En Passant

If the ACTU, or at least the left unions, were to announce a complete boycott of the Royal Commission, and to back that up not only with the threat of (illegal) mass strike action in defence of anyone prosecuted for not appearing, but also with an education campaign among their members as to why they must walk off the job in response to the biased Commission, it would destroy the witch hunt. The CFMEU is due to appear before the witch hunt today at 10 am. Boycott it.

We demand an end to mandatory detention of refugees and asylum seekers, and the closure of Manus Island and Nauru. We urge the Australian government to allow for the rapid processing of asylum applications in transit countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia and to increase our humanitarian intake significantly.

First it was Mojgan, then it was Melbourne. This is the real face of Australian Border Force.

The demonstration against Australian Border Force shows the way forward to beat back this deepening authoritarianism – protest, protest, protest. Do as those in Melbourne did. Occupy the centre of town. It is a lesson the refugee movement more generally and other movements like the equal marriage campaign could learn. On the streets to beat the new authoritarianism, defend the oppressed and win or win back our rights. The next time Border Force tries it on let’s bring out thousands against them.

This is a letter I sent to the Canberra Times on Thursday. John It appears that in the pre-selection process Minister Simon Corbell has lost support among many ACT Labor Party Left faction members. (Kirsten Lawson, ‘Ructions over Corbell exit’ The Canberra Times 27 August page 1.) I have some suggestions to Simon to help […]

The last big demonstrations in Australia were against the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the lies of our leaders. Maybe it is time to organise protests against the next instalment of that madness, bombing Syria.

Australia is a low tax, low spending country. It’s time we started taxing the rich and the big business tax avoiders more, not less.

Michael Roberts explains the reasons for the market chaos going on across the globe on his excellent blog site the Next Recession. He says among other things: ‘The reasons are clear. The Chinese economy, now officially the largest in the world (at least as measured by the IMF’s rather weird purchasing power parity method), is slowing fast. To read the whole excellent article click here.

  This article from the Saturday paper captures that reality. It says among other things: ‘One woman lies catatonic in hospital after being raped and beaten. Another was raped and immolated. This is the world awaiting refugees released from detention on Nauru.’ To read the whole article click here. Nauru rapes: ‘There is a war […]