Remembering Adrian Mitchell, the socialist poet laureate
Ten years have gone by since the death of Adrian Mitchell (1932-2008), for much of his life a sort of unofficial socialist poet laureate, today most widely known as the lyricist of the song “Victor Jara” recorded by Arlo Guthrie – a homage to the martyred Chilean left wing writer and music...CONTINUE READING
The Liberal Party is a cabal of bullies
The Liberal Party is a cabal of bullies. They subject a long list of victims to continual harassment and abuse, and escalate their attacks at every opportunity. One frequent target is the trade union movement. Last year, then employment minister Michaelia Cash ordered the federal police to...CONTINUE READING
Rioting refugees should be defended
A riot in Yongah Hill in Western Australia has again highlighted the appalling conditions in asylum seeker detention centres. A suicide attempt by a 22-year-old Iraqi refugee, Saruuan Aljhelie, on 2 September resulted in protests and the burning of mattresses. Several days later, Saruuan d...CONTINUE READING
Bannon gets kid glove treatment on the ABC
The ABC’s Sarah Ferguson delivered one of the most pathetic interviews of the year on Monday night. The Four Corners presenter gave US far right figure Steve Bannon free rein to outline his reactionary ideology, and failed to challenge almost any of his lies. The first of these was Bannon’...CONTINUE READING
What’s behind the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation?
University of Sydney vice-chancellor Michael Spence has spent many months in negotiations with the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation, causing a great stir on campus and in the national media. The $3 billion centre – established with a bequest from private healthcare tycoon and greates...CONTINUE READING
Kids getting together to watch a fight is an Australian tradition
The media are absolutely relentless when it comes to demonising the “un-Australian” behaviour of Sudanese youth. The latest threat to the very fabric of white Western civilisation occurred in the outer Melbourne suburb of Taylors Hill, when a crowd of 50 or so South Sudanese teenagers gath...CONTINUE READING
The ‘March for Men’ is nothing but misogyny
“I’m not going to apologise for supporting men … I won’t be shamed into backing down.” With these brave words, Melbourne University journalism graduate Sydney Watson is rallying all the bleeding hearts who cry at night over the plight of that oppressed and abandoned social group – men. At...CONTINUE READING
Cottrell outcry shows it is right to counter the fascists
At last. The mainstream media are finally printing what Melbourne’s anti-fascist campaign has been saying for years. Blair Cottrell is a Nazi. It doesn’t take a genius, and it shouldn’t have taken this long. After all, the guy called for a picture of Hitler to be hung in every school more...CONTINUE READING
The real criminals are in parliament and the media
Melbourne Aboriginal activist Robbie Thorpe has a saying: “Australia is a crime scene”. He uses the phrase at almost every rally. In his speeches, Robbie flips the idea of crime. The criminals, the murderers and thieves, are not in Australia’s prisons; they are in the establishment, overse...CONTINUE READING