I often expect to face off against an enemy when I go to support Collingwood at the MCG. I don’t expect to have to confront the far right. But last week, as the siren sounded to mark half-time at the Friday night match against Richmond, members of the United Patriots Front unfurled a large Islamophobic banner directly behind where I was sitting: “Go Pies – Stop the Mosques”.
My sister and I immediately jumped out of our seats to confront those holding the banner, including UPF figurehead Blair Cottrell. He announced that he was stronger than me, and that their action was about building his movement, not my emotions. It wasn’t lost on me that his strength doesn’t extend to him being able to hold a rally in Melbourne where he and his followers are consistently outnumbered by anti-racists.
Other Pies fans helped us rip the banner away from the fascists, but security intervened and they walked away with their banner intact.
The following Sunday, 3 April, I and others from the new group “Collingwood fans against racism and fascism” joined hundreds of anti-racists in Federation Square, the scene of last year’s first “Reclaim Australia” rally. Our message was simple: real Collingwood fans stand against racism.
The whole country is talking about Labor’s Climate Change Bill. But there’s nothing there.
Chants of “Victory to the RMT” echo through Britain’s major cities as 40,000 rail workers continue their resolute campaign for better pay. Their actions have ignited the confidence of a working class facing wide-ranging assaults on living standards. Headline inflation is running at 9.4 percent in the UK, and ordinary workers are being hit hardest. Housing, water and fuel costs have The investigation into the storming of the US Congress in January last year has proven beyond doubt that Trump was seriously attempting a “soft” coup. Until recently, the media coverage have largely focused on the actions of a motley crew of conspiracists, used-car salesmen and fascists who led the events of 6 January. While undeniably despicable and deserving of serious contestation by the left, these forces are totally marginal to politics in the United States. This article is based on a speech given by Jerome Small, Victorian Socialists Northern Metro candidate in the upcoming state election, at the 30 July United Climate Rally in Melbourne. Workers across the country are facing a largely one-sided class war. A combination of bosses raising prices on essential goods, the housing crisis and profiteering on the part of energy companies is leading to a cost-of-living crisis. Conditions are ripe for a fight back: unemployment is at historic lows, and bosses are so desperate for labour they’re trying to entice pensioners back to work. Western Australian public sector workers will rally at the state parliament on 17 August to demand that wages keep up with the cost of living. The rally, organised by the Public Sector Alliance of nine trade unions, follows several stop-work rallies held at WA hospitals over the last month, involving thousands of health workers.
