Recent union stories. 1. ROYAL COMMISSION’S RHETORIC IS HARD TO SWALLOW TONY Abbott’s Royal Commission into unions opened last week with the Commissioner, Dyson Heydon, anxious to assure unions that they would be treated fairly. But if that turns out to be the case it would be a marked change from the approach of the […]
More on reviving unions
Reviving Labor From Below by Kim Moody The American labor movement won’t be able to revive itself without organizing at its grassroots. The American labor movement has seemingly been on the verge of total obliteration for decades. Union membership and strikes are at their lowest levels in almost a century, former union strongholds like Michigan […]
More on left union challenges
Again as Australian unions follow US unions, this detailed criticism on US unions is relevant for Australian unions An Interview With Staughton Lynd About the Labor Movement by Andy Piascik http://zcomm.org/znetarticle/an-interview-with-staughton-lynd-about-the-labor-movement/ For more than 50 years, Staughton Lynd has been a leading radical in the United States. He was an engaged supporter of the Black […]
Developing left unions
This debate is on challenges for developing left Australian unions. 1. From Don Sutherland http://donsutherland.wordpress.com/2014/04/08/theses-toward-the-development-of-left-labor-strategy/ “I am very interested to see where discussion by Bill Fletcher about these theses heads? see below It is very much about the situation in the USA, but I know that several concepts that are addressed are directly or indirectly […]
McQueen on Anzac
Anzac ‘History wars’ are about how to control the future. They are not disputes over the past. Rather, stories about the past are pressed into service to buttress the needs of each class and imperium. Nowhere is this practice more blatant than in the reinvention of ANZAC since the 75th anniversary of the invasion of […]
Indonesia, Australia and the Edward Snowden Legacy: Shifting asymmetries of power
Indonesia, Australia and the Edward Snowden Legacy: Shifting asymmetries of power Richard Tanter posted from Japan Focus The Asia Pacific Journal, Vol. 12, Issue 10, No. 3, March 10, 2014. http://japanfocus.org/-Richard-Tanter/4088 Précis A near perfect storm has descended on Australian relations with its nominal strategic partner and largest neighbour, Indonesia, to the point where the […]
More on Save our Unions
I believe there are lessons for Australian unionists in Steve Early’s Save Our Unions. See earlier review http://chriswhiteonline.org/2014/01/3838/ Update: An important review by Jon Flanders “For union officials, too often “saving the union” means maintaining union dues from a workforce suffering under bad contracts.” From Jacobin https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/03/saving-labor-from-itself/ More Reviews of Steve Early’s “Save Our Unions” […]
A Socialist International
‘Reflections on the New International Dedicated to the Memory and Legacy of President Hugo Chávez’ by István Mészáros Reposted from http://monthlyreview.org/2014/02/01/reflections-new-international The need for the establishment and successful operation of The New International is painfully obvious and urgent today. The enemies of a historically sustainable societal reproductive order, who occupy at the present time still […]
More on building socialism
“In order to identify the measures necessary to build this new socialist society, it is absolutely critical to understand Marx’s concept of “revolutionary practice”—the simultaneous changing of circumstances and human activity or self-change. To change a structure in which all relations coexist simultaneously and support one another, you have to do more than try to […]
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