This blog post first appeared at Overland Journal. On 16 May 2012 there was a reunion at the Australian Council of Trade Unions congress gala dinner. The crucial players involved in the development of the ACTU and ALP Prices and Incomes Accord of the 1980s – Bill Kelty, Bob Hawke, Paul Keating and Laurie Carmichael […]
11 Oct
Comments Off on GUEST POST: Psy, ‘Gangnam Style’ and the politics of satire
Sometimes, just sometimes, a foreign pop music phenomenon breaks through the barriers erected around the English-language markets that dominate global music profit-making. Without doubt the grating dance-pop of South Korean hit “Gangnam Style” represents one of these moments. Complete with a novelty dance, the song’s music video has gone viral on YouTube and the track […]
15 Sep
This is a considerably updated and expanded version of a piece Greek Marxist Panagiotis Sotiris posted a week ago, rewritten since the announcement of further brutal austerity measures being demanded of Greece by the Troika, and with more consideration of what response the Greek Left should take. It is an excellent entry point to understanding […]
04 Sep
When I wrote the Overland blog entry below, it was just before Newspoll showed a big jump for the ALP to a (still disastrous) 35 percent primary and 47 percent 2PP. As usual many in the commentariat saw this brief upward blip as an excess of swallows presaging summer, replaying the familiar tropes about Gillard […]
25 Aug
I have some pieces up responding to the Breivik verdict today (see below for links). I was also interviewed by New Scientist magazine, so watch out for that. Meanwhile, if you haven’t done so yet, you can still buy the e-book that Elizabeth Humphrys, Guy Rundle and I co-edited last year in response to the Norway Massacre, […]
22 Aug
This week the Australian Greens MPs in Canberra told people to “Give a Gonski” on schools funding, joining the call by education unions to see UNSW chancellor’s report implemented in full. The promise of new money for public schools is a welcome part of the report, yet Gonski’s recommendations do nothing to seriously address the […]
17 Aug
In the last week the Australian Greens have played an important role in denying the illusion of consensus over the asylum policy “compromise” reached between the major parties. However, in recent years they have also increasingly adapted their economic policies to neoliberal orthodoxy. The Tasmanian Greens have led the charge, with leader Nick McKim becoming […]
03 Aug
Left Flank has been away on holiday, but we’re back now. Below is a repost of my response to the sickening asylum seeker “debate” that happened in late June. Since then the issue has been shifted off to an elite “expert” committee which, as The Piping Shrike has pointed out, represents the exhaustion of the […]
13 Jul
ONLY ONE WEEK TO GO! The inaugural Historical Materialism Australasia 2012 Conference is on next Friday and Saturday in Sydney, featuring a wide range of Marxist scholars and activists (and activist-scholars!) presenting new research on political economy, philosophy, human rights, democracy, history, culture and more. One look at the program will tell you this is shaping up to […]
04 Jul
With good reason Sydney-based economist Steve Keen has developed a local and international reputation as a sharp critic of neoclassical economics. For performing this valuable service he has earned the scorn of the neoliberal ideologues dominating mainstream economic commentary. Yet Keen is also a critic of Marx’s approach to political economy, and Left Flank here […]
14 Oct
8 Comments