En Passant

It says much about the state of Australian society today that we have a great footballer very possibly being hounded out of his job because he is black while a sleazy untrustworthy and biased politician who has allegedly abused entitlements for decades will in all probability keep her job of throwing Labor politicians out of Parliament.

“There seems to be a pattern of cover-up and perverting the course of justice on Manus Island. It is not only the alleged attackers in the recent incident who should be brought back to Manus Island,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition. “We want the ex-pats identified at the time as being involved in the killing of Reza Barati to also be brought back to Manus Island so his murder can be properly investigated. For too long the Immigration department and detention centre managements have acted with impunity regarding the abuses and violence associated with the detention regime.”

Queer socialist activist, writer, and soon to be public school teacher in Boston, MA, Keegan O’Brien, responds in Jacobin to those on the left who dismiss the US Supreme Court’s historic ruling on June 26 making gay marriage the law of the land in all fifty states as at best insignificant, and at worst a step backwards. In explaining why they’re wrong he says in part:

‘When calls for radical change take the place of figuring out how to dynamically relate to people other than committed leftists, activists have created an echo chamber that only inhibits movement building. Demands to abolish marriage or smash the state may generate support from other radicals, but they remain empty slogans without the popular forces required to bring about social transformation…

‘Long-term, patient organizing may not be the revolution. But it’s the only way to get us there.’

The support for Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign is a very good sign but British Labour isn’t the answer, argues Charlie Kimber, national secretary of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) in Socialist Worker UK

Solidarity magazine has a good article on the AWU and Shorten deals with the bosses and the failure of many unions to fight the bosses. It finishes off with this: ‘Rather than a “modern” class collaborationist model of unionism, which has failed workers and just lays the basis for the Liberals to attack further, we need to get back to the politics of class struggle, by mobilising rank-and-file members, who have no interest in cosy deals.’ To read the whole article click here.

This is an abstract I have drafted for a paper on tax, war, democracy and revolution. It is early days yet – I have just started doing the research – and the Conference is six months away so I hope to be finished before then. The history is necessarily truncated, and so will be a potted history.

Each area of examination deserves its own much deeper and thorough analysis but that would lose the sweep of history I am trying to capture. And I only have about 30,0000 words. It will be an important part of my PHD. I would be grateful for any suggestions, thoughts, comments, especially about useful works on the various areas mentioned in the abstract below I am looking at.

This is part of a letter I sent on Sunday to the Canberra Times on the arrest and charging of building union organiser John Lomax. ‘Unionists and union leaders should be very very worried about this attempted criminalisation of industrial activity. If successful it will undermine every union in Australia. The charges against Lomax are an attack on unionism.’

This is the podcast of my interview with Sue Gilbey and Clayton Werner today on Radio Adelaide FM 101.5 Digital in their 30 minute segment called a Peace of the Action. We discussed among other things the lack of mass struggle in Australia today, social media, tax and tax avoidance, and I mentioned socialism, my background, the struggles around refugees and same sex marriage to name a few things.

The decision by Labor’s National Conference on Saturday not to ban turning back asylum seeker boats has shocked, outraged and upset many members and supporters. And so it should. It puts Labor on the same moral dung heap as the Liberals. I want to work with all those good activists who are or were in or near or supportive of the Labor Party and who are now reviewing their membership or support. Let’s work together in fighting for a better Australia here and now and in doing that learn the lessons flowing from this latest Labor leadership betrayal, not as a one off but as a consistent pattern. I am a member of Solidarity, one of those small revolutionary socialist groups. At least check us out here. Consider coming along to our Keep left Conference in Sydney on the weekend of Saturday 22 August and Sunday 23 August. Click here for details.

The arrest of ACT CFMEU official John Lomax for trying to negotiate better pay and conditions for workers is an absolute disgrace, according to CFMEU National Construction Secretary Dave Noonan.
Mr Lomax was told by police that he was accused of forcing an employer to enter into an EBA and that as a result the employer suffered financial loss due to paying workers higher wages. Mr Noonan said that the government was criminalising the work of unions. “The criminal jurisdiction is not the domain of industrial matters and this is nothing but another vicious political attack on unions and the right to defend and improve pay and conditions for working people.”