The Australian Navy is set to dump six European-made helicopters for twelve made in the US. 
Following on from the decision to scrap French-made submarines for the nuclear-powered US submarines, it looks to be part of a trend to replace European-sourced military hardware with that from the US so that “interoperability” is further enhanced. 

It’s a while since a union leader was exposed for being on the take. 
My union’s previous state and national secretary was a big wheel in the ACTU, a Vice-President, and was at one time President of the ALP.  He was caught, not with his fingers in the till, but up to his armpits into union coffers. 
Eventually he admitted to creaming off $5 million over his 20-year career. And ...

Election speculation took a feverish turn in recent weeks. 
Canberra Journalists have been on tenterhooks. Would Morrison head off to see the Governor? Will he, won’t he, has trickled down to the provinces. 
Local ALP and Greens branches have been put on a ‘war footing’, prepared for a Federal Election at short notice. The ACTU has launched its “Secure jobs. Worth Fighting For” marginal seats campaign. 

A flurry of US-led Cold War diplomatic positions and escalating tensions over Taiwan has revealed just how high the stakes have become for the US with their regional hostilities against China.

The timing of the developments has not been coincidental; other factors have been brought into play, a change of political leadership in Japan has been a decisive factor.

Just as the French Ambassador to Australia returns to Canberra in the wake of the controversy over the tearing up of its contract to build submarines for Australia, news has come through of an accident involving a US nuclear submarine in the South China Seas.
The USS Connecticut hit an unidentified object while prowling through the seas to the south of China last Saturday, injuring a number of sailors in ...

The election of Fumio Kishida as leader of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LTD) is one further step toward likely 'real war scenarios' in the Indo-Pacific region. The former Foreign Minister is a well-known China hawk, with a defence background.

The decision by the US to establish a network of precision-strike missiles in the region is a worrying sign of escalating diplomatic tensions eventually spilling over into armed conflict with ...

Sold Down the River. How Robber Barons and Wall Street Traders Cornered Australia’s Water Market by Scott Hamilton and Stuart Kells, (Text Publishing 2021, $35), is a book that everyone interested in the sad story of the Murray-Darling Basin should read.

A siege, at Sandy Creek outside Gawler in South Australia which included heavily armed STAR Group police officers, has shown how a far-right US-led political organisation has established a presence in Australia; possibly a relatively long time ago.

The week leading up to the AFL Grand Final on 25 September saw two contrasting trends in the working class movement in Australia. One trend, strongly promoted by the imperialist media outlets, was epitomized by the extreme right wing influenced street demonstrations in Melbourne under the Trump like banner of "freedom" of workers to take no responsibility for the impact of actions, such as opposing vaccinations against Covid 19, and ...

Several hundred people rallied in Adelaide late on Friday afternoon to protest nuclear-powered submarines and the latest war AUKUS-strations.
The rally was called by organisations including the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN), Friends of the Earth, SA Greens, and the Medical Association for the Prevention of War.

When protesters including some CFMEU members smashed the John Cummins building, all trade union leaderships and their members received a wake-up call. Former Industrial Relations Minister Michaelia Cash (and the giant multinationals she represents) must have danced with joy.

The CFMEU has sustained unrelenting ruling class attack to crush any ability of workers to organise. They have continued to mobilise members to achieve big wage rises, good conditions and safety ...

Shortly before the recent announcement about Australia joining the US and UK to build a new fleet of nuclear-powered submarines another related announcement was given the barest minimum of coverage. It is not difficult to establish the reason for limited publicity.

The working class is no stranger to precarious employment. From the earliest days workers often lived with being employed day by day or even hour by hour. Workers could be hired and fired at the whim of the capitalist. Older workers remember having to line up outside wharves or railway yards hoping to get a day’s work. 

Government privatisation and outsourcing of services has been a feature of capitalism in Australia for many decades affecting public transport, water utilities, public health, aged care, disabilities and education and many more sectors. For example, road traffic controlling where road works are undertaken, used to be performed by workers directly employed by state or federal governments. 

Moves by Microsoft to push deeper into the Australian economy with satellite systems together with the appointment of a former senior US military official in Adelaide to manage operations show the continued significance of Australia for US regional foreign policy.

As the US increasingly focuses on the Indo-Pacific as a likely 'theatre of war' with China, the significance of Australia as a base for future real war scenarios has increased. ...

The Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) condemns the announcement that Australia will build nuclear-powered submarines.

The Canadian take-over of Australian agriculture, forestry, fisheries and water continues unabated.

Who can resist the stirring sound of the bouzouki played on a deserted Cretan beach as two men dance the sirtaki in a state of Dionysian ecstasy? Or the powerful voice of Greek singer Maria Farandouri singing about Mauthausen concentration camp to music of profound melancholy. Or indeed, the pounding insistence of the musical scores of films like Z and Serpico? Those who have been moved by these sights and ...

In August this year in Adelaide a historian gave a presentation at a public gathering on the Paris Commune to acknowledge its 150th anniversary. The speaker stated the focus of the talk is, "...essentially about its lessons: what it can tell us about today’s struggles, what it can say about our socialist future." It was a very lengthy and comprehensive outline of the Communards 2-month struggle in the French Spring ...

During the 2020 bushfires, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian won kudos when she unfailingly gave precedence to frontline experts in daily media conferences. Meanwhile the prime minister sunned in Hawaii, and her Nationals’ Deputy Barilaro attacked her from his London holiday. 
In last year’s initial Covid outbreak, she bowed to increasingly organised action from health and education workers, and closed schools despite public pressure from the PM .