# Red Flag
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## Posts
- [Protest called against October arms fair in Perth](https://redflag.org.au/article/protest-called-against-october-arms-fair-in-perth.md) - The Land Forces Exposition 2026, to be held at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre on 6-8 October, will be a three-day extravaganza of exhibitions, talks and luncheons, where the main topic of conversation is how best to kill people. More than 20,000 weapons company executives, politicians a…
- [Victorian Socialists’ election campaign in full swing](https://redflag.org.au/article/victorian-socialists-election-campaign-in-full-swing.md) - The Victorian state election will take place in just over two months, on Saturday 28 November. The Victorian Socialists’ campaign is now in full swing, with local campaign activity taking place daily across Melbourne and regional Victoria.
- [What’s the deal with productivity?](https://redflag.org.au/article/whats-the-deal-with-productivity.md) - The bosses are trying to convince workers that lower corporate taxes, fewer regulations and workers’ rights, and less union power would be good for real wages. What they really want is more profits.
- [Strangulation: How did attempted murder become normal?](https://redflag.org.au/article/strangulation-how-did-attempted-murder-become-normal.md) - In recent years, sexual strangulation has gone from being a relatively marginal phenomenon to an everyday sexual practice.
- [‘Rig your own stages!’: Melbourne theatre workers strike](https://redflag.org.au/article/rig-your-own-stages-melbourne-theatre-workers-strike.md) - Fans of Macy Gray were met by hundreds of Arts Centre Melbourne staff on strike for the first time in the institution’s history on 11 September. More than 95 percent of union members voted in favour of the 24-hour strike, rejecting management’s 3 percent offer and instead demanding an above-inflati…
- [The problems of AI are the problems of capitalism](https://redflag.org.au/article/the-problems-of-ai-are-the-problems-of-capitalism.md) - The fundamental problem with AI is that capitalists control it and it is subject to the system’s prevailing conditions of profit maximisation, competition, imperial rivalry and more.
- [Labor doubles down on US military alliance](https://redflag.org.au/article/labor-doubles-down-on-us-military-alliance.md) - The US alliance has long been a pillar of Australia’s foreign policy, but the current Labor government seems particularly eager to grovel to America.
- [Why do the Greens always chicken out?](https://redflag.org.au/article/why-do-the-greens-always-chicken-out.md) - When Larissa Waters was elected leader of the Australian Greens, she said she was there to “get shit done”. True to her word, Waters did something last week—and it was, indeed, shit. Greens MPs gave crucial support in the Senate to the roll-out of a carbon emissions offset scheme so bad that the te…
- [Away from the cameras, Trump’s mass deportation campaign grinds on](https://redflag.org.au/article/away-from-the-cameras-trumps-mass-deportation-campaign-grinds-on.md) - US President Trump’s mass deportation campaign has continued behind the scenes, destroying the lives of tens of thousands of people.
- [Ed Sheeran is a spineless twat](https://redflag.org.au/article/ed-sheeran-is-a-spineless-twat.md) - Ed Sheeran has been exposed as having no spine and limited brains.
- [Anti-Hanson students strike again](https://redflag.org.au/article/anti-hanson-students-strike-again.md) - The second high-school student strike against Pauline Hanson in as many months took place on 17 September, with thousands of students across the country downing pens and taking to the streets, defying principals and politicians alike. More than 3,000 marched in Melbourne, while 1,000 took to the st…
- [Labor capitulates to Hanson on migration](https://redflag.org.au/article/labor-capitulates-to-hanson-on-migration.md) - The federal government’s new “migration plan”, announced by Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke on Thursday, is a spineless capitulation to One Nation.
- [Albo is proud to be a houso—will anyone else get the chance?](https://redflag.org.au/article/albo-is-proud-to-be-a-houso-will-anyone-else-get-the-chance.md) - “I’m proud to be a houso, and I’m proud of the community in which I grew up.” These were the words of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, spoken with a quivering top lip, after One Nation leader Pauline Hanson attacked his mother, Maryanne Albanese, for living most of her life in a public housing unit…
- [Largest strike of road transport workers in decades demands better pay and conditions](https://redflag.org.au/article/largest-strike-of-road-transport-workers-in-decades-demands-better-pay-and-conditions.md) - The chants of several hundred striking truck drivers boomed from the steps of Victorian Trades Hall on the morning of 10 September: “When we fight, we win!” The fight involves several workplaces around the country that united for a 24-hour strike. In Victoria, workers at FedEx, Border Express, K&S…
- [Another property developer collapses. We need to abolish them entirely](https://redflag.org.au/article/another-property-developer-collapses-we-need-to-abolish-them-entirely.md) - The collapse of Bathla Group, a multi-billion-dollar property developer, illustrates how broken housing is in Australia. Bathla entered voluntary administration in late August after it could no longer repay almost $3.4 billion in debt. Its collapse has left hundreds of workers unpaid and unemployed…
- [9/11: How the US turned tragedy into barbarity](https://redflag.org.au/article/9-11-how-the-us-turned-tragedy-into-barbarity.md) - Twenty-five years ago, the world changed irrevocably. Not because of the terrorist attacks on the United States, but because of US imperialism’s response.
- [FROM THE ARCHIVE—Tragedy in America: how should the left respond? (12 September 2001)](https://redflag.org.au/article/from-the-archive-tragedy-in-america-how-should-the-left-respond-12-september-2001.md) - Today, there is no shortage of mainstream commentators prepared to speak out strongly against the war policy of the George W. Bush era. Even current US President Donald Trump claims to have been an opponent of the Iraq invasion and of the broader orientation of the Republican administration of 2001…
- [FROM THE ARCHIVE—US imperialism (November 2002)](https://redflag.org.au/article/from-the-archive-us-imperialism-november-2002.md) - Four weeks after the 9/11 attacks, the US invaded Afghanistan. By early 2002, the Bush administration began making the public case for invading Iraq, declaring the country part of an “axis of evil” with Iran and North Korea. Undersecretary of State John Bolton soon expanded the list to include Cuba…
- [FROM THE ARCHIVE—War abroad and repression at home (November 2005)](https://redflag.org.au/article/from-the-archive-war-abroad-and-repression-at-home-november-2005.md) - This is an edited version of an article written in response to the 2005 Anti-Terrorism Bill, which was rammed through parliament by Prime Minister John Howard’s Coalition government with the support of the Labor Party the following month (December 2005). The legislation gave security agencies the p…
- [FROM THE ARCHIVE—‘End this disgusting war’: an interview with Malalai Joya (November 2010)](https://redflag.org.au/article/from-the-archive-end-this-disgusting-war-an-interview-with-malalai-joya-november-2010.md) - Afghanistan was supposed to be “the good war”—the war to catch Osama bin Laden, to liberate the women suffering under the Taliban regime, to bring democracy and rights to the population. It was all lies. The Washington Post reported in October 2001, on the eighth day of the invasion, that the Talib…
- [The gambling epidemic that Labor refuses to tackle](https://redflag.org.au/article/the-gambling-epidemic-that-labor-refuses-to-tackle.md) - Australians lose more money to gambling than any other nation on earth, per capita. That an industry can prey on some of the most vulnerable people in society should be a national scandal.
- [Revisiting a Marxist classic: Hal Draper’s ‘Two Souls of Socialism’](https://redflag.org.au/article/revisiting-a-marxist-classic-hal-drapers-two-souls-of-socialism.md) - US socialist Hal Draper wrote Two Souls of Socialism in 1966 while working as a librarian at the University of California Berkeley. It remains a valuable contribution.
- [The case for socialist organisation](https://redflag.org.au/article/the-case-for-socialist-organisation.md) - To win socialism, we will need to build a force as powerful as the political and ideological institutions of the capitalist class.
- [What we can learn from the Victorian school staff revolt](https://redflag.org.au/article/what-we-can-learn-from-the-victorian-school-staff-revolt.md) - A major revolt, in which socialists have played a crucial role, has shaken one of the biggest union branches in the country. In this year’s campaign for a new Victorian Government Schools Agreement, Victorian school staff rejected, not one, but two, offers from the state Labor government, in defian…
- [Edition #309 | Blame the billionaires, not migrants](https://redflag.org.au/article/edition-309-blame-the-billionaires-not-migrants.md) - The gambling epidemic that Labor refuses to tackle | The case for socialist organisation | What we can learn from the Victorian school staff revolt
- [Fed up with FedEx](https://redflag.org.au/article/fed-up-with-fedex.md) - On any given day, the FedEx facility in the Melbourne suburb of Tullamarine is a hub of activity, as trucks roar in and out of huge warehouses amid clouds of diesel smoke. On 28 August, something new cut through the routine noise. Just after 8am, hundreds of workers walked off the job, along with t…
- [‘Working 9 to 5, should be able to make a living’—Sydney Uni staff shut down campus over pay, conditions](https://redflag.org.au/article/working-9-to-5-should-be-able-to-make-a-living-sydney-uni-staff-shut-down-campus-over-pay-conditions.md) - The first strike of Sydney University staff in our new enterprise agreement campaign was a banger. The campus was a ghost town, with very few people even attempting to enter. Services were disrupted all over because significant numbers of staff were on strike or “absent” in solidarity. All the libr…
- [Victorian Socialists election campaign launches! (with Jasmine Duff)](https://redflag.org.au/podcasts/victorian-socialists-election-campaign-launches-with-jasmine-duff.md) - The Victorian wing of the Australian Socialist Party is running a candidate in every seat in the November state election. Jasmine Duff, the candidate for Footscray, joins RF Radio to talk about the campaign.
- [Labor’s Secret Harbour by-election loss is ominous](https://redflag.org.au/article/labors-secret-harbour-by-election-loss-is-ominous.md) - Less than eighteen months ago, Western Australian Corrective Services Minister Paul Papalia comfortably held the seat of Secret Harbour, in Perth’s southern suburbs, with a two-party preferred vote of 61.5 percent in the state election. The by-election on Saturday wasn’t even close.
- [Vic premier’s attack on independent unions is an attack on decent unionism](https://redflag.org.au/article/vic-premiers-attack-on-independent-unions-is-an-attack-on-decent-unionism.md) - Labor’s attacks on unions that lack a legal monopoly is an attempt to prop up decrepit union machines—including the SDA—but not limited to them. The attacks should be opposed by everyone who supports unions as organisations dedicated to advancing the interests of workers.
- [Victory for rank-and-file ticket in Victorian health union election](https://redflag.org.au/article/victory-for-rank-and-file-ticket-in-victorian-health-union-election.md) - A group of rank-and-file unionists have ousted the leadership of the Victorian Allied Health Professionals Association (VAHPA) in a landslide election. The VAHPA Pulse ticket, made up of rank-and-file union activists, gained almost twice the vote of the incumbents, VAHPA Unity, and won all the posi…
- [How politicians and CEOs got addicted to profit](https://redflag.org.au/article/how-politicians-and-ceos-got-addicted-to-profit.md) - The government won’t act decisively against the gambling industry, because it is addicted to the profits that gambling provides.
- [The University of Queensland is trying to destroy our student union](https://redflag.org.au/article/the-university-of-queensland-is-trying-to-destroy-our-student-union.md) - This morning at the University of Queensland, hundreds of students protested management’s attacks on our student union. A proposed “transition plan” would result in millions of dollars of students’ money (collected through the Student Services and Amenities Fee) being channelled away from democrati…
- [Transportation in Sydney is highway robbery](https://redflag.org.au/article/transportation-in-sydney-is-highway-robbery.md) - Sydneysiders pay, on average, more than 15 percent of their income just getting around the city week-to-week. It’s a scam that hits working-class residents hardest. On one hand, there’s the broken public transport system. According to Deutsche Bank’s Mapping the World’s Prices report, which compare…
- [The Spanish Revolution: drawing lessons from defeat](https://redflag.org.au/article/the-spanish-revolution-drawing-lessons-from-defeat.md) - Although the Spanish Revolution ended in defeat, it nevertheless proves that ordinary people can be inspired to fight for a better world and offers a glimpse of what that world could be. But, above all, it proves that, when a revolutionary opportunity arises, having the right politics matters.
- [‘Mortal danger’: French firefighters battling wildfires and the government](https://redflag.org.au/article/mortal-danger-french-firefighters-battling-wildfires-and-the-government.md) - Successive heatwaves across Western Europe through May, June, July and August have propelled one of the biggest wildfire crises the continent has ever seen. Extreme dryness and drought, combined with the most severe, prolonged heat ever experienced, created the conditions for Australian-style bushf…
- [Why One Nation is attacking women](https://redflag.org.au/article/why-one-nation-is-attacking-women.md) - Pauline Hanson has spat in the faces of the millions of Australian women who have experienced family violence by describing the crime as a “two-way street”. Returning to a tired victim-blaming rhetoric that women just “shouldn’t put up with it”, she’s trying to turn the clock back on attitudes to w…
- [US imperialism and the war in Iran](https://redflag.org.au/article/us-imperialism-and-the-war-in-iran.md) - The US war on Iran was meant to demonstrate US military might. It has revealed US weaknesses instead.
- [The hue and cry about the Democratic Socialists](https://redflag.org.au/article/the-hue-and-cry-about-the-democratic-socialists.md) - The Democratic Party electoral road isn’t leading to “socialism”. It’s leading socialists away from it, argues Lance Selfa.
- [Old traditions of anti-Catholic hate lie beneath UK race riots](https://redflag.org.au/article/old-traditions-of-anti-catholic-hate-lie-beneath-uk-race-riots.md) - For three years in a row, Britain has been seized by summertime racist rioting. Islamophobes and nationalists seem to have laid claim to UK streets for the months of June through September. But this is not without precedent: summer has always been high time for bigots and diehard patriots.
- [Who are the High School Anti-Capitalists?](https://redflag.org.au/article/who-are-the-high-school-anti-capitalists.md) - High School Anti-Capitalists is the radical organisation that called thousands of students out of class and onto the streets to protest Pauline Hanson on 13 August. It was a historic 15,000-strong nationwide walkout against the far right. In Victoria alone, students from more than 120 schools, from…
- [Students teach Hanson a lesson](https://redflag.org.au/article/students-teach-hanson-a-lesson.md) - There’s a power in collective resistance and solidarity that, if only it can be organised, could flush away Hanson and her ilk into history’s septic tank. Yesterday, students pointed the way forward.
- [Rebel teachers taking their campaign against the Labor government all the way to parliament](https://redflag.org.au/article/rebel-teachers-taking-their-campaign-against-the-labor-government-all-the-way-to-parliament.md) - Rebel teachers are taking the energy and inspiration of their industrial struggle against the Victorian government into the state election this November.
- [Introducing the conveners of the Australian Socialist Party: Omar Hassan and Rebecca Barrigos](https://redflag.org.au/article/introducing-the-conveners-of-the-australian-socialist-party-omar-hassan-and-rebecca-barrigos.md) - To help build an active party membership, the Socialist Party founding conference elected two national conveners: Rebecca Barrigos and Omar Hassan.
- [Barnaby Joyce—an establishment bigot now serving One Nation](https://redflag.org.au/article/barnaby-joyce-an-establishment-bigot-now-serving-one-nation.md) - Charles Dickens often created characters whose physical appearance reflected their personal values. Barnaby Joyce, the Akubra-wearing, tomato-red champion of mining and agricultural capital, could have emerged from a Dickens novel set in the VIP section of the horse races. Joyce’s long career in Au…
- [Media hysteria shows high schoolers are right to protest Pauline Hanson](https://redflag.org.au/article/media-hysteria-shows-high-schoolers-are-right-to-protest-pauline-hanson.md) - It’s funny to be lectured about staying in school by some of the dumbest people in Australia.
- [Royal Commission puts pro-Palestine protesters on trial](https://redflag.org.au/article/royal-commission-puts-pro-palestine-protesters-on-trial.md) - The Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion held a one-day hearing block on protests and policing on 4 August. Like the rest of the commission, it was more a prosecution than an inquiry: the Palestine solidarity movement was on trial, and its opponents were invited to act as judge, j…
- [‘Ready to fight for a socialist future’: eight hundred attend Victorian Socialists’ campaign launch](https://redflag.org.au/article/ready-to-fight-for-a-socialist-future-eight-hundred-attend-victorian-socialists-campaign-launch.md) - On 1 August, 800 people turned out to the Aborigines Advancement League in the northern Melbourne suburb of Thornbury to help us launch our campaign for the 2026 state election.
- [Europe boils and burns: capitalism’s climate hellscape](https://redflag.org.au/article/europe-boils-and-burns-capitalisms-climate-hellscape.md) - If you want to know how many lives our rulers are willing to sacrifice to defend the fossil fuel industry, you could start by looking at Europe.
- [Victorian Socialists launch statewide election campaign](https://redflag.org.au/article/victorian-socialists-launch-statewide-election-campaign.md) - The following is the text, edited for clarity, of a speech by Victorian Socialists secretary Corey Oakley at the party’s state election campaign launch on Saturday, 1 August. The launch, held at the Aborigines Advancement League in the Melbourne suburb of Thornbury, was attended by around 800 party…
- [Hanson’s middle-class army assembles for Victorian state election](https://redflag.org.au/article/hansons-middle-class-army-assembles-for-victorian-state-election.md) - Imagine Christmas family lunch, but everyone there is your racist uncle. Or try this: Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 masterpiece Seven Samurai, but instead of skilled swordsmen, it’s people who have spent years honing the art of giving people the creeps—and there are eight of them. Last Monday, Pauline Hans…
- [By ditching Jacinta Allan, Labor has bent the knee to the bosses again](https://redflag.org.au/article/by-ditching-jacinta-allan-labor-has-bent-the-knee-to-the-bosses-again.md) - After over a year of relentless campaigning by the capitalist press, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan is history. Few on the left will mourn her passing. Yet her departure marks a shift to the right.
- [Security treaties advance Australian neocolonialism in the Pacific](https://redflag.org.au/article/security-treaties-advance-australian-neocolonialism-in-the-pacific.md) - Since 2024, Australia has also concluded a string of security agreements of varying form. All are aimed squarely at maintaining Australia’s dominant position as a neo-colonial power in the south-west Pacific.
- [Melbourne tells Hanson where to go](https://redflag.org.au/article/melbourne-tells-hanson-where-to-go.md) - On the evening of 3 August, around 250 protesters gathered outside the Tower Hotel in Melbourne’s inner east. Inside, the far-right One Nation party was announcing its candidates for the Victorian state election to be held in November. A large police presence was sent to protect the event and preve…
- [‘Never again is now’: anti-fascist resistance in Germany](https://redflag.org.au/article/never-again-is-now-anti-fascist-resistance-in-germany.md) - GERMANY—On 4 July, the 100th anniversary of the Nazi Party’s second conference in the German state of Thuringia, the far-right Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland, AfD) held its federal party conference in a neighbouring city in the same state. Putting the anti-fascist slogan “Neve…
- [Indian students shake Modi’s regime](https://redflag.org.au/article/indian-students-shake-modis-regime.md) - Earlier this month, more than 20,000 supporters cheered as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stood triumphantly with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium. Modi, who has ruled India for more than twelve years, was repeatedly described by the press during his vi…
- [Victorian teachers strike again](https://redflag.org.au/article/victorian-teachers-strike-again.md) - At 1.44pm on 21 July, the news broke: Australian Education Union (AEU) members had once again voted to reject a substandard offer put to us by the state Labor government and our union leaders. It was a brilliant moment, even if at the time I was in class and not with my colleagues. Students eating…
- [More strikes on the table after Pilbara drought broken](https://redflag.org.au/article/more-strikes-on-the-table-after-pilbara-drought-broken.md) - An eight-hour strike on 16 July in Port Hedland, Western Australia, has broken a decades-long drought in the Pilbara iron ore industry. About 100 workers at BHP’s port downed tools, including members of the Electrical Trades Union (ETU), Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union, and the Western Mine…
- [Hanson is hardening up a far-right base—we need to organise against her](https://redflag.org.au/article/hanson-is-hardening-up-a-far-right-base-we-need-to-organise-against-her.md) - Hanson is making no attempt to sanitise her politics for the sake of broad appeal. On the contrary, she is hardening her political positions, becoming more unapologetically fascistic, and encouraging her supporters to follow.
- [Victorian Socialists to run biggest campaign yet](https://redflag.org.au/article/victorian-socialists-to-launch-its-biggest-campaign-yet.md) - The Victorian Socialists are running a bigger election campaign than anything attempted by socialists in Australia for generations.
- [‘A crack of light through the door’: founding the Australian Socialist Party](https://redflag.org.au/article/a-crack-of-light-through-the-door-founding-the-australian-socialist-party.md) - Delegates elected from among the more than 5,000 members of the newly formed Australian Socialist Party gathered at venues across Australia (linked via Zoom) for the party’s founding conference over the weekend.
- [Royal commission: Israel supporters rationalise child killings, denounce critics as racist](https://redflag.org.au/article/royal-commission-israel-supporters-rationalise-child-killings-denounce-critics-as-racist.md) - The universities block of the royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion is over. One of the key throughlines in the testimonies of students, lobby groups and vice-chancellors was that criticism of Israel is antisemitic. The first day ended with a witness claiming that the murder of Pal…
- [A Jewish socialist responds to the Murdoch press](https://redflag.org.au/article/a-jewish-socialist-responds-to-murdoch.md) - Jewish socialist and Palestine solidarity campaigner Yasmine Johnson was not only grilled at the royal commission, she was then slandered in the press. Here, she responds to the critics.
- [Melbourne vice-chancellor undermines his own attempt to slander the Palestine movement](https://redflag.org.au/article/melbourne-vice-chancellor-undermines-his-own-attempt-to-slander-the-palestine-movement.md) - Sometimes a little bit of the truth slips out amid the lies at the royal commission. So it was in this week’s testimony from the acting University of Melbourne vice-chancellor Glyn Davis.
- [FROM THE VAULT: Zionist group admits making false accusation of antisemitism against student activists](https://redflag.org.au/article/from-the-vault-zionist-group-admits-making-false-accusation-of-antisemitism-against-student-activists.md) - The following article was first published on 4 April 2016. The author, D. Taylor, is a Jewish socialist and at the time was leading Palestine solidarity activism at Monash University in Melbourne. We republish it today not only to show that there has always been a campaign of lies and slander, on t…
- [Brisbane protest stands against One Nation](https://redflag.org.au/article/brisbane-protest-stands-against-one-nation.md) - Loud cries of “Racist, sexist, anti-queer, Hanson is not welcome here!” resounded through the streets as more than 1,000 people marched against One Nation in Brisbane last weekend. It was the first protest in Brisbane against Pauline Hanson since her recent rise in the polls. It was called in respo…
- [Fighting One Nation’s far-right insurgency](https://redflag.org.au/podcasts/fighting-one-nations-far-right-insurgency.md) - The latest episode of Red Flag Radio is all about the breakthrough of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party.
- [Pilbara workers prepare to shut down BHP ports in historic strike](https://redflag.org.au/article/pilbara-workers-prepare-to-shut-down-bhp-ports-in-historic-strike.md) - Workers at BHP’s ports in Port Hedland, in Western Australia’s Pilbara, will down tools for eight hours tomorrow. Around 200 electricians, boilermakers, fitters and shiploaders will strike from 2pm to 10pm. Iron ore will not be loaded. The ports will grind to a halt. They will reportedly cost the l…
- [The socialist who schooled the royal commission](https://redflag.org.au/the-socialist-who-schooled-the-royal-commission.md) - The university block of Australia’s Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion is designed to provide a platform for pro-Israel students to denounce the Palestine solidarity movement on Australian university campuses. So lawyers at the commission thought they were going to “gotcha” Yasm…
- [The day the royal commission got schooled by a Palestine solidarity activist](https://redflag.org.au/article/the-day-the-royal-commission-got-schooled-by-a-palestine-activist.md) - Lawyers thought they were going to “gotcha” student activist Yasmine Johnson. But by remaining steadfast, she made them look foolish.
- [The fight over Palestine in a Canadian museum](https://redflag.org.au/article/the-fight-over-palestine-in-a-canadian-museum.md) - The Canadian Museum for Human Rights is the most striking piece of architecture in Winnipeg. Traversing the seven floors with irregular spaces and varied lighting, the visitor is meant to “progress upwards from darkness to light—reflecting our hopes for human rights education”, according to the mus…
- [The first half day of the royal commission in Melbourne was risible](https://redflag.org.au/article/the-first-half-day-of-the-royal-commission-in-melbourne-was-risible.md) - The royal commission’s witnesses are unreliable and prejudiced, and the commissioner seems to accept that supporting a religious/ethno-supremacist apartheid state is essential to Jewish identity.
- [A Jewish socialist defends the Palestine movement at the royal commission](https://redflag.org.au/article/a-jewish-socialist-defends-the-palestine-movement-at-the-royal-commission.md) - This article by Yasmine Johnson, a Jewish student, socialist and one of the national coordinators of Students for Palestine, is based on her testimony at the royal commission.
- [Responding to the lies against the student Palestine solidarity movement](https://redflag.org.au/article/responding-to-the-lies-against-the-student-palestine-solidarity-movement.md) - Two central lies have been leveled against the pro-Palestine student movement. Jasmine Duff refutes them.
- [Albanese’s favourite fascist](https://redflag.org.au/article/albaneses-favourite-fascist.md) - The Prime Ministers of India and Australia embraced in front of 20,000 people at Melbourne’s Docklands Stadium on 9 July. Some might interpret this as a moving statement of inclusivity in a time of rising anti-immigrant hate. Except Narendra Modi is a fascist and the crowd greeting him were Hindu n…
- [Israel’s long war on Gaza: from 1948 until today](https://redflag.org.au/article/israels-long-war-on-gaza-from-1948-until-today.md) - While Israel has greatly accelerated its efforts to ethnically cleanse Gaza since 7 October 2023, the settler-colonial state has long desired the expulsion of all Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
- [We won’t stop Hanson by rallying around Labor](https://redflag.org.au/article/we-wont-stop-hanson-by-rallying-around-labor.md) - Labor politicians and the trade union leaders allied to them have undermined working-class cohesion and consciousness. In doing so, they have severely weakened the very forces that could have blunted Hanson’s impact.
- [The world is changed through struggle, not civility](https://redflag.org.au/article/the-world-is-changed-through-struggle-not-civility.md) - Once the tear gas had lifted from, and targeted students were punished for participating in, Palestine solidarity encampments across the United States, universities returned to the pretence that they welcome “dialogue” between political opponents. College administrators across the country are now f…
- [Far-right warriors for the capitalist class](https://redflag.org.au/article/far-right-warriors-for-the-capitalist-class.md) - Behind all the culture war bluster and appeals to rural reaction, Pauline Hanson’s key function in Australian politics is to popularise policies and measures that guarantee the further enrichment of the capitalist class and its authoritarian power. Her main enemy, then, as much as migrants and Musl…
- [Myths of the US constitution](https://redflag.org.au/article/myths-of-the-us-constitution.md) - If there is one part of what might be called the US’s “civic religion” on which liberals and conservatives agree, it’s the fundamental importance of the US constitution, passed in 1787. Perhaps that’s understandable, given that the constitution lays out the blueprint of the government that has rema…
- [Wollongong Uni corruption the product of a corporate sector](https://redflag.org.au/article/wollongong-uni-corruption-the-product-of-a-corporate-sector.md) - Our universities are run by corrupt, entitled grifters. While the key reports from the Independent Commission Against Corruption’s (ICAC) investigation into the University of Wollongong (UOW) are yet to be released, the hearings have made this abundantly clear. The probe into UOW was sparked by que…
- [What to do about One Nation](https://redflag.org.au/what-to-do-about-one-nation.md) - Australian politics is at a turning point. One Nation is in a position to form coalition governments in several states and, possibly, even at the federal level. But it’s not just the polling: the party is establishing branches, recruiting wealthy backers and attracting support from every corner of…
- [The four biggest lies they tell about US history](https://redflag.org.au/article/the-four-biggest-lies-they-tell-about-us-history.md) - On the 250th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence, two US socialists dispel the myths about American history and outline the truth that President Trump and his enablers would like to bury.
- [German students continue to mobilise against militarism](https://redflag.org.au/article/german-students-continue-to-mobilise-against-militarism.md) - Germany’s students are mobilising in their tens of thousands against the government’s war drive and the looming threat of conscription.
- [Hanson’s shadow looms over Victoria: a serious socialist campaign can galvanise a fightback](https://redflag.org.au/article/hansons-shadow-looms-over-victoria-a-serious-socialist-campaign-can-galvanise-a-fightback.md) - A key question in the November election will not be who wins, but how many people the socialist movement can organise.
- [Why are Australia’s union leaders the most enthusiastic defenders of the status quo?](https://redflag.org.au/article/why-are-australias-union-leaders-the-most-enthusiastic-defenders-of-the-status-quo.md) - The ACTU acts as a lobby in reverse: rather than lobbying the government on behalf of its members, it lobbies its members on behalf of the government.
- [The US’s strategic defeat in the Gulf](https://redflag.org.au/article/the-uss-strategic-defeat-in-the-gulf.md) - Donald Trump’s memorandum of understanding with Tehran marked a defeat for Washington. For all the death and destruction it rained down on Iran, the US was surrendering and suing for “peace”.
- [What happened to ‘social cohesion’?](https://redflag.org.au/article/what-happened-to-social-cohesion.md) - The phrases “social cohesion” and “psycho-social safety” seem to have magically disappeared as Hanson goes mainstream.
- [Keir Starmer and the banality of evil](https://redflag.org.au/article/keir-starmer-and-the-banality-of-evil.md) - Starmer’s assignment as leader was to sanitise the Labour Party and present it as a viable option for the ruling class.
- [The economics of US imperialism, part one: from boom to AI bubble?](https://redflag.org.au/the-economics-of-us-imperialism-part-one-from-boom-to-ai-bubble.md) - American economic resilience, imperialist aggression and class polarisation have far-reaching implications for socialist perspectives in the US and elsewhere. In this guest piece for the anti-empire notes newsletter, G. Stewart, a New York-based socialist journalist and activist, examines the dynam…
- [Students and the Soweto uprising](https://redflag.org.au/article/students-and-the-soweto-uprising.md) - One of the great uprisings of the twentieth century occurred 50 years ago this month. In this piece, Sandra Bloodworth reflects on some lessons from the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa.
- [The British state’s plot against Palestine Action](https://redflag.org.au/article/the-british-states-plot-against-palestine-action.md) - British courts have upheld the proscription of Palestine Action and sentenced four of its activists as terrorists. A series of abuses of legal process ensured these outcomes were all but predetermined, writes Jonathan Cook.
- [Why Victorian teachers rejected the union-government contract](https://redflag.org.au/article/why-victorian-teachers-rejected-the-union-government-contract.md) - Last week, 58 percent of Australian Education Union (AEU) members in Victoria made history. Going against our union leaders’ advice, tens of thousands of school staff voted down an in-principle agreement the union had reached with the state Labor government.
- [Protesting Pauline Hanson then and now: what we can learn from the 1990s movement](https://redflag.org.au/article/protesting-pauline-hanson-then-and-now-what-we-can-learn-from-the-1990s-movement.md) - But how should the socialist movement organise against the new far-right menace?
- [Speaking out for Palestine is still illegal in Queensland](https://redflag.org.au/article/speaking-out-for-palestine-is-still-illegal-in-queensland.md) - The banning of pro-Palestine speech in Queensland has resulted in the arrest of another seven activists at a “Six Words for a Free Palestine” rally on 14 June. They join around 30 people in Queensland now facing up to two years in prison for reciting or displaying “prohibited phrases”. Sam Woripa W…
- [Hundreds shut down Wollongong factory for Palestine](https://redflag.org.au/article/hundreds-shut-down-wollongong-factory-for-palestine.md) - Hundreds of Palestine activists in Wollongong held a 72-hour blockade of the Bisalloy Steel factory in Unanderra on 14-17 June. Bisalloy has been a target for the Palestine campaign in Wollongong since 2017. It is the only Australian manufacturer of high-strength quenched and tempered steel suitabl…
- [Canberra teachers strike](https://redflag.org.au/article/canberra-teachers-strike.md) - On 11 June, every public primary school, high school, college and specialist school was shut down across the ACT by a full-day strike of the teachers’ union. Coming after an initial two-hour work stoppage in May, these were the first industrial actions of the Canberra Australian Education Union in…
- [Cannibal capitalism eats the World Cup](https://redflag.org.au/article/cannibal-capitalism-eats-the-world-cup.md) - FIFA has managed to turn the beautiful game into an ugly spectacle. With the US playing host to the World Cup alongside Mexico and Canada, Trump has discovered the power of sports to wash away the blood and dirt of empire. This month, billions of people will watch men kick a ball around a field as…
- [Data centres: enriching tech giants at our expense](https://redflag.org.au/article/data-centres-enriching-tech-giants-at-our-expense.md) - Instead of building much needed public infrastructure, developing green spaces in working-class areas and rapidly transitioning to renewables, politicians are handing over precious water resources and continue burning fossil fuels to enable the profits of giant tech corporations.
- [‘When Palestinians get killed, the world doesn’t even blink’: Interview with Stephen Heydt](https://redflag.org.au/article/when-palestinians-get-killed-the-world-doesnt-even-blink-interview-with-stephen-heydt.md) - Stephen Heydt, a 73-year-old retired psychologist, is an anti-Zionist Jewish activist who has been fighting for a free Palestine for more than five decades. He spoke to Red Flag about the genocide in Gaza and the crackdown on free speech in Australia.
- [A tale of two Banyules](https://redflag.org.au/article/a-tale-of-two-banyules.md) - There is a corner of Melbourne’s Banyule City Council that is sliced in two, the major arterial of Bell Street marking its middle. North of that divide is West Heidelberg, home to a diverse working-class community. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, West Heidelberg has a median weekl…
- [Mater privatisation proves deadly](https://redflag.org.au/article/mater-privatisation-proves-deadly.md) - In a private room at the Mater Hospital in Newcastle, a mother listened to her daughter’s anguished cries: “I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe!” The daughter later died. “Her room had towels over the windows. I asked the nurse why, and she said, ‘It’s because of the mould’”, the mother related. This…
- [Victorian Socialists gain ground in Thomastown](https://redflag.org.au/article/victorian-socialists-gain-ground-in-thomastown.md) - While One Nation climbed the polls to be the most popular party in the country, something else was stirring in the Melbourne suburb of Thomastown: a grassroots campaign to elect socialist activist Sarah Garnham to the Whittlesea City Council. In a nine-horse race, Sarah won 18.4 percent of the vote…
- [The socialist movement needs money](https://redflag.org.au/article/2026-socialist-alternative-fund-drive.md) - From the genocide in Gaza to the relentless, profit-driven climate crisis and the rise of the far right, world capitalism is truly horrifying. But there is hope amidst the horror. A new generation is responding with anger and looking for an alternative. And for many, that alternative is socialism.…
- [One Nation needs to be fought, not just analysed](https://redflag.org.au/article/one-nation-needs-to-be-fought-not-just-analysed.md) - It’s one thing to talk about resisting the far right. But what does it mean in practice?
- [Rebellion in Bolivia against austerity](https://redflag.org.au/article/rebellion-in-bolivia-against-austerity.md) - Since early May, the Bolivian government has been on the ropes. Workers and peasants have blockaded roads, protested and struck against a series of austerity programs pushed by the newly elected government of Rodrigo Paz. On 8 June, Paz prepared to escalate state repression by passing a law that wo…
- [No good news: an interview with Martin Hirst](https://redflag.org.au/article/no-good-news-an-interview-with-martin-hirst.md) - Martin Hirst started his career in journalism at the University of Sydney student newspaper Honi Soit during the heady years of student radicalism in the mid-1970s. From 1984 to 1990 he worked at the ABC, before joining the SBS press gallery team. One of the most impressive achievements of his care…
- [Why Stalinism should stay dead](https://redflag.org.au/podcasts/why-stalinism-should-stay-dead.md) - Stalinism equates socialism/communism with state-controlled industry and a one-party dictatorship. Nothing could be further from genuine socialism and Marxism.
- [Protesters stand against Hanson in Melbourne](https://redflag.org.au/article/protesters-stand-against-hanson-in-melbourne.md) - Up to 1,000 people joined an anti-fascist rally in Melbourne’s Moonee Ponds on 12 June.
- [Perth takes the fight to One Nation](https://redflag.org.au/article/perth-takes-the-fight-to-one-nation.md) - Hundreds of people turned out to protest against a far-right fundraising event for Pauline Hanson in Perth on Wednesday night.
- [Public housing demolitions in NSW a disgrace](https://redflag.org.au/article/public-housing-demolitions-in-nsw-a-disgrace.md) - Late last month, the NSW Labor government began fencing off the first block of 150 homes at the Waterloo South public housing estate as part of the first stage of its redevelopment plan. At least three tenants were still living on site, and none of them knew the fences were going up until they woke…
- [Rebellion in the AEU: officials prevent debate as vote approaches on terrible deal](https://redflag.org.au/article/rebellion-in-the-aeu-officials-prevent-debate-as-vote-approaches-on-terrible-deal.md) - Australian Education Union members across Victoria will meet on 15-18 June to make a crucial decision: to accept or reject an in-principle agreement our union leaders have reached with the state government. They claim it is the best we can get, but it is far from it. Socialists in Schools, a campai…
- [People’s Inquiry details widespread crackdown on campus free speech](https://redflag.org.au/article/peoples-inquiry-details-widespread-crackdown-on-campus-free-speech.md) - A new report finds that Australian universities have systematically suppressed criticism of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
- [Why the US government is destroying Cuba](https://redflag.org.au/article/why-the-us-government-is-destroying-cuba.md) - The indictment of 94-year-old Raúl Castro by the US Justice Department last month is a prelude to “regime change” in Cuba. The US is positioning military assets for a possible attack on the island, following its blockade of oil shipments to the country (itself an act of war)—a move that has led to…
- [Greens vs Socialists: a response to Jonathan Sriranganathan](https://redflag.org.au/article/greens-vs-socialists-a-response-to-jonathan-sriranganathan.md) - What’s the difference between the Greens and the Socialists? It’s a common question, one that was the subject of a recent lengthy blog post by Queensland Greens member and former Brisbane City councillor Jonathan Sriranganathan, “Queensland Greens vs the new Queensland Socialists: How different are…
- [The concerns of Gen Z women are legitimate—sexism means no-one cares](https://redflag.org.au/article/the-concerns-of-gen-z-women-are-legitimate-sexism-means-no-one-cares.md) - Conservative UK rag the Telegraph is worried about young women. In her article “Forget the manosphere. It’s angry Leftie women we need to worry about”, Rowan Pelling speaks of the concern she feels as a mother of boys and auntie to nieces: “On both sides of the Atlantic, polling shows young women a…
- [One Nation breaks ground in Fremantle, but not without opposition](https://redflag.org.au/article/one-nation-breaks-ground-in-fremantle-but-not-without-opposition.md) - One Nation has established a new branch in Fremantle, its first in Western Australia outside a primarily rural area. The first branch meeting was held on Saturday 30 May and was protested by the WA Socialists, who wanted to send a message that migrants are welcome in Freo, racists are not. The laun…
- [Australian activist speaks about flotilla experience](https://redflag.org.au/article/australian-activist-speaks-about-flotilla-experience.md) - Neve O’Connor, a Melbourne student and support worker, was one of eleven Australian activists imprisoned by Israel after trying to sai to Gaza as part of the Global Sumud Flotilla. She spoke to Red Flag about the experience.
- [Whingeing slobs run the country](https://redflag.org.au/article/whingeing-slobs-run-the-country.md) - In Australian capitalism, those who work the most end up with the least. The slobs who work the least end up with the most—but never tire of sooking.
- [Reform UK is the new normal](https://redflag.org.au/article/reform-uk-is-the-new-normal.md) - The recent electoral deluge that resulted in Reform gaining more than 1,450 seats across Britain’s local councils was a devastating advance for the party’s momentum. But it was not unexpected.
- [Two years on from the Gaza solidarity encampments](https://redflag.org.au/article/two-years-on-from-the-gaza-solidarity-encampments.md) - It has been two years since university students across Australia set up Gaza solidarity encampments as part of a global student movement for Palestine. Sleeping in tents to draw attention to Australian universities’ ties to Israel’s genocidal campaign, we confronted university administrations, the…
- [The rich chuck a sook about CGT (+ understanding the middle classes)](https://redflag.org.au/podcasts/the-rich-chuck-a-sook-about-cgt-understanding-the-middle-classes.md) - Our latest episode is a fun one, responding to the chorus of whingers and sooks from the business class (though they call themselves ‘founders’ and ‘entrepreneurs’), crying about having a few of their tax dodges taken away. We explain why they’re full of shit, why Labor can barely defend their own…
- [The Left Front in Argentina grows in popularity](https://redflag.org.au/article/the-left-front-in-argentina-grows-in-popularity.md) - Argentinian Trotskyists are showing that socialism can become a popular force without abandoning or watering down its revolutionary principles.

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