Actions in solidarity with those protesting in the United States against the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police will be held across Australia this weekend. The protests will also be demanding an end to Black deaths in custody in Australia, reports Kerry Smith.
The University of Sydney Women’s Collective is calling for residential colleges to be repurposed into safe, affordable student housing, reports Rachel Evans.
Rod Webb became an left-wing activist during a period of cultural and political upheaval and, as a film festival director and a network programmer, his commitment to his principles never faltered, writes Greg Adamson.
Ken Muir will be remembered as being a formidable defender of public education, as well as as a staunch unionist and socialist, writes Dave Bell.
The controversial Snowy Hydro 2.0 project in southern New South Wales is a step closer to being realised after the state government gave approval for its construction, reports Jim McIlroy.
Weekly solidarity actions to support refugees detained at a Brisbane detention facility are becoming an important flashpoint in the campaign, reports Alex Bainbridge.
Socialist councillor Sue Bolton, first elected to Moreland City Council in 2012 and re-elected in 2016, is standing again, writes Chloe DS. Here's how you can support her.
The world premiere of a 14-year struggle for jobs will be screened at this year's “virtual” Sydney Film Festival. Women of Steel, a finalist for an award, documents a hard-won campaign by women in the Illawarra to force BHP to hire them, write Pip Hinman and Peter Boyle.
The federal government is demanding (un)employment agencies get proactive and schedule appointments with unemployed workers — despite mutual obligations being suspended until June 1, writes Kerry Smith.
The federal government is pursuing criminal prosecutions against a former secret agent and his lawyer for allegedly revealing Australia had bugged East Timor cabinet meetings during negotiations over the Timor Sea boundary. Paul Oboohov spoke to Timor Sea Justice Forum's Susan Connelly about the case.
Hundreds of people from across Australia connected via Zoom on May 19 to tell Marsh insurance brokers not to help Adani find insurance for its controversial coal mine, reports Coral Wynter.
The scale and scope of government measures to deal with the COVID-19 crisis have shattered long-held neoliberal dogmas, writes Dave Holmes.
The recent destruction of a major cultural heritage site, Juukan Gorge in Western Australia, was undertaken in the name of Rio Tinto shareholders' profit, writes Samuel Knight.
Susan Price argues that after 30 years of deregulation and cuts, the union's best defence is to launch a campaign of industrial action and protests involving students and the wider community.
The JobMaker plan is an attempt to get us to accept a return to the neoliberal regime that made jobs precarious, ran down public services and made housing and education unaffordable, writes Peter Boyle.
A tweet by Victoria’s deputy Chief Health Officer Dr Annaliese van Diemen on the 250th anniversary of Captain Cook’s arrival in Australia, which provoked a furious response from right-wing culture warriors, has led to a greater awareness of the legacy of colonialism, writes Chloe DS.
Given the composition of the National COVID-19 Co-ordinating Commission, it is little wonder its pandemic “recovery” plan is based on public handouts to the corporate gas sector, write Margaret Gleeson and Pip Hinman.
As university staff begin to emerge from the COVID-19 lockdown, many — perhaps most — are perplexed at the perverse behaviour of the National Tertiary Education Union, write two members Tim Battin and Kelvin McQueen.
Women are bearing the brunt of the COVID-19 economic pain, in what some have dubbed the 'pink collar' recession, writes Pip Hinman.
Calls are growing for early childhood education to move away from the for-profit model, writes Jim McIlroy.
Many people around the world have heard of Cuba's inspiring and unmatched international medical solidarity efforts in the COVID-19 pandemic, writes Peter Boyle. But how is Cuba faring in the struggle against the pandemic at home?
The tabling of a bill to criminalise disrespect of the Chinese national anthem and looming national security laws ignited street protests in Hong Kong on May 24.
Scientists have projected that warming climate could cause combined heat and humidity to reach levels rarely, if ever, experienced before by humans. According to a new study, such conditions are already appearing, writes Kevin Krajick.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro persists in his attitude of denial, characterising the coronavirus as a “little flu”: a definition that deserves to be included in the annals, not of medicine, but of political madness, writes Michael Lowy. But this madness has its logic, which is the logic of neofascism.
Rights groups have slammed a last-minute decision by the Indonesian authorities to deny parole to five Papuan activists jailed on charges of treason over a peaceful protest in August last year, writes James Balowski.
Israel and the Gulf states are pushing towards a normalisation of ties, entrenching cooperative measures that go back decades. By solidifying relations with the Gulf monarchies, writes Rupen Savoulian, Tel Aviv aims to isolate the Palestinians, score diplomatic and economic victories, and formalise an anti-Iranian alliance.
Black men and women are murdered by cops and white thugs, and nothing happens. The criminal “justice” system legally backs the crimes of cops and racists as “justifiable”. It happens so often that African Americans initially just shrug and hold back outrage, writes Malik Miah. Then anger explodes when the truth is revealed.
Here's a look back at May's political news and the best new albums that related to it.
You’ve probably heard The Ballad of 1891 about the Queensland shearers’ strike. You can probably sing Kev Carmody’s From Little Things Big Things Grow about the Gurindji Walk Off at Wave Hill in 1961. But do you know the story of the Jobs for Women campaign at the Wollongong steelworks in the 1980s? Check it out at the Sydney Film Festival, writes Karen Fletcher.
Canadian socialist and feminist Suzanne Weiss begins her recent memoir with these words by W B Yeats: “There are no strangers here, only friends you have not yet met.” More than just an epigram, they describe a practice of solidarity that saved Weiss from the Holocaust and later shaped her more than six decades of activity as a life-long socialist, writes James Clark.
