To ensure Aboriginal Peoples’ freedom from genocide and ecocide, we need decolonisation. For some, post the Australian 2023 Referendum, questions arise: where to next? More of the same isn’t an option; the evidence surrounds us as to why more genocide in all its forms, including assimilation and the ecocide of our territories doesn’t work. But Continue reading »
politics
The Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Matt Keogh, should refresh the Council of the Australian War Memorial, which at present looks like a cosy club of well-connected conservatives and ex-military types. He can do this by replacing up to five Council members when their terms expire between February and April 2024. Mr Keogh is the minister Continue reading »
Israeli President Isaac Herzog, presumably the moral arbiter of his nation, was photographed signing a bomb as a gift for Gaza. In a vigil outside the US Embassy in Jerusalem, Israeli citizens have condemned their government’s endless killing of men, women and children in Gaza and on the West Bank. One participant in the vigil, Continue reading »
The release of some of the cabinet documents from 2003 calls attention to how the war power is exercised in Australia. In 2023 the major parties recommended against assigning a greater power over war-making to the parliament. There was agreement, however, that decisions to make war should remain within the Prerogative to be exercised by Continue reading »
Labor will have – already has – squandered its time and its opportunities. It needs leadership of guts and vision, not timidity, caution and mortal terror of offending anyone. The holiday season, about midterm in the life of the Albanese government is a good time for academics and journalists to begin making notes, commencing diaries Continue reading »
by Dror Goldberg* Where and when did modern currency originate? My book Easy Money: American Puritans and the Invention of Modern Currency (University of Chicago Press, 2023) tackles this fascinating question. I discover and explain the origin of modern currency in 1690 in the English colony of Massachusetts Bay — an unimportant place, compared to […]
A bright star in the firmament of justice has gone out. One of the greatest journalists of our era has passed away. John Pilger was always on the side of the oppressed. He denounced Empire and all its violent predations–war, genocide, exploitation–as well as its endless lies and propaganda. Till his death, he fought tirelessly for Continue reading »
The African country, one journalist noted, “fought for its own liberation against an apartheid regime supported for decades by the U.S.” “No one knows apartheid like those who fought it before,” said one Palestinian rights advocate on Friday in response to the news that South Africa has taken a “historic” new step to hold Israel accountable for its Continue reading »
An Israel supporter walks up to a guy at a restaurant, grabs his sandwich, starts eating it. Israel supporter: [Walks up to a guy at a restaurant, grabs his sandwich, starts eating it.] Guy: Hey! Israel supporter: What? Guy: That’s my sandwich! Israel supporter [still eating]: Sandwich? What sandwich? Guy: Right there! You’re eating it right now! Israel supporter: No I’m not. Guy: Oh Continue reading »
Why Gaza urgently needs a plan B. (A repost from December 2023). War will drag on… It’s now clear that the Gaza War is far from over. Hamas refuses to surrender. Israel has rejected the UN General Assembly’s call for a cease fire and American pressure to lower the intensity of the war because it Continue reading »