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Still stuck in the 1980s? The Unions and the Accord
This blog post first appeared at Overland Journal. *** On 16 May 2012 there was a reunion at the Australian Council of Trade Unions congress gala dinner. The crucial players involved in the development of the ACTU and ALP Prices and Incomes Accord of the 1980s –...
Neoliberals on bikes
This post was first published at Overland Journal. *** [M]yth has the task of giving an historical intention a natural justification, and making contingency appear eternal – Roland Barthes One of the founders of the German Greens, Jutta Ditfurth, left her party in the...
You are not who I thought you were: Race and ‘The Hunger Games’
This post was first published at Overland Journal earlier this week. *** In high school my English teacher gave advanced reading to students who were keen, and the first novel was To Kill A Mockingbird. Harper Lee’s book is a story of racism in the American...
Malcolm is not so in the middle
This post was first published on the ABC’s The Drum website. *** Australian politics has a strange ‘centre’ at the moment, and the dial seems increasingly to fall at the feet of Malcolm Turnbull. His presence on shows like Q&A results in both calls for...
From Global Justice to Occupy Everywhere
Overland Journal has produced a special online edition, discussing the Occupy movement. I have an article on the antecedents to Occupy in the Global Justice Movement and the Zapatista uprising.
Invasion Day
A number of myths have shaped Australia’s national identity in profound ways. The possibility of a vast inland sea sawmany early settlers search the interior of the country unfruitfully, often meeting an untimely death. The kernel of this myth was a 1798 report to the...
For the love of women’s liberation
Here is a link to my article on feminism, published yesterday at the ABC’s The Drum website. I don’t call myself a feminist. But some of my best friends are feminists. Some women don’t like the descriptor, and reject it because they don’t want to be associated with a...
Collingwood supporters and other ‘bogans’
ABC’s The Drum recently published an article by me on Collingwood Supporters and class hatred. Below is the article in full. *** Given hype from the AFL Grand Final has dissipated (and yes, congratulations Geelong supporters), perhaps we can talk about...