People smugglers: refugees’ ticket to freedom
“Breaking the people smugglers’ business model” is the tired refrain Julia Gillard and Chris Bowen use to justify every inhumane aspect of their policy on asylum seekers—from their...
Malaysia solution scuttled, now let’s end mandatory detention
The last month has been one of the most dramatic in the history of the refugee movement. There was euphoria at the High Court decision that found the Malaysia...
Guy Pearse’s demolition of carbon tax apologetics
Guy Pearse, a former Liberal staffer turned critic of the influence of big fossil fuel companies, has written a searing critique of the climate movement’s slavish support for the...
Coal seam gas: climate disaster brought to you by the carbon tax
The coal seam gas (CSG) industry is rapidly expanding across the country. There are even efforts to drill for CSG in central Sydney. Labor’s carbon tax is encouraging the...
Carbon tax: offsetting our way to more emissions
Buried in the fine print of Labor’s carbon tax package is the admission that greenhouse gas emissions will keep rising for decades into the future. Treasury modelling indicates emissions...
More attacks on construction unions
Construction unions are facing renewed attack, with Ted Baillieu’s Victorian Liberal government announcing a new squad of investigators to spy on building sites.
The new investigators will work on state...
Knocking some sense into Sensis
Enterprise bargaining has commenced at Sensis for the first time in years, as a result of growing union membership. Sensis is 100 per cent owned by Telstra, which produces...
Aboriginal people take Intervention protests to consultations
The federal government has just concluded a round of “consultations” with Aboriginal communities in the NT about the future of the Intervention. Labor is committed to the key features of the Intervention....
Boycotting Israel is not anti-Semitic
An unholy alliance of Labor and Liberal politicians together with the media are running a nasty smear campaign against pro-Palestinian protesters targeting Max Brenner stores.
Newspapers like The Australian accuse...
Panic and protest as Eurozone crisis deepens
The crisis in the eurozone is again reaching panic levels. The world economy was “entering a dangerous phase”, IMF chief Christine Lagarde told the world’s finance ministers in Washington...
Chile’s students spread resistance in the neo-liberal laboratory
A mass, student-led movement has emerged in Chile, fighting for free education.
In late September, 180,000 students and teachers marched on the streets in the latest mass demonstration. This followed...
Fiji’s unions face vicious government crackdown
In recent months Fiji’s Interim Government under Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama has launched a new crackdown on unions.
In mid-July, following a decree prohibiting full-time union leaders from representing workers...
1971 Springbok tour: When campaigners scored a victory against racism
The campaign against the South African Springboks tour in 1971 is full of lessons for our campaigns against racism today, argues Tom Orsag
How do ideas change?
Involvement in struggle can shift ideas about the world, argues James Supple
Often, being an activist means standing against the tide of public opinion. It can sometimes seem that the...
Raising genderless kids: can it be done?
Earlier this year, a Canadian couple announced their decision to raise a genderless child, Storm. Their announcement that they would keep their child’s gender a secret to the outside...
Why boosting productivity means working harder
The call for greater efforts to boost productivity has become a constant refrain from business and government. Reserve Bank Governor Glenn Stevens added his voice to the chorus during...
Tony Cliff: a revolutionary thinker
Tony Cliff
A Marxist For His Time
Bookmarks, $30, available from Solidarity
TONY CLIFF was born in 1917, five months before the October revolution in Russia that toppled the provisional government and...
Gurindji want freedom from NT Intervention
Gurindji Freedom day, August 26, was marked by protests against the NT Intervention. Freedom Day commemorates the famous Gurundji walk-off from Wave Hall station in 1966, immortalised in the...
Things they say
“The light on the hill now shines from a lamp on the desk.”
Julia Gillard celebrates her scaled back version of Labor’s promise to improve people’s lives
“The elegance...
