Facts tell the real story: 457 workers are not taking jobs
Julia Gillard and union leaders haven’t let the facts about 457 visa workers get in the way of their scare campaign. But the facts reveal that 457 workers are...
Join the pickets at Sydney Uni! Strike back for our education
Sydney Uni staff are preparing for a two day strike, following the 24-hour strike that paralysed the university on 7 March, with classes cancelled and hundreds of union members...
Protests ruined Geert Wilders’ Islamophobic tour
Dutch far-right politician and arch Islamophobe Geert Wilders hoped his Australian tour would further the spread of his racist anti-Muslim politics. But after he was dogged by protests and...
Sensis workers fight for jobs
In February, Sensis workers in Melbourne staged a 150-strong rally to protest against the company’s plans to cut 689 permanent positions and 100 temps. Three hundred and ninety-one jobs...
Union roundup: Deakin Uni, WA nurses, Pacific national, Qantas airport security
Deakin Uni gears up for strike actionStrike action looks likely at Deakin Uni in Melbourne, with the NTEU voting for action if there is no movement from management by...
Nauru protests win processing, Manus detainees transferred—but refugees still in limbo
A second wave of protests has rocked the Nauru detention camp since 17 February. At the height of the protests, there were around 20 people on hunger strike and...
Stop the deportations—Afghanistan is not safe
There is a determined effort under way by the Immigration department to forcibly deport a Hazara asylum seeker for the first time. In the last three weeks, the Immigration department has...
End of the agreement: Have The Greens tacked left?
Greens leader Christine Milne’s declaration that their agreement with Labor is finished has seen them tack left and attack the government’s failings much more openly.As Milne put it, “Labor...
Drugs in sport all part of competitive game
Sport in Australia is in crisis. And it is a crisis of its own making. Everywhere you look sporting codes and athletes are in trouble with drugs—in the AFL,...
Police violence at Mardi Gras—how far have we really come in the fight for LGBT rights?
The brutal attack by NSW police on Jamie Jackson at the recent Lesbian and Gay Mardi Gras, exposed on YouTube, has raised question marks over common sense ideas in...
Italian voters elect for anything but austerity
The stockmarkets panicked at the Italian election result at the end of February. Neither of the major parties won enough votes to form the stable government that the EU,...
Cyprus “bailout” triggers another round of crisis
Another shockwave hit the world economy as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) attempted to negotiate a “bailout” deal for bankrupt Cyprus. The deal would have involved taking money from...
Hugo Chavez 1954-2013
Venezuela’s president Hugo Chavez has died after a long fight with cancer. Mike Gonzalez looks back at Chavez’s life—and the Venezuela he leaves behindIf revolution is the moment when...
Why NAPLAN must go
As teachers prepare to administer NAPLAN tests again, we look at why this attempt to impose market-based “choice” in education is so disastrous
The 1973 Ford Broadmeadows strike: how migrant workers rose up
In 1972 migrant workers showed that they can be among the most determined in fighting for workers’ rights. There are lessons for us today, argues Tom OrsagThe Ford Broadmeadows...
Evolution, human nature and social change
What can human evolution tell us about human nature and the possibility of social change, asks Penny HowardTHERE IS a common-sense belief that it is impossible to have a society based...
World War II—people’s war or class war?
A People’s History of the Second World War
By Donny Gluckstein
Pluto Press
$35 from SolidarityDonny Gluckstein’s A People’s History of the Second World War illuminates a crucial distinction that has long...
Fighting the market in schools: lessons from US teachers
The Future of Our Schools
Lois Weiner
Haymarket Books $24The nauseating consensus between Gillard and the Liberal premiers over education policy, where they all agree that teachers are to blame for...
Debating a one state solution for Palestine
After Zionism: One State for Israel and Palestine
Edited by Antony Loewenstein and Ahmed Moor
Saqi BooksIn their collection of essays After Zionism editors Antony Loewenstein and Ahmed Moor rightly argue,...
Cloud Atlas connects resistance to tyranny across five centuries
Cloud Atlas
Directed by Tom Tykwer, Lana Wachowski and Any Wachowski
In cinemas nowTHE SIX interconnected stories which make up Cloud Atlas, a film based on the 2004 novel of the...
Things they say
We rang everyone in December and said, ‘Please, don’t come.’A “Labor strategist” in Western Australia didn’t want the great reputation of federal Labor harming their electoral campaign, according...
Inside the system
Welcome to our new column, Inside the System, where we collect the month's most outrageous exploits and efforts at exploitation from those at the top.Workers helping flood effort stopped—to...
