Analysis

  • Peace in the Middle East — US style

    Peace in the Middle East — US style The US administration's decision to cut off all US trade and investment with Iran is a continuation of its policy to suppress any country in the Middle East with the potential to challenge Western countries'

  • Public relations gone wrong

    Public relations gone wrong The first Global Cultural Diversity Conference held at Darling Harbour in Sydney last week may have brought together 1000 delegates from around the world in an impressive show of skin colours, ethnic costumes and

  • Vietnam's victory

    Editorial: Vietnam's victory April 30 is the 20th anniversary of the liberation of Saigon, the end of the Vietnam War. Twenty years ago this week, the socialist fortnightly Direct Action declared, "Saigon liberated! A victory for all humanity."

  • Business as usual in NSW

    Business as usual in NSW The election of Labor right-winger Bob Carr to the NSW premiership has hardly created a ripple. The unanimous view, it seems, is that the Carr government's policies won't deviate significantly from those of its Coalition

  • The Canberra by-election

    The Canberra by-election The establishment pundits regard by-elections as traditionally a way of letting off steam. But the result in the March 25 by-election for Ros Kelly's old seat of Canberra surprised everyone with its intensity. A swing of

  • Beyond the elections

    Beyond the elections At a time of rising anger against the two major parties, in particular the Labor Party, many people are looking around for a progressive alternative. The many Labor betrayals on so many important issues will, we hope, result

  • Smooth market functioning

    Smooth market functioning So "rogue trader" Nick Leeson blew $2 billion punting the wrong way on the Nikkei 225 index. So the Mexican peso has almost halved in value against the US dollar in three months. So last week the once mighty greenback

  • Not the thinking woman's party

    Not the thinking woman's party By all indications, 1995 is shaping up to be the year in which the ALP relaunches itself as the "thinking woman's party". Not since the ALP's 1972 "It's Time" campaign has the party placed so much emphasis on its

  • Labor swaps media barons

    Labor swaps media barons What lies behind Prime Minister Keating's recent outburst against Labor's former favourite media magnate, Kerry Packer? In describing the rejected Optus-Packer plan for a regional pay TV duopoly (with Murdoch-Telecom) as

  • Hypocrisy on refugees

    Hypocrisy on refugees Targeted at Indo-Chinese refugees, recent amendments to the legislation covering Australia's migrant intake smack of hypocrisy and disregard for human rights. In response to the arrival of several hundred

  • A tax by any other name

    A tax by any other name The federal government's current hyperbole promoting a carbon tax is gradually being revealed as nothing but a cynical exercise in revenue raising. The Labor government is seeking to exploit the perfectly sensible

  • Woodchipping destroys jobs

    The federal government's capitulation to the timber industry on the pretext of "protecting jobs" has come under increasing criticism. One respected researcher, Dr Clive Hamilton, argues that protection of the 509 coupes would not