Kobanê: A great victory, the struggle continues

[Speech given to a celebration of the liberation of Kobanê, at the Kurdish House in Pascoe Vale in Melbourne, January 28, 2015.]

Socialist Alliance joins with you in saluting the heroic defenders of Kobanê. After four and a half months, the IS killers have at last been driven out of the city. Considering everything, that is a great victory.

Paris: Different killings, different standards

[Green Left Weekly, #1037, January 21, 2015]

The day before the massive Paris demonstration against the killings at the Charlie Hebdo office, another demonstration marked another set of killings in the capital.

Turkey's 'Kurdish question' won't go away

[Green Left Weekly, #1029, October 22, 2014]

Ever since the foundation of modern Turkey in 1923, the country's Kurdish population has endured severe discrimination and national oppression. The nationalist officers around Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk), the victor of Gallipoli, who led the struggle which established the republic, were ruthless Turkish chauvinists. They saw the large Kurdish minority as a problem to be dealt with.