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 electionThe 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 WardKostas Katarachias, Doctor and union general secretary at Agios Savvas cancer hospital, AthensLast 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 alternativeIt'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 militarySeventy...
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, $24.95The “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...
