Policy on the democracy, totalitarianism in the Middle East, terrorism and Israel – Palestinian conflict adopted at the Congress of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), May 2015

Congress recognises and applauds the leadership role played by the ITUC in supporting the struggles of all democratic unions throughout the Middle East and North Africa, and the recent establishment of the ITUC-Arab regional organisation. The impact of Israeli- Palestinian conflict on the rights of all workers in the region and their families – Palestinians,…

Australian Labor Party National Conference, December, 2018

(1) Policy on Israel & Palestine reaffirmed by the Australian Labor Party National Conference, December, 2018: Labor supports an enduring and just two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, based on the right of Israel to live in peace within secure borders internationally recognised and agreed by the parties, and reflecting the legitimate aspirations of the…

Albo will be a strong friend of our community

OUR democracy is a thing of beauty. But also, occasionally, heartbreak, writes Josh Burns. And of the many possible outcomes, few predicted the result that unfolded earlier this month. Firstly, to the people of Macnamara who placed their trust in me – thank you. This has been a long journey and I am extremely grateful…

Reflections on the passing of Bob Hawke

ACCORDING to his biographer Blanche d’Alpuget, who subsequently became his wife, for Bob Hawke: “Israel – sung about, spoken of, yearned for – glowed as a portentous presence at the heart of spiritual life.” As many have recorded, having visited Israel for the first time in 1971, he then immediately developed an uncanny affinity with…

How the BDS movement is poisoning academic discourse: a case study of Henry Maitles and Critical and Radical Social Work, by Philip Mendes, Fathom, February 2019

The academic Left, influenced by the Boycott, Divestment and Sections (BDS) movement, is abandoning core academic standards when it comes to the Israeli-Palestine conflict. In September 2018, the respected journal Critical and Radical Social Work (Policy Press, University of Bristol) published a remarkably simplistic and arguably non-scholarly paper by an academic from Scotland about the…