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22.01.2022 Issue 175 of Red Flag is out now. Support Australia's voice of resistance. Subscribe today at https://subscribe.redflag.org.au/ at get yours delivered to your door.

22.01.2022 Remembering the Battle of Seattle: On this day, November 30 1999, the World Trade Organization (WTO) attempted to convene in Seattle, Washington, hoping to nego...tiate free trade deals for the new millenium. But the meeting of political and economic elites was quickly overshadowed by the massive street protests, nicknamed N30. More than 40,000 people came out in peaceful protest of global capitalism. Demonstrators took over intersections around the convention centre and nearby hotels, so the super-rich delegates couldn't circulate freely and discuss how to carve up the world. Protesters fought back against intense police repression, overwhelming them with sheer numbers and organisation. The opening ceremony was called off. Governor Fary Locke called in two battalions of Army National Guardsmen to brutalise protesters the next day. The law enforcement reaction was indiscriminate, targeting local residents with teargas and jailing over 500 demonstrators. The clashes lasted for days, creating new hope for sustained activism against the globalisation of the economy under the pretense of neoliberalism. The violent response of the city caused police chief Norm Stamper to resign in disgrace and played a role in Mayor Paul Schell's electoral loss in the 2001 mayoral election. The "Battle of Seattle" inspired anti-capitalist and anti-corporate protests around the world, and was a defining influence on a new generation of young activists.

22.01.2022 Show support to striking plumbers, cleaners and maintenance workers - tomorrow 12pm at Fiona Stanley hospital.

19.01.2022 A massive victory for the people of Peru in the last week as protestors forced out the illegitimate government of Manuel Merino and now continue to fight the co...rrupt establishment. Young people and workers took to the streets after congress removed popular president Martín Vizcarra from office. Against tear gas, tanks, and helicopters, striking workers and young protestors resisted repression and won massive pro-democracy concessions from the Peruvian government. But the crisis doesn’t end there. Peru has the highest deaths per capita for COVID-19, an economic recovery that places the burden on the working class, and an unpopular constitution in place from criminal dictator Alberto Fujimori’s rule. These are just a few of the crises Peru faces, and the people have gone so far as to call for the formation of a provisional government with popular participation, in order to navigate them. We stand in solidarity with the Peruvian people in defeating their morally bankrupt government, in overturning the harmful neoliberal Fujimori constitution, in establishing a system where the people govern, and in getting justice for those killed and harmed by the authorities! Read more about the political situation in Peru here: https://redflag.org.au/node/7384

19.01.2022 Protests have broken out in Guatemala against government cuts to healthcare and education. After two hurricanes that displaced thousands of people and ruined in...frastructure, lawmakers passed a budget attacking the conditions of ordinary Guatemalans, while increasing meal stipends for politicians. With social and worker's rights long eroding under neoliberal president Alejandro Giammattei, Guatemalans are making it clear that they won't passively accept further austerity. Protesters kicked in the windows of Congress and set the government building on fire. The government responded with violent repression, unleashing militarised police on demonstrators who deployed teargas and arrested many for prosecution. Vice-president Guillermo Castillo has offered to resign and suggested Giammattei should do the same. With sustained resistance, the Guatemalan people may force the budget to be vetoed, defending their access to healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic.

13.01.2022 Obsessing about Trump's dead-end lawsuits is a distraction from the task at hand: gearing up to oppose Biden's presidency.

09.01.2022 Blended learning will be a huge attack on our education quality if it goes through. Curtin is looking pretty defensive after putting out a message to all studen...ts that things are only in the proposal stages. This is why we need to take action now - protest this Friday outside academic board, 10am Stop the lecture cuts at Curtin See more

07.01.2022 This is an outrage! Students are going to be paying thousands of dollars for shoddy, low quality learning, while staff face cuts and remaining staff will be overworked and underpaid. Follow Curtin Student Fightback and Curtin NTEU Fightback to get involved in fighting back!

07.01.2022 This year has seen a wave of struggle break out around the world - from the struggles against repression in Hong Kong and Thailand, to the fight against police ...brutality in Nigeria and the defiant Black Lives Matter movement that swept the United States. Red Flag is a voice of resistance, reporting from the front lines of struggle in Australia and around the world. Subscribe using the code GIFT before November 30 and you'll receive this mug celebrating these struggles designed by Melbourne artist and activist Maddie Hah. Subscribe at https://subscribe.redflag.org.au/

03.01.2022 Both Liberal and Labor parties, along with the mainstream media, promoted the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan. Australia's participation was supposed to ...be an act of humanitarianism. Two decades later, it's clear that the entire project was an atrocity, and those on the left who stood against the war from the beginning have been vindicated. See more

02.01.2022 Poland's "self-limiting revolution": https://redflag.org.au/node/7467 In August of 1980, 17,000 workers struck at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdask. They were demand...ing the reinstatement of Anna Walentynowicz, who had been sacked for distributing left-wing material. The movement rapidly developed, until it approached a revolution. Nine million workers, out of a population of 36 million, joined the independent trade union Solidarno (meaning ‘Solidarity’) which was the largest organisation to challenge the Stalinist political monolith. The ruling Polish United Workers Party was forced to legalise Solidarnoin effect, conceding that the Stalinist ruling party could not legitimately claim to represent the working class. The participation of workers in Solidarno raised their political horizons, their creativity, and their own self-confidence. Strikes and sit-down occupations, tactics that had been developed by Polish workers in the 1930s, were the main weapon in the union’s arsenal. Wadysaw Frasyniuk recalled: there was this great sense that workers would become the governors of their factories with the right to have organisations that would defend us. In a country where state censorship was the rule, transparency became important for the Solidarno strikers. Before the Gdansk Agreement was signed, they went over the proposed agreement, point by point, with the full hall of delegates over six hundred officially affiliated that comprised the Gdansk MKS, according to Lawrence Goodwyn. The MKS was the Inter-Factory Committee of Gdank, representing workers from 21 different enterprises. However, the moderate union leadership, headed by Lech Wasa increasingly discouraged grassroots involvement in the union to consolidate their strategy of appeasing the state. During 1980, Wasa repeatedly described his role as that of a fireman: he sought to extinguish workers’ struggle in order to appease the regime. When addressing delegates at the National Congress, Wasa made clear that he supported collaboration with the regime rather than confrontation: we are Poles first, and trade unionists second. The fiery struggle of Polish workers was eventually doused by the regime, which imposed martial law in December 1981. The conservative leaders of Solidarno held fast to the idea of a self-limiting revolution, while the Communist Party was clear that a revolution that boosted workers' confidence was a threat to the rule of the minority of Stalinist bureaucrats. Duncan Hart writes: It is up to the socialists of today to study the old Solidarno, with its inspiring rebellion and painful lessons. Read more: https://redflag.org.au/node/7467