Monthly Archive: March 2011

27 Mar

Comments Off on Rock-bottom redux: Last drinks rites for the Labor Party? Part One

Rock-bottom redux: Last drinks rites for the Labor Party? Part One

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As a party able to offer itself as a viable government, Labor is not just under existential threat. It is finished. Unless, of course, it can engineer an extraordinary resurgence. Labor’s looming death as a stand-alone political entity is the biggest story in contemporary Australian politics. —Peter Hartcher, Sydney Morning Herald, 19 March 2011 How […]

24 Mar

Comments Off on Western military intervention in Libya: There. Is. No. Alternative. Or is there?

Western military intervention in Libya: There. Is. No. Alternative. Or is there?

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> Egypt’s revolution — why has Libya been so different? If there is one thought experiment that liberal supporters of Western military intervention in Libya ruled out of court (even forbade) it was the possibility that there were other social actors and strategies that could seriously affect the outcome of the battle between forces loyal […]

Filed under: Egypt, imperialism, Libya, revolution

22 Mar

Comments Off on Barack Obama: How Mr. ‘Change You Can Believe In’ became Mr. ‘More Of The Same’

Barack Obama: How Mr. ‘Change You Can Believe In’ became Mr. ‘More Of The Same’

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> Last time at Left Flank we noted that key neoconservative ideologues had encouraged the Obama administration to take action in Libya so that the United States could outflank the Arab revolutions by spreading its particular version of democratic reform. Stephen Walt, one of America’s most prominent realist foreign policy thinkers*, has suggested we shouldn’t […]

21 Mar

Comments Off on Libya, US intervention & the myth of the tail that wagged the dog

Libya, US intervention & the myth of the tail that wagged the dog

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> Fissures emerge: abstentions in the Security Council One of the justifications used by liberal and Left supporters of Western intervention in Libya is that the United States has been dragged, kicking and screaming, into this conflict. It is part of painting a picture that here, if only just this time, the situation of a […]

20 Mar

Comments Off on ‘Humanitarian intervention’, the international community and Libya: The leopard has not changed its spots

‘Humanitarian intervention’, the international community and Libya: The leopard has not changed its spots

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> Many people have reservations about the UN Security Council authorising the use of “all necessary measures” in Libya. But in spite of this, many also think that something must be done and it would be much worse to do nothing. Leaving aside the more particular question of intervening in response to a call for […]

19 Mar

Comments Off on ‘Capital’ Against Capitalism: Provisional Timetable

‘Capital’ Against Capitalism: Provisional Timetable

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>SATURDAY JUNE 25 – CENTRAL SYDNEY9.00 – 9.15 Welcome 9.15 – 10.45 Plenary 1 – AUSTRALIAN LABORISMSpeaker: Rick KuhnRespondents: Geoffrey Robinson and Tad Tietze 10.45 – 11.00 Short morning tea 11 – 12.30 Workshop 1A – MARXISM AND THEOLOGY Roland Boer: ‘The Religion of Everyday Life’: Capital as FetishTamara Prosic: Orthodox Christian Theology and Social ChangeRemy […]

Filed under: Marxism

17 Mar

Comments Off on Guy Rundle, the ‘anti-imperialist Left’ and the calls for a no-fly zone in Libya

Guy Rundle, the ‘anti-imperialist Left’ and the calls for a no-fly zone in Libya

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> Friends no longer It’s important to give Guy Rundle credit for being one of the few mainstream commentators who still has interesting things to say from a genuinely Left perspective. But his intervention in the debate over whether the Australian Left should back calls for a Western-run no-fly zone in Libya — to save […]

12 Mar

Comments Off on The revenge of nature

The revenge of nature

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> The scale of the human death and suffering from Japan’s earthquake and Tsunami has been staggering. While not on the scale of human loss suffered during similar disasters that have hit poorer parts of the world, to see such rapid devastation of modern, solidly built roads, harbours and towns was almost too dramatic to […]

Filed under: Engels, nature, nuclear power

04 Mar

Comments Off on Drugs! Drugs! Drugs!

Drugs! Drugs! Drugs!

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As the state election skulks closer, it seems clear the NSW Greens will not be actively campaigning on their Drugs and Harm Minimisation policy in the community or the media. Their silence makes obvious that they have determined to stay mum on the question, despite the policy being one democratically endorsed by the membership after […]