Grant and Joe had me back for a “sequel” appearance on their Rabble Report podcast — moving on from the failures of left-wing populism to the successes of right-wing populism. The episode examines whether today’s populist parties reflect a broader social movement or function instead as scavengers capitalising on the political hollowing-out of the establishment, […]
26 Feb
Comments Off on Trump, Bannon & ‘deconstructing the administrative state’
When Donald Trump’s top two White House officials, Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus, appeared together at the American Conservative Union’s CPAC conference the other day, Bannon (the big ideas member of the duo) outlined the top three priorities or “lines of work” of the administration: The first is kind of national security and sovereignty and […]
19 Jan
Now, some have suggested these laws are really about moralising; they are right. —Mike Baird, responding to criticism of Sydney’s lockout laws on Facebook, 9 February 2016 It was all I could do to not choke on my dinner as I watched journalists and politicians fawn over outgoing NSW Premier Mike Baird on the TV […]
10 Nov
When I wrote my first Left Flank piece on Trump back in January, I concluded: All this suggests it is way too early to be sure that a Democratic nominee can easily beat Trump. Equally, a Trump victory should not be considered hard proof of a deeper right-wing shift in US society, or even a […]
25 Jan
Racist … fascist … Islamophobe … a racist piece of shit … immigrant hater … a right-wing nativist populist … bigot … racist asshole … an ugly and dangerous force in American politics … full fascist —Recent descriptions of Donald Trump from various sections of the US liberal and socialist Left We’re at that stage […]
17 Sep
On the occasion of the second anniversary of the murder of Greek antifascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas, we are publishing a detailed account and political analysis of the crime and the neo-Nazi organisation behind it, Golden Dawn, written by THANASIS KAMPAGIANNIS, one of the lawyers involved in the trial. Left Flank strongly encourages all our readers […]
17 Aug
Let’s get something clear right away — same-sex marriage has not been and will not be the kind of issue that could destroy Tony Abbott’s prime ministership. Electorally, despite overwhelming popular support for equal marriage rights, it has consistently been a lower-order issue in terms of votes. And within the party room Abbott is on the […]
11 Jun
Comments Off on Australia’s racial state, Indigenous Recognition & the Left
This article was first published at New Matilda. For those who think that Indigenous rights issues generally split people along Left/Right political lines, the stoush within the conservative camp between influential Herald-Sun columnist and blogger Andrew Bolt and The Australian over “Recognition” must be confusing. Yet for months now Bolt and the Murdoch-owned broadsheet have […]
01 Feb
Assert, don’t defend. Fight, fight, fight. —Andrew Bolt, “[Abbott] Government behind 46 to 54. But here’s how it can recover”, 15 December 2014 [Campbell Newman] just seemed arrogant and beyond the control of voters — a fatal flaw in Australian politics. Abbott hasn’t had Newman’s freedom to smash through as he tackles another Labor debt, […]
10 Jan
The Right: cornered, but fighting for its life There are a lot of significant elections in Europe this year — including Britain’s general election in May. Tomorrow’s “Republican march” of national unity in Paris has morphed into a display of “European solidarity” — or, spelling it out more accurately, of solidarity between European political leaders facing angry […]
13 Jan
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