Austerity (noun): 1. Enforced or extreme economy. From the Greek, austēros, meaning “harsh” or “severe”. 2. Merriam-Webster Word of the Year, 2010. The conversion of the present ALP federal government from new-era Keynesian stimulus apostles to sovereign debt doom merchants did not take place overnight, but if it happened anywhere it was in Toronto at the […]
16 Jun
Comments Off on Explaining the age of austerity: Beyond the conjunctural, the organic crisis re-emerges
How did it come to this? Just two years ago everything seemed so different: The GFC was crashing across the planet, provoking the largest internationally coordinated program of state intervention in human history. Prime Ministers were writing quasi-erudite essays damning “market fundamentalism” while disinterring Keynesianism and social democracy. Progressive thinkers spoke hopefully of Green New […]
12 Jun
Comments Off on liz_beths interviewed on ‘The Third Degree’
Given our article on The Drum this week, about the carbon tax debate, it seems timely to post a link to a recent episode of The Third Degree: Environment and Social Justice Radio on 2SER in Sydney. The program was the first in a series of discussions under the theme ‘The Carbon Kerfuffle: Critical Discussions in Climate Change […]
09 Jun
Comments Off on Unfit for purpose: The carbon price debate as smokescreen for inaction
ABC’s The Drum has published an article today by @Dr_Tad and I about the reliance on market mechanisms to solve the climate crisis. We take on the accepted wisdom these mechanisms can adequately deal with the climate crisis, or that they are the only option. Moreover, we argue the debate is a distraction harming the climate movement and likely to see its demobilisation and defeat. Yet it is […]
08 Jun
Comments Off on Islamism, secularism & Left strategy: A debate at Overland Journal & blog
I knew I’d get in trouble for writing a post entitled “Who’s afraid of the Muslim Brotherhood”. And so it was that Overland’s editorial overlord, Jeff Sparrow, roped me in to debate Michael Brull on the topic of “Political Islam is not a friend of the Left”. My contribution has just come out in Overland 203. You can follow the […]
05 Jun
Comments Off on #nswisconsin: How the age of austerity came to NSW & what can be done about it
Lest you thought the warnings raised on this blog about the “Age of Austerity” currently ravaging Europe and North America coming to Australia (see here and here, for example) were exaggerated, Barry O’Farrell has exceeded even our worst fears about the scale of attacks being planned in elite circles. What is being sold by the media as a case of reining […]
03 Jun
Comments Off on SlutWalk: Not the right ‘kind’ of women’s movement?
It seems each day there is a new item in an Australian newspaper or online forum about the nature, intention and value of SlutWalk. My lunch breaks of late have been reduced to reading articles and poring over the comments. The related discussion on Twitter seems equally unstoppable, and just when I think the […]
27 Jun
Comments Off on The age of austerity: Social polarisation, fake partisanship & the Left’s strategy