Blog
Article Collection
For a Renewed “State Debate”
After a few requests, I'm publishing my contribution to a roundtable on Leo Panitch and Sam Gindin's book The Making of Global Capitalism delivered at Historical Materialism Australasia this week. The session at the conference was presented by Leo...
Arbitration & the ALP: Union strength or impasse?
A class is dominant in two ways, namely it is ‘leading’ and ‘dominant.’ It leads the allied classes, it dominates the opposing classes. Therefore, a class can (and must) ‘lead’ before assuming power; and when it is in power it becomes dominant, but continues to lead....
Where in the World Does Neoliberalism Come From
Today my department launched its Progress in Political Economy Blog, run by the Department of Political Economy at the University of Sydney. My first post for the blog is on Raewyn Connell and Nour Dados's recent article 'Where in the World Does Neoliberalism Come...
Historical Materialism Australasia 2014
The third annual conference of Historical Materialism Australasia takes place this Friday and Saturday, September 5-6, in Sydney. The agenda looks extremely exciting, with a closing plenary on ‘Feminising Emancipation' and roundtable discussions on Thomas Piketty's...
How relevant are the unions?
Tad Tietze and I have an article on the state of the unions in the wake of the Qantas job cuts, which has been stirring up some discussion at The Guardian‘s Comment Is Free section. Here’s a preview, and you can read the full article here. It is no...
Anti-politics: Elephant in the room
‘They don’t represent us’ —Spanish Indignados protest *** This post was originally published at Left Flank. *** By ELIZABETH HUMPHRYS & TAD TIETZE At a certain point in their historical lives, social classes become detached from their traditional parties. In other...
Russell Brand, let’s get this done.
This post was originally published at Left Flank. *** OK Russell, let’s get this done. I’m in Europe and the crisis is everywhere. I landed in Greece and it hit me in the face: people trying to generate an income in any way they can; road works half complete and not...
The Australian Global Justice Movement
In the lead up to doing a PhD, I completed a Masters by Research at the University of Technology in Sydney (UTS). It took a long time - a very long time - as I undertook the research whilst working full time. It has been extremely pleasing therefore, to see two pieces...