En Passant

Australia’s GDP went backwards 0.5% in the last quarter. Prepare for an onslaught of propaganda and action about cutting back spending on poor people, workers etc etc. The problem, as I tried to argue in this article in Independent Australia, is not policies per se, but capitalism itself. As Marx argued, there is a systemic […]

In the latest edition of Solidarity magazine Peter Jones argues that perspectives for the Australian economy are bleaker than for some time. To read the whole article click here.

The Australian economy’s dream looks to be over as the mining boom runs out of steam and living standards are squeezed. Peter Jones in Solidarity takes a closer look.

Ben Hillier has written an interesting article in Red Flag about the Australian economy. He starts off by saying:

Australia’s 23-year economic expansion is unprecedented for a developed country. In the 21st century, growth has been underpinned by property and mining investment booms. The latter is now over, the former reaching its limits.

He also says:

The economy is undergoing transitions, internally and in relation to the rest of the world, but what exactly it is transitioning to is far from clear. The only thing that appears certain is that life is set to get harder.

Those nasty unionists have been arguing for a $27 a week increase in the minimum wage from its current ‘exorbitant’ $544 a week. The end is nigh. Or so the bosses tell us. There are about 1.4 million workers whose salary is dependent in some way on the minimum wage. Paying them a slight increase will […]

Without a left-wing political or industrial focus some of the exploited, the forgotten and the marginalised have turned to nationalism and its twin, racism, as crutches for the loss of working class community and working class strength in action.

We are not yet out of the woods. And if we are I suspect we are in a clearing before we go further into the heart of darkness.

This might be a W-shaped recession, with the W moving towards a w.