A system that let working class people burn
The horrific fire that destroyed Grenfell Tower in London, killing at least 58 people and possibly many more, was not simply a tragedy. The disaster has exposed in the starkest possible terms the true horror of an austerity-racked, class-divided society, and the inhuman, brutish nature of...CONTINUE READING
Corbyn election campaign shows a left wing alternative is possible
It wasn’t supposed to go like this. When UK prime minister Theresa May called a snap election five weeks ago, the decision was widely portrayed as a masterstroke. The Tories, it was almost universally agreed, would romp home with a huge majority and a sweeping mandate for more savage auste...CONTINUE READING
Marine Le Pen and the global far right threat
Much as the defenders of the centre may wish and proclaim it, defeat for Marine Le Pen in the second round of the French presidential election will not put an end to the crisis of legitimacy of the neoliberal order. Nor will it signal an end to the frightening rise of the far right across...CONTINUE READING
Trump’s march through the institutions
When I spoke with Joel Geier a week or so after Donald Trump’s inauguration, he told me, “It’s a 1950s McCarthyite administration meeting a 1960s protest movement in open combat. Every day is extraordinary, totally unexpected chaos – politics exploding in unimaginable ways”. This was the t...CONTINUE READING
When even Keating is getting off the neoliberal train
Neoliberalism is having a bad time of it lately. ACTU secretary Sally McManus, speaking at the Press Club in March, was the latest to go on the attack. “Neoliberalism, trickle-down economics. These tired ideas have delivered inequality for working people, and ordinary Australians have been...CONTINUE READING
Robbing the poor to give to the rich
In the wake of the Trump and Brexit earthquakes, members of the political and media establishment in Australia have spent much of their time on the psychiatrist’s couch, composing agonising tweets asking why everybody hates them. A brief survey of the last two weeks should provide all the...CONTINUE READING
There’s nothing better about a ‘presidential’ Trump
In the weeks after Trump’s inauguration, the US liberal establishment had its fighting face on. Media outlets were speaking truth to power. Democratic politicians linked arms with protesters in the streets and ended all their tweets with #resistance. Then it happened. It didn’t last long,...CONTINUE READING
The urgency of resistance
There are moments in history where standing on the sidelines of the political struggle is not an option. This is one of them. The Trump presidency is transforming politics in the US and around the world. The first weeks of his rule have made it clear that this will be an administration wit...CONTINUE READING
The world needs a new radical left, and now
It is as bad as anyone imagined. In the days after Trump’s shock win, the anxious and despairing comforted themselves with the hope that his vile far right rhetoric was just campaign trail bluster. Surely once in office, a more moderate Trump would emerge. It was a fairy tale. Less than tw...CONTINUE READING