Sexism is so fundamental to our existence that we are not even aware of it much of the time.
The level of suffering in Gaza is more than the human mind can comprehend. As the war enters its twentieth week, it feels increasingly obscene to be going about daily life while an entire people are being systematically destroyed, their lives, histories and culture blown to pieces or buried under rubble.
High school students in Melbourne taught the government and right-wing media a lesson when they walked out of class in their thousands on 23 November in support of Palestine. From Werribee to Greenvale, students came from all over the city to show their horror at Israel’s war on the people of Gaza, half of whom are children, and their disgust at the Australian government’s backing of the genocide.
Hope is a scarce commodity in 2023. The threat of military confrontation between the US and China looms large and is fuelling military expansion on a terrifying scale. An aggressive far right is making gains in an alarming number of countries, enjoying both electoral success and gathering support online and on the streets. And the instability in the world economy is condemning ever greater numbers to poverty and economic insecurity, while a minority continue to accrue obscene wealth.
Hundreds of Victorian Socialists volunteers have been staffing early voting polling booths since 14 November, building on the more than 150,000 doors knocked across the north and west of Melbourne during the state election campaign. They are bringing a new style of campaigning to the state election, and have found a constituency of voters fed up with the prevailing pro-corporate, mainstream politics.
Red Flag’s Louise O’Shea spoke to Victorian Socialists Secretary (and former Red Flag editor) Corey Oakley about the socialist campaign in the Victorian state election.