‘There’s a lot of angry men up there’: wildcat strike hits the Pilbara
Around 200 fly-in fly-out (FIFO) workers at Rio Tinto’s Nammuldi iron ore mine in Western Australia’s Pilbara region walked off the job on 12 November. They were demanding to be paid for the almost two-hour travel time between their remote accommodation camp and the mine site. The casual l...CONTINUE READING
David Broder on Italy’s crisis
Can you give an overview of the current political situation in Italy? Two parties were the rising stars in this election. Firstly, the Five Star Movement, who claim to represent the ordinary citizen, not class interests, and to be neither left nor right. They rose from 25 to 32 percent. Th...CONTINUE READING
Unprecedented: Murdoch University terminates agreement with 3,500 staff
A dramatic Fair Work Commission decision to terminate the Murdoch University enterprise agreement is the latest indicator of a vicious turn in the class war in Australia. The agreement, which sets the pay and conditions for 3,500 university workers, will cease on 26 September. Cancelling t...CONTINUE READING
Government bans reporting of abuse in refugee camps
The Liberal government, with ALP support, in June passed extraordinary legislation that prevents staff from reporting abuse in detention centres. The Border Force Act 2015, in effect from 1 July, imposes a two-year jail term for “entrusted persons” who disclose “protected information”. Thi...CONTINUE READING
Why we should bring back free education
In one of its many position papers advocating fee deregulation, the Group of Eight (Go8) universities inadvertently let out of the bag just how affordable free education is. In “No such thing as a free degree”, it calculated that the total additional funding required to fund free education...CONTINUE READING
WA unionists protest fines threat
Unionists rallied outside the Federal Court in Perth on 7 November, where 76 construction workers faced charges for attending a rally in February 2013. The allegations against them were brought by Fair Work Building and Construction (FWBC). The workers are each threatened with a $10,200 fi...CONTINUE READING
Resistance in Australia’s concentration camps
Women are reportedly giving birth in Darwin detention centres, before being forcibly deported to Manus Island and Christmas Island in the middle of the night. There are no maternal or child health nurses, no maternity clothing and, according to the Darwin Asylum Seeker Support and Advocacy...CONTINUE READING
‘The challenge is to harness opposition’
Antony Loewenstein is a Sydney based journalist, activist and author. He spoke to Red Flag’ s Alexis Vassiley about his latest work, the recently published Profits of doom: how vulture capitalism is swallowing the world. Tell us a bit about the book. Profits of doom looks at the way in whi...CONTINUE READING