Arena – Page 2 – Critical * Radical * Australia * Earth

Jun 2026

AUKUS may be paradigm-shifting, normalising the spread of militarised if not weaponised nuclear technologies towards the periphery of the global nuclear order.

The end of Australia’s last free river?

Arena Online

Martin Pritchard

11 Jun 2026

The Martuwarra is still alive: culturally, ecologically and politically, as a site of resistance to the idea that every river must submit to extraction. In an age of climate instability, protecting a free-flowing river is a test of whether we can act with restraint, learn from past damage and share power with those who know a river is more than water moving downhill

Viva Palestino: Israel’s Genocidal War Denounced on the Football Pitch

Arena Online

Antonio Castillo

15 May 2026

Despite Palestine and Chile being over 13,000 kilometres apart, Palestino FC remains vital to the identity of those behind Israel’s extensive walls, thus embodying a unique and peaceful form of resistance.

Predatory politics: From open markets to global chaos

Arena Online

Sofia Skobeleva (Sid Akhmed)

15 May 2026

Predators reject compromise and undermine diplomatic ties, often claiming baseless victories. The unilateral prioritisation of national interest over collective security appears increasingly inadequate in an era defined by global systemic risk.

4ZZZ interview with Paul James: ‘The Human Condition, Darkly’

Arena Online

Paul James

4 May 2026

A radio interview with Paul James discussing his new book.

West Gate: The bridge and the play.

Arena Online

Grazyna Zajdow

4 May 2026

West Gate has been a surprise hit for the very bourgeois Melbourne Theatre Company, which is not really known for presenting working-class voices in its repertoire.

Glimpses of Light beneath the Ruins

Arena Online

Mahmoud Harb

4 May 2026

Whether we like it or not, we are plants that bloom from the soil in which they root, emerging to flourish in the ether and bearing fruit. Johann Peter Hebel Whenever the South of Lebanon is mentioned, I remember my grandmother. Just like the fig trees and olive trees with which the south is rich, […]

From Warsaw to Gaza

Arena Online

Richard Hil, Gideon Polya

4 May 2026

Genocide and the Warning of Sacrifice Zones to Come “Gaza is a sacrifice zone. It is where the logic of settler colonialism is laid bare — a populationrendered superfluous, contained, and punished” Chris Hedges. For some, drawing any sort of parallel between Gaza (especially since 7 October 2023) and the Warsaw Ghetto (1942) is antisemitic, […]

In the Shadow of a Desert Tower

Arena Quarterly no.25

Guy Rundle, Arena Publications Editors

Apr 2026

The new system of death that is rapidly being assembled is an expression of what one might call the master process of human ‘civilisation’ at its most concrete and abstract levels: a tendency to take for granted the given frameworks of social life while abstracting from what it has meant to be human.

The Bots Are Not What They Seem: On Superintelligence

Arena Quarterly no.25

Timothy Erik Ström

Apr 2026

There seems to be a growing consensus among AI experts that if a ‘superintelligent’ machine were made, it would initiate a feedback loop by reprogramming itself in ways beyond human comprehension. If this proves possible, what happens when the means of abstraction are automated into posthuman territory?

The Safety Club

Arena Quarterly no.25

Guy Rundle

Apr 2026

From such a reflection comes the only possibility for a critical Left, which is a pluralism: tolerating the most vociferously argued attacks of one’s foes, without seeking the agency of the state to discipline or control them.

Three Days in the City of Toys

Arena Quarterly no.25

Gerry Simpson

Apr 2026

‘What Europe can’t forgive Hitler is not the crime in itself, the crime against man, it is the fact that he applied European colonialist procedures which until then had been reserved exclusively for Africa.’

The Disenchanted Games

Arena Quarterly no.25

Scott Robinson

Apr 2026

The flaws of sports with no drug-testing are clear to many. What are its advocates missing? What is the meaning of sport for us?

Liberation, Not Uberisation

Arena Quarterly no.25

Belinda Robson

Apr 2026

Beyond Blue include in their submissions many economic and social drivers of mental ill health. Cooper has cherry-picked the submissions to the Productivity Commission that, naturally, focus on mental health and productivity.

Birds of Paradise Lost and Found and Lost Again and So On

Arena Quarterly no.25

Ali Schnabel

Apr 2026

This is what I mean by Birdwatching: the ecstatic joy of looking and seeing is only available if you go in with a sense of openness. You cannot go on an excursion desiring to see a particular kind of bird, even if you know that they are nesting in that place right now, even if they were registered on BirdLife just yesterday...you have immediately sucked the life and possibility out of the thing by focusing…

Watched Over by Machines of Blundering Guess

Arena Quarterly no.25

John Hinkson

Apr 2026

It is important to put AI in its proper context. Though it is a fundamental development in the history of technology, it is something more and other than what one might call ‘stand-alone technology’, as could be said about the major developments of the printing press or even writing.