Analysis

  • ACTU disappoints on climate change

    At first glance, the climate change policy decided at the June 2-4 Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) national congress looks serious. Global warming is “the policy challenge of our time”, it declares.

  • The powerhouse of shame

    The morning air is crisp and the smoky air wafts over the strike camp in the shadow of the imposing Hazelwood power station in Victoria’s La Trobe Valley. We receive a warm, country welcome from two emergency services officers (ESOs), Mick and Brian.

  • Human rights at the crossroads

    More than 200 people packed into the Brisbane city hall on June 1 for a public forum on why individual rights in Australia needed to be enshrined in a Human Rights Act.

  • ACTU congress says no to radioactive dumps

    The June 2-4 Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) congress passed a series of motions calling on the federal government to abandon plans to build a radioactive waste dump in the Northern Territory.

  • Afghan feminist: 'No other country can grant us peace'

    With more than 20,000 extra US soldiers being deployed to Afghanistan, a member of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) argues that eight years of foreign occupation has made life worse for ordinary Afghans.

  • Aboriginal MP: ALP fails on land rights

    Marion Scrymgour — the highest ranking Aboriginal member of any government in Australia — quit the Northern Territory Labor Party over its Aboriginal policy on June 4. As an independent, she now holds the balance of power.

  • How we can defeat Bligh´s privatisation plan

    Three months after wining a state election, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has been given the green light by the June 6-7 ALP state conference to push ahead with her $15 billion sell-off of state-owned assets.

  • Our Common Cause: Unite against racism

    On the morning of May 31, international students in Melbourne began a powerful protest against the recent street violence that has targeted South Asian international students in particular.

  • Protect jobs and the environment

    When Pivot Fertilizer announced its closure in May, it became the latest in a long, list of Geelong-based manufacturers to close their doors.

  • Coal-fired factories of death

    Over a year ago I wrote to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown asking him to place a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants in Britain.