Urban nightmare: The restructuring of Melbourne

[Green Left Weekly, #189, May 31, 1995; based on a paper presented to the Marxist educational conference Campaigning for Democratic Socialism, held in Melbourne at Easter 1995.]

The view of a modern city from the window of a plane as it descends is often breathtakingly impressive. The panorama is truly a miracle of social and technical organisation. Taking in the endless pattern of roads, houses, buildings and the night-time latticework of street lights can be a moving experience. The spectacle seems to say: this amazingly complex artificial environment we have created, all this is what human beings are capable of.

How Kennett gets away with it

[Green Left Weekly, #161, September 28, 1994]

Jeff Kennett's resounding election win in October 1992 marks a watershed in postwar politics in Victoria. The cutbacks and changes that his Coalition government has rammed through over the last two years have had a deep effect on the lives of the mass of ordinary Victorians.

May Day: Time for a change

[Green Left Weekly, #143, May 18, 1994]

In Melbourne on May 1, about 1500 people took part in the annual Sunday afternoon May Day march and rally. As usual, the bulk of the participants came from the various left-wing, migrant and solidarity organisations.

Italian crisis and proportional representation

[Green Left Weekly, #97, April 28, 1993]

Perhaps other GLW readers have, like me, been fascinated by the recent stream of revelations about massive corruption in Italian public life. It seems that just about the entire ruling "political class" of Christian Democrat and Socialist leaders and MPs have been compromised — or soon will be — by the ever-spreading stain of corruption scandals.