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 workersToday’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 soonDangerous 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
$29.95The 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 newsI 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...
