Moving away from unions won’t fix Labor’s woes
Labor's drubbing at the WA Senate election has opened renewed demands for “party reform”. However, despite rhetoric about “democratising” the party, the main aim is further diluting union influence.
Unionists organising for refugees: ‘They’re no threat to us’
One of the many highlights of Sydney’s Palm Sunday rally in April was the 100-strong Unions for Refugees contingent. The group formed after last year’s federal election and managed to get representation from 13 unions at the rally.
Abbott and Labor both punished in WA election
Both major parties received a kicking from voters in the WA Senate election re-run in March.
Fight Abbott’s attack on unions and CFMEU
Tony Abbott's Royal Commission witch hunt into the unions has begun, with its first hearing held in early April. Abbott’s “concern” about union corruption is a thinly-veiled attack the right to strike and routine union activity.
Super-A-Mart workers win victory against low pay
Low paid workers at the Super-A-Mart warehouse in Somerton, Victoria have won their first union agreement following a six-week lockout.
Nurses delegate: ‘The $6 Medicare fee is just the beginning’
Frances Usherwood works as a clinical nurse educator in a Paediatric hospital, and is a NSW Nurses and Midwives Association delegate and branch assistant secretary. Below is part of her speech to a Solidarity meeting in Sydney recently.
Business and the military still running politics in Indonesia
Legislative elections in Indonesia on April 9 offered a preview of what to expect in July’s presidential elections.
Fascists thrive in France amidst austerity
Marine Le Pen’s fascist Front National (FN) achieved its best results ever in French local elections in late March. Recent polls indicate they may also top the European elections in May.
Afghan elections keep warlords in control
Western politicians have been quick to claim the recent presidential election in Afghanistan as some sort of victory. While western newspapers were full of pictures of Afghan women lining up to vote, behind the democratic veneer is a deeply traumatised society where power depends on the support of rival warlords.
Opposition on the home front: Strikes, conscription and the First World War
Solidarity examines the campaign against conscription and opposition to the First World War in Australia
How the unions brought down Howard
James Supple looks at the lessons from the union campaign that defeated Liberal Prime Minister John Howard in 2007
Boycotts and the fight for social change
Erima Dall examines the strategy of boycotting to achieve social change
Are we too selfish for socialism?
Geraldine Fela looks at the claim that the selfishness of human nature means socialism is impossible
Witness to the torture on Nauru
Mark Isaacs spent almost a year as a Salvation Army worker on Nauru. The Undesirables is his compelling firsthand account of the horror, injustice and disaster of offshore detention.
Morrison’s refugee brutality unravels
While Scott Morrison and Tony Abbott try to portray Operation Sovereign Borders as the Coalition's stand out success, the contradictions of offshore processing are growing sharper by the day writes Ian Rintoul
