Analysis

  • Dancing on Arab graves

    Editorial: Dancing on Arab graves Dancing on Arab graves Television news viewers last week saw hundreds of thousands of Israelis fill the streets to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the state of Israel. As the cameras focused on boisterous,

  • Waterfront 'reform': in whose interests?

    Everybody is talking about waterfront reform — the federal government, Patrick Stevedores, P & O Ports, the ALP and the ACTU. "The need for waterfront reform" has been hammered in the media for so long that for several months, opinion polls have shown a majority of Australians supporting it.

  • The uses of racism

    Editorial: The uses of racism The uses of racism Just over two years ago, John Howard coasted into office promising to make us all feel "comfortable and relaxed". That was only one of countless broken promises — all of which were intended to

  • Beware of soft cops

    Editorial: Beware of soft cops Beware of soft cops The wharf dispute must be pretty serious: after a couple of decades indoors, be-suited ALP politicians have been appearing on (well, alongside) picket lines. Last week, Kim Beazley did a photo

  • Stakes high for all workers in wharf dispute

    When Patrick Stevedores, with the support of the Howard government, locked 2000 waterside workers out of their jobs at 11pm on April 7, the government and Patrick gave the impression they were on a winner. But the strong community and union support for the maritime union has shown that many workers understand that the future of trade unionism is at stake in this dispute.

  • Racism and the Hindmarsh decision

    Editorial: Racism and the Hindmarsh decision In its decision in the Kumarangk (Hindmarsh Island) case, announced on April 1, the High Court found a way to evade the central issue. This was the government's claim that it has power, under the

  • Transport madness

    Editorial: Transport madness Transport madness In Sydney last week, haze from bushfires hung over the city, mixing with "normal" pollutants to produce a pollution index reading more than double the "acceptable" limit. Coincidentally, the Sydney

  • What conflict of interest?

    Editorial: What conflict of interest? What conflict of interest? Rejecting Labor claims that his minister for resources and energy, Senator Warwick Parer's, ownership of $2 million worth of shares in a coal mine amounts to a conflict of interest,

  • Racism and elections

    Editorial: Racism and elections Racism and elections For almost six months now, the federal Coalition government and the big business media have been scaremongering about a possible "race-based election". If the Senate doesn't pass his 10-point

  • Telstra privatisation

    Telstra privatisation Following Telstra CEO Frank Blount's announcement, several weeks ago, of a record interim profit of $1.6 billion, PM John Howard and treasurer Peter Costello have been talking up their plan to fully privatise the profitable

  • Australia starting to feel the Asian slump

    "If you look at the broad sweep ... you see a steady, inexorable strengthening of the foundations of the Australian economy and an economy that is standing up very well to the turmoil that is occurring in our part of the world." The