Foucault’s History of Sexuality
Why should socialists care about Foucault’s History of Sexuality? He is, after all, widely promoted as the bald-headed and turtle-necked prophet of postmodernism, long the pseudo-radical arch rival to Marxism in the halls of academia. In his writings, many a smug first year social theory s...CONTINUE READING
Why North Korea has every right to hate the US
North Korea, for the first time, has successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), a long-range rocket with nuclear capabilities. This is a major development in the country’s weapons program, which includes short-range missiles capable of hitting South Korea and Japan....CONTINUE READING
The nasty business of cricket
The struggle between administrators and players is a re-emerging theme in Australian cricket. Cricket boards typically seek to monopolise power, unilaterally issue directives and manage the game singlehandedly. Players have responded by demanding greater opportunity to participate in crick...CONTINUE READING
The problem with identity politics
The label “identity politics” is applied to a range of positions and practices, the key unifying features of which are sectional approaches to challenging oppression and the prioritisation of subjective experience. These can be highly theorised or simply reflect a common sense based on wha...CONTINUE READING
Bubble trouble: Australia’s free market housing failure
To understand the scale of the current property boom, consider that the number of fixed cranes atop dedicated residential projects in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane is greater than the combined total of New York, Boston, Washington (DC), Chicago, Toronto, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco,...CONTINUE READING
The ALP, pioneer of neoliberalism
Former treasurer Wayne Swan denies that the Hawke and Keating governments of 1983-96 and the Rudd and Gillard governments of 2007-13 were responsible for the introduction and maintenance of neoliberal policies in Australia. While accepting, indeed boasting of, Hawke and Keating’s “economic...CONTINUE READING
How to get mental toughness like the filthy rich
Steve Siebold talks to rich people. A lot. A founder of the US-based Siebold Success Network and publisher of the Mental Toughness blog, Steve teaches people about “the secret they call Tiger Mentality”. His 2010 book, How Rich People Think , based on hundreds of interviews with millionair...CONTINUE READING
Women, class and the Bolsheviks
Most accounts of the Russian Revolution of 1917 rightly emphasise the role of women workers in Petrograd on International Women’s Day (IWD), when their strikes sparked the mass movement that overthrew the tsar. But then they disappear regarding the rest of the year – except for the women’s...CONTINUE READING
A new world disorder
Things used to be different. For more than 70 years, the generally accepted position within the United States ruling class was that the country would stand at the apex of a Western order governed by treaties and institutions that advance the general interest of all states involved, the US...CONTINUE READING