En Passant

The brutal treatment of asylum seeker children in detention centres dehumanises us all and makes sections of society in positions of some power more likely to abuse kids in Australia. The fight against child abuse in Australia has to include the fight against child abuse of those under our care on Manus Island and Nauru.

If Canberra is to survive the dopes it could do worse than looking at dope.

My tentative conclusions about the Assembly elections in the ACT are that people moved back to voting for one of the two major parties of neoliberalism, that the move was in the main to the Liberals in Opposition rather than to Labor in Government, that the Greens’ support of a fairly modest and neoliberal Labor Government and their role as followers rather than leaders backfired on them and that a tax scare campaign full of lies can work.

If so, and if this response is typical of Australians more generally (and I think it is as the economic storm clouds darken and come closer) we will have an Abbott government with a big majority in 2013.

Without a fighting trade union movement and a left wing focus for real struggle and opposition to the neoliberalism of the ALP and the Liberals, there is I think an inevitability about the Liberals, the first choice party of the bourgeoisie, winning federally.

Only mass strikes can save and, if convicted, rescue Ark Tribe from jail, smash Labor’s ABCC and put people and their lives before profit.

Victory to Ark Tribe. Victory to building workers across Australia.

Here in Canberra one of the most left wing Labor Governments has shown its true nature by attacking its workers. That is Labor’s role. And the Greens? They have traded away principles for power in their support of Labor’s attacks on workers.

Here in Canberra local Labor Party Education Minister Andrew Barr has threatened teachers who impose any NAPLAN test bans with the loss of four hours pay under Rudd’s workchoices law, the Fair Work Act. Can somebody explain to me again what exactly the difference is between Labor and the Liberals? The Australian Education Union’s response does […]

The minority Canberra Labor Government will freeze public service recruitment in response to an $85 million cut in GST revenue. It will not tax the rich; it won’t cut grants and subsidies to business; it won’t reduce its spending on the likes of Al Grassby statues. Instead it will attack its workforce. Left Labor Treasurer Katy […]

Canberra’s  demonstration for same sex marriage is on this Saturday 28 November at 1 pm in Garema Place in Civic. I will be speaking at a Socialist Alternative meeting after the rally ends (about 2.30 pm I guess) in the back room of the King O’Malley pub (just around the corner from Garema Place) on Sexuality and […]

Here in the Australian Capital Territory the Labor Party (in minority Government) supported a Greens’ Bill giving legal recognition to same sex unions which passed just under 2 weeks ago. Federally the homophobic and anti-equal rights Rudd Labor Government will suggest changes to the Act which effectively gut it. The local Catholic archbishop weighed in […]

Socialist Alterative members, family and friends will be having a social picnic on Black Mountain Peninsula at 1pm Saturday 14th November 2009. The weather is expected to be beautiful and sunny. Please bring your own food and drinks. There are barbecues, children’s play equipment and public toilets. We will meet in the car park on […]