In apparently “normal” times we Marxists are given a hard time, derided for our economic determinism about the crisis-prone nature of capitalism, scoffed at for suggesting that revolutionary movements could possibly occur in modern times, and accused of totalitarian impulses if we suggest that conscious revolutionaries should try to cohere their forces. Often the most […]
11 Jul
Comments Off on Where is the alternative? The Tasmanian Greens join the deficit hawks
Nick McKim faces protests over school closures Political debate in Australia seems firmly hinged on a cognitive dissonance over questions about the economy. Setting aside the ever-present obsession of discussing economic questions as if they are somehow separate to political ones, we have a federal government simultaneously arguing the economy is strong and we are […]
27 Jun
Comments Off on The age of austerity: Social polarisation, fake partisanship & the Left’s strategy
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 […]
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 […]
31 May
Comments Off on Barry O’Farrell: From modern managerialist to old-fashioned class warrior
> A funny thing happened on the way to Macquarie St. Before the March NSW election, Barry O’Farrell was a seemingly banal, workmanlike and mild-mannered Liberal leader who spent years rebuilding his party’s broken morale, even at the cost of reining in powerful far Right factional elements. Rather than projecting the leader he would be […]
25 May
Comments Off on An exciting mix of 1968 and 1789, but where next for the #spanishrevolution?
> Special Guest Post from Barcelona by Gemma Galdon Clavell On 22 May, a week after thousands of people across Spain turned a series of demonstrations into massive sleep-ins that are still holding strong, the conservative Popular Party (PP) won a historic victory in the municipal and regional elections. During the ensuing celebration of the […]
22 May
Comments Off on ‘Revolutions arrive too late or too early, but always when they’re not expected’
> Here’s my rough translation of a thoughtful analysis of the Spanish revolt, which was written for the Viento Sur website a few days ago. It locates the movement’s origins not just in the economic crisis and austerity measures of the Zapatero government, but the impasse created by the trade union leaders’ decision to back […]
19 May
Comments Off on A new Spanish Revolution? Tahrir comes to Madrid as crisis of democracy deepens
Dawn breaks in Puerta del Sol In 2006, migration and insecurity were the first and second worries of the population. Today, they are the last ones, and the levels of insecurity about the job situation and the crisis have gone [through] the roof. — Gemma Galdon Clavell, 18 May 2011 How quickly the tide […]
11 Apr
Comments Off on Last rites for the Labor Party? Part Two: An impasse for post-materialist Greens politics
If you need any proof that the Greens did reasonably well in last month’s NSW election it would have to be the tide of opinion telling us just how badly they did. Such commentary was almost inevitably accompanied by “advice” for the party to moderate its “hard Left” policies/stick to the environment/disappear altogether. If the Greens […]
22 Jul
Comments Off on Beyond the age of austerity, a new pattern of resistance and revolution emerges