This is the speech I gave on Monday this week, at the forum ‘IRAQ 10 years on: Remembering when the world said NO to war’ — organised by the Sydney Stop the War Coalition. Soon after the fall of the Berlin wall, American political scientist Francis Fukuyama declared that the moment signalled ‘the end of history’ […]
11 Sep
Comments Off on Ten years since 9/11: What have progressives really learned about war & Islamophobia?
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 […]
25 Aug
Comments Off on Malalai Joya tour of Australia
Malalai Joya, a peace, democracy, women’s rights and development activist, will address meetings in Sydney and Melbourne (where she is a guest at the Melbourne Writers Festival) in early September.
20 Mar
Comments Off on ‘Humanitarian intervention’, the international community and Libya: The leopard has not changed its spots
> 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 […]
31 Jul
Comments Off on Apologist overload: Wikileaks and Australia’s Afghanistan non-debate
While Australia’s political class and media were obsessing over leaks from within the Labor cabinet this week, an altogether more important set of leaks found its way to the front pages of newspapers worldwide. Sourced by Wikileaks, over 90,000 military documents around the war in Afghanistan were released simultaneously by The Guardian, The New York Times and Der Spiegel. They catalogue a […]
24 Jul
Pushing their way through the clamour and mush regarding immigration and “the boats” have been murmurs of moves to ban the public wearing of the full Islamic veil in Australia. The issue has been raised on both the Left and the Right, with people taking a lead from Europe. France’s lower house has just passed […]
21 Mar
Comments Off on Iraq and the Australian anti-war movement