We interviewed Damian Ridgwell, a veteran socialist activist and leading light in Australia's pro-Palestine movement for almost 20 years. Damian talked about the recent history of the movement and why it's so important to take a stand for Palestine here in Australia.

Chloe and Emma also talked about the new data which reveals that the majority of Australian corporations have significant internal gender pay gaps. We expose some of the problems with the report and the government's approach, and explain the nature of the deep gender inequality in the Australian economy.

Further Reading

- "Why the global movement for Palestine matters" - https://redflag.org.au/article/why-global-movement-palestine-matters

- "To end sexism we need to destroy capitalism" - https://redflag.org.au/article/end-sexism-we-need-destroy-capitalism

For this special episode we interviewed one of our favourite return guests Diane Fieldes. Diane is a socialist activist and writer who participated in the campaign against police repression after the first Sydney Mardi Gras in 1978. She talks about the homophobia of those years, the violence of the police, and the triumph of the Gay Liberation activists who fought for their rights - including the right to protest. 

Further reading:

- https://redflag.org.au/article/mardi-gras-was-riot

https://redflag.org.au/node/6233

The fight is on in Argentina! Javier Milei, the newly-elected President and self-described anarcho-capitalist has announced a slew of attacks on working class living conditions and democratic rights. But workers are fighting back. We spoke to Jasmine Duff, a socialist activist who visited Argentina and participated in the resistance to Milei's attacks. Jasmine roamed around Buenos Aires interviewing activists and reporting for Red Flag newspaper. 

But first up, Chloe and Emma dissect the latest news from Gaza and the Middle East, including the ICJ decision, the Western defunding of UNRWA and the US bombing campaign against the Houthis. 

Further reading:

Argentina:

• "The Left in Argentina's general strike" by Jasmine Duff in Red Flag (Feb '24)
• "'We're not going to take it!' - Mass protests in Argentina" by Jasmine Duff in Red Flag (Dec '23)

Palestine and the Middle East:

• "Hypocrisy about the Houthis"  by Mick Armstrong in Red Flag (Jan '24)
• "‘A small, arrogant, violent, wicked nation’: Israel’s permanent war on the people of the Middle East" by Omar Hassan in Red Flag (Jan '24)

A special episode on the fall of South African apartheid! Chloe interviews Tom Bramble, socialist author and witness to working class struggles in South Africa. Tom spent time in South Africa in the years following the overthrow of the racist apartheid system, and he wrote a book and numerous articles about South Africa. He tells us about how the racist apartheid system was finally destroyed, and how the workers' movement played a crucial role in its destruction. 

Further reading

Rethinking the Labour Movement in the 'New South Africa'  - edited by Tom Bramble and Franco Barchiesi 

• How South African Apartheid was Ended  by Emma Norton in Red Flag (2023)
• Lessons from the South African anti-apartheid struggle by Deaglan Godwin (2023)
• South Africa in crisis by Tom Bramble in Red Flag (2016)
• Hypocrisy in West's reponse to Desmond Tutu's passing by Tom Bramble in Red Flag (2021)
• Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) by Tom Bramble in Red Flag (2013)

What is the state? An overgrown behemoth, a neutral arbiter, a tool of the ruling class? In our first episode for 2024, Chloe and Emma explain the Marxist theory of the state. We also chat about what we read over the break. 

Further reading on the capitalist state:

- "What is the Australian State" - by David Peterson in Red Flag 

- "Marxism vs. the State" - by Sadia Schneider in Red Flag 

Emma and Chloe's summer reading:

Here are the books we talked about at the start of the episode:

- "The State and Revolution" by V.I. Lenin: https://shop.redflag.org.au/products/state-and-revolution?_pos=2&_psq=state%20and%20&_ss=e&_v=1.0&variant=34797667581997 

- "Demon Copperhead" by Barbara Kingsolver

- "Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike" by Barbara Kingsolver

- Georgy Plekhanov on Marxism and Philosophy: "The Development of the Monist View of History" https://www.marxists.org/archive/plekhanov/1895/monist/index.htm 

Our main segment in this episode is an interview with Daniel Taylor, an anti-Zionist Jewish socialist and regular contributor to Red Flag newspaper. 

Daniel and Emma talk about why the mainstream media are so aggressively pro-Israel. From the Murdoch press to the state-run ABC, the mainstream media dehumanises the Palestinians and helps cover up Israeli war crimes. We go through all their tricks, double standards and hypocrisies, and try to explain why the media landscape is so homogenous when it comes to Israel. 

But first up, Chloe and Emma discuss the recent resurgence of anti-refugee rhetoric in Australia. With the High Court overturning a decade-old legal precedent which held that refugees could be detained indefinitely - Australian politics has once more descended into a hysterical anti-refugee race to the bottom. 

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Further reading

"The mainstream media are pro-Israel propaganda" by Daniel Taylor in Red Flag 

"Why journalists must speak out about Gaza" in Red Flag 

We spoke to high schoolers from Melbourne and Sydney who went on strike for Palestine, defying intimidation from the media, politicians and their own schools.

The Melbourne school strike for Palestine was the biggest of its kind in the world! But students faced a barrage of condemnation in the lead up to the strikes. Journalists said that students were too stupid to understand such a complex issue, and many prinicipals threatened students with disciplinary action. But thousands of kids remained defiant and showed up in numbers to demand that our government cut diplomatic, economic and military ties with the genocidal state of Israel. 

Also in this episode, Emma and Chloe talk about the worrying rise of far right governments around the world, most recently the victories of Geert Wilders in the Netherlands and Javier Milei in Argentina. 

Note: we recorded this episode during Israel's propagandistic "pause" in its bombardment of Gaza - since then they have only escalated their campaign of ethnic cleansing. Our fight for Palestinian liberation goes on. Get involved in Palestine solidarity organising near you!

Further reading

Red Flag articles:

- "We won't be silenced": Why high-school students are walking out for Palestine 

- Far right victory in Argentina 

- Marxist Left Review article - "Dark clouds over Europe - facing the new far right" 

Get involved in Palestine activism!

High school groups: - Melbourne School Students 4 Palestine  - Sydney High Schoolers for Palestine 

Uni student groups (look up your own university and "Students for Palestine" on insta to find campus-based clubs!) - Students for Palestine Victoria  - Students for Palestine Canberra  - Students for Palestine WA  - Adelaide Students for Palestine  - Students for Palestine Sydney Uni 

Main campaign groups for each city: Sydney - Palestine Action Group   Melbourne - Free Palestine Melbourne  Brisbane - Justice for Palestine Meanjin - Brisbane  Perth - Friends of Palestine WA  Adelaide - Campaign against Racism and Fascism  Canberra - Palestine Action Group - Canberra  Hobart - 

In the middle of a new anti-war movement against the genocide in Gaza, we thought it would be timely to release an episode about the movement that helped end the Vietnam War. At Socialism Conference 2023, Emma interviewed two seasoned anti-war activists about their role in the movement that swept the world in the 1960s and 70s America (and Australia's!) brutal war. Allen Myers was a socialist GI, drafted into the American military, who spent years agitating against the war among fellow soldiers. Diane Fieldes was a student in Australia who got involved in the movement while at high school and became a lifelong socialist. We have a lot to learn from their experiences as we stand up against the horrors of war and occupation today. 

Further reading:

Red Flag Articles:

- A People's History of the Vietnam War - by Lily Campbell

- Students in the Anti-Vietnam War Movement by Grace Hill