Colin Long is a founder of Earthworker and a board member of several Earthworker cooperatives. He also works on climate and energy organising and policy for the Victorian trade union movement and internationally.
Practising cooperation in today’s world is a revolutionary act in itself, helping to raise consciousness and confidence, while experimenting with new forms of ownership and control.
Our politicians' loyalty is to the market, not democracy. The election of Emmanuel Macron was enthusiastically welcomed by members of the 'sensible centre' around the world. Let us not equivocate: ensuring that Marine Le Pen didn't get her hands on the keys to the Elys e Palace was an important achievement. But the sensible centrists were also relieved that Jean-Luc M lenchon, the leftist equivalent, in their eyes, was knocked out in the first round…
Syriza's success in the Greek elections early this year and Podemos' continued rise in Spain provide some hope that a progressive counter to the far Right is beginning to develop in Europe. It is not before time. Social democrats and other 'mainstream' parties were left wringing their hands after yet more electoral success for parties of the far Right in last year's European elections. Far Right parties topped the polls in France, Britain and Denmark…
There are three key components of the government's approach to higher education in Joe Hockey's budget: first, make students pay more; second, reduce the level of government investment in universities; and third, encourage competition for students and government funding between universities and between universities and other education providers, including TAFEs and for-profit private companies. These policies are predicated on some dubious ideological assumptions: namely, the idea that competition always drives quality; markets are always and…
The essence of capitalism - and the source of its fundamentally destructive character - is the never ceasing encroachment of commodity relationships into all aspects of existence. What we have been experiencing for the last thirty years is the intensification of this process. Post-war social democracy attempted, through the creation of welfare safety nets and labour market regulation, to shield some basic aspects of social existence from the ravages of the market. The goal of…
Tony Abbott has received much political mileage in recent months with his carbon tax scare campaign. While most of what he has said has pandered to the worst possible instincts (just worry about yourself and not the risks of climate change to others and to the future of the world), he has been able to play on a very real feeling in the broad Australian community: insecurity. Indeed, stoking and then pandering to insecurity -…
A survey of university staff (union members and non-members) recently conducted by the National Tertiary Education Union revealed high levels of stress as a result of excessive workloads, high staff/student ratios and inadequate government funding of the sector. The changes in higher education over the last three decades have been substantial and widespread. Some have been worthwhile, and the overall expansion in higher education enrolments is to be welcomed. But at the same time there…
