Communist Party of Australia

Current Issue of The Guardian

November 22, 2017 - click here for index of articles.

Police state powers – “This is not justice”

The means to condition the Australian public in the country’s main population centres to the constant presence of armed military personnel on city streets was given its latest promotional exercise last month. In a mock terrorism exercise – replete with the bloodied bodies of “victims” – in Sydney’s Central Station, members of the NSW Public Order and Riot Squad in paramilitary regalia locked down the Country Trains terminal. Armed with M4 assault rifles (the “weapon of choice of the US military” and the same weapon used by the Federal Police to guard the fortress that is now Parliament House, Canberra), the squad is an upgrade of the NSW Tactical Operations Unit. more ...

Editorial – YES despite bankrupt politics

It has been a long struggle against the forces of the ultra-right and socially conservative and religious groups to gain marriage equality and after last week’s resounding YES vote we are one step closer. There is now broad support across parliamentary parties and the cross-benches. The high turnout in the postal survey of 80 percent and the 61.6 percent YES-vote left politicians in no doubt of where the public stood on the issue of same sex marriage. The result of the Australian Bureau of Statistics survey was met with jubilation in the LGBTI community when it was announced on Wednesday, November 15. It meant much more than just being able to get married: it was a long-awaited step in the recognition of the rights under the law of all Australians, regardless of their sexual orientation. more ...

Criticism as Australia elected to UN council

Australia has been elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council for a three-year term. more ...

Taking Issue – A tragic failure

Hundreds of people remain indefinitely in the Manus Island and Nauru detention centres because the Turnbull government believes that anyone trying to reach Australia by boat must be punished by preventing them from ever settling here. more ...

Eisenstein’s classic October

In the decade before the Revolution, the arts in Russia were a ferment of ideas and activity. Various avant garde movements flourished as the intelligentsia also challenged the stultifying influence of the autocracy. more ...

Imperialism – Globalisation

In Part 1, I quoted the five characteristics of the economic side of imperialism that Lenin said must be included in any definition of imperialism. So far we have covered the concentration of production and the creation of monopolies and capital and the merger of bank and industrial capital to form financial capital, which forms the basis of a financial oligarchy. more ...

The Asian financial crisis – 20 years later

It was in July 1997 that the Asian financial crisis erupted, wreaking havoc in a region which had distinguished itself with high rates of economic growth for over two decades. Twenty years on, Martin Khor reflects on whether the lessons have been learnt and whether the countries of the region are vulnerable to new crises. more ...

O brave new world

As the clock ticks down on Britain’s exit from the European Union, one could not go far wrong casting British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn as the hopeful Miranda in Shakespeare’s Tempest: “How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world that has such people in’t.” And Conservative Party Prime Minister Theresa May as Lady Macbeth: “Out damned spot, out, I say!” more ...

The women who led the Revolution

The 2017 centenary of the Russian Revolution has triggered a great deal of interest, not all of which is helpful or illuminating. However, one aspect of the two revolutions of 1917 which has been almost completely disregarded is the role of women. more ...

Culture & Life – Big finance goes to COP

Each year countries meet at the Conference Of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to discuss international action to tackle climate change. This year, the Parties meet in Bonn, Germany, for COP23 – where the host country is Fiji. The UK Youth Climate Coalition has been sending a youth delegation to these talks every year since 2008, to raise the profile of young people in the negotiations and push for more ambitious action to tackle the climate crisis. Naomi Kreitman and Lise Masson write from the first week on the conference floor. more ...