EPA: 'Emission Permission Authority'

[Green Left Weekly, #404, May 10, 2000]

WOLLONGONG — Since its reopening in February, emissions from Port Kembla Copper's smelter here have made life miserable for residents in nearby suburbs. For those with health problems, it has often been life threatening. The main culprit is sulphur dioxide, although it is far from the only one.

Illawarra residents battle corporate polluters

[Green Left Weekly, #397, March 15, 2000]

WOLLONGONG — Industrial pollution, in all its many forms and with all its attendant consequences, has long been a fact of life in the Illawarra. And nowhere are the effects more pronounced than in the suburbs near BHP's giant Port Kembla steel complex. In recent months, concern over emissions, dust fallout and other problems has risen sharply.

Laws scandal raises deeper issues

[Green Left Weekly, #369, July 28, 1999]

John Laws, one of the kings of Sydney talkback radio, has been engulfed in scandal. It has emerged that, at the same time that he was engaging in some populist bank-bashing, he secretly approached the Australian Bankers Association (ABA) seeking a lucrative deal to promote the banks' cause on air, not only through open advertisements but also through his supposedly independent editorial comments.

Socialism on Trial

[Introduction to Socialism on Trial (Resistance Books: Sydney, 1999).]

Almost 60 years ago in the United States, in 1941, there took place in Minneapolis, in the mid-western state of Minnesota, the most famous political trial of the wartime period. Twenty-eight socialist and union activists were charged with plotting the violent overthrow of the US government.

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.

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.

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.

Arguments for socialism: Charity or justice?

[Green Left Weekly, #291, September 24, 1997]

At Princess Diana's funeral, representatives of some 100 charities she had worked with walked in the cortege. Charities are such an all-pervasive feature of modern society that we tend to take them for granted. However, they are decidedly a phenomenon of capitalist society and are essential to its functioning.

Arguments for socialism: In the spotlight

[Green Left Weekly, #289, September 10, 1997]

It is a now a commonplace that the untimely death of Princess Diana has put the spotlight on the media. But the issues raised go far deeper than questions of media intrusion into the private lives of famous people.

Arguments for socialism: Jobs at a price

[Green Left Weekly, #283, July 30, 1997]

Although the tourist postcards ingeniously manage to leave it out of the picture or consign it to a hazy background, BHP's huge Port Kembla steelworks is the most obvious feature of Wollongong. The towering main smokestack with its ever-present whitish plume can be seen at great distances from the city.

Cancer fear in the Illawarra

[Green Left Weekly, #282, July 23, 1997]

WOLLONGONG — The recent release of a long-awaited government report on leukaemia clusters in the Illawarra will do little to allay community concerns.

Arguments for socialism: Is 'human nature' up to it?

[Green Left Weekly, #275, May 21, 1997]

If patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel, "human nature" is often the final defensive position of apologists for capitalism. Any sort of truly egalitarian society is impossible, it is claimed, because people are naturally greedy and competitive. The ambitious and aggressive will always form an elite which will dominate society, irrespective of any economic arrangements. Thus socialism is a utopian fantasy — it is against "human nature".

Arguments for socialism: Crime and punishment I

[Green Left Weekly, #273, May 7, 1997]

Crime, especially violent crime, is a favourite staple of the capitalist media. Murders, assaults, sex crimes, paedophilia, robberies, home invasions, gang violence — they can never get enough of it. Then they whip it up over supposedly lenient jail terms or the release of murderers, rapists and child molesters who have served their sentences.

Arguments for socialism: Capitalism and the ecological crisis

[Green Left Weekly, #272, April 30, 1997]

The ecological crisis is perhaps the strongest argument for socialism. Despite the business-as-usual attitude of the capitalist media, this is not just one more crisis: it is a looming catastrophe that threatens the survival of humanity. It is generated by the most fundamental workings of the system and for that reason cannot be overcome within the framework of capitalism.

Arguments for socialism: Would socialism work?

[Green Left Weekly, #270, April 16, 1997]

Socialists condemn capitalism because it has failed the overwhelming mass of humanity in the most decisive way. It promises freedom, democracy and prosperity but spectacularly defaults on all three (as, for instance, the people of the former Soviet Union are today finding out to their bitter cost). Nevertheless, capitalism has one undoubted historical merit: it has developed society's productive powers to the point where everyone on the planet could be assured a decent, truly human existence — on the condition that the capitalist system is replaced by socialism.

Arguments for socialism: Utopian fantasy or realistic option?

[Green Left Weekly, #269, April 9, 1997]

February next year is the 150th anniversary of the first publication of Marx and Engels' famous Manifesto of the Communist Party. This event can be regarded as the birth of the modern socialist movement. Yet, despite all the drama and turmoil of the past century and a half, today the socialist movement seems at its lowest ebb ever. Among capitalist commentators, it is the received wisdom that socialism is a dead issue. Many erstwhile radicals have come to the same conclusion.

An introduction to James P. Cannon

[From Building the Revolutionary Party: An Introduction to James P. Cannon (New Course Publications: Chippendale, 1997)]

James P. Cannon was a pioneer of the Communist Party of the United States and one of its central leaders in the 1920s. Breaking with the Stalinised CP in 1928 he founded the American Trotskyist movement and played the decisive role in building it for over three decades.

Victoria: A far cry from utopia

[Green Left Weekly, #248, September 25, 1996]

MELBOURNE — "Life wasn't meant to be easy": in its day, Malcolm Fraser's quip became notorious. Its haughty Tory disdain summed up perfectly the outlook of the capitalist class and the Coalition government towards the needs and concerns of ordinary people.

Profiting from the 'casino culture' in Victoria

[Green Left Weekly, #214, December 5, 1995]

Since its 1992 landslide election win, Jeff Kennett's Coalition government has made an indelible impact on Victoria as it has sought to increase corporate profits at the expense of the state's working people. The "can do" government has done so much to revive business confidence and restore the bottom line to its rightful place in our lives.

UN at 50: Still dominated by the West

[Green Left Weekly, #213, November 28, 1995]

"The dominant impression of the massive international jamboree that marked the 50th anniversary of the United Nations", wrote Martin Walker in the November 5 Guardian Weekly, "was the extraordinary degree of resentment that the delegates of most countries now feel for the United States. The clearest display was the speech by Cuba's Fidel Castro, who was cheered to the echo in the longest and most fervent ovation of the three days, even though he did not attack the US by name."