Osmond Chiu is the editor of the Labor left-faction magazine Challenge.
Thanks to gerrymandered and malapportioned party elections, the New South Wales branch of the Australian Labor Party is dominated by factional power brokers and bureaucrats. Until that changes, Labor will remain on the ropes.
The Australian election saw historic defeats for the Right and its backers in the Murdoch media. But the Labor Party can’t change the country without fighting for a robust, progressive economic agenda.
The Australian external territory of Christmas Island is infamous for its immigrant detention center. But the island also has a history of solidarity: in the 1970s, its Chinese and Malaysian workers led a union struggle against colonialism and apartheid.
The Australian Labor Party is one of the most conservative social democratic or labor parties in the world — but this has not always been the case. Understanding the origin and evolution of the ALP’s modern faction system is crucial to grasping both its right-wing trajectory and possibilities for change.
Die-hard opponents of Corbynism can look to the Australian Labor Party as a model of non-radical social democracy. That’s exactly why the party needs to change.