By Jorge Jorquera

Like in the rest of the world, workers in Australia have suffered almost three decades of what has been described here as “economic rationalism” and in the rest of the world as “neoliberal reforms”. These “reforms” have entailed massive privatisation of government-owned business and utilities such as banks, airlines, power stations, urban public transport, etc. Although done in the name of greater efficiency, privatisation has had the effect of concentrating wealth into even fewer hands and making the public pay even more for basic services. Economic rationalism has also meant massive deregulation of everything that could diminish profits, including protecting the environment and safety on the job. If this wasn’t enough, neoliberalism has also entailed massive cuts to public expenditure on social services like education and health care, while government subsidies for capitalist business have increased massively. Read more...

By Shua Garield

On August 14, thousands of people will rally around Australia for equal marriage rights regardless of sex, sexuality, or gender identity. This will be the 7th annual national August mobilisation protesting the Marriage Amendment Bill, passed by the federal parliament on August 13, 2004, which banned the legal recognition of same-sex marriage in Australia. This bill inserted the sentence “marriage means the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life” into the Marriage Act and added that, “A union solemnised in a foreign country between a man and another man or a woman and another woman must not be recognised as a marriage in Australia.” Read more...

By Kathy Newnam

A north Queensland couple will face court in Cairns on October 12 on charges brought under the state’s anti-abortion laws. A woman is facing charges for intent to procure a miscarriage, which carries a penalty of up to seven years in prison. Her partner is facing charges for assisting her, which carries a penalty of up to three years in prison. Around the country, abortion rights activists are gearing up for a national day of action to be held on October 9, the Saturday before the trial. Read more...

By Doug Lorimer

“The ultimate reason for all real crises”, Karl Marx argued in Capital, his seminal work on the laws of motion of the capitalist system, “always remains the poverty and restricted consumption of the masses as opposed to the drive of capitalist production to develop the productive forces as though only the absolute consuming power of society constituted their outer limit”. Read more...