Here’s me being quoted in today’s Fairfax papers by ALP member Sarah Burnside, in a solid defence of the need for the Left to combine economic redistribution with progressive social policies: Similarly, former NSW treasurer Michael Costa argues that “most traditional Labor voters are not supporters of the Greens’ policies”. Costa’s solution to ALP woes […]
30 Jan
Comments Off on Interview with Egyptian journalist and blogger
The poor will want to push the revolution to a much more radical position, to push the radical redistribution of wealth and to fight corruption… In this linked article on Al Jazeera, Mark LeVine (Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History, University of California, Irvine) interviews Egyptian journalist, blogger and socialist Hossam el-Hamalawy. He discusses the developing popular protests in Egypt and […]
29 Jan
Comments Off on Revolution not in the head but on the streets
11: Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it. — Karl Marx, Theses on Feuerbach The events in Egypt flatly contradict the received wisdom on the Left that social progress comes through a process of slow, patient education to change attitudes and challenge reactionary ideas. In a […]
28 Jan
Comments Off on Call for papers: ‘Capital’ against Capitalism conference
– CALL FOR PAPERS – CALL FOR PAPERS – CALL FOR PAPERS – Capital Against Capitalism a conference of new Marxist research Saturday 25 June 2011 Central Sydney It seems significant, and hardly coincidental, that the impasse that politics fell into after the 1960s and 1970s coincided with the eclipse of Marx and the research […]
23 Jan
Comments Off on Compulsory voting: More to do with legitimating state rule than democracy
It puzzles me that one can say many outrageously left-wing things on Twitter and barely get a rise but when one raises criticisms of compulsory voting (CV) many left-leaning tweeps get very worked up indeed. Sometimes more worked up than they get about things like the possibility of the Liberals winning in NSW in a […]
16 Jan
Comments Off on The curious marriage of neoliberalism and nationalism
One of the main arguments of the neoliberal era has been centred on the decline of nation states and governments as actors in the economic sphere, replaced by decentralised market networks, multinational corporations and a new class of transnational capitalists. In her article in the Atlantic Monthly that I quoted in my last post, “The Rise of […]
11 Jan
Comments Off on After Arizona: The sickness at the heart of American society and its aetiologies
Despite shock being professed around the world, the shootings in Arizona over the weekend shouldn’t be surprising. The United States stands out for its high levels of political polarisation in a rich, industrialised country, and as Gary Younge points out, this polarisation has reached new highs during the presidency of Barack Obama. It is this […]
10 Jan
Comments Off on New year at the left flank and some little changes we’re making around here
We wanted to take this opportunity to wish all our readers a Happy New Year, and to thank you for reading, commenting on and getting interested in Left Flank in 2010. Starting just before the federal election was called in July, we’ve been very excited to get such a big reception and to see our […]
08 Jan
Comments Off on Dissecting feminism’s dead end
Now cross-posted at the Overland Journal blog. One Dimensional Woman is Nina Power’s 69-page treatise and call to arms, articulately railing against contemporary portrayals of women. Power’s anger is at the narrow confines within which women must locate themselves, and the “trademarking” of feminism for a range of projects that are harmful rather than liberatory. Acutely sharp in […]
31 Jan
Comments Off on Where has the light on the hill gone? Labor, economic justice & progressive politics