Abbott and Dutton: Stop waging war and handpicking refugees

The announcement on September 9 that Australia will accept only 12,000 refugees from Syria and that the government will seek to discriminate on the basis of ethnicity and religion is further proof that the government is lying about leading the world in welcoming refugees.

Immigration minister Peter Dutton announced on ABC radio that Australians would be “impressed by the generosity” of the government in response to the crisis. This is an insult to the tens of thousands of people who demonstrated their humanity and compassion towards the plight of Syrian and Kurdish refugees in vigils around the country on September 7.

In violation of international law, Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced on September 10 that Australia will join the US in aerial bombings of Syrian territory. The government, like the US, is defending this aggression as a “collective act of self defence”

Socialist Councillor: "Reject Abbott's lies: Australia can do more to respond to the refugee crisis"

"Rather than wasting billions locking up defenceless, innocent people in offshore prisons, we should close the camps on Nauru, Manus and all other refugee detention centres, lift the cap on our refugee intake immediately and organise mass airlifts of Syrian, Kurdish and other refugees to bring them to safety in Australia. These refugees can be housed in the community, and provided with the protection and support they need."

Behind ‘Border Farce’ are serious human rights abuses

Within hours of the Australian Border Force — Prime Minister Tony Abbott's paramilitary amalgamation of the Customs Service and immigration department — announcing on August 28 that they would be joining the Victorian police and privatised public transport operators in Operation Fortitude.

Trade union witch-hunt must be shut down

When the Cole Royal Commission was first announced in 2001, Victorian unions resolved to not cooperate with it. In the light of these revelations, and the ACTU's call for it to be shut down, unions should consider motions of non-cooperation again.

Real solutions needed for rising unemployment

The official unemployment rate in Broadmeadows is 23.5% but the real unemployment and underemployment rates are far higher. Youth unemployment is higher than the overall rate. We are very close to the 30% unemployment rate of the Great Depression.

Stop the rorts: Put politicians on an average worker's wage

Public disgust at Bronwyn Bishop's $5000 helicopter ride from Melbourne to Geelong is entirely justified. However, Tony Abbott's “root and branch” review of politicians' “entitlements” is designed to whitewash, not solve, the problem.

Labor turns its back on asylum seekers

The results of the recent Australian Labor Party (ALP) conference vote on boat turnbacks shows why building a progressive alternative to the left of the ALP in Australia today is urgently needed.

Where does the racist threat come from?

On the weekend of July 18 and 19 there was another round of right-wing Reclaim Australia (RA) protests. The stated aim of RA and its offshoot, the United Patriots Front (UPF), was to defend what they call “Australian values” from the threat of “Islamicisation”.

Greece: This is a coup, cancel the debt!

The Socialist Alliance condemns the effective imposition of colonial status on Greece by the ruling institutions of the European Union (EU), which represent the interests of the big banks whose speculative excesses contributed in great part to the accumulation of the “Greek debt” they are now seeking to recover.

Greece's debt is immoral and should be wiped

When the Greek people voted “no” to creditor demands by 61.5%, the ECB tightened the screws even more. It is clear the Troika wants total surrender — to hammer home the message that “there is no alternative”. In reality, the only fair way out of the crisis is to write off the debt that is not just unpayable — as even the IMF admits behind closed doors — but illegitimate.

Asia-Pacific left statement of solidarity with the people and government of Greece

We, the undersigned, stand in solidarity with the people of Greece and the Syriza-led government as they prepare for a referendum on July 5, 2015 on whether to accept the continuation of the program of neoliberal austerity or chart a new course free from the debilitating stranglehold of the “troika” - the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank, and the European Commission.  

by Dr. Radut