Adam Bandt’s campaign shows potential for the left

“TOGETHER WE have made history today”, Adam Bandt declared, as he became the first Green to win a lower house seat in a general election. The surge to The Greens shows that, despite Gillard’s effort to race Abbott to the right, larger numbers than ever want a left-wing alternative.

Gillard holds on: Now Greens must shift Labor to the left

By securing the support of Greens MP Adam Bandt and key ex-National independents Julia Gillard has held on to power—but only just. The fact that we have come so close to an Abbott government is a stark warning.

Mistake to treat Labor and Liberal the same


Independents calling the shots is no shift to the left

With independent MPs positioned to determine who forms the next government there has been all sorts of talk about the beginning of a different kind of politics in Canberra. But there is nothing progressive about a swing to the right that boosted the Liberal vote and produced a hung parliament that came within a few seats of making Tony Abbott prime minister.

Election promises expand market agenda for education


Bligh does nothing as woman goes to trial for abortion


Anti-Intervention campaign builds Greens vote in NT

Large swings to the Greens in the Northern Territory have shown the anger at the NT Intervention and its continuation by Labor. But they are also evidence of the impact of the campaign against the Intervention—which continued to build through the election period.

Union power could strike Abbott out


Building on union openings key for anti-Intervention campaign


Gillard a clunker, Abbott a denier—we need a climate fight


Lessons from success of refugee movement under Howard


‘Welcome to the Leonara Family Rejection Centre’


Afghans languish while High Court hears challenge to offshore processing

BOTH JULIA Gillard and Tony Abbot went to the election with proposals to extend offshore processing—to East Timor (Gillard) or Nauru (Abbott).

Sustainable population debate is a dogwhistle


French burqa ban sows division


Pakistan’s floods made worse by US terror


All out truck strike: new stage in Greek resistance


Massive strikes put South Africa on the brink


Australian meddling part of agenda to dominate Fiji


Labor in power: the lessons of the Accord

Hawke and Keating’s Accord agreement was designed to hold back wages and conditions and weakened union power, argues Feiyi Zhang

Hungary 1956: the revolutionary alternative to Stalinism

The workers’ rebellion in the Eastern European state of Hungary in 1956 shows how real socialism is possible, argues Clare Fester

Spying eyes: ASIO and the Communist Party


Wikileaks exposes cost of Afghan war


Things they say