Christchurch
Fifty people are confirmed dead in Christchurch, New Zealand. They were gunned down by a white supremacist who believes that their existence is an “invasion”. This descriptor – “invasion” – is also used by the president of the United States, several Murdoch press columnists and sitting mem...CONTINUE READING
What’s so special about the working class?
Marxists are for the working class. Socialists and communists calling for a radical transformation of society were around before Karl Marx entered the scene in the mid-1800s. But Marx, in the Communist Manifesto, provided the slogan used by the left all over the world to this day: “Workers...CONTINUE READING
Australia Day parade in Melbourne is best in galaxy
Nothing says “Australia Day parade” like people dressed as Storm Troopers milling about on Swanston Street in Melbourne. Not the old German ones. The Star Wars ones. One of them holds an official placard that reads: “Rebel Legion”. That’s what they call themselves and they have a spot in t...CONTINUE READING
Results and prospects from the US midterm elections: a discussion with Lance Selfa
The most striking immediate takeaways from the congressional midterms, held on 6 November, were, first, the entrenched, though uneven, partisan and geographical polarisation of US politics and, second, the far right radicalisation reflected in and encouraged by president Trump and the Repu...CONTINUE READING
‘An extraordinary week even in the age of Trump’. US government escalates war on refugees
The US government has dramatically escalated its war against refugees and undocumented migrants. In the week before the congressional midterm elections, president Trump deployed more than 5,000 military personnel to the country’s southern border as part of “Operation Faithful Patriot”. The...CONTINUE READING
Are the Democrats becoming the #1 party of the US establishment?
Of the many happenings in the 2016 US presidential elections, one has often been overlooked: Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s extraordinary gains among upper middle and ruling class white voters. Party strategists wagered that positioning Clinton as the prime defender of the establis...CONTINUE READING
Losing Santhia, part three: exodus from Jaffna, war in the Vanni
The early monsoon came heavy, leaving parts of Jaffna peninsula waterlogged. The place is a sultry, taxing fog. West of the Point Pedro-Maruthankerny Road, an inland sea overwhelms the flatlands and paddies from which islands of palmyra reach for the clouds. To the east it’s sand dunes and...CONTINUE READING
Why is parliamentary politics so volatile?
Australia is one of the most successful capitalist societies in history. An economy with 27 years of uninterrupted growth and relatively high levels of social mobility. A stable bourgeois democracy in which the military is rarely deployed to the streets and where states of emergency are ca...CONTINUE READING
Fairfax, corporate media and a question of independence
Channel Nine’s imminent takeover of Fairfax media – publisher of the Australian Financial Review, Melbourne’s Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, among others – is the biggest development in Australian media in more than three decades. Under the newly announced merger, Nine will acquire Fai...CONTINUE READING