Last week a neighbour – outraged at the vast numbers sucked in by the queen’s death – asked, ‘Why are people so stupid?’ 

A descendent of African slaves, my friend has good reason for anger. His father volunteered to teach in Diego Garcia, and knew most of the refugees created when the now dead QE2 signed the 1965 order to forcibly remove them from their home. The island was gifted ...

Joe Collins, the author of Rent (Polity Press) is a lecturer in Political Economy at the University of Sydney. Rent is the sixth in a series titled What Is Political Economy? The other titles in the series are Work, Austerity, Money, Value and Consumption. 
When we think of rent, we usually think of it as the amount of money paid regularly to a land-owner for the use of their landed ...

Last week’s decision by Santos Energy to divest itself of its Beetaloo Basin development in the Northern Territory is a huge win for pastoralists, environmentalists and particularly for the traditional owners.
It follows a decision by the federal court at about the same time, suspending its operations in the seas to the north of the Tiwi Islands following its failure to take into account the objections of the Munapi clan ...

Those following recent disclosures about Star Entertainment may have noticed the extremely limited nature of the coverage of what has been shown to be a major matter of concern, not a minor slip, but a calculated plan to reduce political fallout affecting the wider corporate sector and business-classes.

And for good reason.

Invited to sit around a table like one big happy family about to enjoy a meal, and hosted by the new Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, were representatives of many Australian interest groups including businesses and workers.

Called the “Jobs and Skills” summit the meeting was based on the premise that all these groups, especially those representing employers and employees, have common interests and by working together they could help build ...

The death of Queen Elizabeth and resulting endless media coverage and ceremonies was played for all its worth by the ruling class to maintain the monarchy both in the UK and Australia. Throughout the period of official mourning of the Queen's death, the members of the Royal Family were portrayed as models of middle-class values and the best of a blissful British aristocratic tradition. 

Thousands of Australian Iranians have taken to the streets in the week since the death of Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, also known as Zhina.
The 22-year-old had spent three days in a coma after her arrest by the religious morality police, the Irshad, and died in custody after being beaten by a baton.

Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest is well-known to Australians as a self-made mining billionaire, philanthropist, environmentalist and friend of Indigenous people, or so his PR machine works overtime to convince us. The Yindjibarndi people of Western Australia’s Pilbara region have seen a different side of Forrest and his company Fortescue Metals Group. (FMG)

Planning for a large increase in Japan's defence budget has shown how the Pentagon have elevated the country to a major hub for 'US interests' in the northern part of the Indo-Pacific region. A high-level diplomatic meeting in the headquarters of the US Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii has also revealed sensitive military intelligence-gathering considerations in preparation for likely 'real-war scenarios' in any one of several very sensitive areas, using facilities ...

One team. One Metro. As far as Metro Trains internal corporate ‘ethos’ goes, it’s about as bland and as uninspiring as it goes, and as when most of these things come to the crunch, it’s bullshit. 

Across Australia, more and more workers are joining the tremendous upsurge in working class struggle. Teachers and nurses, rail, airport, maritime and healthcare workers, and others will have to come to terms with a fundamental truth of capitalist Australia: the ALP administration is nothing more than a committee for the ruling class that will not reverse the skyrocketing inflation imposed by the multinational corporations.

Workers are increasingly finding it hard to make ends meet. The paltry rises in wages they receive do not compensate for the rising cost of living.  In reality workers are working more for less.

At the same time profits as a percentage of GNP has never been higher and continue to grow at a fast rate.

An important anti-imperialist struggle is taking place in the South Pacific as the Sogavare government in the Solomon Islands challenges the dictatorial role of US-led diplomacy toward their country. The US-led diplomacy is based in neo-colonial relations and has included defence and security measures which are not in the interests of the Solomon Islands. Australia is also involved.

Timor-Leste’s President Dr Jose Ramos Horta recently addressed the National Press Club in Canberra. 

Ramos Horta’s address was well-received by the assembled journalists. This accords with the friendship that Australians have for the East Timorese.

The death of Elizabeth Windsor will not give rise to the glee that followed the demise of Margaret Thatcher.

While we are deep mourning for the coming fortnight of vacuous obsequies from non-entities who ‘did but see her passing by,’ (1)  we should reflect on the different roles that Windsor and Thatcher played in promoting the rule of monopolising capitals.

The International Auto Workers Coordination (ICOG) has issued a  statement of support and solidarity for Brazilian employees of Mercedes Benz. We support this statement.

Mercedes Benz metalworkers approved stoppage against mass dismissal from 8 to 11 of September. On the eve of the independence holiday in Brazil, Mercedes-Benz announced a restructuring in its truck and bus chassis plant in São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo city. This is the company's ...

On Wednesday 7 September Early Childhood Educators took strike action in over 1,000 Early Childhood Education Centres across Australia. 

The strike action on such a large scale was an escalation of action by mainly women workers to press their claims for better staffing levels, respect and recognition. 

Information about a large number start-up companies in Silicon Valley designing apps and other tools for the Australian business classes to use with employment selection procedures have sent alarm bells ringing; the federal government has already been urged to appoint a Commissioner to deal with the larger problem of dealing with cyber security and artificial intelligence and accountability.

The Albanese Government's Jobs Summit has been and gone. On Friday 2 September at the completion of the Summit, Albanese put out a press release on his view of the Summit outcomes.

It said the Government wanted to "maintain this spirit of cooperation and collaboration in the months and years ahead" and wanted to build a "bigger, better-trained and more productive workforce" and a "stronger economy and a stronger Australia" ...

Comrades in China, working under very repressive conditions, have produced a lengthy (355- page) analysis of the processes through which capitalism was restored, and imperialism has emerged.