Monthly Archive: October 2010

29 Oct

3 Comments

When there’s no more room in hell, dead labour will walk the earth

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Me on the ABC’s The Drum Unleashed, reviewing John Quiggin‘s latest book, Zombie Economics: In seeking a progressive economics, Quiggin keeps skirting around some of the fundamental assumptions behind the ideas he critiques. So he portrays class as a social gradient rather than a power relation, the origins of value are left unexamined despite various […]

Filed under: John Quiggin

27 Oct

1 Comment

FCKH8.com Straight Talk About Gay Marriage

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I know many readers will have seen this already. For those who have not, don’t have the sound too loud in a public place. Language warning for those with sensitive ears. Pure joy warning for those who want to see some straight talk about gay marriage and equality. FCKH8.com Straight Talk About Gay Marriage from FCKH8.com […]

Filed under: LGBTIQ politics

25 Oct

5 Comments

NSW Labor — Degeneration versus resilience

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[Continued from the last post] The erosion of the ALP’s long grip on the working class vote in NSW has been spectacular, reflecting the long-term processes that Left Flank has repeatedly drawn attention to. Yet it can still rely on a significant party organisation, and even more so the active endorsement (or at least passive […]

Filed under: ALP, Greens, NSW, trade unions

23 Oct

4 Comments

Last drinks for the NSW Labor Party?

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It is now received wisdom that the NSW branch of the ALP is responsible for everything that is wrong with Labor politics in Australia. Even smug Victorian state ministers have felt comfortable parroting this line publicly. In particular, the argument goes, the NSW Right are a bunch of unaccountable thugs who singlehandedly destroyed what should […]

Filed under: ALP, Greens, NSW

13 Oct

Comments Off on On the Twitters

On the Twitters

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I swore I’d never sign up to Twitter. “What’s the point?” I’d ask. “It’s just status updates like Facebook.” In June 2009 I found myself deciding what my Twitter username would be. What bought about this change in attitude? Well, Grods, if you must know. Scott made the announcement that Bron had signed up. She […]

Filed under: social media

05 Oct

3 Comments

The coming war on welfare

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Today this tweet showed up in my feed: BernardKeane If Tony Abbott really wants to learn from the Tories he should start with their attack on middle-class welfare http://bit.ly/9vL8os It links to the fallout of a decision by the Con-Dem coalition to slash a billion pounds out of the UK’s universal child benefit, a decision […]

04 Oct

1 Comment

The Pope, the Vatican and the limits of liberal critique

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If the protests against the Pope during his recent visit to the UK prove anything it is that the Vatican has really upset people. But beyond that, the motivations behind the protests are a complex mix of righteous anger, progressive criticism and reactionary sentiment, with the boundaries between them difficult to tease out. What is […]

Filed under: religion