One mark of the crisis in the accumulation of capital is that second-hand copies of Marx’s Capital are nowhere to befound . Those fortunate to have our own sets are taking them down, and opening them, perhaps for the first time. How many of those who start to read at the beginning are likely get [...]
Archive | February, 2009
FWB: Outworkers protections removed
One purpose of labour law, here the Fair Work bill is to provide protection for the most vulnerable workers. One group are outworkers, many migrant women on exploitative piece rates and no conditions in homes making clothes for business. ANU legal academic Michael Rawling in his Senate submission deals with how the Fair Work Bill [...]
My Fair Work bill Senate submission
The Rudd government did not know about or develop this proposed labour law, the Fair Work Bill (FWB) as a response to this most severe global capitalist financialcrisis since the great depression. In my Senate submission I first point out that the changed circumstances of the global capitalist financial crisis means the Fair Work Bill [...]
Priorities
Two previous items from Humphrey McQueen looked at the volume and value of comments from several socialist grouplets on the crisis in the accumulation of capital. Two of the biggest have the least impressive records. Instead of preparing for an implosion of global capital, each is locked onto the campaigns they had developed to attract [...]
Crisis! What crisis?
Humphrey McQueen on Crisis! What crisis? Shortly after the Austrian aeronautical engineer Ludwig Wittgenstein arrived in Cambridge in 1911, he drove Bertrand Russell to distraction by refusing to admit that there was not a rhinoceros in the room. These days, I find myself sharing Russell’s frustration because so many socialist grouplets are unable to focus [...]
Darwin Lincoln
Darwin, Lincoln and the survival of the slave-masters by Humphrey McQueen. February 12 is the bicentenary of the births of Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln. Their personal convictions towards slavery were pretty much the same. The name of the former is entangled with Social Darwinism as a doctrine about survival of the fittest. This distortion [...]
Not much for the unemployed
Not much from Rudd for those losing jobs or coming onto the job market as unemployment is set to soar. Professor Bill Mitchell discussed the crucial question: What does the $42 billion do for the unemployed who will be worst hit by the current downturn? The answer is: not much. Bill Mitchell on ABC radio [...]
Re-nationalising Communication
A new blog by Tristan Ewins Left Focus including paper on world economic crisis and Australia: The Case For Re-nationalising Communication January 30, 2009 Even now it does not seem so long ago that a genuine “mixed” economic model prevailed across nations the world wide. In the wake of Depression and World War II, the [...]
Leonard Cohen alive
Sunday 1st february 2009, drove from Canberra to Bowral for a memorable evening at the Centtenial vineyards first Paul Kelly, then Leonard Cohen. Still the same in his 70′s, kneeling here and growling his classic lyrics and keeping his songs alive and the music was wonderful. From www.leonardcohen.com For four decades, Leonard Cohen has been [...]
News from LabourStart
- Australia: BHP's aim is to break the power of unions
- Turkey: Support for Arrested KESK Women
- Ireland: IMPACT calls on Government to deliver reforms on collective bargaining and employees' rights
- Australia: Unions wrap up ACTU Congress with renewed vigour to campaign for rights at work and fairer Australia
- Colombia: Urgent Action: Colombian union leaders in danger
- Europe: IndustriALL-European Trade Union Born Today with Merger of Three Federations
- Bangladesh: Workers suffering from low wages end days of strikes and riots sparked by disappearance of trade union leader
- Switzerland: Unions hold protest at International Olympic Committee to support Canadian Rio Tinto workers
- Global: Full coverage of IUF congress in Geneva
- Turkey: Turkish Government ’s anti-democratic attack on the right to strike
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