We were lucky enough to interview the inimitable Dr Gary Foley at the 2024 Marxism Conference where he was a guest speaker. Gary is a living legend of the Aboriginal rights movement: he was a founding member of the Sydney Black Power movement and the Aboriginal tent embassy in Canberra in the 1970s.

Gary is a staunch supporter of Palestine, speaking at almost every Palestine demonstration in Melbourne since Israel’s war began, making the case for solidarity and resistance to colonialism, racism and capitalism.

As well as being an inspiring activist, Foley is an educator of the next generation through his writings and his archive of Aboriginal history, set to be the largest of its kind.

Emma asked Gary about his life, about the importance of standing up to Gaza and the importance of conferences like Marxism as gatherings of the radical left.

Further readings

Check out Gary's website here: https://www.gooriweb.org/

Gary Foley: ‘a direct and fiercely intellectual man’ by Tony Birch in Red Flag

The 1971 Springbok tour protests- an interview with Gary Foley in Red Flag

Don't miss out on the next radical conference near you:

- Sydney Socialism Conference: 16-18 Aug

- Brisbane Socialism Conference: 23 Aug

- Perth Socialism Conference: 10-11 Aug

- Adelaide Socialism Conference: 14-15 Aug

Inspired by the encampment at Columbia University in New York, students at the University of Sydney this week occupied their campus to stand with the people of Gaza. They're condemning the complicity of their university and the Australian government in the invasion of Gaza, and calling to cut ties with the Israeli state and arms manufacturing corporations.

In this episode Emma interviews the student demonstrators and their supporters about what inspired them to take action, the role of Australian institutions in facilitating genocide, and where the campaign can go from here.

Links

- If you want to support the students or get involved, get in touch with Students For Palestine USyd on Instagram

- Read the coverage in Red Flag

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