Issue 87 - Feb

Teacher solidarity with refugees spreads through schools

Teachers, educators, aides, translators and administrative staff in over 70 schools across Australia have come together to say refugees should be studying in our schools and educational institutions instead of languishing in offshore camps.

No cuts, no privatisation: Stop Turnbull’s war on Medicare

Not content with cuts to pathology and diagnostic bulk-billing, the Turnbull government has resuscitated Tony Abbott’s plan to privatise Medicare payment systems. But these twin attacks on Medicare could prove to be Turnbull’s major mistake.

Inside the System

Keating tells Libs to cut ten times harder; Immigration bosses hire ‘life coach’; Australia more corrupt says international body; NT Intervention brings Close the Gap failure; Another charge against a CFMEU official collapses; 73 per cent say ban Trump from Australia; Things they say

Public servants set to strike again

Federal public sector workers are again ramping up their campaign to win better enterprise agreements. In February the largest agency, DHS, rejected a government-approved offer a second time, with an overwhelming 79.5 per cent voting “no”.

Turnbull stalls on equal marriage to please homophobic MPs

Part of the deal Malcolm Turnbull struck to take Tony Abbott’s job was promising to stick with his plan for a plebiscite on same-sex marriage after the next election.

Death in custody at police hands in NSW

The family of Aboriginal man David Dungay Hill, who died in custody in NSW’s Long Bay jail on 29 December, are demanding answers over the role of corrective services officers in his death.

Sydney Uni’s sweeping restructure: cutback and fightback ahead

On the last day of work for 2015, the University of Sydney’s Chancellor, Belinda Hutchinson, announced a drastic restructure of the University.

Can socialism end oppression?

Solidarity restarts our series on common questions about socialism

Flint: How austerity poisoned a US city

The US city of Flint is in the midst of a man-made public health emergency. For almost two years, the predominantly low-income residents of the city of 100,000 people have been exposed to extreme levels of lead contamination in the city’s water supply.

US primaries shake the candidates of the corporations

As the US presidential race gets under way, both major parties are being shaken by a revolt against the preferred candidates of the party establishment and the corporate elite.

What would socialism be like?

Erima Dall explains what we mean by socialism, and how a world run on the basis of human and environmental need, not competition and profit, would work.

20 years since his election: John Howard—class warrior for the rich

The Howard government had a ruthless class agenda, writes David Glanz, but it was Labor’s timid opposition that kept it in power

The original egalitarian societies: What human history tells us about human nature

For the bulk of our existence, humans have lived in egalitarian societies, argues Caitlin Doyle-Markwick, showing that a society based on competition and greed is not inevitable.

Inside the banking scam that produced a global crash

The Big Short blows the whistle on the catastrophe and madness of a system run by bankers and profiteers.

There’s no Cowspiracy—fossil fuels are the main climate threat

Al Gore has gone vegan and actor Leonardo Di Caprio has thrown his name behind a new film, Cowspiracy, which suggests that all we have to do to stop climate change is stop eating meat. Is that really all there is to it?

Follow us

Other categories