Sep 26, 2009

Asylum seekers: No room at the inn

[Green Left Weekly, #812, September 26, 2009]

With seven boatloads of asylum seekers intercepted in September, Australia’s Christmas Island detention centre is fast filling up. It now holds 677 detainees. ALP Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor told a conference that people smuggling was one of the key threats facing the country. But even he had to admit that the primary reason people seek refuge is because of "push factors" such as "war, civil conflicts, famines".

Tens of millions on move

May 30, 2009

Communism in Australia

[The text of a talk delivered to the conference A Century of Struggle — Laborism and the Radical Alternative. Lessons for Today. The gathering was held in Melbourne on May 30, 2009; it was organised by Socialist Alliance and sponsored by Green Left Weekly.]

The original Communist Party of Australia ceased to exist in 1991. (The present CPA is the renamed Socialist Party of Australia, the result of a pro-Moscow split from the old CPA in 1971.) So it is a long while gone. Many comrades here would have had no experience of it.

Apr 1, 2009

The Great Depression: Lessons for Socialists

[This is an edited version of a talk delivered at the World at a Crossroads Conference in Sydney, Easter 2009. It was organised by the Democratic Socialist Perspective and Resistance and sponsored by Green Left Weekly.]

It is widely recognised that the current global economic crisis is not a normal recession of the kind which characterises the capitalist business cycle — that is, it is not one of the periodic downturns which inevitably follow a boom period. Rather, it is a fundamental slump.

Mar 19, 2009

Not a normal recession but a fundamental slump

[Speech at the Melbourne launch of the pamphlet Meltdown! A Socialist View of the Capitalist Crisis (Resistance Books: Sydney, 2009); March 19, 2009]

Our pamphlet tries to briefly sketch for the reader some the main features of the current economic crisis and its main social and political consequences.

The first point to grasp is that this is a not a normal recession of the kind which characterises the capitalist business cycle — that is, it is not one of the periodic downturns which inevitably follow a boom period.

Feb 28, 2009

Nylex succumbs to 'oversupply' of water tanks

[Green Left Weekly, #785, February 28, 2009]

Victorian plastics manufacturer Nylex as been placed in the hands of receivers. Nylex is a well-known name — the company produces the iconic Esky, water tanks, wheelie garbage bins, hose and garden fittings, and interior trimmings for car manufacturers.

Oct 1, 2008

The DSP in the 1980s

[Introduction to Building the Revolutionary Party: Jim Percy Selected Writings 1980-87 (Resistance Books: Chippendale, 2008)]

This is the second volume of writings and speeches by Jim Percy, one of the founders of the Democratic Socialist Perspective and its longtime central leader until his death in 1992. These seven items — reports given by Jim to conferences and leadership gatherings of the DSP (or Socialist Workers Party as it was known in this period) — span the years 1980 to 1987.

Aug 1, 2008

Nationalisation: a key demand in the socialist program

[This article is an edited version of a talk originally given to the Melbourne branch of the Democratic Socialist Perspective in August 2008.]

For all the misery it represents for ordinary people, there is at least one positive result of the current capitalist financial crisis. The idea of nationalisation is getting an airing again in the West, however squeamish bourgeois leaders and pundits may be about using the actual word. Of course, this is clearly a case of governments mobilising massive resources and taking drastic action to save bankers and speculators from the consequences of their greed but, nevertheless, there it is. And if nationalisation — state or public ownership — is allowable in this dubious instance, why not for far more deserving and urgent causes such as saving the planet and the lives and welfare of masses of working people?

Apr 12, 2008

Are livable cities just a dream?

[The following talk was presented at the Climate Change | Social Change Conference in Sydney, April 2008.]

When one sees a modern city from the air, especially at night, it is a truly awe-inspiring spectacle. What always strikes me is the immensity of the project, a testimony to the power and creativity of human beings. However, on the ground and actually living and working in this wonder, things are quite different and the social and ecological problems crowd in and fill one's view.

Aug 3, 2007

Victorian Labor's water plan: business as usual

[Green Left Weekly, #720, August 3, 2007]

In Australia, as in other major capitalist countries, the official response to global warming is to deny or gloss over the utter catastrophe confronting human society and try to carry on with business as usual, making only a few relatively minor adjustments here and there.

Jul 20, 2007

Two roads for our healthcare system

[Green Left Weekly, #718, July 20, 2007]

The media hysteria over a possible Australian link to the recent British terror attacks serves to highlight a basic reality. The Australian healthcare system is critically dependent on overseas-trained doctors and it wouldn’t work without them.

Jan 1, 2007

The socialist revolution and the revolutionary party

[This is the text of a talk presented to the January 2007 Marxist Summer School organised by the Democratic Socialist Perspective.]

Socialism the only solution

Today humanity faces a global crisis stemming from the incredible rapacity of the capitalist system. In the first place, there is catastrophic climate change which threatens to end life on our planet, then there is endemic war and conflict, mass poverty in the Third World and neo-liberalism's ever more ruthless assault on working people everywhere.

Dec 6, 2006

Capitalism is leading us to total disaster

[From Change the System, Not the Climate (Resistance Books: Sydney, 2007); an edited version appeared in Green Left Weekly #693, December 6, 2006]

The fundamental problem facing humanity today is catastrophic climate change brought on by runaway greenhouse gas emissions. The relatively narrow band of climatic conditions within which we can function has been destabilised. As average temperatures rise extreme weather events are increasing (cyclones, floods, heat waves and droughts) and ocean levels look like rising dramatically, potentially making refugees of hundreds of millions of people. The very survival of the human race has now been called into question.

Nov 11, 2006

Victoria grapples with drought

[Green Left Weekly, #690, November 11, 2006]

Like a large part of the continent, Victoria is in the grip of an unprecedented drought. Across the state, dams are rapidly emptying and river flows are at record lows, cities and towns face drastic restrictions and farmers confront an uncertain future. The water crisis gives the question of global warming and catastrophic climate change a new immediacy and is a major issue in the November 25 state election.

Nov 3, 2006

Make public transport free — for everybody

[Green Left Weekly, #689, November 3, 2006]

Public transport issues continue to feature prominently in the November 25 state election as both major parties trawl for votes. First, Victorian Liberal leader Ted Ballieu pledged to make public transport free for all primary, secondary and full-time tertiary students in the state (at an estimated cost of $285 million). A few days later he promised to abolish metropolitan transport Zone 3, a move which would give significant savings to commuters travelling in to the city from the outer suburbs. And only hours after that, Labor Premier Steve Bracks promised to do the same and, furthermore, to reduce V/Line (country) fares by up to 20%.

Aug 18, 2006

Sixtieth birthday remarks

[Remarks made at a dinner in Melbourne to celebrate my 60th birthday, August 2006]

The card Andrea gave me for my birthday said that now I'm 60 I should make lists and offered one for today — first, check my zipper; two, make a wish; three, blow out candles; four, eat cake; and five, wipe my face. Well, I checked my zipper before I got up and I'll practice the rest later. But I did want to write down what I wanted to say tonight so it comes out right.

May 15, 2006

The Age campaigns for free public transport

[Green Left Weekly, #668, May 15, 2006]

For the past two months Melbourne's Age newspaper, owned by the Fairfax media group, has been energetically campaigning for free public transport in the city. Former Victorian Liberal premier Jeff Kennett — who privatised public transport in 1999 — revealed in an interview that he argued within his cabinet for a simple universal gold-coin fare system. He said his biggest regret in public life was that he failed to stick to his guns in the face of bureaucratic opposition. Kennett's cabinet colleague Robert Maclellan canvassed the idea of making public transport completely free until leading officials talked him out of it.

Apr 26, 2006

Crime and punishment II

[Green Left Weekly, #665, April 26, 2006]

Every society deals with crime and punishment in its own special way. Modern capitalism, for all the ludicrous claims of its media hacks and propagandists, is a class-divided society based on the exploitation and oppression of the many by the very few. It ceaselessly generates crime at all levels.

Mar 8, 2006

'Renewal' ALP-style

[Green Left Weekly, #659, March 8, 2006]

The ALP is undergoing a process of "renewal" as a clutch of ambitious right-wing trade union officials seek preselection against Victorian sitting federal MPs.

Nov 30, 2005

Free speech victory

[Green Left Weekly, #651, November 30, 2005]

Green Left Weekly has won the right to resume its Saturday morning stalls at the big Barkly Square shopping centre in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Brunswick.

Nov 16, 2005

Terrorism: the new Cold War

[Green Left Weekly, #649, November 16, 2005]


Terrorism has become a kind of new Cold War. During the post-World War II struggle of the US-led "free world" against the Soviet Union and its allies, everything was justified by the needs of the fight against "communism", Soviet "totalitarianism", Reagan's "evil empire", etc. Under these banners, the West carried out a permanent arms race (which included the massive deployment of nuclear weapons), sponsored and supported scores of atrocious Third World dictatorships, and witch-hunted their own citizens and attacked their democratic rights.