Communists gear up for federal election

It’s been a few years since Communists stood as candidates at a federal election. Running in an election is a big commitment of time and money but those aren’t the only obstacles to be overcome. The bureaucratic requirements of the electoral authorities have made the task that much harder. The major parties of capital – the Liberals, Nationals and Labor – have combined in federal and state jurisdictions to make it harder for smaller parties to take their place on the ballot paper.  more ...

Dump this anti-people govt

Last week former Defence Minister Kevin Andrews publicly advocated the dispatch of Australian ground troops to support the US in the Middle East, just like former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who once offered the US President Australian troops before even being asked for them.  more ...

Editorial – The damage done

It ran for 21 months, feeding the media almost daily with sensational headlines on alleged trade union corruption and criminal activity. When some of the wildest accusations were proven unfounded the media were missing. The names of innocent union officials who appeared before the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption came under a cloud. That cloud has not been lifted. A Royal Commission was not needed to investigate criminal activities. The police have all the powers they need to do this.  more ...

Charges dropped against 28 CFMEU members

The CFMEU has called for a legal case against its members in Western Australia to be discontinued after a third of the defendants were dropped from the action.  more ...

Waroona fire – Australia and global warming

In 1994, Professor Tim Flannery released his seminal book, Future Eaters. In it he predicted what lay ahead for Australia’s climate and the impact it would have on the country and its people.  more ...

Hanged warriors are not forgotten

The treatment of fallen Tasmanian Aboriginal warriors Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner is just as relevant today as it was when they were publicly executed amid carnival-like fanfare in 1842, according to artist Paola Balla. She’s curating Executed in Franklin Street, an exhibition of paintings, writings, video and photography relating to the warriors now on show in the Melbourne Town Hall.  more ...

WestConnex monstrosity threatens inner Sydney

Just before Christmas the NSW Baird government released the environmental impact statement for the second stage of the proposed WestConnex motorway. Public responses must be received by February, effectively minimising the time available for the public to prepare comments.  more ...

Taking Issue – Fascism over the White House?

The most boorish of the clutch of Republican Party candidates for President in the next US elections is unquestionably Donald Trump. A billionaire, Trump has all the arrogance that goes with such colossal wealth, but he combines it with a public posture as an oafish larrikin, openly embracing the crudest racist rhetoric. Reflecting the Republican Party’s long-term flirtation with the extreme Right, Trump is now the front-runner to be the Republican choice to run for President to replace Obama when his term in the White House ends on January 17, 2017.  more ...

Our wildly inflated fear of terrorism is a self-fulfilling prophecy

One in 3.5 million: That’s your annual risk of dying from a terrorist attack in the United States, at least according to Cato analyst John Mueller. Rounded generously, that comes out to roughly three one-hundred thousandths of a percentage point, or 0.00003 percent.  more ...

Culture & Life – Guns and the USA – again

The United States of America. The majority of the people who live there will tell you it’s the greatest country on Earth. Even the ones without a job or a home! (Brainwashed? You think?) Thanks to the inadequacy of their education system (which paradoxically they think is the greatest in the world), plus the control of their mass media by a cabal of billionaire press barons, and the way their population has been ruthlessly brainwashed since the Second World War, Americans have no comprehension of how people in other countries actually live (or think).  more ...