Sep 2, 1998

The insurance rip-off

[Green Left Weekly, #331, September 2, 1998]

WOLLONGONG — Two days after floods devastated this region, giant insurer NRMA attempted to deflect the second storm it knew would come by donating $250,000 to the disaster relief effort. Its cynical ploy fooled nobody.

Ever since it became clear that the insurance companies would reject most claims of residents hit by the deluge, the companies have been decidedly on the nose in the Illawarra.

Aug 26, 1998

Wollongong floods: an act of God?

[Green Left Weekly, #330, August 26, 1998

WOLLONGONG — The massive inundation of the region has been a compelling and sobering experience for all who live here. The normally imposing fabric of our built-up environment and the lives it enables us to lead have been shown to be startlingly fragile in the face of the forces of nature.

Jan 1, 1998

The socialist press: From the Neue Rheinische Zeitung to Green Left Weekly

[This article is an edited version of a talk presented to the DSP-Resistance educational conference on the 150th anniversary of the Communist Manifesto, held in Sydney, January 1998.]

As we know, the essential instrument of socialist politics is the socialist workers party. And the most essential weapon or tool of such a party is its newspaper. A history of left political parties — in the West at least — is also inescapably a history of the party press.