Category: Bob Brown

06 Sep

Comments Off on The Left, the Greens and the crisis (from Overland)

The Left, the Greens and the crisis (from Overland)

by

My long-form essay on the trajectory of the Greens since 2010 is now up at Overland Journal‘s website, and will be in the print edition due out next week. No comments option at Overland, so feel free to comment below. The rise of the Greens represented a historic realignment of the Left of Australian politics, […]

10 Jul

3 Comments

Caught flat-footed: The Greens without Gillard

by

Today at The Guardian I have a piece on the Greens’ strategic dilemmas after cosying up so close to the Gillard government. With the political class loathed by many ordinary voters, it should be no surprise the Greens have suffered politically and in the polls from their association with Gillard and the “old Labour” project […]

10 Feb

Comments Off on Is this what democracy looks like? The NSW Greens & the campaign against the BDS

Is this what democracy looks like? The NSW Greens & the campaign against the BDS

by

The latest issue of The Monthly and my response in The Drum on Monday (here, reposted at Left Flank here) have stirred public interest in the sharpened political debates about the future of the Greens. On Thursday, The Australian ran a curiously subdued feature on the party by Christian Kerr that also pulled a lengthy quote the Drum essay. One area that deserves more […]

06 Feb

Comments Off on The Greens at the crossroads: ‘Left’ and ‘Right’ matter more than you’d think

The Greens at the crossroads: ‘Left’ and ‘Right’ matter more than you’d think

by

‘Factional rifts, personal animosities and turf wars’ My latest article on ABC’s The Drum, looking at the politics and ideology behind the growing tensions in the Australian Greens, and why these debates matter. In the last decade there has been a dramatic reconfiguration on the Left of Australian politics. The ALP’s support has dropped to […]

Filed under: Bob Brown, Greens, Lee Rhiannon

20 Sep

Comments Off on Limits of liberal critique: Murdoch, the media & the Manne Quarterly Essay

Limits of liberal critique: Murdoch, the media & the Manne Quarterly Essay

by

Not so omnipotent anymore    Cross-posted from Overland Journal‘s blog and ABC’s The Drum.  The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force. The class which has the means of material production at its […]

Filed under: Bob Brown, media, neoliberalism, UK

15 Sep

Comments Off on Australia’s ‘Left’ in government. Part 2: Greens trapped in a prison of their own making

Australia’s ‘Left’ in government. Part 2: Greens trapped in a prison of their own making

by

Since when did building a climate movement mean cheerleading neoliberal government policies? In the last post I argued that the deep crisis of the Gillard government is also a crisis of the Greens and the Left more generally. By effectively entering a “Left” government the Greens have replicated the disastrous strategy of Italy’s main party of the […]

11 Sep

Comments Off on Ten years since 9/11: What have progressives really learned about war & Islamophobia?

Ten years since 9/11: What have progressives really learned about war & Islamophobia?

by

  The tenth anniversary of 9/11 has seen TV outlets promo tribute after tribute, where the message is clear: the tragedy of the twin towers requires of us an uncritical outpouring of grief.  The now ten years old footage, which has been replayed so very many times, is still raw and powerful: people jumping from burning […]