In a couple of weeks I will be in San Francisco for the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting, at which the latest edition of the APA’s diagnostic “bible”, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the DSM-5, will be released. From the look of the program, you’d think this is much like when previous […]
01 May
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 […]
25 Apr
A few weeks ago the right-wing Australian think-tank the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) held a gala dinner to celebrate its 70th birthday. The event garnered extra attention thanks to a small but spirited protest outside the venue, which was ritually condemned by police and politicians. While the protesters’ political objectives struck me as diffuse, […]
10 Apr
If there’s one thing the entire Australian Left agrees on right now it’s that “Thatcherism was a very bad thing”. But beyond that, it may be appropriate to ask what exactly it is that people think was a bad thing. The answer to that question rests on one’s interpretation of what exactly was going on […]
01 Apr
Liz and I are pleased to be speaking at the Australian Left Renewal Conference: Secure Jobs in a Green Future, to be held at the University of Technology, Sydney, next weekend, 6-7 April. The conference is co-organised by The Search Foundation and the UTS Cosmopolitan Civil Societies Research Centre. Among the highlights will be a […]
21 Mar
Comments Off on Iraq and the Australian anti-war movement
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’ […]
20 Mar
Comments Off on Cyprus says ‘No!’ — a watershed vote against EU austerity
By KEVIN OVENDEN My previous post was written early on Monday morning, London time. Since then events have proceeded rapidly and dramatically. They will continue to do so. This update is meant to highlight the political significance of some of those developments in a fast moving crisis. 1) Despite desperate protestations it is now clear, […]
19 Mar
GUEST POST by KEVIN OVENDEN Two months ago, perennial optimists were telling us that the worst of the Eurozone crisis was probably over. Then came the Italian election. Now the great Cypriot bank heist. By Sunday morning it was dawning on tens of millions of people what had happened, as the news spread from […]
13 Mar
Iraq – 10 years on: Remembering when the world said No to war Monday March 18 at 6-8.30pm — Mitchell Theatre, Sydney Mechanics School of Arts, 240 Pitt Street, Sydney This month marks the tenth anniversary of the Invasion of Iraq. It is a timely reminder not just of the brutality of the war in Iraq, but its length. […]
12 Mar
That aspect of the modern crisis which is bemoaned as a “wave of materialism” is related to what is called the “crisis of authority”. If the ruling class has lost its consensus, i.e. is no longer “leading” but only “dominant”, exercising coercive force alone, this means precisely that the great masses have become detached from their […]
04 May
21 Comments