Survival Day events

Survival Day events have been planned around the nation for January 26.   more ...

Royal Commission report – Coward punch on workers’ rights

It was snuck out at the height of the holiday season so it would provoke the least public outrage. The report from the prejudicially named “Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption” capped off an orchestrated witch hunt of the leadership of the organised labour movement launched in 2014 by then Prime Minister Tony Abbott. It lasted 20 months and cost $43 million but that was money well spent in the eyes of the enemies of trade unions and the interests of the working class.  more ...

Editorial – Return of the co-payment

In the dying days of 2015, Health Minister Sussan Ley announced cuts to Medicare rebates paid to bulk billing providers of pathology and diagnostic imaging services. Consistent with other government cuts, the full brunt will be born by women, Indigenous Australians and the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in the community. As far as the Turnbull government is concerned, if a diabetic cannot afford a blood test or a pregnant woman an ultrasound, then he or she can go without. These are just the latest in a series of cuts that are undermining Medicare and the public hospital system.  more ...

Joan Williams an outstanding Communist

Comrade Joan Williams would have turned 100 years of age on Invasion Day. Born in Coolgardie, WA on January 26, 1916, Joan Williams a great poet, revolutionary and a Communist, died on June 21, 2008.  more ...

Gooda blasts card in annual report

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda has taken aim at the federal government’s new “healthy welfare” card and work-for-the-dole scheme in his annual Social Justice and Native Title report.  more ...

Radioactive racism in the wild west

You’d be forgiven for thinking Western Australia was the Wild West. The announcement from the WA government that it planned to close 150 Aboriginal remote communities came hot on the heels of plans to gut the Aboriginal Heritage Act.  more ...

Indigenous Grandmothers organise against unjust removals

An official Australian narrative has developed around the seeming insolubility of the third world statistics of Australia’s First People. This narrative pushed by the mass media and political parties across the spectrum, is being accepted by many Australians. It is past time to challenge this vilification of the world’s oldest living culture and confront the causes of our intransient racism which translates to assimilation by stealth. In capitalist Australia – the only beneficiaries of the official narrative – and present policies attacking Indigenous land rights and culture, are powerful mining and monopoly interests and the governments that support them.  more ...

Culture & Life – The year that was

Well, we survived last year, and now we’re back to see what calamities and catastrophes the capitalist system has in store for those of us who are not super-rich! The last-named are the infamous 1% that owns most of the world’s wealth. They used to be called the ruling class, but “the 1%” at least recognises the fact that, numerically, they’re a lot smaller than the working class. Not a fact I suspect that they want us common folk to dwell on lest we decide to do something about it.  more ...