judy McVey Julia Gillard's speech on October 8 left...

The man behind the image: Che Guevara

Everyone knows the image and almost everybody knows the name, but very few know about the politics and the legacy. Tony Bozdagci uncovers the man behind the image The iconic...

Labor’s love affair with the market: The Keating years

In the final instalment in our series on the history of the Australian Labor Party, Jean Parker explains how Keating was the architect of neo-liberalism in Australia, and alongside...

Chomsky’s “Occupy” reflects the good and the bad

Occupy By Noam Chomsky $9.95, Penguin Occupy by Noam Chomsky is the first of the Zuccotti Park Press/Occupied Media Pamphlet Series produced by the US Occupy movement. The short book is a...

Sexual liberation and the politics of pornography

Money Shot: A Journey into Porn and Censorship By Jeff Sparrow $29.95, Scribe The left is tangled up in knots over the politics of pornography. Left-wing academics like Clive Hamilton are trying...

The Casual Vacancy exposes middle class prejudice

The Casual Vacancy J.K Rowling Little Brown and Company $39.95 (Hardback) It may not be as “socialist” as Britain’s Daily Mail thinks, but JK Rowling’s new novel lays bare the class divide in...

Things they say

We’re not making stuff up as we go along Gillard’s claim that the government knows what is doing with Nauru isn’t fooling anyone If the United Nations helps us to stop...

Ramp up the fight against state Liberals

The 10,000 workers that marched through Brisbane against Campbell Newman in September showed the anger at state Liberal government cuts. In NSW, thousands of public servants joined a PSA...

Gillard’s anti-sexism hypocrisy

Was it the “real Julia” on display or was it a politician desperately trying to cover up an inglorious political history and her own hypocrisy? But, then, that is...

Gina Rinehart: Looney Toon steals the boom

The world's richest woman, mining magnate Gina Rinehart, reached a new low in September when she declared, in a video addressed her cronies at the Sydney Mining Club, that...

Nine weeks! Abigroup workers defy the courts and win

Construction workers at the Queensland Children’s Hospital (QCH), the largest building site in Brisbane, have had a significant victory after a nine week, 63 day strike, against construction firm...

Strikes needed to stop Newman’s cuts

More than 10,000 public servants and union members joined an angry mass rally against Queensland’s Liberal National Party (LNP) government in September. The turn out demonstrates the will to...

Fight O’Farrell’s cuts, defend permanent jobs in schools

State Liberal government cutbacks across Australia resulted last month in the largest teachers’ strike in Victorian history and 10,000 workers taking to Brisbane’s streets. In NSW too, Public Service Association...

A High Court win but ASIO refugees still in limbo

In a dramatic judgement on October 5, the High Court declared that it was unlawful for the government to deny a protection visa to any asylum seeker on the...

Exiled Sri Lankan journalist on the war on Tamils: Military terror and disappearances are rife

Solidarity spoke to Bashana Abeywardane a journalist forced to flee Sri Lanka in 2006 who now lives in Europe and features in a new documentary Silenced Voices—Tales of Sri...

Safar Ali: refugee they want to deport to danger

“My name is Safar Ali Fahimi. I am an Hazara asylum seeker from Ghazni province in Afghanistan... I fled Afghanistan because I was on a Taliban death list.” Safar...

Labor’s horror story begins: no to Nauru, no to Manus Island

Detention on Nauru is already generating misery for the refugees sent there since September 14. Housed in tents with inadequate medical care and with no access to lawyers, the...

More NT communities demand community control

A growing number of NT Aboriginal communities are pushing to reclaim control of their communities and assets, in the wake of the Country Liberals’ NT election victory promising to...

Justice for Kwementyaye means charges must be laid

Kwementyaye Briscoe’s family are demanding criminal charges against police over the young man’s death in the Alice Springs watch house in January. Family members led a demonstration of 100...

Islamophobia, hypocrisy and Sydney’s Muslim ‘riot’

Police, politicians and the media unleashed a wave of Islamophobia in response to the protest in Sydney against the film The Innocence of Muslims. In words designed to stoke...

Anger at imperialism cuts across Muslim world

The protest in Sydney was one of many. In Pakistan protesters set fire to buildings and at least 20 people died in clashes with police. The anger at US...

Free speech no defence for hate

Muslims protesting have been accused of wanting to deny freedom of speech. Proposals for restrictions on vilifying Islam brought to the UN General Assembly meeting in September were dismissed...

The murder of Jill Meagher and the fight against sexism

There was an outpouring of community concern at the rape and murder of ABC journalist, Jill Meagher. The circumstances of her death—while walking home after a night out—were shocking....

Anti-cuts campaign delivers left majority to Sydney Uni SRC

As Spring warmed early September, Sydney University geared up to elect its 85th Student Representative Council. Colourful A-frames sporting the slogans of the major factions sprouted up on Eastern...

Miners’ strike wave shaking South Africa’s ruling party

Wildcat strikes have broken out across South Africa following the victory of platinum miners at the Lonmin mine in Marikana. The police massacre of 36 miners at Marikana in...

Anti-austerity battle reignites in Europe

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s government must feel under siege. And in late September it was literally besieged, as more than 40,000 people surrounded the Congress building in Madrid....

Debt crisis spreads from Greece across Europe

France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and—last but not least—Spain. A storm of anti-austerity protest has been sweeping through Europe. This represents a very sharp change in the political temperature. For...

US election, Obama and the dream forgotten

US President Barack Obama has kept up a slight poll lead against Republican challenger Mitt Romney in the lead up to the November 6 presidential elections. But in stark...

Defying the law: the Queensland 1982 general strike

Amy Thomas looks at the inspiring story of how workers beat back Joh Bjelke-Petersen Imagine the joy of seeing a humiliated Queensland Premier Campbell Newman backing down from his anti-union...

Spies, secrets and national security: The truth about ASIO

ASIO’s involvement in refugee security assessments has focused some attention on Australia’s spy agency. Tom Orsag looks at their horrible history and explains why they can’t be trusted ASIO security...

Algeria: from liberation to dictatorship

On the fifty year anniversary of Algerian independence, Solidarity looks at the limits of Algeria’s national liberation struggle and change within the framework of capitalism Fifty years ago Algerians won...

Labor’s Accord: How Hawke and Keating began a neo-liberal revolution

The Labor government of Bob Hawke and Paul Keating set out to cut wages and restore profits as part of a neo-liberal restructuring program, argues Jean Parker

Grocon dispute ends in unnecessary union backdown

The end of the Grocon blockade in Melbourne has resulted in a significant setback for the CFMEU. After thousands of building workers blockaded the Myer Emporium site for several...

Sensis workers vote for deal, but plenty more to fight for next time

Workers have voted to accept both Enterprise Agreements at Sensis after a year long campaign. But a substantial minority followed the AMWU’s recommendation to vote no, defying management intimidation...

Cuts, union rights, refugees: fighting the drive to the right

As Solidarity goes to press, the dispute in Melbourne between the CFMEU and Grocon boss, Daniel Grollo, lies at a turning point. The threat of court action against the...

He says cutback, we say fightback

Queensland Premier Campbell Newman’s attacks are coming so thick and fast it’s hard to keep up. He is continuing to launch cut after cut to the public and community...

Labor’s ruthless rush to re-open Howard’s hell holes

Since their abject capitulation to the Pacific Solution, Labor has pulled out all stops to demonstrate just how committed they are to punishing refugees. Pallets of batons and shields...

Interview: Eyewitness to the horrors of detention on Nauru

The Howard government’s Pacific Solution began in 2001 in the wake of the Tampa crisis. A total of 1637 asylum seekers were dumped on Manus Island in Papua New...

Where to now for the refugee campaign?

There are enormous challenges ahead for the refugee campaign. In the next few weeks, the government will likely move the first group of asylum seekers (probably single men from Darwin)...

Northam convergence says no to offshore processing and detention

Outrage at Gillard’s announcement of the Pacific Solution 2.0 was a feature of rallies in both Perth and Brisbane held on August 26 to mark the 10th anniversary of...

Why is Labor attacking refugees?

Labor’s has now turned about-face on the Pacific Solution, after it closed Nauru and Manus Island detention centres on coming to power in 2007. This shift is the final outcome...

Latest refugee deaths at sea show Labor’s regard for saving lives

Any idea that the new Pacific Solution is really about saving lives at sea has been exposed as the shameless lie that it is by the latest tragedy at...

Go Back shows (again) that we can challenge ideas

Go Back To Where You Came From season two was filmed in early 2012, but the timing of its showing, two weeks after federal parliament endorsed the Pacific Solution,...

Construction unions show power to beat Grocon

For almost three weeks, hundreds of construction workers have blockaded Grocon’s Myer Emporium construction site in Melbourne, showing the power to stop the company’s assault on union rights. But...

Will management ever come to their Sensis?

The AMWU will campaign for a “no” vote on two separate agreements if Sensis moves ahead to put them to a ballot. A mass meeting of over 70 AMWU...

Country Liberals cynically tap anger at Intervention to topple Labor in the NT

The Country Liberals (CLP) have swept to power in the Northern Territory elections, after 11 years of Labor rule. Aboriginal voters in remote NT electorates played the decisive role,...

Sydney Uni: Stop the Cuts ticket stands for a fighting SRC

Students at Sydney University are going to the polls to elect the 2013 Student Representative Council (SRC), the campus student union, this month. Student activists and members of Solidarity...

Corrupt in parliament, corrupt on campus: UQ students mobilise against the LNP

Students at the University of Queensland (UQ) are mobilising against the corrupt Liberal National Party (LNP) members running the UQ Union, who have barred opposition tickets from running against...

La Trobe students defy protest ban

Over 100 students protested at La Trobe University’s Open Day on August 26 against savage cuts to Humanities, defying threats to suspend or expel students who joined “unauthorised” demonstrations. In...

South Africa: ANC’s own apartheid exposed on the killing fields of Marikana

“And so, again, the truth of our country is in dead black bodies littering the ground. Once again, the truth of our time is that people asserting their rights...

Pussy Riot trial exposes Putin’s crackdown in Russia

The trial of three members of Pussy Riot has brought the spotlight onto the growing wave of political dissent in Russia. On August 17, Maria Alyokhina, Yekaterina Samutsevich and...

Gillard lines up billions for drone warfare

With the Obama administration embroiled in controversy over civilian victims of drones in the borderless war on terror, the Australian government is following Washington’s lead in expanding Australia’s drone...

A dream not yet realised: the politics of Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King was a fighter for real economic equality, and if he was alive today he’d oppose the policies of Barack Obama, argues Adrian Skerritt US President Barack Obama’s...

Marx’s road to Marxism

Eliot Hoving looks at how Marx developed his ideas out of involvement in the movement for democratic rights in Germany All the time we are told that history is driven...

1927: When China’s workers challenged for power

China’s young working class stood on the brink of a revolutionary seizure of power in the 1920s, writes Feiyi Zhang, but were betrayed by Stalin Today a new Chinese workers’...

The Sapphires: radical history shines strong amidst the glitz and glamour

The Sapphires Directed by Wayne Blair In cinemas now “Soul music is about loss. And they haven’t given up. So every note that passes through your lips should have the tone of...

1835—False hopes in fair governments won’t win Aboriginal rights

1835: The founding of Melbourne and the conquest of Australia By James Boyce $44.95, Black Inc 1835 was the year that Tasmanian pastoralists, hungry to expand their wealth through seizure of new...

Things they say

When you get older, get in the twilight of your life like me, it’s common for Australians to build a boat or take the Women’s Weekly round the world...

Turn the axe around on the state Liberals

If elections were held in Queensland tomorrow, Premier Campbell Newman would lose his own seat. After trouncing Labor only a few months ago, millions of Queenslanders are now realising that...

Unions, Labor members say no more Income Management

A COMMITMENT to organising with unionists has paid off for the campaign against the NT Intervention and the rollout of Income Management into Bankstown. Child protection workers in the...

Labor wants to deport more to danger

The forced deportation of Tamil asylum seeker Dayan Anthony to Sri Lanka in late July is a taste of things to come. Nearly 200 people are attached to a...

Stop the refugee bashing, no offshore processing

The Gillard-appointed expert panel on asylum seekers panel is set to bring down its report. The Labor Cabinet will consider the report on Monday August 13. Sydney Morning Herald...

Sri Lanka’s repression brings boats of Tamil refugees to Australia

More than three years since the Sri Lankan government declared “victory” in the 33 year-long civil war against the Tamil Tigers (LTTE), there has been a spike in the...

Newman’s slash and burn justified with lies about debt

Queensland Premier Campbell Newman has launched an avalanche of cuts and an ideological offensive aimed at moulding the state of Queensland in the neo-liberal image. The breadth of the cuts...

Fightback against Newman’s cuts begins in Queensland

Campbell Newman's sacking spree has coincided with enterprise bargaining periods for key groups of public sector workers—state school teachers, ambulance workers, firefighters and core agency public servants. As if mass...

Militancy wins: Toll workers show how to fight

Workers' employed by Toll at the Coles warehouse in Somerton, Melbourne have shown that militancy wins. After a two-week strike, the workers, covered by the National Union of Workers...

Funding proper disability care the challenge for Labor

Plans for a National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) are a centrepiece of the Gillard government’s efforts to re-badge Labor as committed to public services. The aims of the scheme...

Summer of discontent: crisis and resistance in Spain

Spanish people have risen up in a new surge of resistance to the government’s relentless austerity reforms. On 19 July, 800,000 marched in Madrid alone, along with hundreds of thousands...

Interview: How Quebec’s students fought back against fees

Quebec's student strike against tuition fees began in March this year. It has faced down state repression to mobilise thousands across Quebec and inspire students in Canada and around...

Syria’s armed revolt is product of popular uprising

The Assad regime is using tanks, jet fighters and helicopter gunships to re-establish control in Damascus and Aleppo. Though severely out gunned, the opposition continues to hang on. This violence...

Open letter to the left – welcome 457 visa workers

Dear Comrades, Over recent weeks there have been a number of union rallies, particularly in Western Australia, around slogans such as, “Local workers first” or “Aussie jobs first”. The unions’ “Local...

Fightback in the workplace is the way to save jobs

“The very week when workers are being given their marching orders out of a job at Kurri Kurri and Tullamarine, 1700 Chinese workers are given the go-ahead to march...

The facts: understanding 457s and temporary work visas

What is a 457 visa? A 457 visa is a temporary visa allowing someone to work in Australia for four years. It is designed to allow employers to deal with skill...

Immigration is not to blame for cuts to jobs and wages

The suggestion that bringing 457 visa workers from overseas is coming at the expense of “local jobs” reinforces the myth that immigration causes unemployment and drives down wages. In...

Racism, White Australia and the union movement

Jasmine Ali examines how racism has affected the history of the union movement in Australia, as well as the history of anti-racism within the movement The furore over overseas workers...

Sign-on statement: welcome 457 visa holders into the unions

Gina Rinehart's Enterprise Migration Agreement (EMA) for her Roy Hill project has sparked debate over the issue of "Aussie jobs" and 457 visas. This statement of union activists, anti-racists...

Malcolm Fraser’s refugee policy: no model for today

Former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser’s policy of processing the wave of Vietnamese refugees in the 1970s has drawn much praise recently, but it is nothing to aspire to, explains...

London 2012: sore losers, nationalism and fat profits

The Olympics are surrounded in high ideals—but London has exposed the competitive nationalism and profit agenda behind it, writes Amy Thomas The Olympic Games have been associated with some of...

Requiem for a dream: Labor’s self-destruction

Labor’s attacks on The Greens shows they can’t comprehend their own crisis or take the fight up to Abbott, argues Paddy Gibson The orchestrated attack on The Greens by the...

Telling the story of socialist refugees who resisted Hitler

All That I Am By Anna Funder Penguin, $29.95 All That I Am is a dizzying (and compulsory) read for the left-wing activist. Anna Funder’s novel reaches past the common myths about...

Things they say

I am looking at everything. You have to do the hard things and you have to do them up front. And there’ll be a hell of a lot more. Campbell Newman...

Labor lurches further to the right with war on The Greens

Labor’s declaration of war on The Greens is a desperate effort to find a scapegoat for their own failures. But it is Julia Gillard’s relentless move to the right...

Labor’s carbon tax is good for nothing, except Abbott

The introduction of the carbon tax has proven what was obvious from the beginning—that ordinary people, not big business, will be paying for a useless carbon tax. Far from making...

Deaths at sea: government policy is killing refugees

Following two asylum boat sinkings in June, the Government has used asylum seeker deaths at sea to justify its anti-refugee policies. The only way to stop refugees dying is...

Shameless: parliament’s offshore processing ‘debate’

In the last two weeks of June, over 90 lives were lost at sea when two asylum boats capsized on their way to Australia. The first tragedy was entirely...

‘Local workers first’ campaign is no way to fight for jobs

Sadly, unions have stepped up their campaign against overseas 457 visas and the Enterprise Migration Agreement (EMA) secured by Gina Rinehart in WA. Three thousand workers joined a rally in...

Intervention laws pass but support for fight in Bankstown builds

“The Government has shown absolute disregard for our wishes and our human rights”, Dr Djiniyini Gondarra, Yolngu Nations Assembly spokesperson, declared after “Stronger Futures” laws passed the Senate on...

Anger brews over Gillard’s attacks on single mothers

Labor's attack on single parents in the May budget has sparked outrage among community sector organisations that work with low-income single mothers and children. Gillard’s new policy will force around...

How police killed Kwementyaye Briscoe

The full, shocking truth about the death of Kwementyaye Briscoe in Alice Springs has been exposed by a two-week coronial investigation. Kwementyaye was an Anmatjere man, and his death...

Locked up and killed for being Black: Racism, deaths in custody and the NT Intervention

On 28 September, 1983, off duty police officers in Roebourne, a remote town in WA, started racially abusing Aboriginal patrons at a hotel, sparking a brawl outside. A 16-year-old Aboriginal...

O’Farrell steps up Liberals’ assault on NSW workers

Barry O’Farrell has let rip the Liberals’ real agenda for NSW. He is slashing workers’ compensation payments, cutting public service jobs, attacking teachers and preparing for further privatisations. Last...

NSW teachers must step up strike action

Defying NSW Industrial Relations Commission orders, tens of thousands of school teachers struck on June 27 against the O’Farrell government’s devolution plan. The strike fully closed 310 schools, and...

Newman’s first 100 days: slash-and-burn with a dose of bigotry

“Black Friday” is what many Queenslanders were calling June 28, when 3000 public servants became the first victims of new Liberal National Party (LNP) Premier Campbell Newman’s slash-and-burn agenda....

Ramp up teachers strikes to beat Baillieu

Victorian teachers are imposing work bans and planning further industrial action after the union’s biggest ever strike action in June. Australian Education Union (AEU) members have banned implementation of...

US desperate to get its hands on Assange

Julian Assange remains holed up in Ecuador’s London embassy awaiting a decision on his bid for political asylum as we go to print. The United States continues to build...

Victory in Greece won’t save Europe’s leaders from crisis

There were two pieces of good news for Europe’s rulers in recent weeks. First the left reformist party SYRIZA narrowly lost recall elections in Greece. Then financial markets temporarily...

Syria’s revolution from below still gaining strength

There was renewed talk of Western military intervention into Syria following the Houla massacre in May and the downing of a Turkish military jet in June. “All options are...

Morsi wins President, but SCAF wants to rule in Egypt

Mohamed Morsi, the candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood, has taken office in Egypt’s Presidential elections. But he hasn’t taken power. Egyptians celebrated the defeat of Ahmed Shafiq, the last Prime...

Pan-Pacific solidarity and the ACTU: the union tradition of solidarity with migrants

Tom Orsag looks at the debates in the founding years of the ACTU about how to relate to migrant and overseas workers Today’s debates around 457 visas, migrant workers and...

1934 Teamster rebellion: fighting back in Depression-era USA

Lachlan Marshall tells the story of one of the key strikes that roused the American working class from the initial defeats of the Depression—and of the socialists who led...

The Whitlam government: Labor’s golden age?

>Whitlam is remembered as a glorious reformer with radical policies. But when it came to the crunch he caved in to the demands of big business and the ruling class, writes Jean Parker

Australian racism explored, but not explained

Dumb, Drunk and Racist A Cordell Jigsaw Production ABC 2, Wednesdays at 9.30pm “All they want to do is deny it on TV—‘we have no racism’—hello! Come hang out with me!” So...

Freud and Jung’s debates take centre stage

A Dangerous Method Directed by David Cronenberg Available on DVD soon Dangerous Method is a provocative film that depicts the intellectual birth, personal dilemmas and much speculated-upon falling out of the founders...

Can’t pay, won’t pay: debating solutions to Europe’s debt

Crisis in the Eurozone Edited by Costas Lapvitsas Verso Books $29.95 The debt crisis in the eurozone has become the most glaring problem facing global capitalism. Across the world many states face high levels...

Things they say

Quote's from the month's news I don’t think it’s a very Christian thing to come in by the back door rather than the front door. Tony Abbott when asked on the...

Union fightback the only insurance against global shocks

Europe's crisis is coming to a crunch. In Greece, the scale of the austerity has produced much suffering, but also an immense political radicalisation. A victory for the left...

Four Corners and the politics of people smuggling

Predictably enough, the Four Corners program provocatively entitled “Australia: Smugglers’ Paradise” (as if!) has unleashed a torrent of anti-refugee venom from shock jocks and sections of the mainstream media. Abbott...

Anger grows over ASIO’s detention for life

The outcry over ASIO negative refugees, condemned to detention for the rest of their lives, continues to grow. Almost 200 people attended a vigil called by GetUp outside Attorney...

Preparing to resist refugee deportations

After his deportation from the UK to Sri Lanka, Tamil asylum seeker Hari says he was beaten on his back with electrical wire and suspended upside down by chains....

Briscoe inquiry shows police to blame for death

A coronial inquiry into the death of Terrance Briscoe has revealed damning evidence of police brutality and gross negligence. Terrance Briscoe was an Anmatyere man who died on January 5...

Twenty years since Mabo: why Native Title hasn’t delivered

The 20th anniversary of the Mabo case, where the High Court recognised Native Title, has been celebrated by the government and the media as an historic step for Aboriginal...

Here we Joh again: Campbell Newman and the Queensland LNP

The use of over 200 police to brutally bust up Brisbane’s Aboriginal Tent Embassy demonstrated newly-elected Queensland Premier Campbell Newman’s style of government. It’s back to the era of...

Union leader: how the AMWU has organised 457 visa holders

AMWU Western Australian State Secretary Steve McCartney spoke at a fringe meeting at the recent ACTU Congress on work his union has done fighting to organise 457 workers into...

457 visas and “Aussie jobs”: to fight for jobs, we have to fight together

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen’s announcement of an Enterprise Migration Agreement (EMA) allowing Gina Rinehart’s Roy Hill project to employ 1700 overseas workers on 457 visas has produced a wave...

Victorian teachers: our strike shows we want to fight to win

More than 20,000 Victorian teachers went out on strike on Thursday 7 June, and more than 11,000 tried to cram into the Hisense Arena for the mass strike meeting—but...

Staff and students resist TAFE cuts

Students and staff are continuing their campaign to stop $300 million worth of cuts to the Victorian TAFE sector. The cuts are scheduled to come into effect on July...

Action to defend claims on the cards at Sensis

AMWU members at Sensis voted a resounding yes in a protected industrial action ballot, after months of negotiations going nowhere. Seventy seven per cent of members returned ballots, voting...

More action at Fairfax can stop outsourcing plan

Eight hundred workers at news giant Fairfax took unprotected strike action for 36 hours on May 30, in a defiant response to a plan to outsource jobs at its...

NSW teacher stop works the start of stopping O’Farrell

Around 20,000 NSW public school teachers attended stop work meetings in May to oppose school “devolution” plans. This action has been affirmed by the NSW Teachers Federation June Council...

Shafiq the candidate of counter-revolution in Egypt’s elections

The final round of the Egyptian presidential election presents the real danger of counter-revolution in Egypt. After the first round of voting, a run off for President will now take...

Quebec’s students respond to repression with mass defiance

In what organisers are calling “the biggest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history”, hundreds of thousands defied the Quebec government’s new draconian Bill 78 and took to the...

Greek activist: “the movement has brought down two governments”

Giorgos Pittas is a journalist at Greek newspaper Workers’ Solidarity and a member of anti-capitalist coalition ANTARSYA. This is an excerpt from a recent speech on Greece’s working class...

Greece’s elections, SYRIZA, and the austerity battles ahead

As we go to press, all eyes are on Europe for Greece’s election on June 17. The possibility that SYRIZA, the “Coalition of the Radical Left” could form government...

Twenty years too long: the history of mandatory detention

Australia’s first waves of refugees were processed in the community, and a Labor government introduced the punitive regime we know today, explains James Supple Mandatory detention of “unauthorised” asylum seekers...

The 1950s great Labor split: battle for control that drove Labor apart

Behind the Cold War-era split in the Labor Party were efforts by union leaders to exert control of the Labor party, writes James Supple, in our latest instalment of...

Capitalism and democracy

John Molyneux argues that while capitalism came into being with grand claims about universal freedom, democracy has had to be fought for—and is never completely secure In the 21st century...

Clicking off everywhere? Social media and social movements

Why it’s kicking off everywhere: the new global revolutions By Paul Mason Verso Books RRP $27.95 2011 was a phenomenal year of protest and resistance. From the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia to...

Tweetin’ about a revolution

Revolution 2.0: The power of the people is greater than the people in power By Wael Ghonim Fourth Estate RRP $29.95 Wael Ghonim is a Google marketing manager who became one of the...

Debating ideas to grow the left’s influence on politics

Left Turn: Political Essays for the New Left Edited by Antony Loewenstein and Jeff Sparrow Melbourne University Publishing $27.99 Left Turn, according to editors Antony Loewenstein and Jeff Sparrow, aims to, “argue for...

Things they say

Quote's from the last month's news extraordinary care and thoughtfulness. Obama’s top-counter terrorism adviser, John O Brennan, on how drone strikes are carried out How old are these people? If they...

Class war? Not from Labor

As opinion polls for Labor keep falling, Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan are trying to recast the government as the friend of working people. But their timidity and mixed...

Forget the spin, this is no battlers’ budget

Wayne Swan has been accused by the media and Tony Abbott of waging class warfare with the budget. We wish. Labor’s obsession with achieving a budget surplus has delivered...

Attack on Victorian TAFE means more cuts and privatisation

Several thousand unionists and students rallied outside the office of Victorian Premier, Ted Baillieu, on May 10 in protest at a $160 million cut to TAFE education. The bulk of...

Sydney Uni VC calls in the cops, but we’re stopping the job cuts

Management at Sydney University has resorted to riot police, threats of student suspension and a ludicrous PR campaign to try and contain the anti-cuts campaign. But the campaign has...

Union democracy the answer to HSU corruption

A surgical dresser earns about $24 an hour. A cook or a gardener gets a little less, an experienced cardiac technician a little more. These are the kinds of...

Detention a ‘psychiatric hospital’, but report ignores alternatives

The joint parliamentary inquiry into detention brought down its report on March 30—but it was remarkable only for its timidity. Its recommendations leave mandatory detention in place. In many ways,...

ASIO can’t be trusted with refugee assessments

The long-hidden issue of the indefinite detention of refugees with adverse ASIO security assessments is finally getting some attention. The sudden detention of Tamil refugee Ranjini and her two sons...

Afghan Hazaras’ Canberra rally exposes violence in Quetta

On May 10, over 1000 Hazara-Australians converged on Canberra from across the country to protest the recent wave of killing of Hazaras in Quetta, Pakistan and the Australian government’s...

Kings Cross footage shows racist cops are the real criminals

The only regret from the New South Wales police over the Kings Cross shooting scandal seems to be that the incident was caught on camera. NSW Police Union Chief Scott...

Death in custody: ‘My nephew is a victim of the Intervention’

Paddy Gibson spoke to Patricia Morton-Thomas, the aunt of Aboriginal man Terrance Briscoe, who died in police custody in Alice Springs in January, about her nephew’s death and the...

Yolngu nations reignite opposition to leases and Intervention

The Yolngu Nations Assembly meeting in Ramingining has taken an important stand against the “Stronger Futures” legislation currently before the Senate. “Stronger Futures” would extend most racist Intervention powers...

Official report shows renewables scheme is useless

Ten billion dollars’ funding for renewable energy has been held up as one of the key wins from the carbon tax package. The Expert review released to government on March...

Sweet end to Sarkozy as France rejects austerity, but fascists are on the rise

The long-awaited fall of Nicolas Sarkozy and the election of Socialist (Labor) candidate Francois Hollande in France has created much anxiety and uncertainty amongst the European ruling class. France is...

All eyes on Greece as voters revolt against the crisis

The economic crisis in Europe has become a political crisis after the architects of austerity in Greece were utterly smashed at the polls in the May 6 election. The two...

Egypt military in new assault on protests

The military regime that rules Egypt has launched a brutal crackdown against protesters in the country. Thugs attacked Islamist protesters in May while soldiers looked on. More than ten...

Bersih: Malaysia’s Tahrir in the making?

Kuala Lumpur's streets surrounding Dataran Merdeka (Independence Square) turned into a sea of yellow on April 28 as 100,000 gathered for Bersih 3.0, the Bersih movement’s third rally demanding...

Palestinian prisoners hunger strike sparks new wave of solidarity

Since April 17 this year (Palestinian Prisoners Day) a new wave of resistance has been launched by political prisoners in Israeli jails. Around 1600 prisoners declared that they were...

‘We’re not backing down!’: Students stage the biggest strike in Quebec’s history

A student strike in Quebec has entered its third month with no sign of stopping. At its height, 300,000 students were on strike, refusing to go to class until...

Behind the corporate takeover of universities

Solidarity looks at the impact of several decades of neo-liberal shock therapy on Australian universities—and how to drive it back Universities today are run like corporations to serve the needs...

‘Michael Spence is the 1 per cent’: the role of university management

The architect of the cuts at Sydney University is the Vice-Chancellor Michael Spence. His arrogance and determination in pushing through the cuts has earned him the wrath of the...

A million votes for socialism: the story of Eugene Debs, an American radical

Amy Thomas introduces one of the key figures from the hidden history of US radicalism Barack Obama has broken the hearts of the millions of Americans who voted him into...

Defending multiculturalism

Jasmine Ali argues the left should defend multiculturalism against racist attacks from the right In February 2011, Julia Gillard and Immigration Minister Chris Bowen turned 180 degrees to reaffirm Labor’s...

Alex Mitchell: Trotskyist with some stories to tell

Come the Revolution: A memoir By Alex Mitchell, NewSouth Publishing $39.95 Alex Mitchell’s media career spanned the British Sunday Times, work under a young Rupert Murdoch at Sydney’s Daily Mirror and...

Things they say

The foot-in-mouth of the 1 per cent I invite financial markets to behave in a rational way. Spain is on track. Wishful thinking from Chairman of the euro zone finance ministers,...

Cutbacks ahead: Labor’s budgeting for big business

Labor’s obsession with driving the budget into surplus will not only mean unpopular cuts, it could tip Australia into recession. Is it any wonder working class people think Labor...

Stepping up the battle to stop Sydney uni cuts

The campaign against staff cuts at Sydney University has ramped up following a defiant rally of 1500 students and staff on Wednesday April 4, followed by a student occupation....

Sit-ins, civil disobedience and student radicalism: Lessons from the ‘97 UTS occupation

As the campaign against the cuts at Sydney University gears up for more direct action, Richard Bailey spoke to Solidarity activists about the successful campaign that stopped upfront fees...

‘Stand with us to fight this racist legislation’

Rev Dr Djiniyini Gondarra is a traditional owner from Elcho Island, in Northeast Arnhem Land. This is an exert of his speech to a rally in Darwin on April...

Bankstown BasicsCard campaign reaches out to unionists

The campaign to stop Income Management, first introduced as part of the racist NT Intervention, is reaching out to organised workers in an attempt to stop the policy in...

ASIO assessments: ‘Refugees are being held in detention for the rest of their lives’

Refugees denied visas because of adverse assessments by ASIO are sitting in limbo in detention centres. Stephen Blanks, Secretary of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, spoke at Politics...

Refugee activists converge on detention capital

The Easter convergence on Darwin’s detention centres has set the scene for actions this year against mandatory detention. Darwin’s detention centres now hold up to 1000 asylum seekers, making...

After Bob Brown, can The Greens move left?

As accolades flow in at the end of Bob Brown’s parliamentary career, serious questions hang over the future of The Greens under Christine Milne. On the one hand, Milne’s appeals to...

Miners fight BHP to reverse WorkChoices-era pay cuts

Over 3500 mine workers in central Queensland’s Bowen Basin staged their second week-long strike in mid-April, defending working conditions against the multi-billion dollar mining giant BHP Billiton. The unions are...

Union grows as Sensis comes up with nothing on new agreement

Over 100 AMWU members at Sensis, in five separate offices in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, have voted to support a ballot for protected industrial action if Sensis doesn’t come...

Victorian teachers prepare to fight Baillieu

Teachers in Victorian public schools are in for a fight to beat the state government’s 2.5 per cent public sector wide pay cap and stop cutbacks to education. Negotiations...

German MP on solidarity with Greek workers: ‘My no in the Bundestag is a yes to resistance’

Kate Davison interviewed Christine Buchholz, German MP for Die Linke (‘The Left’ Party) and supporter of Marx21, about austerity measures imposed on Greece by the German government and the...

Spain: the 1 per cent cut, the 99 per cent strike

Spain’s population is suffering the disastrous consequences of the economic crisis. Eleven million people live in poverty, five million are unemployed and 170 house evictions take place each day. In...

Bahrain, the Arab revolution ignored by the West

An estimated 100,000 people poured onto the streets of Bahrain’s capital in late March. It was the largest protest since the brutal crackdown on demonstrations at the start of...

Zimbabwe six stare down Mugabe regime’s repression

In March, six activists from Solidarity’s sister organisation in Zimbabwe successfully avoided prison after being convicted for watching a video of the Arab Spring.In February 2011, police stormed a...

West not ready to end disastrous Afghan war

The documentary All the Way, shown on ABC TV on April 12, was about the war in Vietnam but its central themes were just as relevant to today’s war in...

PNG political turmoil ignites mass protests for democratic rights

As many as 15,000 people joined a trade union organised rally in Port Moresby, the capital of PNG, in mid-April to protest against Parliament’s vote to defer elections by...

Winning justice for Trayvon, killed for being black in America

Mass protests and demonstrations demanding justice for Trayvon Martin have forced the police to charge his killer, George Zimmerman, with second-degree murder.On February 26, Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old black...

French election: austerity, Islamophobia, and Mélenchon’s “insurrection”

French President Nicholas Sarkozy will hopefully be thrown out in the approaching elections, in a vote against austerity. Islamophobia following the shooting of seven people by a French Algerian gunman in...

The changing face of racism

Racism based on crude biological arguments may be increasingly unacceptable, argues James Supple, but racism based on notions of "culture" has become an insidious feature of mainstream politics in...

“Socialism in our time”: The story of Jack Lang, NSW Labor and the Great Depression

In our third installment of our Labor history series, Jean Parker finds some rich lessons in the incredible story of the New South Wales Labor Party’s "socialisation units" and...

Resisting Capitol in The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games Directed by Gary Ross In cinemas now The Hunger Games is the latest addition to a string of political Hollywood films produced over the last few years. But unlike films...

Things they say

They would have us living as hunter-gatherers scrambling for survival on the forest floor. Barnaby Joyce’s riposte to The Greens’ push for rural votes Because we knew it was the most...

The revolutionary ideas of Antonio Gramsci

Contrary to interpretations of the Italian revolutionary popular in the academic world, Antonio Gramsci was fighter for working class struggle and socialist revolution, argues Penny Howard

Union power is the alternative to Labor’s crisis

Julia Gillard may have triumphed over Kevin Rudd in Labor’s leadership brawl. But Labor remains headed for electoral oblivion—and it is Gillard’s policies that are to blame. It would...

Nurses defy the law to defend the health system and jobs

Nurses in Victoria have staged weeks of rolling strikes in defiance of anti-strike laws as they fight to defend staffing ratios in public hospitals. Nurses were expecting a new...

Villawood fire trials—still waiting for justice

There was a myth perpetuated by the official inquiry into the Christmas Island protests in March and April last year—that the protests were a result of disgruntled failed refugees...

Refugee success rates of 90 per cent show mandatory detention must go

Official figures on refugee claims have confirmed what a shocking arbitrary punishment mandatory detention is. Last year just over 90 per cent of all asylum seekers were found to...

Sydney wharfies take solidarity action against NZ union busting

Defiant solidarity action by Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) members in Sydney has delivered a boost to sacked wharfies in New Zealand. Workers took industrial action against a scab-loaded...

Kevin Rudd, Labor, and the real faceless men

In one of his numerous press conferences during the Labor leadership showdown, Kevin Rudd called for, “reform of the Labor Party itself, so that our party is equipped for...

Chorus of opposition greets Macklin’s extended Intervention

On Monday February 27, in the afternoon following Labor’s leadership spill, Stronger Futures in the Northern Territory legislation passed through the House of Representatives with Labor and Liberal support. These...

Sydney Uni: “no cuts, no way, not tomorrow, not today!”

The fightback to stop job and budget cuts at the University of Sydney has escalated. In the first week of semester, 700 staff and students demonstrated in the University...

Labor’s ABCC changes: Are the anti-union powers gone for good?

In February, the Gillard government rolled the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) into Fair Work Australia. The anti-union ABCC’s powers and role will be watered down. It’s expected...

NSW Liberals serve up new threats to public sector

NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell has public sector unions in his sights. Last year Barry O'Farrell announced changes to force the Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) to enforce a 2.5 per cent...

Gonski’s call for public school funding too much for Labor

The recommendations of Gonski’s Review of Funding for Schooling were finally released on February 20. But Gillard’s response made it clear we will have to fight for every extra...

School “autonomy” threatens teacher job security

So called school autonomy “reforms” in NSW will threaten the security of employment of over 60,000 public school teachers across the state. School principals are being offered a $40,000-$50,000 funding...

Millions of Indian workers unite to strike against neo-liberalism

On February 28, millions of Indian workers participated in the biggest general strike since independence in 1947. For the first time since 1970, the 11 main trade union organisations...

Russia’s new movement of millions challenging Putin’s regime

Around 20,000 people protested in Pushkin Square in central Moscow in March against Vladimir Putin’s claim to have won the presidential election The demonstration was part of the ongoing movement...

Putin’s rise and rule in Russia

Until the protest movement burst onto Russia’s streets at the end of 2011, Putin had presided over (as both President and Prime Minister) 11 years of relatively unchallenged rule. The...

Hope for Syria is with the struggle, not the West

After weeks of relentless bombardment Syrian troops have retaken the city of Homs including the neighbourhood of Baba Amr, an opposition stronghold. Homs is considered the “capital of the revolution”...

Greek activists: “we want workers’ power”

Socialists and trade unionists fighting austerity in Greece spoke to Patrick Ward Kostas Katarachias, Doctor and union general secretary at Agios Savvas cancer hospital, Athens Last autumn we saw two months...

A new workers’ paper in Greece

Workers at Eleftherotypia, Greece's second largest newspaper have taken over their workplace and begun producing their own newspaper to report on the movement against austerity, explains Moissis Litsis Eleftherotypia newspaper...

New wave of Greek austerity answered by new strikes

The new Greek austerity package, demanded by “the troika”—the IMF, European Union (EU) and European Central Bank imposes further vicious cuts on the people of Greece. But the level...

System error: Capitalism’s crisis and the alternative

The economic crisis is getting worse and heading our way. Solidarity looks at the roots of the crisis in the capitalist system and the socialist alternative It's been five years...

Wage cuts and bailouts: Labor and the Great Depression

In the face of the Great Depression in the 1930s, Labor turned on its working class supporters in order to bail out capitalism. Jean Parker looks at the lessons...

The generals, the Islamists and the Egyptian Revolution

After the recent election Egypt’s parliament is dominated by Islamists. But, argues Phil Marfleet, they face immense pressure from Egyptians to deliver real change and break with the military Seventy...

The Mad Square: Revolution and reaction in Weimar Germany

Mad Square Modernity in German Art 1910-1937, formerly at Melbourne NGV “A dissolution of the social order was expected by the hour” said the German Minister of Finance in 1923, reflecting...

Rebuilding fighting unions: Lessons from the US

The Civil wars in U.S. Labor: Birth of a New Workers’ Movement or Death Throes of the Old? By Steve Early, Haymarket Books, $24.95 The “organising model” developed by unions in...

Power of protest: Refugees and resistance in detention

Throughout mandatory detention’s sorry history, protests inside detention have been central to forcing the issue into the media and winning changes for the asylum seekers themselves. Darwin's detention centres will be...

Black soldiers’ mutiny against racism hidden for 70 years

A Queensland historian has uncovered the story of a mutiny by African-American troops stationed in Australia during World War II at an army base outside Townsville. The armed rebellion...

“I mean, I’m so left wing that I’ve been endorsed by the IMF, OECD, the World Bank, Euromoney magazine. You know … I’m in great company!” Wayne Swan reminds us...

Jobs crash: Gillard fiddles as recession looms in Europe

The world faces a “1930s moment”, as the IMF warned in late January. Five years after the economic crisis erupted in 2007, global capitalism has failed to recover. The European...

Labor’s right-wing politics gives the Liberals a chance in Queensland

Premier Anna Bligh’s unpopular privatisations should mean Labor is headed for a trouncing in the Queensland state election on March 24. But the more voters see of Liberal National...

Terrance Briscoe: killed by police?

Eight years after the shocking deaths and police cover-ups of the killings of TJ Hickey in Redfern and Mulrunji Doomadgee on Palm Island, there are all the signs of...

Desperation in detention fuels need for Easter convergence

From April 6-9, refugee rights activists will again focus attention on the reality behind the detention wire. This Easter activists will converge on Darwin, which is quickly becoming the...

Challenging Labor’s plans for forced deporations of refugees

On February 8-9, an important case went before the High Court. The outcome—which won’t be known until at least March—will determine whether the Federal government can push ahead with...

Labor takes aim at people smugglers, but their detention policy is the real crime

At Labor's national conference in December, Julia Gillard and Immigration Minister Chris Bowen managed to drag Labor’s refugee policy even further to the right. While a Labor for Refugees’...

Behind the media beat up: Tent Embassy protesters have nothing to apologise for

Protests celebrating the Aboriginal Tent Embassy have been subject to a vicious media campaign, after a snap protest directed at Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard. This ridiculous beat-up was...

Stop Murdoch’s attack on The Greens—Defend Lee Rhiannon

The Australian newspaper is on the warpath against The Greens and Left Senator Lee Rhiannon again. The Murdoch rag famously called on voters to “destroy” The Greens in September 2010...

Hands off our education: Stop the jobs massacre at Sydney Uni

The University of Sydney is in a bid to slash 340 jobs. A staff and student campaign is gearing up to push them back. Academics will be sacked on the...

After a ten week lock out, Schweppes workers pushed into arbitration

After a ten week lock out, 150 United Voice workers at Schweppes distribution and processing factory in Tullamarine, Victoria, are back inside the gate. The workers had been maintaining...

Gillard caves in to bosses’ demands with Fair Work review

Julia Gillard has caved in to business complaints about her workplace laws by announcing a review of the FairWork legislation. This comes after months of howling from business that...

NSW TAFE ballot: A wasted chance to beat O’Farrell’s laws

The leadership of the NSW Teachers Federation has shamefully squandered an opportunity to strike a serious blow against the O’Farrell Liberal NSW government. In mid-February, NSW TAFE teachers were set...

Senis workers keep union agreement—now for pay and permanency

Over 50 enthusiastic Sensis Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) members held a lunchtime protest last October to stop the company’s attempt to undermine their union agreement (the Advertising and...

US and Israel’s self-serving fear campaign against Iran

The US and Israel have ratcheted up threats and sanctions against Iran. The media presents Iran as aggressive and a danger to the region, hell bent on developing a...

Western intervention not the answer in Syria

Syrian President Assad’s brutal crackdown on the city of Homs has killed up to 400 people in the space of a week, as the country’s heroic revolt continues after...

Anger as the West’s regime sells Libyans short

In January an angry crowd of some 2000 people stormed the offices of the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) in Benghazi, the birthplace of the Libyan revolution. NTC leaders...

Tent Embassy 1972: “Land rights or else”

The establishment of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in 1972 was one of the high points of the Aboriginal rights movement. Solidarity looks at what it achieved and its relevance today

One year on—Egypt’s deepening revolution

Mass people power brought down Mubarak’s dictatorship one year ago. Amy Thomas and Ernest Price look at where Egypt’s continuing strikes and demonstrations are heading “Massive and effective street protest...

Contagious strikes: How China’s workers are fighting back

Ralf Ruckus is a labour researcher and activist studying Chinese workers’ struggles. His work can be found at www.gongchao.org. He spoke to Solidarity on a recent visit to Australia. The...

World War I and conscription: How the unions fought to expel a Labor Prime Minister

Tom Orsag begins a series on Labor Party history with a look at the major split in the party during the campaign against conscription in WWI Labor under Gillard and...

Ollie Butterfield: a loss to all struggles for justice

Solidarity would like to offer our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Oliver Butterfield who died in a car accident on December 29, 2011.Ollie was a brilliant...

Weekend: Honest depiction of homophobia in everyday life

Weekend Directed by Andrew Haigh Out now, selected release WEEKEND IS a beautiful and sad film about same-sex love. The most impressive and unique thing about this movie is how true to...

Thatcher’s real legacy: rule for the rich

The Iron Lady Directed by Phyllida Lloyd In cinemas now Margaret Thatcher was a ruling class warrior whose policies created record unemployment and misery in Britain. Thatcher’s destructive legacy is obscured in...