Readers are invited to submit questions for discussion. We will endeavour to provide a timely response.
Message from the Women’s Defence Forces (YPJ) of Rojava, Syria
We have received a message from the Women’s Defence Forces (YPJ) of Rojova, a predominantly Kurdish-held area in Syria. Having successfully fought against ISIS, they are now under drone attack by the Turkish state.
They have sent us two pdf documents, Turkey’s War Against Women Fighting ISIS, and Ten Years of the YPJ. If you would like copies of these, please contact us at ozml@protonmail.com.
First Nations People Lead The Way In September
The last Saturday in September 2023 was the day of the Australian Football League (AFL) Grand Final between Melbourne-based Collingwood Magpies and Brisbane-based Brisbane Lions.
There were over 100,000 people at the MCG for the game and millions watching the game on TV or mobile phones around the country and in remote locations around the world including one overseas based Australian in the remote west of China!
more...- Posted on 2023 Oct 01
ASEAN Solidarity Exercise keeps US and China at a distance
The ASEAN Solidarity Exercise, a joint military drill, has provided further evidence of a growing reluctance by South-east Asian nations to get drawn into escalating US-China diplomatic hostilities.
There was, for example, no official US or China involvement.
more...- Posted on 2023 Sep 30
US wants AUKUS to expand into outer space
In April 2001, the US Department of Defence announced that its objective was “full spectrum dominance”. It included the domain of space in its definition of the term, which was:
The cumulative effect of dominance in the air, land, maritime, and space domains and information environment, which includes cyberspace, that permits the conduct of joint operations without effective opposition or prohibitive interference.
When Workers Unite, Bosses Tremble!
Poultry Workers Getting Organized. Strike Against Corporate Greed And Rising Cost Of Living
more...- Posted on 2023 Sep 23
70th anniversary of Emu Field A-Bomb tests approaches
As a kid growing up in the western suburbs of Adelaide, a hand-painted slogan on the old bridge over the railway line on Henley Beach Rd (where the underpass is now) is firmly imprinted on my memory. I suspect it was done by CPA members in the late 50s. It read “Ban all A- and H-Bomb Tests”. It was unmistakable and lasted there for years.
more...- Posted on 2023 Sep 21
We are always stronger when we stand together
Palawa lawyer and activist Michael Mansell recently called for the referendum to be abandoned, labelling it divisive.
Michael Mansell has a long and militant history. As a young man his existence as a Tasmanian Aboriginal person was denied and he was demonised above all other First Peoples’ leaders. His lived experience makes his words today particularly potent.
Is Jacinta serious?
You’ve got to hand it to Jacinta Nampijinpa Price – she sure knows how to prettify colonialism and its aftermath.
Speaking at the National Press Club, Price, who is the Opposition’s shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs and one of two prominent Indigenous advocates for the reactionary No vote in the Voice Referendum, denied that colonialism had negatively impacted upon Australian First Peoples.
The reactionary No vote and a term we must revive
When Labor PM Albanese decided that the No campaign in the Voice referendum would not be attacked for being racist, he opened the floodgates of racist opinion.
We all know from the treatment of Adam Goodes, Stan Grant, Lydia Thorpe and many more First Peoples, that to have a First People’s voice is to make oneself a target of the vilest residual racism that still infests much of the non-Indigenous ...
Article review: Changing Composition Of Working Class In Australia
George Megalogenis has written a very good article in the latest edition of The Monthly about the history of past Referendums in Australia, He provides a convincing argument that the most reactionary sections of the ruling class led by Peter Dutton should be careful what they wish for in campaigning for a No vote in the coming Voice Referendum.
more...- Posted on 2023 Sep 15
What’s wrong with the Constitution? Everything.
'Surely one of the biggest truths we need to be tell in the first place is how the Constitution came to be and why it was deliberately written to exclude us. And given this, is the answer really our inclusion, or is it coming to the table as equals, sitting down and nutting out, as sovereign peoples, treaties that could ensure a better, more inclusive, way forward?' Arrernte woman Celeste ...
more...- Posted on 2023 Sep 10
Parliament votes to continue prosecution of whistleblowers.
On September 6, independent MP Andrew Wilkie sought leave to move a motion calling on Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus to drop the prosecution of whistleblowers David McBride and Richard Boyle.
more...- Posted on 2023 Sep 08
The major powers and their South Pacific strategies
In late August a major diplomatic statement issued through a New Zealand university highlighted the continued significance of Island Chain Theory (ICT) for present-day US-led regional diplomacy across the vast Indo-Pacific Region. While the theory was largely discredited, it has, nevertheless, been re-vamped for use in the present Cold War by the Pentagon and, at present, moves are also under-way to enlarge the scope by introducing fourth and fifth chains across ...
more...- Posted on 2023 Sep 05
Two referendums and a battle: lessons from history
As we face the coming referendum, the past gifts us experience. On January 26 this year we pointed out, “The 1967 referendum shifted focus to constitutional change. First Peoples saw it as a turning point. The Australian masses had turned towards them. Racism still existed, but 91 per cent had voted for them to be counted in the census and to transfer control from vicious state governments to the federal ...
more...- Posted on 2023 Sep 03
Cocos (Keeling) Islands prepared for war
Two years ago, the Australian government announced a $184 million expansion of military facilities on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands.
The Cocos (Keeling) Islands (CKI) is an Australian external territory located in the Indian Ocean, approximately 3,000km north-west of Perth, Western Australia. It comprises 2 coral atolls made up of 27 smaller islands.
Celebrating the 60th anniversary of Australia’s oldest revolutionary newspaper.
Vanguard , newspaper of the Australian Marxist-Leninists, was first published 60 years ago, in September 1963, predating by a few months the formation of the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) on March 15, 1964.
more...- Posted on 2023 Aug 31
Vanuatu: Military Exercises and Real-Life Dramas
While the recent Exercise Predators Run was under-way in the Northern Territories, a real-life drama was being played-out in Vanuatu. The exercise was planned to prepare countries allied with the US Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS) for military conflict in Australia's immediate northern region: the political crisis in Vanuatu, likewise, provided a vivid example of how diplomatic tensions can, potentially, escalate into real-war scenarios at quick notice, with far-reaching implications. It has ...
more...- Posted on 2023 Aug 29
Australian armed forces – guardians of the Bushido
US imperialism created it and now wants to get rid of it – the so-called pacifist Constitution of Japan.
It wants to clear the way for the greater deployment of Australian and Japanese forces as its cat’s paws – agents of provocation – against its rival, Chinese social-imperialism.
Divide and conquer, the oldest trick in the book
As the Voice referendum approaches, First Peoples have never been more divided. Competing factions within the capitalist ruling class have caused those divisions. The factions agree on fundamentals – that First Peoples’ lands and waters will continue to be exploited for oil, mineral and gas, for real estate profits, for corporate farming, for waste dumps or military bases.
They disagree on tactics. One side prefers soft tactics with some concessions ...
Wage thieves don’t like new legislation
Plans by the Albanese government to introduce wage theft legislation have already met with opposition from employers' organisations. It is not difficult to establish the extent of the problem of wage theft and the urgent need for effective legislation to protect workers from unscrupulous employers. Many employers, however, continue to hide behind facile excuses: their chosen business model has served their financial interests well for many years, they see no ...
more...- Posted on 2023 Aug 27
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