Remembering Aboriginal leader William Ferguson
It’s been 80 years since the first recorded protest for civil rights in Australia, led by the Aboriginal community in what is now known as the “Day of Mourning”, 26 January 1938. The Aboriginal organiser of the march, William (Bill) Ferguson, was a Wiradjuri man born in 1882 at Waddai, Dar...CONTINUE READING
What do we mean by socialism?
What the hell is socialism, anyway? Over the last decade, it has been one of the most frequently looked up words in the Merriam-Webster dictionary. And it’s easy to see why so many people feel the need for clarification. Right wing politicians and commentators call anything they are agains...CONTINUE READING
1968: the year the unthinkable happened
1968 has become known as the year of the student. Across the world, campuses were aflame with political activity. Students challenged university administrations and demanded student control over student life; they railed against racism and inequality in their own countries and fought imper...CONTINUE READING
Pre-colonial society shows humans can live collectively
“If the test of sophistication were whether or not all were fed regardless of rank or whether all contributed to the spiritual and cultural health of the civilisation, Aboriginal Australia might have a much higher rank than some of the nations considered the hallmark of human evolution.” S...CONTINUE READING
Where does inequality come from, and how can we end it?
The richest 1 percent of Australians own more wealth than the bottom 70 percent combined. Far from being the Lucky Country where equality abounds, Australia is in the top half of the most unequal societies in the 35-member Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the rich cou...CONTINUE READING
Mardi Gras 40th anniversary: ‘Proud to be a 78er’
Mick Armstrong: One of the most inspiring aspects of the first Mardi Gras was that protesters were not demoralised or intimidated by the appalling police brutality. We stood up and fought back. Hundreds of activists, both gay and straight, threw themselves into a vibrant campaign of mass m...CONTINUE READING
Vale Zelda D’Aprano, a fighter for women’s liberation
Zelda D’Aprano, famous for chaining herself to the railings of the Commonwealth Building in Melbourne in 1969 to demand equal pay for women, died on 21 February, aged 90. Zelda was born into a working class Jewish family in Carlton in 1928. Following her mother’s example, she became a memb...CONTINUE READING
The fight over free speech on campus
On university campuses around the world, “free speech” is becoming the favourite slogan of the right, sure to be raised during campus political controversies. The Spectator, a magazine whose political allegiance sits somewhere between Tony Abbott and Richard Spencer, writes of a “free spee...CONTINUE READING
Why Queensland is different
Queensland is considered more conservative and backward than the southern states. Queensland “difference” has been used to explain the long period of conservative National Party rule from the 1950s under the extreme right wing premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, the f...CONTINUE READING