Karl Marx, journalist
Perhaps the most surprising thing about these writings is that Marx was published in a US newspaper. How did Marx come into his journalism phase? Marx was a journalist more or less all of his adult life. He started writing for the Rheinische Zeitung (“Rhenish Newspaper”) in 1842, and found...CONTINUE READING
1968, a year of wonders
The scene on which the sun rose in 1968 was one which, in the years since World War Two, had shown a remarkable recovery. Not a return to the 1930s, but a seemingly stable environment of rising living standards, a mixed economy, expanded opportunity, a welfare state and a liberal cultural...CONTINUE READING
Two apartheid states, two massacres
On 21 March 1960, the apartheid state of South Africa carried out one of its most notorious massacres, unleashing murderous fire on 5,000 Blacks gathered outside the police station in Sharpeville. They were protesting against the racist Pass Laws, which severely restricted the movement of...CONTINUE READING
How Marx became a Marxist in five easy steps
On 5 May 1818, Karl Marx was born into a world on the cusp of a great social transformation. As he and his lifelong political partner and friend Frederick Engels wrote in the Communist Manifesto in 1848: “The bourgeoisie, during its rule of scarce one hundred years, has created more massiv...CONTINUE READING
The assassination of Martin Luther King
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King. The murder of one of the great Black leaders of the time by white racists with the complicity of the US government, most likely the FBI, stunned African Americans in the country. Immediately, violent uprisi...CONTINUE READING
Understanding the Palestinian catastrophe
15 May marks 70 years since the beginning of the Nakba (Arabic for catastrophe), when more than 750,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed from their land by Zionist militias clearing the ground for the formation of the Israeli state. Before 1948, Palestine was contested territory. Afte...CONTINUE READING
Lessons from the Your Rights at Work campaign
As unions launch a round of protests under the Change the Rules banner, it’s worth recalling the history of the Your Rights at Work campaign, which concluded in 2007. Directed against the Howard government’s anti-worker WorkChoices legislation, Your Rights at Work protests were the biggest...CONTINUE READING
The fraud of Stalinism
Stalinism is experiencing a small revival. For now, it is greatly exaggerated online, where many of the popular socialist meme pages are as devoted to praising gulags and North Korea’s nuclear missile program as they are to denouncing capitalism. But as the imagery and politics of Stalinis...CONTINUE READING
Vale Val Macarow, a tireless campaigner
Val Macarow, a lifelong activist for many causes, most notably the Movement Against Uranium Mining (MAUM) and the anti-nuclear movement, died on 9 March at the age of 87. Val’s Jewish grandparents had escaped from pogroms in Russia, and she grew up in a working class family in Carlton. “Th...CONTINUE READING