Alex North is an organizer for the United Workers Union. He is formerly the president and national coordinator of the Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union.
Today the Australian Labor Party is among the most neoliberal parties in the world. But after World War II, Australian Labor PM Ben Chifley wanted to nationalize the banks. No surprise, the bankers ferociously stopped him.
In Australia today, public housing is seen as an option of last resort for poor families only. But the South Australian Housing Authority spent decades building affordable, quality homes for all. We can do the same now.
In Australia, as elsewhere, the 1930s saw the emergence of an armed, proto-fascist right who were united by their hatred of working-class politics.
Unemployment has become a billion-dollar industry where private firms are turning massive profits for placing precarious workers in bullshit jobs.