En Passant

PM Morrison has bowed to public pressure, announcing he will address homophobic legislation but the extent to which he delivers remains uncertain, writes John Passant in Independent Australia. To read the whole article, click here.

In light of the Islamophobic rallies on the weekend, and the support socialists give to Muslims in fighting this oppression, Erima Dall looks in depth in Solidarity magazine at Marxism, Islam and religion. Click the link to read the whole informative article, Marxism, Islam and religion.

‘Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. ‘The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness […]

The industrial revolution and the expansion of capitalism worldwide commodified all human relations, including Christmas. Thus the traditions of the past became objects of profitability.

When the oppressed arise, we must be on their side, even if they do believe in Mary MacKillop. It is their power as workers that is the driving force of change and one we socialists want to relate to.

Until workers wrest the democratic mantle from their oppressors and extend it into all aspects of life we will apologise again and again for our abuse of the powerless, whether that abuse be in the name of religion or the state.

In last weekend’s Australian Christopher Pearson pontificated that Aboriginal ‘ambit claims that images of the dead are sacrosanct, and that selling them is somehow exploiting the deceased, are bizarre.’   Unlike transubstantiation hey Christopher?

The imperialist carve-up of the Middle East after World War I involved denigration of Islam and contempt for those who practised it. This has been revived as part of the contemporary “war on terror”, with constant references in the media to “violent jihad” and the supposedly backward nature of Islamic ideas. Marxists fight against these […]

The Muslim prayer room at RMIT is not an issue of secularism or limited space. It is a question of racism, pure and simple.

There is a battle going on in Brisbane. No, not the phony Queensland election war between the political twins, both vying to show us who is the least incompetent. (By the way, will city people really vote for a not so disguised Country Party?) I am talking about Father Peter Kennedy from St Mary’s Parish […]