On the day Tony Abbott was rolled, one of my family members, who lives in Malcolm Turnbull's electorate of Wentworth, posted a one line warning on Facebook: "Beware the silver fox." Well, it proved true remarkably quickly.
A concerted attack on Medicare is in full swing and it has one clear objective: dismantling public health care and replacing it with a US-style privatised system that costs more, delivers inferior outcomes and leaves the poorest to die.
Moreland Councillor and Socialist Alliance member Sue Bolton will be standing for re-election in October 2016. The election of Sue to the Moreland council in 2012 was significant for several reasons. She campaigned strongly on a platform of putting the needs of ordinary residents and the community ahead of the tide of greed-driven developer projects that are changing Moreland for the worse.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the introduction of the Racial Discrimination Act in Australia, yet we still live in a country where racism runs deep. We need to build the campaign against racism and tackle the system that gives rise to it.
The arrests of Victorian CFMEU officials, State Secretary, John Setka and Assistant Secretary Shaun Reardon, demonstrate that the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption is purely a witch hunt against unions.
The Radical Ideas 2015 conference organised by Resistance: Young Socialist Alliance was a three day conference of socialist ideas and activism.
More than 2000 People's Climate Marches were held over the weekend of November 27 to 29. In Australia more than 140,000 people took to the streets to show they care, passionately, about climate change. They are also angry at government inaction, as illustrated by the many homemade placards and props.
These marches were the biggest national anti-government mobilisations for many years. The Melbourne march — a huge 60,000 people — was the biggest street march there since the anti-Work Choices protests of 2005.
The impacts of neo-liberalism, including rising unemployment (up to 25% in areas like Broadmeadows), the crisis in housing; cuts to social services and attacks on workers' rights, provide fertile ground for the far right to organise, if left unchallenged by the progressive movement.
A statement released by activists regarding the disappointing conclusion of a Sydney Reclaim Australia counter-protest.
On 22 November, Reclaim Australia and associated far-right racist groups will be mobilising around Australia to spread hatred, fear, and division.
The reality is that universal accessible healthcare is hindered by the unequal distribution of wealth under capitalism. Increasingly, high-quality healthcare is for those who can pay for it and low-quality or no healthcare is for those who cannot afford it.
Workers in this country urgently need to rebuild fighting, democratic unionism that abides by the age-old principle "Touch One, Touch All". Nothing else stands between us and low pay, speed-ups and stress at work, and exploitation by the employer.
