Category: class

01 Jun

2 Comments

Sex and society (3): Capitalism & women’s oppression

by

How are capitalism and women’s oppression connected? In my last blog post we discussed the rise of the nuclear family and the connection between the class system and the shift in roles between men and women. This week we’re going to explore how modern capitalism has perpetuated the oppression of women. *** Let’s start a […]

05 Nov

14 Comments

Understanding Podemos (1/3): 15-M & counter-politics

by

What Podemos’s present success reveals is the breakdown, the crisis or the collapse (choose the term you prefer) of the Spanish party system. Because in reality the Transition regime is sinking like the Titanic and Podemos is merely the iceberg that caused this. So as soon as the cock crowed on 25-M, all the captains […]

21 Sep

2 Comments

A funny thing happened on the way through Upton Park

by

I was inspired partly by an exchange of well-made points on my Facebook wall between two great friends Jay and Paddy. But the main reason for taking time out to write this on a sunny Sunday morning in east London is because a funny thing happened on my way home last night. I really hope […]

08 Sep

Comments Off on The capitalist state, neoliberalism and industrial arbitration

The capitalist state, neoliberalism and industrial arbitration

by

Left Flank’s ELIZABETH HUMPHRYS has launched a new website for her own work, An Integral State: Notes on Marx & Gramsci. The latest post is her paper from the roundtable on Leo Panitch & Sam Gindin’s Deutscher Prize winning book The Making of Global Capitalism, at the Historical Materialism Australasia conference last weekend in Sydney. […]

05 Mar

1 Comment

How relevant are the unions?

by

Tad 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 little preview, and feel free to comment below: It is no coincidence that the problems started during the Accord […]

05 Dec

6 Comments

The Greens NSW, unions & political donations

by

With the Unions NSW-led High Court challenge to Barry O’Farrell’s donations laws awaiting a decision, a flurry of articles and commentary emerged in the press and social media recently, with several Greens activists defending the laws, and unionists, including Greens member and Fire Brigade Employees’ Union Secretary, Jim Casey, attacking them. Also coming out against […]

18 Sep

15 Comments

The modern crisis of Australian Laborism (Part 1)

by

In the first of two posts on the modern crisis of Australian Laborism, MARC NEWMAN looks at the roots of the ALP’s problems in its embrace of neoliberalism in the 1980s. *** Labor’s voter base remained stable for the bulk of the 20th century, through numerous changes in political circumstances. It only dipped below a 40 […]

09 Jul

Comments Off on Jacobin Book Club: The Making of Global Capitalism

Jacobin Book Club: The Making of Global Capitalism

by

Jacobin magazine has just started their inaugural Book Club seminar on Panitch and Gindin’s The Making of Global Capitalism. Up today is my contribution, ‘Within or Against the State‘, which is chiefly in response to how the authors conceive of the state in relation to class struggle. Also available to be read, with more to follow, […]

01 May

3 Comments

The ALP & the politics of anti-immigration (both kinds)

by

Cross-posted from Larvatus Prodeo. Thanks to Mark Bahnisch for convincing me to return to this subject. I have to confess that I couldn’t bring myself to watch Monday’s Four Corners on the scandal of Australia’s “offshore” asylum seeker processing regime. I’m on the Sydney Refugee Action Coalition email list and read horrifying stories from Manus […]